Can I have a background image on my tty1-tty6 console/terminal screens and on startup? If so, how? Does it require a kernel patch?

Surfing the web I find a lot of outdated things but it looks like it can be done or could be done back with kernel 2.6.x... Ubuntu has a startup/shutdown image with 12.x and Gentoo (used too at least) have a background image on the tty's.

I'm running a pretty fresh install of Slackware64 14 with ATI Radeon graphics or generic VESA is available.

(Even searching LinuxQuestions I've only found the older methods.)

Any advice is appreciated.

If you like Gentoo's kernel features, you can apply their genpatches (http://dev.gentoo.org/~mpagano/genpatches/about.htm) to your vanilla kernel and recompile it. The patched kernel will work on Slackware, too.

Thanks, This is a good start =D

I'll begin hacking on Gentoo for how they do it.