Is it possible to set up a custom boot animation that includes sound playback, like an .mp4 video with audio? I'm thinking it wouldn't start right at the very beginning of the boot process since that's when drivers are loading, but maybe it could kick in after the main boot animation or splash screen, similar to how it's done on Android devices.
2 Answers
The Steam Deck and SteamOS manage to do this, but I’m not sure exactly how. Since it's their hardware, they can integrate a sound driver into a custom Grub setup to play sounds during boot.
You can definitely use Plymouth for custom animations. However, I never managed to get sound working. I always imagined it would be funny to have Linus Sebastian's meme sound play during the boot!
That makes sense! They probably have more control because of their custom hardware. Here's a link that could help with similar setups: https://askubuntu.com/questions/76309/play-a-sound-before-or-after-grub-loads#875855.