From f03bf06742a2ed4535d326e3220c685bca5aa0ed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Emir Beganovic <beganovic.emir@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2026 23:26:20 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Stop the boot from waiting on a black screen for the console
 to answer

About 1 boot in 10 of an installed system stops on a black screen at
"Starting Switch Root" until a key is pressed. systemd 257 and later
asks the console for its size with ANSI escape sequences when PID 1
starts and waits for the reply; with Plymouth holding the VT the reply
sometimes never comes.

Measured in QEMU on repeated boots of one install: 3 hangs in 30 and 1
in 40 on the prebuilt UKI, 7 in 40 on the stock initramfs, every one of
them ended by pressing Enter; none in 40 with a serial console, none in
40 with plymouth.enable=0, and none in 80 with
systemd.tty.term.console=dumb, which makes systemd skip the query.
systemd fixed two variants of this in v261; Arch's 261.2 still shows it.

The parameter goes where the last Plymouth boot fix went (3f725531,
initramfs_async=0): into the packaged omarchy-defaults.conf for fresh
installs, and a migration rebuilds the boot image on existing systems,
once per machine, only where the booted command line lacks it. Nothing
visible changes under "quiet splash".

Refs #2931
---
 etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf |  9 +++
 migrations/1791581004.sh                      | 31 +++++++++
 .../console-no-ansi-query-migration-test.sh   | 66 +++++++++++++++++++
 test/shell.d/limine-defaults-test.sh          |  4 ++
 4 files changed, 110 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 migrations/1791581004.sh
 create mode 100644 test/shell.d/console-no-ansi-query-migration-test.sh

diff --git a/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf b/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf
index ec0fa96f..1e421365 100644
--- a/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf
+++ b/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@ KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+=" quiet splash loglevel=0 systemd.show_status=false rd.
 # is fixed upstream.
 KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+=" initramfs_async=0"
 
+# systemd 257 and later asks the console for its size with ANSI escape
+# sequences when PID 1 starts, and waits for the reply. With Plymouth holding
+# the VT the reply sometimes never comes, and the boot sits on a black screen
+# at "Starting Switch Root" until a key is pressed: about 1 boot in 10. A dumb
+# $TERM for the console makes systemd skip the query. Nothing visible changes
+# under "quiet splash". Drop it once a systemd release boots clean in a
+# repeated boot test.
+KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+=" systemd.tty.term.console=dumb"
+
 CUSTOM_UKI_NAME="omarchy"
 ENABLE_LIMINE_FALLBACK=yes
 
