[Howto] Using Bootsplash on PPC in 9 easy steps

[DiskBreaker]

Using Bootsplash on PPC in 9 easy steps

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: v. 2.1 - The gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.7-r9 ebuild now includes the latest bootsplash patch
v. 2.0 - Only one day after filing a bug for a new ebuild spock already released one! Many thanks for the great work. This makes this tutorial almost obsolete, so I will shorten it a bit...
v 1.0 - initial release of howto
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As of June 30th we have a working bootsplash patch for ppc!
It cleanly applies to the latest vanilla 2.6.7 kernel and runs fine in 32bpp mode.

1. Get your favourite flavour of the 2.6.7 kernel...
Update: The latest bootsplash patch is already included in the gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.7-r9 kernel (and later). You can simply emerge gentoo-dev-sources and skip to Step 4.
It will work with the vanilla kernel for sure (sys-kernel/development-sources-2.6.7_rc3) but should work with most other patched kernels, too (so far I have only tested ck-sources and it worked fine).

2. Emerge bootsplash

Code: Select all

# ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~ppc" emerge bootsplash

3. Apply the bootsplash patch

Code: Select all

# /sbin/bootsplash_patch

4. Configure and build the kernel
You will need to configure the following options:

Code: Select all

Code maturity level options  --->
    [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
Device Drivers  --->
    Block devices  --->
        <*> Loopback device support
        <*> RAM disk support
        (4096) Default RAM disk size
        [*]   Initial RAM disk (initrd) support
    Graphics support  --->
        [*] Support for frame buffer devices
        Console display driver support  --->
            <*> Framebuffer Console support
        Logo configuration  --->
            [ ] Bootup logo  (do not enable!)
        Bootsplash configuration  --->
            [*] Bootup splash screen

5. Get some themes:
Go grab all the cool themes at http://www.bootsplash.de/files/themes/ or make your own as detailed on the Official Bootsplash Page. Put them in /etc/bootsplash/$THEMENAME.

6. Create an initrd image of your theme:

Code: Select all

#  splash -s -f /etc/bootsplash/default/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg > /boot/initrd-1024x768

Of course replace the path with the correct path to the theme you chose in the previous step and the resolution with the resolution you are using.

7. Edit your /etc/yaboot.conf
Currently, bootsplash only seems to work in 32bpp mode (not that I would particularly mind - the more colours, the better )
You will need to add the following to your config:

Code: Select all

initrd=/boot/initrd-1024x768
append="video=fbdriver:1024x768-32 splash=silent"

Then issue a

Code: Select all

# ybin -v

Again, please substitute "fbdriver" for the actual framebuffer you are using (most likely aty128fb or radeonfb) and the initrd path to where you put the initrd image in the previous step. You can also choose between silent mode (a background picture with a bar indicating loading time) and verbose mode (just what your boring bootup used to look like until now, but with an added background picture).

8. Add bootsplash to default runlevel:

Code: Select all

# rc-update add bootsplash default

9. Reboot your new kernel at least a couple of times to fully enjoy your new bootsplash

More tips:

- If you just downloaded a new theme you can check it out immediately on your console by running:

Code: Select all

#  splash -s -u 0 /etc/bootsplash/mytheme/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg

- You can grab a screenshot of the framebuffer with fbgrab:

Code: Select all

# emerge fbgrab
# fbgrab screenshot.png

(fbgrab still seems to have some endianness issues sometimes when taking screenshots...)
- If you have a lot of free time on your hands also go read the huge Framebuffer/Bootsplash/Grubsplash thread for more tips at http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=49036


TODO:
- I will look into getting bootsplash to properly work with swsusp2 so that you can get a proper splash even when suspending.
- It would also be cool to make a gentoo theme with animations (running with fbmngplay) so that in silent mode, for each service that is starting you get a corresponding animation, similar to the boot screen of KDE.

Have fun,
DiskBreaker

edit by SeJo: set sticky and used your title as post title. Thanks for the howto

[Immortal Q]

Awesome! Two questions before I launch into getting this working:

1. Will this patch conflict with the gentoo-provided bootsplash patches (say if I wanted to patch against gentoo-dev-sources).

