Ubuntu shows your computer manufacturer logo in the startup animation screen since 20.04 LTS. User can however disable it and/or replace it with system logo. And, this simple tutorial will show you how.

Most Linux’s boot animation screen is handled by Plymouth with specific theme. By editing the theme configuration file can do the trick to disable the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) logo, and changing the background image to use system logo instead.

Boot animation screen after this tutorial

Step 1: Disable manufacturer logo

Ubuntu uses “/usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth” as default Plymouth theme, it has an option in configuration file to disable the vendor logo.

Method 1: Switch to spinner theme

The default bgrt theme is just a wrapper to the spinner theme with different font, and OEM logo settings.

You can simply to switch to the spinner theme, so it will no longer display manufacturer logo while most other things look same.

For more other Linux, such as Fedora Workstation, this can be done by running a single command in terminal:

sudo plymouth-set-default-theme spinner

But for Ubuntu, you have to do following steps one by one:

1. Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to install spinner theme as an alternative:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/spinner.plymouth 100

2. After that, run command to configure the default plymouth theme:

sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

In terminal screen, type the number for the spinner theme and hit Enter.

Method 2: Edit the config file for bgrt theme

Without switching theme, you may also edit the configuration file  for the default ‘bgrt’ theme, and disable the OEM logo.

Tip: For XUbuntu, KUbuntu, and other Debian/Ubuntu based system, use this command sudo update-alternatives --display default.plymouth to find out the default theme.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to edit the file:

sudo gedit /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/bgrt.plymouth

For Ubuntu 24.04 and higher, replace gedit in command with gnome-text-editor, or use nano text editor for other desktop environment.

2. When the file opens, find out and set value of ‘UseFirmwareBackground’ to false under boot-up, reboot, and shutdown sections.

After saving the change (for nano, press Ctrl+X, type y and hit Enter), the boot animation screen will look like:

Step 2: Set Ubuntu System Logo (optional)

As you see in the screenshot above, there will be a large area of blank screen in top-half, after disabling OEM logo.

For choice, you can place Ubuntu logo in screen center, so your boot/shutdown animation screen will look like the top image shows you. To do the job, you just need to put a ‘background-tile.png‘ image file in the spinner theme folder.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to install imagemagick:

sudo apt install imagemagick

2. The theme folder includes a “bgrt-fallback.png” file, which is Ubuntu logo with transparent background.

Run the commands below, will use imagemagick tool to generate the “background-tile.png” file with 1920×1080 size. And, put the Ubuntu logo in center with transparent background.

cd /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner

sudo convert bgrt-fallback.png -gravity center -background none -extent 1920x1080 background-tile.png

In command, replace 1920×1080 with your screen resolution! You can find it in “Displays” setting page.

If this command is done correctly, your boot animation should display Ubuntu logo in screen center. Though, you can of course put any image into ‘/usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner‘ directory, name to ‘background-tile.png’ to display as background.

Step 3: Verify

Without restart your computer, you can preview boot animation screen by running single command in terminal:

sudo plymouthd; sudo plymouth --show-splash; sleep 5; sudo plymouth --quit

It shows you full-screen boot animation, and quit in 5 seconds.

Ubuntu 22.10 Kinetic Kudu is out! Time to install the new system and do same configurations before ready for use. And, here are a list of things I can tell for you.

1. Update cache & install Media Codec

On a new Ubuntu system, user may need to refresh package index before being able to install software packages. And, this can be done easily by:

• Launch ‘Software Updater’, and wait for automatically ‘checking for updates’ done.
• Or, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command:

  sudo apt update

  type user password when it asks while no asterisk feedback.

Ubuntu does not include multimedia codec to play video and/or music with default applications out-of-the-box. It’s however quite easy to install them

• Either open ‘Ubuntu Software’, search for and install ‘Ubuntu restricted extra’
• Or, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

  sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

  While installing the MS fonts, it will prompt to accept licence, just press Tab to highlight OK and hit Enter.

For KUbuntu user, replace ubuntu-restricted-extras with kubuntu-restricted-extras in command.

2. Enable Flatpak & AppImage support

Ubuntu officially supports Snap and Deb package formats. But, we can avoid the popular Flatpak and AppImage software packages today in Linux.

AppImage requires libfuse2 which is NOT pre-installed since Ubuntu 22.04, due to switch to fuse3. The package is however still available in system repository.

• Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to enable AppImage support:

  sudo apt install libfuse2

Ubuntu also does not support Flatpak out-of-the-box, but it can be enabled by running a single command:

• Enable Flatpak in Ubuntu:

  sudo apt install flatpak

After that, you may go to flathub.org to find out and install your favorite apps as Flatpak.

