TITLE:		Installing a bootsplash screen with progress bar
LFS VERSION:	3.3
AUTHOR:	        Bryan Gale <bryan@2dz.co.uk>

SYNOPSIS:
	How to hide kernel messages behind a splash screen and use a progress bar

HINT:

Required packages
-----------------

The SuSE bootsplash kernel patch (patch for 2.4.20 kernel also available)
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/stepan...8-vanilla.diff

The splashutils package
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/stepan...hutils.tar.bz2

A sample bootsplash theme
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/stepan...-Linux.tar.bz2

I shall presume these have been downloaded to /tmp


Patching the kernel
-------------------

Change to the directory containing your kernel sources and apply the patch:

	cd /usr/src/linux
	patch -p1 < /tmp/bootsplash-3.0.7-2.4.18-vanilla.diff

Configure the kernel

	make menuconfig

And select the following options

	Code maturity level options  --->
		Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
	Block devices  ---> RAM disk support
	Block devices  ---> Initial RAM disk (initrd) support
	Console drivers  ---> Video mode selection support
	Console drivers  ---> Frame-buffer support --->
		Support for frame buffer devices
		VESA VGA graphics console
		Use splash screen instead of boot logo

Each of these must be compiled into the kernel, not selected as modules

Now compile and install your kernel

	make dep &&
	make bzImage &&
	make modules &&
	make modules_install &&
	cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/lfskernel


Installing user space utilities
-------------------------------

Unpack splashutils.tar.bz2, compile and copy the splash utility to /bin

	cd /tmp &&
	tar xvjf splashutils.tar.bz2 &&
	cd splashutils &&
	make &&
	cp ./splash /bin

Create a direcory for your bootsplash themes and unpack the provided theme into
it

	mkdir -p /etc/bootsplash/themes &&
	cd /etc/bootsplash/themes &&
	cp /tmp/Theme-Linux.tar.bz2 ./ &&
	tar xvjf Theme-Linux.tar.bz2

Now you can create a ram disk image from the theme that will be used when the
kernel boots

	splash -s -f /etc/bootsplash/themes/Linux/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg > \
	/boot/initrd


Updating Lilo
-------------

Add the following lines to /etc/lilo.conf under your kernel
entry:

	vga=791
	initrd=/boot/initrd

The vga line is required so the resolution on boot matches the size of your boot
image

If you want all kernel messags to be hidden, rather than printed on top of your
splash screen, add the following also

	append="splash=silent"

Now run Lilo and reboot your computer

	lilo &&
	shutdown -r now

When your computer restart you shoud have a pretty splash screen


Using the progress bar
----------------------

If you selected to hide the kernel messages, you will see a progress bar. To
use this, you will need to make some changes to your startup scripts. Change to
the directory containing the scripts for the runlevel you start your computer
at:

	cd /etc/rc.d/rc5.d

Changing 5 to whatever runlevel you use. Edit these scripts, and wherever you
see:

	loadproc somecommand

Place the following line before it:

	echo "show XXXXX" > /proc/splash

Repalce XXXXX with how far allow the boot process is when somecommand is run,
out of 65534. It will take some trial and error to get a smooth progress bar


Using a different theme
-----------------------

Addtional themes can be found at http://www.bootsplash.org
To use a new theme, untar it somewhare and run

	splash -s -f [THEME CONFIG FILE] > /boot/initrd &&
	lilo

The theme configuration file is typically found in config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg


Sources
-------

http://www.bootsplash.org
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=26494