2. Will screwy laptop resolutions like 1280x854 work all right?

EDIT: Patching against the previously applied bootsplash patch isn't fun - I'm not comfortable enough with patch/diff to want to mess around with that. I need some of the bk6 changes anyway, so I'll patch against the bleeding edge snapshot, see how that works.

[CaribbeanKnight]

just confirming that this indeed works i'm enjoying a radeonfb console of 1024x768-32 with a nice bootsplash theme on my G4 with radeon 9000 now
oh, and you don't need to do that rc-update stuff... it will get loaded by the kernel anyway...

[sienarot]

Awesome! You've just become my favorite person of the week! I'll give this a try tomorrow or sometime during the weekend if I have time.

[DiskBreaker]

1. Will this patch conflict with the gentoo-provided bootsplash patches (say if I wanted to patch against gentoo-dev-sources).

Trying to patch a new bootsplash patch over an old one will give you lots of failed hunks and even more headaches as you will have to patch them all by hand. What you can do instead is remove the old patch and apply the new one:

Code: Select all

# cd /usr/src/linux
# cp /usr/portage/distfiles/genpatches-2.6-7.39-extras.tar.bz2 .
# tar xjf genpatches-2.6-7.39-extras.tar.bz2
# patch -p1 -R < genpatches-2.6-7.39/4505_bootsplash-3.1.4-2.6.7.patch
# wget http://www.bootsplash.de/files/bootsplash-3.1.4-sp2-2.6.7.diff
# patch -p1 < bootsplash-3.1.4-sp2-2.6.7.diff

Just get the patch from your gentoo-dev-sources, remove it using patch -R option and apply the new one.

2. Will screwy laptop resolutions like 1280x854 work all right?

I'm not sure about this one. I don't see why they shouldn't work, but in order for images to not get stretched you will most likely have to make your own bootsplash jpg that fits your resolution.

Good luck,
Disk

[DiskBreaker]

just confirming that this indeed works i'm enjoying a radeonfb console of 1024x768-32 with a nice bootsplash theme on my G4 with radeon 9000 now

Yeah, I had been waiting for this so long now myself...

oh, and you don't need to do that rc-update stuff... it will get loaded by the kernel anyway...

Yes, but it is useful if you want to have your bootsplash start on all your ttys. It also allows you to change the bootsplash font and to write your own text messages to be displayed on startup. Configuration is in /etc/conf.d/bootsplash.

Awesome! You've just become my favorite person of the week! I'll give this a try tomorrow or sometime during the weekend if I have time.

I'm happy to hear that

[Pylon]

Yes, it works!

Many thanks especially to our dev Spock, who did the hack that bootsplash becomes independent from vesa-framebuffer! Since today he released the new bootsplash-ebuild ~ppc masked, so you don't need all the patches written by DiskBreaker (nevertheless, good work). The last thing needed to be changed is the gentoo-dev-sources, so that they include the recent bootsplash-patch. That means, currently the bootsplash_path utility works only on development-sources (the vanilla 2.6 kernel).

[silian87]

I do a 1280x854 conf file for Emergance bootsplash:

(First you have to resize with gimp 1280x1024 images to 1280x854)

http://www.bootsplash.de/files/themes/T ... ce.tar.bz2


The config is this:

Code: Select all

#Custom config for 1280x854 Emergance Bootsplash

# config file version
version=3

# should the picture be displayed?
state=1

# fgcolor is the text forground color.
# bgcolor is the text background (i.e. transparent) color.
fgcolor=7
bgcolor=0

# (tx, ty) are the (x, y) coordinates of the text window in pixels.
# tw/th is the width/height of the text window in pixels.
tx=25
ty=27
tw=1230
th=721

