Fbsplash

Fbsplash
(formerly gensplash) is a user-space implementation of a splash screen for Linux systems. It provides a graphical environment at system startup using the
Linux framebuffer
layer.
Installation
Fbsplash
Install the
fbsplash
AUR
package.
To have a background image of your
virtual terminals
you will need to install a kernel patched with fbcondecor, see
below
.
Themes
Themes are available as
packages
and can also be found at
GNOME-Look.org
or
KDE-Look.org
.
Configuration
Preview
To choose from the themes that you will have installed without restarting or configuring anything, you can use
splash_manager
command.
This command must not be executed under X, but from a TTY.
For example to test the arch-black theme, after having installed it of course, in silent mode without restarting:
# splash_manager -c demo -t arch-black --steps 100
For more information:
$ splash_manager --help
Configuration file
Add the theme (s) you installed in
/etc/conf.d/splash
. You can also specify screen resolutions to save some space:
/etc/conf.d/splash
...
SPLASH_THEMES = "
   arch-black
   arch-banner-icons/1280x1024.cfg
   arch-banner-noicons/1280x1024.cfg "
...
Kernel command line
To work with Fbsplash, you must pass the following options to your
kernel parameters
:
console=tty1 splash=silent,theme:
theme name
Starting
Tip
The
F2
key will allow you to toggle between splash and journal messages on startup. Think about it if the splash does not appear or if you find your startup taking a long time.
Normal launch
Once installed and configured, without doing anything more, fbsplash should load automatically the next time you boot, right after a few Arch messages on boot (right after udev).
Early launch
If you find these few messages unsightly (or just to enjoy your splash longer), it is possible to start fbsplash before the first messages at startup.
Just add
fbsplash
to
HOOKS array
in
mkinitcpio.conf
:
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
...
HOOKS=(base udev ... resume
fbsplash
)
...
Then,
regenerate the initramfs
.
Note
To guard against any problem with fbsplash that would block your startup, it might be a good idea not to generate the fallback image with this
HOOK
.
Edit
/etc/mkinitcpio.d/
kernel
.preset
/etc/mkinitcpio.d/
kernel
.preset
...
fallback_options="-S autodetect,fbsplash"
...
Then,
regenerate the initramfs
.
Console background images
With a kernel that supports Fbcondecor (e.g., one with a
framebuffer console decoration patch
applied), you can have a background image of your virtual consoles.
Configuration
Note
fbcondecor-systemd
AUR
provides a
systemd
service "to activate console decorations on system start".
There is also a configuration file,
/etc/conf.d/fbcondecor
, to define the virtual terminals that will support this display mode.
Add the appropriate entries to your boot loader file, this kernel called
vmlinuz-linux-fbcondecor
and its images
initramfs-linux-fbcondecor.img
and
initramfs-linux-fbcondecor-fallback.img
.
Tip
This time you can also use
splash = verbose
to take advantage of background messages at startup as a replacement for the splash.
See also
http://fbsplash.berlios.de
gentoo:Fbsplash
https://web.archive.org/web/20121031042150/http://dev.gentoo.org/~spock/projects/fbcondecor/