The functions used for the status messages upon boot are defined in /lib/lsb/init-functions and may be overwritten in /etc/lsb-base-logging.sh.
To add colours, in that init-functions file find the function log_use_fancy_output() and below the fi add the lines
…
else
FANCYTTY=0
fi
# BEGIN --- colour definition
if [ -n "$TERM" ]; then
NORMAL=`$TPUT sgr0`
BOLD=`$TPUT bold`
BLINK=`$TPUT blink`
BLACK=`$TPUT setaf 0`
RED=`$TPUT setaf 1`
GREEN=`$TPUT setaf 2`
YELLOW=`$TPUT setaf 3`
BLUE=`$TPUT setaf 4`
MAGENTA=`$TPUT setaf 5`
CYAN=`$TPUT setaf 6`
WHITE=`$TPUT setaf 7`
fi
# END --- colour definition
case "$FANCYTTY" in
1|Y|yes|true) true;;
…After that, edit the lsb-base-logging.sh and change e.g. the output of log_end_msg():
…
if [ "$COL" ] && [ -x "$TPUT" ]; then
printf "\r"
$TPUT hpa $COL
if [ "$1" -eq 0 ]; then
echo "${BOLD}${BLUE}[${GREEN} OK ${BLUE}]${NORMAL}"
else
echo "${BOLD}${BLUE}[${RED}fail${BLUE}]${NORMAL}"
fi
else
…Your next boot will look like this:
