SPLASH(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual SPLASH(4)
NAME
splash - splash screen / screen saver interface
SYNOPSIS
device splash
DESCRIPTION
The splash pseudo device driver adds support for the splash screen and
screen savers to the kernel. This driver is required if the splash
bitmap image is to be loaded or any screen saver is to be used.
Splash screen
You can load and display an arbitrary bitmap image file as a welcome
banner on the screen when the system is about to start. This image will
remain on the screen during kernel initialization process until the login
prompt appears on the screen or until a screen saver is loaded and
initialized. The image will also disappear if you hit any key, although
this may not work immediately if the kernel is still probing devices.
If you specify the -c or -v boot option when loading the kernel, the
splash image will not appear. However, it is still loaded and can be
used as a screen saver later: see below.
In order to display the bitmap, the bitmap file itself and the matching
splash image decoder module must be loaded by the boot loader. Currently
the following decoder modules are available:
splash_bmp.ko Windows BMP file decoder. While the BMP file format
allows images of various color depths, this decoder
currently only handles 256 color bitmaps. Bitmaps of
other color depths will not be displayed.
splash_pcx.ko ZSoft PCX decoder. This decoder currently only supports
version 5 8-bpp single-plane images.
splash_txt.ko TheDraw binary ASCII drawing file decoder. Displays a
text-mode 80x25 ASCII drawing, such as that produced by
the Binary save format in TheDraw. This format consists
of a sequence of two byte pairs representing the 80x25
display, where the first byte is the ASCII character to
draw and the second byte indicates the colors/attributes
to use when drawing the character.
The EXAMPLES section illustrates how to set up the splash screen.
If the standard VGA video mode is used, the size of the bitmap must be
320x200 or less. If you enable the VESA mode support in the kernel,
either by statically linking the VESA module or by loading the VESA
module (see vga(4)), you can load bitmaps up to a resolution of 1024x768,
depending on the VESA BIOS and the amount of video memory on the video
card.
Screen saver
The screen saver will activate when the system is considered idle: i.e.
when the user has not typed a key or moved the mouse for a specified
period of time. As the screen saver is an optional module, it must be
explicitly loaded into memory. Currently the following screen saver
modules are available:
blank_saver.ko This screen saver simply blanks the screen.
beastie_saver.ko Animated graphical BSD Daemon.
daemon_saver.ko Animated BSD Daemon screen saver.
dragon_saver.ko Draws a random dragon curve.
fade_saver.ko The screen will gradually fade away.
fire_saver.ko A fire which becomes higher as load increases.
green_saver.ko The screen will be blanked, similar to blank_saver.ko.
If the monitor and the video card's BIOS support it the
screen will also be powered off.
logo_saver.ko Animated graphical FreeBSD logo.
plasma_saver.ko Draws an animated interference pattern.
rain_saver.ko Draws a shower on the screen.
snake_saver.ko Draws a snake of string.
star_saver.ko Twinkling stars.
warp_saver.ko Streaking stars.
Screen saver modules can be loaded using kldload(8):
kldload logo_saver
The timeout value in seconds can be specified as follows:
vidcontrol -t N
Alternatively, you can set the saver variable in the /etc/rc.conf to the
screen saver of your choice and the timeout value to the blanktime
variable so that the screen saver is automatically loaded and the timeout
value is set when the system starts.
The screen saver may be instantly activated by hitting the saver key: the
defaults are Shift-Pause on the AT enhanced keyboard and
Shift-Ctrl-NumLock/Pause on the AT 84 keyboard. You can change the saver
key by modifying the keymap (see kbdcontrol(1), keymap(5)), and assign
the saver function to a key of your preference.
The screen saver will not run if the screen is not in text mode.
Splash screen as a screen saver
If you load a splash image but do not load a screen saver, you can
continue using the splash module as a screen saver. The screen blanking
interval can be specified as described in the Screen saver section above.
FILES
/boot/defaults/loader.conf boot loader configuration defaults
/etc/rc.conf system configuration information
/boot/kernel/splash_*.ko splash image decoder modules
/boot/kernel/*_saver.ko screen saver modules
/boot/kernel/vesa.ko the VESA support module
EXAMPLES
In order to load the splash screen or the screen saver, you must have the
following line in the kernel configuration file.
device splash
Next, edit /boot/loader.conf (see loader.conf(5)) and include the
following lines:
splash_bmp_load="YES"
bitmap_load="YES"
bitmap_name="/boot/chuck.bmp"
In the above example, the file /boot/chuck.bmp is loaded. In the
following example, the VESA module is loaded so that a bitmap file which
cannot be displayed in standard VGA modes may be shown using one of the
VESA video modes.
splash_pcx_load="YES"
vesa_load="YES"
bitmap_load="YES"
bitmap_name="/boot/chuck.pcx"
If the VESA support is statically linked to the kernel, it is not
necessary to load the VESA module. Just load the bitmap file and the
splash decoder module as in the first example above.
To load a binary ASCII drawing and display this while booting, include
the following into your /boot/loader.conf:
splash_txt_load="YES"
bitmap_load="YES"
bitmap_name="/boot/splash.bin"
SEE ALSO
vidcontrol(1), syscons(4), vga(4), loader.conf(5), rc.conf(5),
kldload(8), kldunload(8)
HISTORY
The splash driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.1.
AUTHORS
The splash driver and this manual page were written by Kazutaka Yokota
<yokota@FreeBSD.org>. The splash_bmp module was written by Michael Smith
<msmith@FreeBSD.org> and Kazutaka Yokota. The splash_pcx module was
written by Dag-Erling Sm/rgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> based on the splash_bmp
code. The splash_txt module was written by Antony Mawer
<antony@mawer.org> based on the splash_bmp code, with some additional
inspiration from the daemon_saver code. The logo_saver, plasma_saver,
rain_saver and warp_saver modules were written by Dag-Erling Sm/rgrav
<des@FreeBSD.org>.
CAVEATS
Both the splash screen and the screen saver work with syscons(4) only.
BUGS
If you load a screen saver while another screen saver has already been
loaded, the first screen saver will not be automatically unloaded and
will remain in memory, wasting kernel memory space.
FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 December 31, 2015 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6
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