Some people really want this. It should probably just be a throbber, not list started services in detail. It should notify the user about failed services, and maybe offer a way to see the error messages.
Obviously, this should just tie into the dbus notifcation of service startup and failure. Oh wait, that's not written yet. :)
You could do this with a few line status scroller, like on a credits screen. This way it wouldn't take up much space. As each service starts, it rolls down to take the previous messages' place. Failed messages get thrown to another part of the screen (literally), so that they really do get noticed.
This might require rethinking about how the elements on the gdm window are displayed. It would be super slick if elements could be moved (in a nice gliding manner) so that you could start gdm and while the user can't log in the boot progress display is central to the window. Once the user can begin to login, the boot progress element would move to make room for the login element (in a nicely balance visual way) and then once the boot is complete, the boot progress window would disappear and the login element would move to be central on the screen. I know it sounds like a bit of work, but if would look very slick. Waking from a dream, it of course makes a lot of sense just to get both elements on the screen in an acceptable manner. This will mean shuffling the login element around somewhere to make room for the boot progress element. I would also be great if the boot progress element could be expanded to see what's going on and to handle boot bits that need interaction like finding/removing new hardware. This means a reasonable amount of screen space will be needed for this, but given that your only talking a console size space it should be easy enought to include. (Of course, it would be really nice if any uiser interaction like addding/removing hardware was graphical in nature using clickable icons instead of a text driven, tab controlled interface, but I must have nodded off into la la land again ;-] ) NOTE: This is just the idle ramblings of a guy dreaming of what could be and wanting to make sure that it's been commented out loud.
Support for a throbber on the login screen is now in Rawhide.
Not sure what you mean by throbber, but the only thing I saw with this autlogin setup/update, is a blue screen and a cursor.
Yep. Me too. Looked the same as 2.6.0.8-5.
Yes, there is no throbber for autologin mode. Thats why I carefully said "throbber on the login screen". In autologin mode, there is no login screen...