Error message "/sbin/plymouthd: not found" is shown on booting

[Removed by request]

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 dev with plymouth 0.9.2-3ubuntu5 and on booting I'm seeing the error message "/sbin/plymouthd: not found" (it gets not logged so I'm not sure about the full output).

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

Same here:
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /sbin/plymouthd: not found
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /bin/plymouth: not found

I'm having Ubuntu 16.04, latest version of plymouth, BTRFS root filesystem. Booting through GRUB2 or EFI stub gives the same result.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

Actual script location is /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-premount/plymouth and I do have both "not found" files in place

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

Xenial released, bug is still around

[Maciej Puzio (maciej-puzio)]

Same problem with plain ext4 root partition. I have two systems configured very similarly with 16.04, one has this problem and another has not. But their hardware is different, so I'd make an educated guess that this is a timing issue. Good thing is that it appears benign.

BTW, I get three errors:
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /sbin/plymouthd: not found
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /bin/plymouth: not found
[fsck displays its output here]
/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth: line 18: /bin/plymouth: not found

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

I had custom plymouth theme and after plymouth update it was the reason of error.
Simply installing default theme and running:
> sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth
Solves the issue for me.

[Cyber Sec I (cybersec)]

Manual fix: download manualy
1. plymouth from here http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial-updates/plymouth
2. plymouth-label from here http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial-updates/plymouth-label
3. plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo from here http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial-updates/plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo

Install all package starting with plymouth via dpkg -i package-name.deb

This has fixed the promplem for me!

[axel (axel334)]

Similar bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/1578372
Please make system to respect "quiet nosplash" in /etc/default/grub for users that for some reason don't want to use plymouth.
I installed plymouth-disabler package from repo (xenial) but it doesn't make any change.
I am afraid of uninstalling plymouth package because it has dependences and I am afraid of crashing system.

[Mike Ferreira (mafoelffen)]

This also affects me. I marked my own bug report (Bug #1594204) as a duplicate this.

I've already done an install --reinstall, as "axel" was afraid to do, and that does not affect the error in any way.

Also, the files that that script is looking for-- are confirmed to be physically on my system.

Background on me? Check my memberships. I am somewhat modest, but am used to tracking problems down and coming up with work-arounds.

Error Message on mine is:
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /sbin/plymouthd: not found
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /bin/plymouth: not found
/dev/sda3: clean 605474/22757376 files, 66338383/91016257 blocks
/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth: line 18/bin/plymouth: not found

My results of: $ ls /sbin/plymouthd && ls /bin/plymouth
/sbin/plymouthd
/bin/plymouth
...which confirms that those files are there.

## Specific errors are from ##

# script codeblock from usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-premount/plymouth staring at line 33 is:

if [ "${SPLASH}" = "true" ]
then
 mkdir -m 0755 /run/plymouth
 /sbin/plymouthd --mode=boot --attach-to-session --pid-file=/run/plymouth/pid
 /bin/plymouth --show-splash
fi

# script line from usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth line 18 is:

  /bin/plymouth --newroot=${rootmnt}

## End Code ##

My results of: $ sudo ls -l /run/plymouth
  total 0

So it is creating the /run/plymouth, but is empty (no pid file)

I am running the animated ubuntu-sunrise theme... the affects the boot theme, but not the shutdown theme. If I change themes, the boot theme will work once, then be boinked again. But the errors are showing even in that instance of the boot theme working...

[Mike Ferreira (mafoelffen)]

As reference to trying the fix recommended by Cyber Sec in post #7... That did not fix mine.

Downloading and manually installing those .deb packages ... Installed fine, but it resulted in no change on mine (same errors).

[Mike Ferreira (mafoelffen)]

I see Cyber Sec committed those packages as a fix for this bug ... I followed his recommends and tested. But I can confirm that they are not a fix for mine.

What next? You need more info or a back-trace?

[Mike Ferreira (mafoelffen)]

Apport is now catching a system error on /sbin/plymouth...

[Jani Uusitalo (uusijani)]

Those scripts are ran from the initrd, so it's looking for plymouth and plymouthd in the initrd /bin and /sbin directories, and those are probably missing the said files just as the error message says.

/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/plymouth is responsible for copying the plymouth executables onto the initrd, so to see why it fails to copy the files, I added `set -x` to it and then ran `update-initramfs -v -u`.