# ttf message output parameters
text_x=256
text_y=604
text_size=26
text_color=0xeef4ff

# name of the picture file (full path recommended)
jpeg=/etc/bootsplash/themes/Emergance/images/bootsplash-1280x854.jpg
silentjpeg=/etc/bootsplash/themes/Emergance/images/silent-1280x854.jpg

progress_enable=1

# background
box silent noover  256  647 1024 680 #00000098
box silent inter   256  647 256  679 #ffffff #ffffff #526bb0 #526bb0
box silent         256  647 1024 679 #ffffff #ffffff #526bb0 #526bb0
# black border
box silent         256  647 1024 647 #313234
box silent         256  680 1024 680 #eef4ff
box silent         256  647 256  680 #313234
box silent         1024 647 1024 680 #eef4ff

# text box (left, top)
box     19 21  19 755 #313234
box     19 21 1261 21 #313234
# (right, bottom)
box     1261 21 1261 755 #eef4ff
box     19 755 1261 755 #eef4ff

# box itself
box noover 20 22 1260 754 #00000098

overpaintok=1

I did a lot of math calc like this:

768:612=854:X

I think is possible to make a tool to do this, because bootsplash_resize Scale only and create images 1130x854 (i dont remeber exacty the X). So he scale only.

[beowulf25]

Worked great on my 12in G3 iBook following the instructions above.

Emerged latest dev sources, patched them, copied my .config over, added necessary drivers, compiled/configured/installed everything, and rebooted. Hardest part was waiting for the development-sources download to finish.

I did not add bootsplash using rc-update, per CaribbeanKnight.

[silian87]

Here you can find the bootsplash config for 1280x854 gentoo-higthquality theme. You have to resize with gimp-2.0 from Tools-->Scale your 2 images in /etc/bootsplash/gentoo-hightquality/images/. The best is resize a 1280x1024 to 1280x854 and non a 1024x768 to a 1280x854 .

Here there is the config:

Code: Select all

#1280x854 bootsplash config made by silian87@gechi.it

# config file version
version=3

# should the picture be displayed?
state=1

# fgcolor is the text forground color.
# bgcolor is the text background (i.e. transparent) color.
fgcolor=7
bgcolor=0

# (tx, ty) are the (x, y) coordinates of the text window in pixels.
# tw/th is the width/height of the text window in pixels.
tx=25
ty=21
tw=1230
th=730

# ttf message output parameters
text_x=256
text_y=607
text_size=36
text_color=0xeef4ff

# name of the picture file (full path recommended)
jpeg=/etc/bootsplash/gentoo-highquality/images/bootsplash-1280x854.jpg
silentjpeg=/etc/bootsplash/gentoo-highquality/images/silent-1280x854.jpg

progress_enable=1

# background        X   Y    X   Y
box silent noover  256 647 1024 681 #04045498
box silent inter   256 648 256  680 #ffffff #ffffff #526bb0 #526bb0
box silent         256 648 1024 680 #ffffff #ffffff #526bb0 #526bb0
# black border
box silent         256  647 1024 647 #313234
box silent         256  681 1024 681 #eef4ff
box silent         256  647 256  681 #313234
box silent         1024 647 1024 681 #eef4ff

# text box (left, top)
box     19 16 19 751 #313234
box     19 16 1261 16 #313234
# (right, bottom)
box     1261 16 1261 751 #eef4ff
box     19 751 1261 751 #eef4ff

# box itself
box noover 20 17 1260 750 #04045498

overpaintok=1

After do splash -s -f /etc/bootsplash/gentoo-hightquality/config/boosplash-1280x854 >> /boot/initrd-gentoo-1280x854

Remember to put the new initrd name in your yaboot.conf and do ybin -v.

[slick0]

Does this not work for NVidia chipsets or am I just slow? I followed the instructions as written, but bootup looks no different besides the fact that tux is no longer there.

-Jared

[SeJo]

jared,

please check your dmesg. it might be that you find "no valid signature" for bootloader messages. If so try to install a different theme.


greetings

[slick0]

This is the error in dmesg:

bootsplash 3.1.4-2004/02/19-spock-0.1: looking for picture....<6>bootsplash: error while decompressing picture: depth mismatch (15)

I'll try another theme.

-Jared

[beat84]

I have a problem with "menuconfig"...
...when I select Bootsplash configuration, he doesn't work.
How I enable this?

ThanX
-----------------------
English is not good ---> I'm Italian eh eh eh

[DiskBreaker]

I have a problem with "menuconfig"...
...when I select Bootsplash configuration, he doesn't work.

