The Gentoo Framebuffer, Bootsplash & Grubsplash How-To

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Mustard007 · Post by **Mustard007** » Sat May 03, 2003 12:28 am

Very great !!!

This howto have to be in Gentoo doc !
You make me happy man !!

Thanks !

tecknojunky · Post by **tecknojunky** » Sun May 04, 2003 5:33 am

worked at first attempt. simply a grest howto.

1280x1024 on a el cheapo S3 Trio3d/2x with 8MB

thanks

moixa · Post by **moixa** » Mon May 05, 2003 7:25 pm

I'm running framebuffer 1600x1200 (vga=838) on my Dell Inspiron 8200 with Nvidia GeForce4 440 go, xfs-source 2.4.20-r3 (already including the patches).

Made a nice (hope so

) config and some images.

Attached it to bug 20497.

IcedTerror · Post by **IcedTerror** » Tue May 06, 2003 8:31 am

http://www.gentoophreak.distanthost.com/Intro.html

These are my screenshots

Just Thought everyone would like to check them out

IT

Cossins · Post by **Cossins** » Tue May 06, 2003 3:24 pm

Just thought that I'd post what problems I had to deal with to make this work:

- First of all, the command splash -s -n /path/to/cfg/file > /boot/initrd doesn't work for me - I have to use this:

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/sbin/splash -s -f /path/to/cfg/file > /boot/initrd

- Then, every time you change images, remember to change /etc/conf.d/bootsplash.conf too, or it will switch back to the previous image some time on boot.

- If you intend to play video on the framebuffer, the following command works for me (with mplayer):

Code: Select all

mplayer -vo svga:/dev/fb/0 movie.mpeg

Hope it helped out some poor souls...

- Simon

BonezTheGoon · Post by **BonezTheGoon** » Tue May 06, 2003 3:58 pm

This is a great thread (obvious by all the action it is getting) but it has become far to large to be easily digested and used. Also given the Documentation, Tips & Tricks forum is only supposed to contain Documentation, Tips & Tricks without support related content I am locking this thread temporarily while I attempt to split out the support content into a new thread. Once I have split out the support related questions into the new thread any new support related issues should be posted into the support related thread, any support related issues or questions posted into this thread will be split out into a new thread that will go into the duplicate threads forum.

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

BonezTheGoon · Post by **BonezTheGoon** » Tue May 06, 2003 4:38 pm

The new thread for support related content has been created. Please post support related content there and feel free to continue to post new Documentation, Tips & Tricks content here in this thread.

Gentoo Framebuffer, Bootsplash & Grubsplash - SUPPORT

I am unlocking this thread now that the split is completed.

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

magnet · Post by **magnet** » Thu May 08, 2003 5:51 pm

thanks again for this GREAT howto.

magnet · Post by **magnet** » Fri May 09, 2003 9:58 am

ok I got it working

here is my screen shot : http://www.suidzer0.org/magnet/hamster.png

paranode · Post by **paranode** » Fri May 09, 2003 4:15 pm

I also posted this in the support thread for this item.

After a little simple digging here: http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php

One can make their own custom syslinux bootdisk with the frambuffer console. The guide can be followed, changing these things:

Get your syslinux bootdisk, mount it at /mnt/floppy.

Instead of this:

Code: Select all

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

Do this:

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/sbin/splash -s -f /etc/bootsplash/default/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg > /mnt/floppy/splash

Then create syslinux.cfg in /mnt/floppy with this line:

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DEFAULT linux root=/dev/hda6 video=vesa:1024x768,ywrap,mtrr vga=0x317 initrd=splash

Of course that's just a variation of these lines from the grub example:

Code: Select all

kernel=(hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3 video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x31A 
initrd=/boot/initrd-1280x1024

This is especially handy if you like framebuffer and want to use syslinux in some sort of dual boot environment where you can't or don't want to install grub or lilo.

Hope that's informative!

acid_kewpie · Post by **acid_kewpie** » Sat May 10, 2003 4:03 pm

The original post asks to post about using mplayer on framebuffer, personally i found the best method is to use somethign such as

mplayer file-avi -vop scale=1024:-2 -vo fbdev

obviously changing 1024 for you screen width. According to their documentation you should be able to change the framebuffer mode automatically with -vm but i couldn't get any software to change the framebuffer mode... so that's probably my fault...

hope this is useful

my bootsplash setup worked fine first time, besides a short sighted use of

initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20

rather than the correct

initrd=(hd0,1)/initrd-2.4.20

due to a separate /boot...

Narada · Post by **Narada** » Sat May 10, 2003 10:58 pm

Hi folks. Please don't be concerned by forum etiquette. The moderator will take care of posts that are duplicate or in the wrong place. As far as getting multimedia using mplayer under framebuffer goes it is quite a moody and problematic feature to get working. My machines have been quite unlucky with getting any video going under fb although I've had audio. My advice is don't expect flawless picture quality and playback just yet and you won't be disappointed. The best sources of mplayer help at this time that I can think of are the mplayer documentation post and another post on this thread specifically about mplayer on fb. Have a look and I shall research this topic a more when I have time. Good luck and please post findings!

Helena · Post by **Helena** » Mon May 12, 2003 5:21 pm

Tip: The VESA framebuffer routine has an error which makes it useless on machines with 1 GB of more RAM. Fortunately a source patch is available as was pointed out by Niko_K and Narada. The patch is described in http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19061. After replacing a certain code line in vesafb.c (to be found in /usr/src/linux/video/drivers/) and recompiling the kernel the error will be gone.

Khan · Post by **Khan** » Tue May 27, 2003 4:28 am

That's right, nothing like a little VM action.

