When starting Fedora, users are greeted with a neat graphical bootup sequence. The underlying software that displays the bootup graphics is called Plymouth, and the great thing is that it can be customized with different themes. In Fedora, the default theme is called Charge, and most users will be familiar with it, as it has been the default theme for many releases.

Other than Charge, Fedora workstation ships with a handful of other basic themes, but more are available in the Fedora repositories. In this article we will cover the basic procedure to change your theme, and cover some of the additional themes available in the Fedora repositories.

Changing the Plymouth theme

The plymouth-set-default-theme is a utility in Fedora for changing the theme. However, before changing the theme, we will need to know what themes are available and installed on the system. Get a list of the installed themes with the following command:

$ plymouth-set-default-theme --list charge details text tribar

You can also use the utility to check what is the current Plymouth theme:

$ plymouth-set-default-theme charge

To change your Plymouth theme to “tribar”, use the following command.

$ sudo plymouth-set-default-theme tribar -R

Note that the -R flag will rebuild your initrd, and the next time you reboot your system, you will see the new theme in action.

More themes in the Fedora Repos

The official Fedora repositories contain a number of additional themes to try out. To use these, first install the package with dnf, then enable using the instructions above.

spinner

Spinner is a minimal theme with, as the name suggests, just a spinner to show you the bootup is still underway.

Install and enable this theme with the commands:

$ sudo dnf install plymouth-theme-spinner $ sudo plymouth-set-default-theme spinner -R

Spinfinity

Spinfinity is a Fedora branded theme. It has an infinity symbol shaped indicator, as well as a plain white progress bar at the bottom of the screen.

Install and enable this theme with the commands:

$ sudo dnf install plymouth-theme-spinfinity $ sudo plymouth-set-default-theme spinfinity -R

hot-dog theme

Take your Fedora back to 2012, and try out the Beefy Miracle theme. In this one, The Mustard Indicates Progress!

Install and enable this theme with the commands:

$ sudo dnf install plymouth-theme-hot-dog $ sudo plymouth-set-default-theme hot-dog -R