PLYMOUTH-SET-DEFAU(1)

💅 plymouth-set-default-theme — like, the whole manual, bestie

okay so real quick: this is a User Commands page (section 1 of the manual, iykyk), and the star of the show is plymouth-set-default-theme. Yes the header truncates it to PLYMOUTH-SET-DEFAU(1) because terminals are haters and refuse to spell the whole thing. She's iconic regardless. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

plymouth-set-default-theme — sets the plymouth theme. That's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly. 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

plymouth-set-default-theme [OPTION...] [THEME]

literally so simple. options in brackets, theme in brackets, go off. ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so here's the tea ☕ — when you call plymouth-set-default-theme with a THEME argument, the command does two things:

1. it changes the preferred boot theme 🌈
2. and it also performs the necessary regeneration of the initial ramdisk (initrd) 🫶

and why, you ask? because plymouth is loaded from the boot loader from the initrd, prior to the mounting of the root filesystem. so like, the initrd has to already know about your theme before literally anything else exists. no cap. 🔥

now — if plymouth-set-default-theme is invoked with no options or parameters, it just shows the currently selected theme by default. cute, low-effort, we love a no-args queen. 👑

and that output isn't just for vibes: it's used by the helper scripts plymouth-generate-initrd and plymouth-update-initrd to set the proper theme in the initial ramdisk. so the whole system is lowkey cooperating through this one command. main character energy fr fr. 💖

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

the following options are understood:

• -h, --help — show summary of options. your little "what does anything mean" safety net 🧚
• -l, --list — list available themes. window shopping for boot screens 🎀
• -r, --reset — reset to default theme. we're going back to factory settings, bestie, no hard feelings 🙈
• -R, --rebuild-initrd — rebuild initrd (necessary after changing theme). like yes, you have to do this one, it's not optional-optional ⚠️ (well, the "necessary after changing theme" is right there in the page, so.)

ngl, that -R one is the "don't forget to save your work" of this manual. if you changed the theme and skipped it, the rebuild is still necessary. periodt. 💀

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🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

go bother these next, they're all in the same friend group:

• grub(8)
• plymouth(8)
• plymouthd(8)
• plymouth(1)
• http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Plymouth — the group chat, essentially 🌐

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okay that's the whole page, nothing skipped, nothing invented, all facts intact. mwah. 😘

and for the sign-off: this lil masterpiece comes to you from plymouth (that's the source, bestie), living in section 1 of the manual, dated right there in the footer as plymouth's own. 🫶 ✨ 🦋 🌸 💜

bye bye, go set a cute theme, and don't forget the -R. 💅🎀