Here's my screenshot:

http://www.wislug.net/vmgentoo-fb+splash.png

Thank you for a truly outstanding HOW-TO. This really should be posted in the Documentation area in the "System Configuration" section. This is too cool a feature to have buried in a forum.

"Freedom of choice, is what you have...freedom from choice, is what you want" -Devo

BonezTheGoon · Post by **BonezTheGoon** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:38 pm

Due to the HUGE amount of people who still continue to post support related questions into this thread instead of the thread they should be I feel inclined to moddify the original post in this thread to reflect that support related questions go into the other thread. Apparently no one reads my post in this thread found here. I have split out (yet again) the support related content from this thread, anyone wanting support please post in one of the pre-existing support related threads for these issues.

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

Narada · Post by **Narada** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:46 pm

BonezTheGoon wrote:Due to the HUGE amount of people who still continue to post support related questions into this thread instead of the thread they should be I feel inclined to moddify the original post in this thread to reflect that support related questions go into the other thread.

BonezTheGoon. The original post already states very clearly in at least two places the splitting of the threads and even mentions how to decide which to post in. I'm not sure why the posts continue to appear in the wrong place. I can make the message in the original post a little more colourful if you like.

BonezTheGoon · Post by **BonezTheGoon** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:24 pm

Narada wrote:I can make the message in the original post a little more colourful if you like.

Well it's your thread here (and I love it) so do whatever you think is best. I guess I got a little flustered earlier today. I've cooled down a bit and realize that some times people just gloss over some details. I'll just continue to do my best with cleaning out the support related content into the Duplicates Forum and then direct those people specifically to the correct threads. I guess if the first post was edited to be HIGHLY specific about where to post it might even be offensive to readers who know better (but are also easily offended too I guess.) You really just can't win for losing. Anyway enough of my babble this is almost as bad as asking for support here!

Thanks again Narada for a great Tip (meaning this whole thread!)

Regards,
BonezThe(CrankyForToday)Goon

ziekke · Post by **ziekke** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 9:42 am

Originally after following the howto I was unable to boot with the splash enabled.

When booting I would get either an error message stating that "file not found" in regards to the initrd line. Either that or "Inconsistent Filesystem Type"

I am using ext2 for /boot and reiserfs for / so I believe this is what is causing the problem.

If you have / and /boot separated by different partitions, and/or different filesystem types then you will likely have seen this error.

My solution:

Rather than a grub.conf entry looking like:

Code: Select all

title=Gentoo GNU/Linux 1.4 (+fb +splash) 
root=(hd0,0) 
kernel=(hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3 video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x31A 
initrd=/boot/initrd-1280x1024

I made mine look like:

Code: Select all

title=Gentoo Linux (+fb +splash)
root (hd0,2)
kernel (hd0,0)/kernel root=/dev/hda3 video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x31A
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd-1280x1024

/dev/hda1 = (hd0,0) = /boot
/dev/hda3 = (hd0,3) = /

Hope this helps some people

Fryguy · Post by **Fryguy** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 5:32 am

Has anybody tried to replace their browser by getting links working in this situation with graphics support so that pages are rendered basically like in mozilla and other gui browsers?

mplayer would work, links would work, whatever irc client, vim, gpm, random mp3 player, nAIM (ncurses aim), mutt and you have a complete desktop w/o X

Bangz · Post by **Bangz** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 2:52 pm

Hey guys, has there been any updates on this, giving us the ability to specifiy a particular refresh rate?

1280x1024 @ 60Hz isn't exactly eye pleasing. I would love to run it at 85Hz instead

mojo · Post by **mojo** » Fri Jun 06, 2003 3:16 pm

ok i think everybody already know this page:

http://www.aichler.net/gentoo/bootsplas ... shots.html

you can download the newest bootsplash-progressbar patch and too bootsplash-animations.

to play this animations at boottime you need fbmngplay. this little tool you can download here:

http://www.bootsplash.org/user.html

it is too part of the libmng package and the bootsplash package include this too.

But when you try to compile fbmngplay you get an error because libmng won't build the libmng-mini.a. and too i have no idea why.

But you can modify the Makefile a little and fbmngplay will work

in the fbmngplay directory you have to edit the Makefile with your favorite editor.

Then you have to replace this line:

Code: Select all

LIBSS    = $(LIBDIR)/libmng-mini.a $(LIBDIR)/libz.a -lm

to

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	LIBSS    = $(LIBDIR)/libmng.a $(LIBDIR)/libjpeg.a $(LIBDIR)/libz.a -lm

and do a make. then you have to copy fbmngplay to /bin

puggy · Post by **puggy** » Sat Jun 07, 2003 4:29 pm

mikki wrote:Hey, now I have really nice ttys! (pseudo-ttys?)

hehe.

Works on my ac-sources nicely.

thebiMbo · Post by **thebiMbo** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 2:06 pm

Thanks for the great post. I was searching exactly these infos, as a new linux user this community keeps me interested in this technology.

Kudos to you

Narada · Post by **Narada** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 11:16 am

Fryguy wrote:Has anybody tried to replace their browser by getting links working in this situation with graphics support so that pages are rendered basically like in mozilla?

The trivia section on graphical browser links has been updated at the bottom of the original post. Try it and see what works best for you.

dylix · Post by **dylix** » Mon Jun 16, 2003 12:37 am

just thought i would share this works with 2.4.21 vanilla.

The Gentoo Framebuffer, Bootsplash & Grubsplash How-To

bootsplashing at 1600x1200

Framebuffer and 1 GB of RAM or more

VMWare+Gentoo+FB+Splash

Strange...

great post