In my case (I'm running Kodibuntu, I recently upgraded the underlying system from 14.04 to 16.04) the issue was that the hook failed to find Kodibuntu theme files for Plymouth, because it was looking for them in /usr/share/plymouth/themes (which apparently is the standard place), whereas the files actually resided in /lib/plymouth/themes for some (legacy?) reason. The hook therefore determined that I have no working Plymouth theme and thus don't need the executables.

After moving the theme files to /usr/share/plymouth/themes (and some manual labor updating references in the files themselves as well as Plymouth's alternatives) the hook now correctly finds those files and then proceeds to copy the Plymouth executables onto the initrd.

[BlackDragon (3lack7ragon)]

Ubuntu 16 changes the location of plymouth themes from /lib/plymouth/themes to /usr/share/plymouth/themes and so all of the theme install scripts that assumed the previous layout now install to the wrong location.

Hope this time it work! here are the steps :

apt-get install plymouth-themes

ls -ltrd /lib/plymouth/themes
ls -ltrd /usr/share/plymouth/themes

move all themes directories to /usr/share/plymouth/themes:

cd /lib/plymouth/themes

Replace <theThemeDirectory> with the name of your theme directory:

mv <theThemeDirectory> /usr/share/plymouth/themes

within your themes directories ,there are always 2 files in it yourthemename-logo.script yourthemename.plymouth those files contain the old directory /lib/plymouth/
 replace the path /lib/ with the new path /usr/share/ thats all .

[Removed by request (removed3425744)]

On making a more detailed look for "/lib/plymouth" on my system (yakkety) I have found this:

root@ubuntu:~# find / -type f -print0 2> /dev/null | grep -EZvz '^/(dev|proc|run|sys)/' | xargs -0I {} grep -Hn '/lib/plymouth' {}
/var/lib/dpkg/info/plymouth.list:36:/var/lib/plymouth
/etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme:42: if [ -e /lib/plymouth/themes/default.grub ]; then
/etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme:43: sed "s/^/${1}/" /lib/plymouth/themes/default.grub
Binary file /sbin/plymouthd matches

The code in /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme seems not to be directly related but it contains a comment that it is not needed after xenial anymore and should probably get removed. But I'm wondering why /sbin/plymouthd has still a reference to the old path.

[Michael F Winthrop (mwinthrop-1)]

I have tried all the options defined up to post #7. I had updated KXStudio version (Kubuntu?) from 14.04 to 16.06. I used the upgrade option listed in muon. All went well until the very last. At that point it crashed and said I now have an unstable system. I restarted and used the new O/S boot rescue. It identified numerous extra packages and numerous missing packages. I allowed it to proceed.

After all this, the KDE logo appeared with loading going on, and then crashed. ctrl alt F7 showed this:
Error Message on mine is:
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /sbin/plymouthd: not found
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /bin/plymouth: not found
Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
KXStudio-1404: recovery journal
KXStudio-1404: clean, 951037/2444624 files, 6343383/9781504 blocks
/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth: line 18/bin/plymouth: not found

1) I the opened tty1 with ctrl alt F1 and logged in. I tried to open X with "xinit" but this failed.
2) I switched to su with "sudo su root" and tried again. This worked. I got a single root xterm on a GUI screen with working mouse.
3) I then entered "kstart plasmashell" and got a full GUI working desktop, but completely devoid of all my applications. This desktop has all GUI windows with out "decorations" (no close, minimize, etc.) and some windows are not movable. Firefox works, but all drop-down menus do not function.
I had some problems getting WiFi to work also, but di it OK after using a wired Ethernet to get Internet help ideas.
4) I tried other combinations and only one other had any effect:
5) As root, I typed "/usr/bin/kde" (which is the contents of /etc/X11/default....)
This gave me a GUI desktop logon screen, but would not actually log me in. It complained about my KDE-plasma ID is no longer valid no matter what I did.
6) I am still experimenting.

[Michael F Winthrop (mwinthrop-1)]

I continued my experimenting.

startx will get me a GUI with my application icons. It will not provide me with decorations and menus. No command bar at the bottom. Right click has no useful effect.

