Re: Bootscreen

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Raphael Schmid <[e-mail]> [030128 10:01]:
> It is my very understanding one can not have, conveniently it should be,
> a simple *bootscreen* under Linux. With that I mean a picture of at
> least 256 (indexed) colours at a size of 640x480 pixels. Doesn't have
> to be a higher resolution. And yes, I'm taking the standpoint that every
> computer nowadays [where this shall be possible] *can* do that resolution.

It's not too much to even state that almost any computer working with
Linux 2.4+ can do 800x600 or 1024x768. Anything below that can be
considered a special case, regarding the numbers out there. But that
does not influence the possibility of using a bootsplash graphics. 
On a system you can't use it properly, you probably also would not 
want it (i.e. use normal text mode boot instead of a framebuffer
driver)
 
> Framebuffer, I hear people shouting? Well. During the last *two days*,
> which includes one full night, I've been trying to get my v2.4.20 kernel
> to display such a bootscreen. All I get is segfaults. I've tried what I
> believe to be every tool out there: pnmtologo, fblogo, boot_logo, the
> GIMP plugin. You name them. None of which wouldn't have required any
> hacking to work with 2.4.20, by the way...

Have a look at ftp.suse.com/pub/people/stepan/bootsplash/ - There you
find kernel patches, user space utilities and such to display a
bootsplash screen. You can either choose to have a picture put "behind"
your text, or have a picture _instead_ of text. (triggerable with a 
boot parameter so anybody is happy). And yes, it _does_ look cool to see
your kernel messages scrolling up on a background of a slightly faded
out penguin, looking like a water sign. ;-)

> And maybe it's right, maybe I demand too much from the (VESA) framebuffer.
> Maybe my picture is also too complex, but I've tried simple ones as well.
> And anyway: I don't *want* any simple picture, I want as complex a picture
> as it gets. In 640x480. At 256 indexed colours.
My patch above includes a small and efficient jpeg decoder (8k), which
allows you to read any jpg picture from an initrd.

> I realize these ideas may sound kind of alien to you, but they make sense.
> Windows, MacOS all have bootscreens. There really is no way why Linux
> shouldn't.
 
It's not alien, and it does make sense. I, speaking for myself, know the
kernel boot messages by heart and I don't expect them to change with the
2957596. bootup of my linux box. ;)

Any comments?

   Stefan
  
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