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Disable Purple Splash Screen on Boot in Ubuntu 18.04 / Higher

Last updated: June 5, 2019

Ubuntu 18.04

This quick tutorial shows beginners how to disable Ubuntu purple splash screen on boot, instead, print kernel startup messages in black and white.

The default Ubuntu splash screen on boot with the indicator meter of progress:

1. To get started, open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu.

When terminal opens, run command to open grub configuration file via text editor:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. When the file opens, do:

  • Find out the line says GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
  • Remove splash from in double quotes to disable purple splash screen.
  • Also remove quiet to enable kernel startup messages.
  • There might be other parameters in the quotes, leave them unchanged

In the case (see picture) the line should be finally changed to 

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

3. (Optional) If you ever tried plymouth themes, make sure plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text is not installed.

sudo apt remove plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text

4. Finally apply changes by running command:

sudo update-grub2

At the next boot you’ll see the text only startup messages.

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    6 responses to Disable Purple Splash Screen on Boot in Ubuntu 18.04 / Higher

    1. kitt July 22, 2019 at 4:20 pm

      Thank you.

    2. Ojayy theone October 3, 2019 at 7:34 am

      Great stuff !!!

    3. nakashima October 20, 2019 at 8:36 pm

      Thank you!

    4. nakashima October 20, 2019 at 9:12 pm

      I will be better solution that remove splash and remain quiet.
      GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet”

    5. Emerson Langie December 6, 2019 at 1:43 pm

      Great job! Many thanks!

    6. Amit January 27, 2020 at 5:45 am

      Thanks for the article. There seems to be a defect in ubuntu bootup process. The defect becomes apparent when the OS switches from text mode to graphical mode. If you see, some boot messages are displayed in ascii text mode and then screen becomes blank.After this, grub displays boot messages in graphical mode in smaller font.
      It would have been great to display everything in graphical mode without making the screen blank. Some type of logo display on top right or left of the screen would be a nice addition .