The splash init.d script says: # run after local so that the boot time splash image # is visible for as long as possible depend() { need local } This is unwise for several reasons. First, if anything in local.start breaks then the splash screens don't get set up which can be baffling at first. Second, if people have problems getting their initrd working (search bugs for "splash") then this delays having any eye-candy for as long as possible. I think it would be better to have the default be to *not* depend on local, but perhaps have the code still in there but commented out. Having local break splash by default is absurd. Local should run last by default as god herself intended.
This is already fixed in all splashutils versions higher than 1.1.9.8-r1.
