Ubuntu
plymouth package

Disagreement of the Resolution of Bug #551013

Asked by alexeagar

Steve Langasek stated that Bug #551013 has been fixed and he told me to not reopen the bug report. I emphatically disagree. I have never escalated a disagreement, but I feel very strongly that this bug will have an extremely negative impact on the reputation and public image of Ubuntu. Below is a summary of this bug, why it is critical to fix properly and why I disagree that it is not yet fixed. Please help mediate the resolution of this disagreement.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/551013

After proprietary graphics drivers are installed on Ubuntu 10.4, the wrong screen resolution is used for the boot splash screen, the full disk encryption password screen and the virtual terminal screen.

Countless Ubuntu users enable a proprietary graphics driver when the hardware drivers notification icon first appears right after logging in for the first time. This bug is going to leave a bad impression on every single one of them when the splash screen which they will have previously seen at the correct resolution is suddenly at the wrong resolution during every subsequent startup.

Alvin's lighthearted comment (in the bug report's comments), that Canonical allowed this bug to slip in order to serve as a reminder that closed source drivers are bad, which I hope has no truth to it, is the very real and very negative impression which people will be left with. From their perspective, the fully functional 'bad' closed source drivers are being intentionally ignored in order to promote the significantly less functional 'good' open source drivers.

Because of the high visibility of this bug to such an extremely large portion of the Ubuntu user base, I implore you, for the sake of Ubuntu's reputation and public image, please commit a proper fix to automatically make the necessary system changes when a proprietary graphics driver is enabled so that the native resolution, or as close to the native resolution as the video BIOS interface will allow, will be be displayed on the boot splash screen, the full disk encryption password screen and the virtual terminal screen. If the proper fix is outside the scope of plymouth, please forward this bug to the appropriate developer. A very good workaround (link provided below) has already been mentioned which can be used as a starting point in figuring out how to properly fix this bug.

http://idyllictux.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/lucidubuntu-10-04-high-resolution-plymouth-virtual-terminal-for-atinvidia-cards-with-proprietaryrestricted-driver/

Steve mentioned that this bug only refers to the 'crispiness' of the logo displayed on the boot splash screen. When he said that the bug has been fixed, I presume he means that the image file itself, when displayed at the correct resolution, is crisp. But that is not the issue to which this bug is referring. The bug is that the image is not crisp as a result of the splash screen using the wrong resolution when a proprietary graphics driver is enabled. As of the final release of Ubuntu 10.4, this bug is not fixed. Please reopen this bug report.

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Solved
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Ubuntu plymouth Edit question
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Solved by:
Deryck Hodge
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Best Deryck Hodge (deryck) said : 		#1

I think the issue you are concerned about is Bug #553854, which is being tracked separately from the bug you are concerned about, as the last comment on the original bug states.

Please note, too, that we do not re-open bugs against the wishes of bug supervisors for a project. You should resolve your dispute directly with the bug supervisor. In this case, though, I think you just need to make sure your concerns are covered by a second bug rather than trying to change the status of this original bug.

Cheers,
deryck

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Deryck Hodge (deryck) said : 		#2

Sorry I replied here. I followed Launchpad mail, thinking this question had been filed against "malone" on Launchpad. I didn't look at the page closely when I replied.

I didn't mean to answer for plymouth devs, though certainly I think working out the issue directly or subscribing to a different bug is good advice. :-)

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alexeagar (alexeagar) said : 		#3

Thanks for your comment Deryck. Bug #551013 and Bug #553854 are duplicates of each other, but I have no problem with ignoring Bug #551013. Resolution of the underlying bug is all that is important to me, not the organization and interpretation of duplicates. The only reason I focused on Bug #551013 rather than another duplicate is because it started with more duplicates than any of other duplicates of the identical underlying bug. I reopened the bug because it's not fixed, but I did not reopen it again after being told to not reopen it. Me focusing on Bug #553854 is a perfectly acceptable solution to this disagreement, so I am marking this problem solved. Thanks again for your help.

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alexeagar (alexeagar) said : 		#4

Thanks Deryck Hodge, that solved my question.