SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Well, I do not know if all knew, but the BusyBox version used by Slackware 13.X for initrd, has an "application" called /sbin/fbsplash, which displays an image and a progress bar, of course, in the console framebuffer.
An excerpt from the BusyBox code:
Quote:
Usage:
- use kernel option 'vga=xxx' or otherwise enable framebuffer device.
- put somewhere fbsplash.cfg file and an image in .ppm format.
- run applet: $ setsid fbsplash [params] &
-c: hide cursor
-d /dev/fbN: framebuffer device (if not /dev/fb0)
-s path_to_image_file (can be "-" for stdin)
-i path_to_cfg_file
-f path_to_fifo (can be "-" for stdin)
- if you want to run it only in presence of a kernel parameter
(for example fbsplash=on), use:
grep -q "fbsplash=on" </proc/cmdline && setsid fbsplash [params]
- commands for fifo:
"NN" (ASCII decimal number) - percentage to show on progress bar.
"exit" (or just close fifo) - well you guessed it.
So, theoretically, we could, only properly modifying the boot scripts, to have a graphical boot on Slackware.
Ideas? Is someone interested?
Click here to see the post LQ members have rated as the most helpful post in this thread.
So, /sbin/fbsplash is (obviously), part of initrd's (in fact a symlink to /bin/busybox) ...Modifying corresponding the init script in initrd, we can launch the /sbin/fbsplash execution.
Now, to have a system graphical boot progress to end, we are to have the controlling pipe in an accessible position after initrd ends its operation.
I noticed that /proc filesystem is mounted by initrd and moved to real root after initrd ends its operation...
So if we use as the pipe /proc/fbsplash, it will be accessible at all times, until we launch the X session.
Also, it seems very simple control of fbsplash ...
Simply, to change the splash progress, should add to scripts a command something like:
Are you working on a proof of concept? If you get it working you could send an email to PV and it might get accepted. Me I like to see all those pretty line of text go by.
A boot splash will never be part of Slackware's startup sequence. The LILO bitmap was probably as far as it will ever go with regard to boot customization.
Distribution: Started with Slackware - 3.0 1995 Kernel 1.2.13 - Now Slackware Current. Also some FreeBSD.
Posts: 124
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alien Bob
A boot splash will never be part of Slackware's startup sequence. The LILO bitmap was probably as far as it will ever go with regard to boot customization. Eric
And thank God for it! I guess I do not see the point of tacking on a graphical boot just to hide the text scrolling by, but then I see no point in booting straight into X when it takes no effort to type "startx".
For me it lets me know everything has come up clean and is ready to go, with a gui hiding everything you are in the dark, something I hate about Windows.
Also, I guess I used DOS and Windows 3.1 for to long and got used to typing "win" after the DOS text boot screens went by... :-)
Shylock did a pretty good job of setting one up. I haven't really had the time to mess with it, though I'd really like to have it on my laptop just for funzies.
A boot splash will never be part of Slackware's startup sequence. The LILO bitmap was probably as far as it will ever go with regard to boot customization.
Eric
Praise Bob for that! I really appreciate being able to read all of the text going by, as I then have an idea as to the health of my system. I always boot into run level 3 on my stations.
I hardly ever reboot these days. Hibernation works fine for me and I get get a tux logo then blank screen followed by straight into X, or whichever state I left it last.
It probably would be fun to play with boot splash though.
I'm switching to VGA=NORMAL. I boot straight into X, and my framebuffer drivers don't support my monitor's native resolution, so I might as well just turn the framebuffer off and enjoy the resulting faster boot.
A boot splash will never be part of Slackware's startup sequence. The LILO bitmap was probably as far as it will ever go with regard to boot customization.
Well, as Alien Bob is a developer for Slackware who works closely with PV he would know. A graphical splash screen isn't really the slackware way of things.
And thank God for it! I guess I do not see the point of tacking on a graphical boot just to hide the text scrolling by, but then I see no point in booting straight into X when it takes no effort to type "startx".
For me it lets me know everything has come up clean and is ready to go, with a gui hiding everything you are in the dark, something I hate about Windows.
Also, I guess I used DOS and Windows 3.1 for to long and got used to typing "win" after the DOS text boot screens went by... :-)
Anyway... to each his own....
A graphical boot is nice for me, just a matter of taste, I guess.
I share the opinion of being notified if something is wrong, but what if everything is OK, as it should be 99% of the times?
Think about this: a system boots in a graphical mode when everything is normal, but detects errors and throws the user to the text mode if something goes wrong.
If everything is OK you should not need to read all the output, right? And if I'm just casually starting my desktop system (as oposed to restarting a server to troubleshoot it or something) and some non-fatal error occurs, I will probably miss that error notification anyway as I won't be checking the text all the time. At least other distros do a nice OK/FAILED thingy in red/green depending on the case.
What if we had a file in where all boot errors were logged and then as part of the login some daemon reads it and says "X failed to start because of Y" or alike. A fatal error will stop the boot process, and a non-fatal error would appear in your user login, making it very hard to miss :-)
And regarding the "loading image" text when resuming after hibernate: if all the screen does is show the percentage, why can't we have a nice image with a progress bar or something?
So, why not? don't make it enabled by default, and give me a choice of disabling it on each boot (sort of like the 'quiet' kernel option, or the runlevel I want to start in) so if something is wrong I can reboot to see how everything goes. I'm not saying Slackware must do what others do, I just say it's nice to tinker with this kind of stuff. After all, Slackware is about having a barebones system and customize it, right?
Well, as Alien Bob is a developer for Slackware who works closely with PV he would know. A graphical splash screen isn't really the slackware way of things.
Well, we don't known how will think The Great P in Anno Domini 2020... Even He don't known.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.