diff --git a/migrations/1791581004.sh b/migrations/1791581004.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c95a74ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/1791581004.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+echo "Stop the boot from waiting on a black screen for the console to answer"
+
+# systemd asks the console for its size when PID 1 starts and waits for the
+# reply. With Plymouth holding the screen the reply sometimes never comes, and
+# about 1 boot in 10 sits on a black screen until a key is pressed.
+# omarchy-defaults.conf now carries systemd.tty.term.console=dumb, which makes
+# systemd skip the query. The package has already written that file by the
+# time this runs; the boot image still holds the old command line until it is
+# rebuilt.
+
+defaults_conf="${OMARCHY_LIMINE_DEFAULTS_CONF:-/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf}"
+running_cmdline="${OMARCHY_RUNNING_CMDLINE:-/proc/cmdline}"
+rebuild_marker="${OMARCHY_LIMINE_REBUILD_MARKER:-/var/lib/omarchy/migrations/1791581004}"
+param="systemd.tty.term.console=dumb"
+
+omarchy-cmd-present limine-mkinitcpio || exit 0
+[[ -f $defaults_conf && -r $running_cmdline ]] || exit 0
+
+# The running kernel keeps its old command line until reboot, so a marker
+# records the machine-wide rebuild: another user's migration must not repeat
+# it before then, while a missing marker still retries an interrupted rebuild.
+[[ ! -e $rebuild_marker ]] || exit 0
+
+# A machine that boots with it already, or whose defaults were edited to leave
+# it out, has nothing to rebuild.
+[[ " $(<"$running_cmdline") " != *" $param "* ]] || exit 0
+grep -Eq "^KERNEL_CMDLINE\[default\]\+=\".*${param//./\\.}.*\"" "$defaults_conf" || exit 0
+
+echo "The booted kernel is missing $param; rebuilding the boot image"
+sudo limine-mkinitcpio
+sudo install -Dm644 /dev/null "$rebuild_marker"
diff --git a/test/shell.d/console-no-ansi-query-migration-test.sh b/test/shell.d/console-no-ansi-query-migration-test.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d0c2b1d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/shell.d/console-no-ansi-query-migration-test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# The migration that puts systemd.tty.term.console=dumb into effect on an
+# existing install: the package has already written the parameter into
+# omarchy-defaults.conf, so what is left is rebuilding the boot image, once per
+# machine, and only where it is needed.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+source "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/base-test.sh"
+
+migration="$ROOT/migrations/1791581004.sh"
+test_dir=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rm -rf "$test_dir"' EXIT
+stub_bin="$test_dir/bin"
+mkdir -p "$stub_bin"
+
+# sudo just drops the prefix; limine-mkinitcpio records that it ran.
+printf '#!/bin/bash\nexec "$@"\n' >"$stub_bin/sudo"
+printf '#!/bin/bash\necho rebuilt >>"${REBUILDS:?}"\n' >"$stub_bin/limine-mkinitcpio"
+chmod +x "$stub_bin"/*
+
+old_cmdline="root=PARTUUID=1 rw quiet splash initramfs_async=0"
+new_cmdline="$old_cmdline systemd.tty.term.console=dumb"
+
+run() { # booted cmdline, defaults conf
+  : >"$test_dir/rebuilds"
+  printf '%s\n' "$1" >"$test_dir/cmdline"
+  PATH="$stub_bin:$ROOT/bin:$PATH" REBUILDS="$test_dir/rebuilds" \
+    OMARCHY_RUNNING_CMDLINE="$test_dir/cmdline" OMARCHY_LIMINE_DEFAULTS_CONF="$2" \
+    OMARCHY_LIMINE_REBUILD_MARKER="$test_dir/marker" bash "$migration" >/dev/null
+}
+rebuilds() { wc -l <"$test_dir/rebuilds"; }
+
+run "$old_cmdline" "$ROOT/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf"
+[[ $(rebuilds) == 1 && -e $test_dir/marker ]] ||
+  fail "a machine booted without the parameter did not get its boot image rebuilt"
+pass "a machine booted without the parameter gets its boot image rebuilt, with the packaged defaults"
+
+run "$old_cmdline" "$ROOT/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf"
+[[ $(rebuilds) == 0 ]] || fail "the rebuild ran a second time before a reboot"
+pass "the rebuild runs once per machine, not once per user"
+
+rm -f "$test_dir/marker"
+run "$new_cmdline" "$ROOT/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf"
+[[ $(rebuilds) == 0 && ! -e $test_dir/marker ]] || fail "a machine that already boots with the parameter was rebuilt"
+pass "a machine that already boots with the parameter is left alone"
+
+grep -v "tty.term.console" "$ROOT/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf" >"$test_dir/edited.conf"
+run "$old_cmdline" "$test_dir/edited.conf"
+[[ $(rebuilds) == 0 ]] || fail "a machine whose defaults leave the parameter out was rebuilt anyway"
+pass "a machine whose defaults were edited to leave the parameter out is left alone"
+
+# No Limine: the stand-in goes, and the PATH holds only what the migration
+# needs, so a limine-mkinitcpio installed on the machine running this test is
+# not found either.
+rm "$stub_bin/limine-mkinitcpio"
+mkdir -p "$test_dir/tools"
+for tool in bash grep install cat; do ln -s "$(command -v "$tool")" "$test_dir/tools/$tool"; done
+: >"$test_dir/rebuilds"
+printf '%s\n' "$old_cmdline" >"$test_dir/cmdline"
+PATH="$stub_bin:$ROOT/bin:$test_dir/tools" REBUILDS="$test_dir/rebuilds" \
+  OMARCHY_RUNNING_CMDLINE="$test_dir/cmdline" OMARCHY_LIMINE_DEFAULTS_CONF="$ROOT/etc/limine-entry-tool.d/omarchy-defaults.conf" \
+  OMARCHY_LIMINE_REBUILD_MARKER="$test_dir/marker" "$test_dir/tools/bash" "$migration" >/dev/null
+[[ ! -e $test_dir/marker ]] || fail "a machine without Limine was marked as rebuilt"
+pass "a machine without Limine is left alone"
diff --git a/test/shell.d/limine-defaults-test.sh b/test/shell.d/limine-defaults-test.sh
index 21adc94f..f69e9535 100644
--- a/test/shell.d/limine-defaults-test.sh
+++ b/test/shell.d/limine-defaults-test.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@ grep -Fq 'KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+=" initramfs_async=0"' "$packaged_defaults" ||
   fail "the packaged Limine defaults still unpack the initramfs synchronously"
 pass "packaged Limine defaults keep Plymouth alive at the LUKS prompt"
 
+grep -Fxq 'KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+=" systemd.tty.term.console=dumb"' "$packaged_defaults" ||
+  fail "the packaged Limine defaults let PID 1 wait for the console to answer a size query"
+pass "packaged Limine defaults keep PID 1 from waiting on the console"
+
 grep -Fxq 'BOOT_ORDER="linux-t2, linux-omarchy, linux-omarchy-*, *, *fallback, Snapshots"' "$packaged_defaults" ||
   fail "packaged Limine defaults protect T2 Macs and prefer the exact Omarchy kernel elsewhere"
 pass "packaged Limine defaults protect T2 Macs and prefer the exact Omarchy kernel elsewhere"