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 load

er. Currently
the following decoder modules are available:

splash_bmp.ko W*ndows 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.

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.
daemon_saver.ko Animated BSD Daemon screen saver. fade_saver.ko The screen will gradually fade away. fire_saver.ko A fire which becomes higher as load in

creases.
green_saver.ko If the monitor supports power saving mode,

it will be

turned off.

logo_saver.ko Animated graphical BSD Daemon. 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 de

faults
/etc/rc.conf system configuration informa

tion
/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 in

clude 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.

CAVEATS

Both the splash screen and the screen saver work with

syscons(4) only.
They are not available for the alternative console driver

pcvt(4).

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 Kazu

taka 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 Smorgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> based on

the splash_bmp
code.

BUGS

If you load a screen saver while another screen saver has

already been
loaded, the first screen saver will not be automatically un

loaded and
will remain in memory, wasting kernel memory space.

BSD January 15, 2006

BSD