From 75cb25c0b9250555212014e3ece14e5aadace6d4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Luca Boccassi <luca.boccassi@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2026 12:58:19 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] firstboot/homectl: hide plymouth splashscreen when asking
 questions

When plymouth is enabled, the screen gets all garbled when firstboot
runs and asks questions. Disable the splash screen, but only when
actually asking questions.
---
 src/firstboot/firstboot.c  |  5 +++++
 src/home/homectl.c         |  4 ++++
 src/shared/plymouth-util.c | 11 +++++++++++
 src/shared/plymouth-util.h |  1 +
 4 files changed, 21 insertions(+)

diff --git a/src/firstboot/firstboot.c b/src/firstboot/firstboot.c
index 55bd273f21..38e3adaed6 100644
--- a/src/firstboot/firstboot.c
+++ b/src/firstboot/firstboot.c
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 #include "parse-util.h"
 #include "password-quality-util.h"
 #include "path-util.h"
+#include "plymouth-util.h"
 #include "pretty-print.h"
 #include "proc-cmdline.h"
 #include "prompt-util.h"
@@ -110,6 +111,10 @@ static void print_welcome(int rfd, sd_varlink **mute_console_link) {
         assert(rfd >= 0);
         assert(mute_console_link);
 
+        /* Needs to be called before mute_console or it will garble the screen */
+        if (arg_welcome)
+                (void) plymouth_hide_splash();
+
         if (!*mute_console_link && arg_mute_console)
                 (void) mute_console(mute_console_link);
 
diff --git a/src/home/homectl.c b/src/home/homectl.c
index cb73c51b1b..c6a3d4b3eb 100644
--- a/src/home/homectl.c
+++ b/src/home/homectl.c
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
 #include "percent-util.h"
 #include "pidref.h"
 #include "pkcs11-util.h"
+#include "plymouth-util.h"
 #include "polkit-agent.h"
 #include "pretty-print.h"
 #include "proc-cmdline.h"
@@ -2891,6 +2892,9 @@ static int create_interactively(void) {
                 return 0;
         }
 
+        /* Needs to be called before mute_console or it will garble the screen */
+        (void) plymouth_hide_splash();
+
         _cleanup_(sd_varlink_flush_close_unrefp) sd_varlink *mute_console_link = NULL;
         (void) mute_console(&mute_console_link);
 
diff --git a/src/shared/plymouth-util.c b/src/shared/plymouth-util.c
index aaf604afd5..38b4f1fe2a 100644
--- a/src/shared/plymouth-util.c
+++ b/src/shared/plymouth-util.c
@@ -56,3 +56,14 @@ int plymouth_send_msg(const char *text, bool pause_spinner) {
 
         return 0;
 }
+
+int plymouth_hide_splash(void) {
+        int r;
+
+        r = plymouth_send_raw("H\0", 2, SOCK_NONBLOCK);
+        if (r < 0)
+                return log_full_errno(ERRNO_IS_NO_PLYMOUTH(r) ? LOG_DEBUG : LOG_WARNING, r,
+                                      "Failed to communicate with plymouth: %m");
+
+        return 0;
+}
diff --git a/src/shared/plymouth-util.h b/src/shared/plymouth-util.h
index c73b44567c..4030c5bdb6 100644
--- a/src/shared/plymouth-util.h
+++ b/src/shared/plymouth-util.h
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 int plymouth_connect(int flags);
 int plymouth_send_raw(const void *raw, size_t size, int flags);
 int plymouth_send_msg(const char *text, bool pause_spinner);
+int plymouth_hide_splash(void);
 
 static inline bool ERRNO_IS_NO_PLYMOUTH(int r) {
         return IN_SET(ABS(r), EAGAIN, ENOENT) || ERRNO_IS_DISCONNECT(r);