Yoav
PS: I know my reply doesn't belong on linux-kernel either, but it is the
only way I can see to reach the masses who refuse to stop posting
unrelated drivel to this mailing-list.
Darryl Miles wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > Well, sparclinux boxes display a nice penguin at startup, but intel
> pc's
> > do not. I think this is not acceptable. Here comes a patch to change
> this.
> >
> > This works by changing the vga font (chars 0xc0 - 0xdf, the range
> where
> > these box characters reside) and displaying these chars as 8x4
> block. This
> > gives a nice penguin in text mode(!). Works only if you have a vga,
> and if
> > the vga font is 16 pixel high.
>
> Hmm... What about having a penguin startup screen run from LILO which
> does
> it's stuff (by looking pretty) before the Linux kernel is loaded off
> the
> disk (by the pengiun loader) a sort of bootstrap to the kernel. After
> restoring the screen to 80x25 or whatever.
>
> Nick bits of LILO and bits of Linux kernel source hack them about a
> bit, bolt
> them together add a few video/keyboard routines. Create your
> image/pixmaps/animations in one big data block that will link in and
> put it in place of /zImage in lilo.conf.
>
> This solution seems to give a nice fullscreen colourful bootups,
> doesn't
> hide kernel error messages, people who don't want to run it don't have
> to
> make the extra effort to edit their lilo.conf and install it, and
> there is
> no kernel bloat.
>
> I have visions of the penguin waddling onto the monitor from the left,
> turning to face the user, then putting it's wings (?? is this right)
> together, lifting its wings up and out to form a 'Y' gesture (as if to
> say "Ta Dah!") with the wording "Linux" above it.
>
> Each kernel season we could have a contest to design the latest bootup
> screen. No doubt Linux support companys can also advertise themselves
> by
> designing their own screens.
>
> Maybe a POV (raytraced) scene could be engineered of the penguin, then
> the output compressed down into a reasonable size after.
>
> Then if we want to get really clever (but I'd doubt anyone will allow
> it) is
> to do all this in protected mode, load zImage off the disk, boot it
> (while
> the bootscreen code is also somewhere else in VM). But the kernel has
> some
> hooks back into the startup screen to maybe do have a series of
> animated
> icons/text to inform the user what is happening or something. Then
> just fade
> out the pretty screen, zap the virtual memory the bootup code/data
> used from
> memory and assume the position.
>
> --
> Darryl Miles