Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 02:00:10 +0000 From: Danny Pansters <danny@ricin.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Bye-bye beastie ... Message-ID: <200509280200.10933.danny@ricin.com> In-Reply-To: <4339B972.1070307@daleco.biz> References: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNEEHHFCAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> <1127852545.655.18.camel@chaucer.jeays.ca> <4339B972.1070307@daleco.biz>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tuesday 27 September 2005 21:28, Kevin Kinsey wrote: > 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 This is quite nice to hide all that "code" for normal? people, DesktopBSD uses it also, and likely PCBSD also. I've played with it now and then. For the non-fundamentalists: I'm sure you know that sunset image where you see Beastie sitting on a rock, it makes a nice splash. But I think what may be a problem is that the normal? people don't see any "progress" or rather movement then. Which may lead them to think that the system is stalled. It's my understanding that something like a "progress" bar like WinXP has (it doesn't need to show progress, just that something's going on behind the splash) would be very hard if not impossible to add. But perhaps it is or can be made possible to have a gif or a bitmap in which a partial clipping changes every second or so (some left-to-right-and-back moving thingie). Dan
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200509280200.10933.danny>