From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 27 21:28:39 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9899F16A41F for ; Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:28:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from ezekiel.daleco.biz (southernuniform.com [66.76.92.18]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2611443D48 for ; Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:28:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from [192.168.2.2] ([69.27.149.254]) by ezekiel.daleco.biz (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j8RLSOaA099885; Tue, 27 Sep 2005 16:28:34 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Message-ID: <4339B972.1070307@daleco.biz> Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 16:28:18 -0500 From: Kevin Kinsey User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.11) Gecko/20050923 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mike Jeays References: <200509271005.59838.kirk@strauser.com> <4339669E.1020306@daleco.biz> <1127852545.655.18.camel@chaucer.jeays.ca> In-Reply-To: <1127852545.655.18.camel@chaucer.jeays.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Bye-bye beastie ... X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 21:28:39 -0000 Mike Jeays wrote: > >As well as turning off the beastie, is there a way to suppress all the >dmesg and other output, so that the first thing to appear is the KDM or >GDM login screen? When I show FreeBSD to people who have only seen >Windows before, their first reaction is how geeky all that text looks as >it rolls by. They are turned off before I even get to the login >screen. Most current Linuxes are 'better' in this respect. > >I realise it may make it harder to debug failed startups... > > We use a "splash" screen --- I forget where it's documented in the handbook/FAQ, but splash(4) has most of the 'GUI' details (pun intended). Basically, as root: $ echo splash_bmp_load="YES" >> /boot/loader.conf $ echo bitmap_name="/boot/splash.bmp" >> /boot/loader.conf This should cause "splash_bmp.ko" to be kldloaded at boot time. The bitmap should be 320 x 200 x 8 colors (at least that's what works for us - probably related to console settings). We use it as an opportunity to show the company logo. It comes up after the "beastie menu" and the copyright info (and a couple of error looking notices ... we're on 6.0-BETA5 in the office now, dunno if it's related ;-), basically, during the kernel device probe. It will stay on as long as a key isn't pressed. xdm "takes over" after the boot process (I assume gdm/kdm would, too) and so this is less "geeky" stuff to look at, I guess. It can be a little confusing if you don't run an X based display manager --- it'll stay on and cover up the login: prompt on ttyv0, so a novice might well wonder "how long is this going to take" while your box sits patiently waiting for a login. Note that this splash/bitmap also acts as a "screensaver" when you're in console, AFAICT. HTH, Kevin Kinsey