Are you using the latest patch? I think one of the older patches had that problem... Otherwise just edit your .config in /usr/src/linux and change the bootsplash line to:

Code: Select all

CONFIG_BOOTSPLASH=y

hth,
disk

[Aphex3K]

I have a problem with "menuconfig"...
...when I select Bootsplash configuration, he doesn't work.
How I enable this?

ThanX
-----------------------
English is not good ---> I'm Italian eh eh eh

I have the same problem. I Just emerged with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS and i can't enable the last option mention for the kernel.

There is no line CONFIG_BOOTSPLASH in my .config so i just add it and see what happens... will post results afterwards

[Aphex3K]

K, i added the line but it is deleted as soon as i run make... What's up there?

[DiskBreaker]

K, i added the line but it is deleted as soon as i run make... What's up there?

Are you sure you have enabled:

Code: Select all

Device Drivers  --->
    Graphics support  --->
        Console display driver support  --->
            <*> Framebuffer Console support

Otherwise the Kernel configurator won't let you open the Bootsplash menu.

hth,
disk

[beat84]

I have already patched, I have try to set CONFIG_BOOTSPLASH=y in .config file but it doesn't work.

[dams]

I have already patched, I have try to set CONFIG_BOOTSPLASH=y in .config file but it doesn't work.

I had this problem too, I looked at the Kconfig files in drivers/video/bootsplash... and the stuff required X86. I tried to remove the dependencies on this, and the options appeared, but the kernel compilation failed.

So I emerged 2.6.7 and applied the patch. The options are there, the kernel compiles, and bootsplash works.

[nikai]

I just tried bootsplash for the first time, and it's working nicely with 2.6.7.

Well, it didn't work for me at first try, because I messed up yaboot.conf.
But there's a nice yaboot.conf.example coming with bootsplash, which was useful.

[heavyt]

Can't seem to get bootsplash to work. I am using kernel 2.6.7-r9. dmesg message says "bootsplash 3.1.4-2004/02/19-spock-0.1: looking for picture...... no good signature found". I feel I am not setting up the bootsplash theme right. Is it still required to download themes if I emerge bootsplash, because in the emerge message it seems that it is installed in /usr/share/bootsplash.

Code: Select all

* Execute `bootsplash_patch` to have your kernel sources in
 * /usr/src/linux patched with the Framebuffer Bootsplash patches.
 * 
 * You can also use:
 *     bootsplash_patch /path/to/your/custom/kernel/
 * to patch your custom kernel sources.

 * If you have already patched the kernel then you only need to copy
 * an initrd from /usr/share/bootsplash to /boot

 * Run:
 *     rc-update add bootsplash default
 * to change the console images after startup

 * If you want to automatically generate configs for a new resolution
 * you can use the `bootsplash_resize` script. More info:
 *     bootsplash_resize -h

I also tried step 5 & 6 (but maybe somewhere I made an error).
Have a TiBook 15.2

[timothy.weiand]

I am aslo getting this 2.6.7-r9 error:

Code: Select all

bootsplash 3.1.4-2004/02/19-spock-0.1: looking for picture.... no good signature found

I am running a 15.2" PowerBookG4.

Any thoughts anybody?

[woolsherpahat]

Has anyone gotten this work with the 2.6.7-r9 gentoo-development kernel yet?

Code: Select all

bash-2.05b# patch -p1 -R < genpatches-2.6-7.38/4505_bootsplash-3.1.4-2.6.7.patch 
patching file drivers/char/keyboard.c
Hunk #1 succeeded at 1076 (offset 17 lines).
patching file drivers/char/n_tty.c
patching file drivers/char/vt.c
Hunk #1 succeeded at 782 (offset 5 lines).
Hunk #2 succeeded at 3193 (offset 14 lines).
patching file drivers/video/bootsplash/bootsplash.c
Unreversed patch detected!  Ignore -R? [n] 

[Hydraulix]

This is great!!!!!!!




O man today is a great day. Funny thing is, my girlfriend wants a Linux box now.




The Gentoo Hornet rocks!