Silent boot

This page is for those who prefer to limit the verbosity of their system to a strict minimum, either for aesthetics or other reasons. Following this guide will remove all text from the bootup process.

Syslinux+Systemd

Your /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg should look something like:

   $ grep APPEND /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg | head -n1
   APPEND root=/dev/sda1 ro 5 init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd quiet vga=current

Grub configs

To avoid the verbose text, you can add this line to the grub kernel command "quiet console=tty12". It will send the outpout of the boot process to the "tty 12", while remaining on the "tty 1".

Example configuration for /boot/grub/menu.lst

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/b2f2fc9a-6305-4770-aed2-fccb3ec51d5c ro quiet console=tty12
initrd /kernel26.img

This configuration will only leave the Arch logo on the screen for the whole boot process. If you would like to also remove the logo, simply add "logo.nologo" to the kernel command, like this:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/b2f2fc9a-6305-4770-aed2-fccb3ec51d5c ro quiet console=tty12 logo.nologo
initrd /kernel26.img

/etc/inittab

The file /etc/inittab is responsible for the prompts you get in your ttys. The boot process taking place in tty 1, i want to remove the prompt in that tty so that no text is displayed whatsoever. So i am gonna deactivate tty1 completely. Simply comment the line responsible for it in the /etc/initab file. The line to comment is this one:

c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty1 linux

This is what my inittab file looks like with that line commented:

#
# /etc/inittab
#

#  Runlevels:
#    0    Halt
#    1(S)       Single-user
#    2    Not used
#    3    Multi-user
#    4    Not used
#    5    X11
#    6    Reboot 

## Only one of the following two lines can be uncommented!
# Boot to console
#id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
id:5:initdefault:

rc::sysinit:/etc/rc.sysinit
rs:S1:wait:/etc/rc.single
rm:2345:wait:/etc/rc.multi
rh:06:wait:/etc/rc.shutdown
su:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin -p

# -8 options fixes umlauts problem on login
#c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty1 linux
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty3 linux
c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty4 linux
c5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty5 linux
c6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty6 linux

# Hypervisor Virtual Console for Xen and KVM
#h0:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 hvc0 linux

ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# Example lines for starting a login manager
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null
x:5:once:/bin/su yourusername -l -c "/bin/bash --login -c /usr/bin/startx >/dev/null 2>&1"

Patching grub

(coming soon)