How To Change XSplash Themes in Ubuntu 9.10
With every new release of Ubuntu, there’s a new XSplash theme that comes in. Today we show you how to change it and also show you some cool themes you might want to add to your machine.
XSplash
XSplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community that uses the X Window System to replace the scrolling-text screens that appear while booting a Linux-based computer with a graphical splash screen.
Previous versions of Ubuntu, (before Karmic Koala) used USplash which now is history. The default XSplash screen in Karmic Koala looks something like the one below…which is actually not too bad.
However, you don’t have to live with the default XSplash if you don’t like it. You can always change your XSplash screen to make it look better, and customize it to your Ubuntu overall theme. The following is the XSplash screen that I am currently using.
Change Themes
In order to change the XSplash screen in Ubuntu Karmic Koala follow these steps:
1. Open nautilus as root by typing ‘gksu nautilus’ at the run prompt (Alt + F2).
2. Download the XSplash archive that you want to use and move the content of the archive to /usr/share/images/xsplash folder.
Note: Make sure that you take the back up of your current XSplash, by copying the default files to some safe location before copying the new XSplash theme files.
Once you have installed the new XSplash theme you can check how it looks by typing the following command at the terminal.
sudo xsplash
Cool XSplash Themes
Now that you know how to change it, let’s take a look at some of the different themes. Here is a list of cool themes we’ve found.
Fusion-GX-v00
![Fusion-GX-v00 [200911-21]_1](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fusion-GX-v00-200911-21_11.jpg)
![Fusion-GX-v00 [200911-21]_2](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fusion-GX-v00-200911-21_2.jpg)
![Fusion-GX-v00 [200911-21]_3](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fusion-GX-v00-200911-21_3.jpg)
Xsplash – Crunchy Branch
Download Xsplash Crunchy Branch
Ubuntu clean xsplash
Mesh Grill
XSplash-CF-GX
PackoXsplash HD
Xsplash (for netbook)
Download Xsplash (for netbook)
Xsplash-Engranes-GX-01a
Download Xsplash-Engranes-GX-01a
Chromiu-GX
This will allow you to customize your Ubuntu installation a bit more…especially if you match it with your overall unique Ubuntu theme. Have Fun!
Great Great article. The xsplash themes in Ubuntu v9.10 have been a disappointment for me…until now. This is a great tip. You guys are great. Many thanks. Jim.
Wow much easier than changing USplash themes in ubuntu jaunty. None of the usplash themes would work for me so I had to install splashy instead(which paints the bootscreen to the framebuffer). XSplash looks a lot better. Is the a way to install/build it on jaunty?
I’m having a little trouble, any time I try to move the files, it tells me that I do not have the right permission. Thanks for the help.
Sorry, never mind. I was doing it wrong. I figured it out and I must say, they are very cool.
hi, i really wanna change my xsplash to one of your images, but after i do what your instructions say, this is what happens….if i remove your image and restore the old jpg that was there, it works normal again….any ideas?
thanks
sudo xsplash
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_width: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (pixbuf)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_height: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (pixbuf)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_scale_simple: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (src)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_width: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (pixbuf)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_height: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (pixbuf)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_new_subpixbuf: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (src_pixbuf)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_height: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (pixbuf)’ failed
(xsplash:2665): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_width: assertion `GDK_IS_PIXBUF (pixbuf)’ failed
The program ‘xsplash’ received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was ‘BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)’.
(Details: serial 128 error_code 11 request_code 53 minor_code 0)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the –sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
@stu
rename the xsplash that you want to use so that it has the same name as the default one.
Excellent! Exactly what I was looking for, thanks a bunch!
Perfect. Thank you very much for posting this. I’ll admit I’m new to Linux and not quite up to speed so this was more my 4th attempt at this. Very happy now.
Excellent article !!! I have a question. I do sudo xsplash and works fine, but when I reboot Ubuntu, it doesn’t show the screen. Am I missing something? Maybe adding the script to the init.d?