Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
In the immortal words of Claire Q'vant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>... > Hmm. Starting X(albeit minimal) is not what I'm after, > as it needs to appear as soon as the kernel is loaded > - directly after the POST screen... > The filesystem isn't mounted for a while after that, > as the kernel detects hardware, and sets out > resources, etc, and I'd like that to be > graphical(represented, at least) > > It's worth consideration though, if nothing else > happens... This might be a stupid suggestion, but wouldn't it be simpler just to hack the splash kernel module? A couple of days of messing around might come up with something that approximates what you are looking for. If all you want is eye-candy for impressing people, then it shouldn't matter that it doesn't actually do anything. Cheers -- Tim Aslat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Spyderweb Consulting http://www.spyderweb.com.au P: 82243020M: 0401088479 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
Thanks Joshua and Tim! A fake splash might be just the trick ;-) Now to find some sweet little icons... Regards, Claire. Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
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? Claire Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
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/ > ___ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
--- Joshua Oreman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 Hmm. Starting X(albeit minimal) is not what I'm after, as it needs to appear as soon as the kernel is loaded - directly after the POST screen... The filesystem isn't mounted for a while after that, as the kernel detects hardware, and sets out resources, etc, and I'd like that to be graphical(represented, at least) It's worth consideration though, if nothing else happens... Claire Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 12:57:09AM +0100 or thereabouts, Claire Q'vant wrote: > --- Joshua Oreman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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? > > > [ ... ] > > You may be able to use a combination of splash.ko > > and a custom X program to do what you want. > > > > -- Josh > > > > > > > > Claire > Hmm. Starting X(albeit minimal) is not what I'm after, > as it needs to appear as soon as the kernel is loaded > - directly after the POST screen... > The filesystem isn't mounted for a while after that, > as the kernel detects hardware, and sets out > resources, etc, and I'd like that to be > graphical(represented, at least) > > It's worth consideration though, if nothing else > happens... If you want a graphical dmesg, that's probably not going to be that useful. Will anyone *care* about 5 seconds of text? If you still want to cover it up, what you can do is put a splash screen up and then start a small X server ASAP (probably in /etc/rc). That's the closest you're going to get to what you want. -- Josh > > Claire > > > > Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! > Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Tradeshow Crowd Pullers
>Basically, it involves starting up a minimal X server. Maybe this is totally off-the-wall and completely wrong, but it seems to me that, up until the box goes multi-user, thrashing the screen with potentially meaning(ful/less) graphics is not going to cause serious problems. The break between restoring the screen before going multi-user and starting X might be a little odd, of course. Is that the question, then? -- Joel Rees, programmer, Systems Group Altech Corporation (Alpsgiken), Osaka, Japan http://www.alpsgiken.co.jp ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