3. Hide USB/Mounted Disk from left Panel, Enalbe Minimize on click

The left (or bottom) panel shows the connected USB stick, mounted disk volume out-of-the-box. User can however hide them using the new ‘Ubuntu Dock’ settings.

• First, go to top-right corner system tray menu, and click on ‘gear’ button to open settings.
• When ‘Settings’ opens, navigate to the new ‘Ubuntu Dock‘ tab. Then, click on “Configure dock behavior” in button right
• Finally, you may use the ON/OFF switch to show/hide the mounted drivers as well as trash can icon.

To enable the behavior that click the app icon on left (or bottom) dock panel to focus or minimize app window, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'minimize'

Ubuntu 22.10 introduced a new feature that when clicking app icon on dock, it goes to overview screen for easy switching this app if multiple windows opened. So, use the command below instead can be a better choice:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'focus-minimize-or-appspread'

After that, clicking app icon on dock panel will either open/focus window, minimize or goes overview for switching window.

4. Enable ‘New Documents’ context menu

GNOME is now working to make it easy to create new documents in ‘Files’ (aka Nautilus file manager). Until then, user need to manually create an empty document in ‘Templates’ folder to enable this context menu option.

1. First, click top-left ‘Activities’ to open overview screen. Then search for and open ‘Text Editor’.
2. In text editor window, go to ‘≡’ menu and select ‘save as’ option (You don’t have to insert anything, just save as empty document).
3. Finally, save the empty file as ‘Empty Document‘ into your ‘Templates‘ folder.

After that, right-click on blank area either in desktop or file manager window to see the ‘New Document’ option.

5. Install useful configuration tool

There are some useful configuration tools that you may need. Either install them via “Ubuntu Software” app or run the apt commands below in terminal.

• Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install Gnome Tweaks:

  sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

GNOME Tweaks

• Run command to install ‘Extension Manager’ for install & managing extensions:

  sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Extension Manager

Install some cool Gnome Shell Extensions, (e.g. ‘Just Perfect’, ‘Blur my shell’), via extension manager app under ‘Browse’ tab.

Just Perfection with even more configuration options

6. Set light/dark photo images as wallpaper that switch automatically

GNOME 40 introduced adaptive wallpaper that changes automatically depends on system color scheme. It’s not available in Ubuntu 22.04 due to custom ‘Settings’ dialog. For Ubuntu 22.10, you can set your photo images with light and dark versions to wallpaper via following steps.

1. First, open ‘Files‘ (nautilus file manager), then press Ctrl+H to show hidden files/folders.
2. Then, navigate to .local/share and create a new sub-folder called ‘gnome-background-properties‘
3. Finally, create a .xml file under that folder with whatever name, and insert following content (change path-to-file accordingly).

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE wallpapers SYSTEM "gnome-wp-list.dtd">
<wallpapers>
  <wallpaper deleted="false">
    <name>TYPE_NAME_HERE</name>
    <filename>/PATH/TO/PICTURE_LIGHT</filename>
    <filename-dark>/PATH/TO/PICTURE_DARK</filename-dark>
    <options>zoom</options>
    <shade_type>solid</shade_type>
    <pcolor>#3465a4</pcolor>
    <scolor>#000000</scolor>
  </wallpaper>
</wallpapers>

After that, open ‘Settings’ and navigate to ‘Appearance’ for the new adaptive wallpaper:

7. Get ‘Login Manager Settings’ to configure login screen

GDM Settings is a login screen managing tool for GNOME display manager. The application now is stable for daily use though it’s young project.

1. First, go to project page below and select download the AppImage
   Download Login Manager Settings (under ‘Assets’)
2. Right-click on the AppImage, go to ‘Properties‘, and then turn on the option for ‘Executable as Program‘
3. Finally, right-click and click ‘Run’ to launch the configuration tool.
4. There go to ‘Appearance’ -> Background -> Type ‘Image’ and select a photo image for login screen.
5. Configure font, color, logo, disable user list,etc as you want and finally click ‘Apply’ button to make changes.

Configure Login Screen Appearance

8. Install Firefox as classic Deb package

For those prefer the classic Deb to Snap, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the commands below one by one to switch Firefox from Snap to DEB.

• Backup your important data if any.
• Remove commands below one by one to remove Firefox:

  sudo apt remove --autoremove firefox

  sudo snap remove firefox

• Add Mozillateam PPA:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa

• Finally, install Firefox as deb form PPA:

  sudo apt install -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' firefox

To prevent Ubuntu from automatically updating Firefox to Snap again, you also need to set a higher PPA priority. See this tutorial for details.

9. Switch back to Xorg session

If you have some old applications that are still NOT running properly in the default Wayland session. Simply log out, click username and use the bottom right ‘gear’ button menu to switch back Xorg session, and finally login.