I opened a folder (on the desktop) and navigate, via folders, to get to an executable xterm.
I then right click that and make a desktop icon. The same for firefox.
I can now open the xterm and type in "kwin --replace", which gives me decorations on some applications (but not the xterm). I get the following complaints when I do the kwin --replace:

/Desktop$ kwin --replace &
[1] 5000
dad@dad314159:~/Desktop$ Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar"
Connecting to deprecated signal QDBusConnectionInterface::serviceOwnerChanged(QString,QString,QString)
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar"
kbuildsycoca4 running...
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
QDBusConnection: session D-Bus connection created before QCoreApplication. Application may misbehave.
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar"
QInotifyFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: inotify_add_watch failed: Permission denied
Setting the name of 0x12b1240 to "org.kde.ActivityManager.Resources.Scoring"
Creating directory: "/home/dad/.local/share/kactivitymanagerd/resources/"
KActivities: Database can not be opened in WAL mode. Check the SQLite version (required >3.7.0). And whether your filesystem supports shared memory
Service started, version:
QInotifyFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: inotify_add_watch failed: Permission denied
QDBusConnection: name 'org.kde.kglobalaccel' had owner '' but we thought it was ':1.81'
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 11.2.0
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
Driver: Intel
GPU class: i965
OpenGL version: 2.1
GLSL version: 1.20
Mesa version: 11.2
X server version: 1.18.3
Linux kernel version: 4.4
Requires strict binding: yes
GLSL shaders: yes
Texture NPOT support: yes
Virtual Machine: no
detected kglobalaccel restarting, re-registering all shortcut keys
KActivities: FATAL ERROR: Failed to contact the activity manager daemon
Failed to establish shared memory mapping, will fallback to private memory -- memory usage will increase

dad@dad314159:~/Desktop$ plasma-desktop
plasma-desktop: command not found
dad@dad314159:~/Desktop$ QMetaProperty::read: Unable to handle unregistered datatype 'KWayland::Server::SurfaceInterface*' for property 'KWin::Toplevel::surface'

I reinstall kwin and then kwin*. Numero...

[Michael F Winthrop (mwinthrop-1)]

In my ctrl F7 window I have been seeing:
Error Message on mine is:
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /sbin/plymouthd: not found
/scripts/init-premount/plymouth: line 38: /bin/plymouth: not found
Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
KXStudio-1404: recovery journal
KXStudio-1404: clean, 951037/2444624 files, 6343383/9781504 blocks
/scripts/init-bottom/plymouth: line 18/bin/plymouth: not found

I googled a bit and found:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2322684 (Plymouth unable to update spash screen)
see post # 3. I did this
also
see reference to BTRFS filesystems above:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/78535/how-to-get-rid-of-the-scanning-for-btrfs-file-systems-at-start-up
How to get rid of the “scanning for btrfs file systems” at start-up?
I did this also.
Now the ctrl F7 screen is blank (no complaints) but still no desktop.
Must still use:
ctrl F1
(login)
startx
open pre-located xterm
execute
kwin -replace &

this gets a desktop, but no desktop management tools (menus, etc)
More research soon

[Mike Ferreira (mafoelffen)]

Update-

This is how I fixed mine... Adapt to your own system.
# look at the old directory
ls -ltrd /lib/plymouth/themes
#look at the newer plymouth directory to compare
ls -ltrd /usr/share/plymouth/themes
if differerent, mobe the old to the newer...
sudo mv /lib/plymouth/themes /usr/share/plymouth/themes
sudo gedit /usr/share/plymouth/ubuntu-sunrise/ubuntu-sunrise.plymouth

At this point, I edited that theme file to change the two file path references from "/lib/plymouth" to "/usr/share/plymouth". This is needed for the script to find the new path to the themes in the newer directory...

Note that this answer was given in response #14 but was incomplete. Once you move the files, then you need to reset the update-alternatives for the updated default.plymouth...

#add an updated update-alternatives link to the new plymouth file directory
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-sunrise/ubuntu-sunrise.plymouth 100
#select that entry
sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth
# hinted at in response #13, the plymouth at boot, runs from the intramfs image, so the image needs to be updated first...
sudo update-initramfs -u
#then reboot to test
sudo shutdown -r now

If successful... mine was... then
# remove the old default.plymouth entry from update alternatives...
sudo update-alternatives --remove default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/ubuntu-sunrise/ubuntu-sunrise.plymouth
# check to ensure the extra entry is gone...
sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

press enter to remain unchanged...

[Mike Ferreira (mafoelffen)]

correction on last...
# removed
sudo update-alternatives --remove default.plymouth /lib/plymouth/themes/ubuntu-sunrise/ubuntu-sunrise.plymouth