From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 12 16:30:35 2003 Return-Path: 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 3F9B437B407 for ; Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:30:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from webserver.get-linux.org (adsl-64-161-78-226.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net [64.161.78.226]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 481D843FAF for ; Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:30:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from oremanj@webserver.get-linux.org) Received: (qmail 14537 invoked by uid 1000); 12 Aug 2003 23:30:54 -0000 Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:30:54 -0700 From: Joshua Oreman To: Claire Q'vant Message-ID: <20030812233054.GA14527@webserver> References: <20030812225329.41723.qmail@web21507.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030812225329.41723.qmail@web21507.mail.yahoo.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 23:30:35 -0000 On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 11:53:29PM +0100 or thereabouts, Claire Q'vant wrote: > We're going to have a booth at a trade show in a few > months, and we'd like to have a few machines running > FreeBSD for people to play with. > > But, as a crowd puller, it'd be nice to have a > graphical bootup sequence. > > I know it's not the 'done thing' for a server OS, but > for a workstation OS, it's a very nice touch. > > Does anyone know of any code to do it? > Any projects already started? > > I'm aware it'll have to be a kernel module, as it's > the only thing running at that stage. > > I don't know if VGL and VESA will do it - it handles > the 'splash' modules ok, but this module would require > sysctl's to tell the module to display the next icon, > e.g. > Starting Network (greyed out icon) > Network Started ok (Coloured icon) > Network Start Failed (Coloured with cross through it) > > Has anyone seen anything like this? > Is anyone keen? Yep, I have, twice, on Linux. :-( 1) The Linux bootsplash project (www.bootsplash.org IIRC) can do like FBSD ``splash'' module but with a progress bar. Also gives VCs a background pic. 2) Mandrake Linux does something a LOT like this. It doesn't cover up the kernel messages as it's not a kernel module; it starts as soon as the root fs is mounted. Basically, it involves starting up a minimal X server. Yes, on Linux X can run on the framebuffer (SC_PIXEL_MODE). Not sure whether it can on FBSD too. Then a custom X program was run to do exactly what you're talking about. You may be able to use a combination of splash.ko and a custom X program to do what you want. -- Josh > > Claire > > ________________________________________________________________________ > Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! > Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"