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Making Linux Booting Pretty
LinuxNews.pl writes: "Remember why you compiled your framebuffer into kernel? Of course!
Because of the fblogo -- great penguin image on startup :)
Now you can update your fblogo and create a graphical startup, just
like in Windows. There are few themes (one is for Debian!)
Check out the whole story on Linuxnews.pl" You can get more info on the Linux Progress Page from their website -- that's not to say, of course, that streaming text isn't pretty in its own special way -- but eyecandy always counts for something. (Can anyone point to a good runs-under-Linux way to change the startup logo in the BIOS, as well, similar to this method that Windows users can use to update the "Energy Star" logo? We're well on our way to a hyper-custom boot process ...)
Well, in the case of a bootup screen I would hope to god that it is something that is put in via the boot configuration program, not something in the kernel. (Lilo or grub should allow this, right?)
The type of things that really make me shudder in fear is when people start saying that all of X should be put into kernel-space. Oh god, now that would be the last thing you would want to do. X locks? So does your box. Great idea guys.
But, for those hard-core gamers I don't see a problem in making an X module in the kernel that remains "optional". But I fear in this rush to embrace the Windows mentality of the average computer user we will slowly remove the idea of having "optional" things in the Linux kernel. I hope I'm wrong, but my paranoia has rarely been proven wrong lately.
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Why are the two exlusionary? Why can't you have a beautiful bootup screen that has a window that scrolls the bootup messages? You get a nice looking bootup, and the useful information.
In fact why can't we add in sound to the bootup process? A good deep sci-fi voice would inform the user during the booting process:
"Your sound device has been configured and is online."
"Now configuring video interfaces."
"Video has been optimized for maximum speed/resolution/?."
"Now configuring hard drive interfaces"
"Maximum boot count reached. Checking disk for possible errors."
"All disk have valid filesystems."
"Hard drives have been optimized for maximum performance"
"Web server has been started"
"Networking file system is online."
"Unable to mount a network filesystem. Bootup will continue. Please review log files."
etc.
Completely and totally useless waste of electricity, but it would give the newbies out there the feeling that their computers were smarter than the Windows boxes ("Heh, my computer tells me what it is doing."), and a nice reassuring feeling that everything is working. It would also make the bootup 'feel' faster (though it would actually be slower), and it would let me do something else during bootup and still be informed if something went wrong.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
I guess you must have skipped the day when they taught your class how to spell "grammar".
If you looked at the project at all you would see that if you set it up properly, the boot up messages are still displayed on tty2
This does appear to be the case. It displays the image on virtual terminal 2, and the boot messages remain on terminal 1. It shows warnings and errors with an icon, and if you care for the details, just switch to terminal 1.
If it took a minute for your car to start, and car manufacturers had the ability to display a "Welcome to Toyota.. car initializing" message on your display (er, windshield), they would. Hell, they'd probably sell advertising space. (Shit, I should patent that)
_______
2B1ASK1
Sound like what Corel did, which SGI did many years ago
Uhh, because they can make money supporting it? Because we are all sick of dealing with Microsoft? Because Linux is more stable and cheaper than Embedded NT? Because it will make the world a better place? You NEED A REASON? What kind of geek needs a reason?
Don't you get it? This is perfect for applications where an engineer designs a system, puts it together, and sends the whole thing to consumers who doesn't know anything about computers.
Computers as Applicances. That is what most end users want. You turn it on, it works, you get your email and check cnn.com, and you turn it off.
That is what you want if you are selling and supporting them. You do not want people to dick around and call in to tech support saying:
"I plugged in your system and now my TV has a lot of weird looking white and black text go by really fast when I turn it on. I can't read it all, and it looks confusing? Is my system broken? Should I take it back to the store?"
(shudder). No way. A pretty little logo is the way to go.
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
"HTML needs a rant tag" - Alan Cox
You can modify your rc.* scripts to talk to the graphical boot program. Or, you can switch to an alternate console to read the entire message set (default install puts traditional messages on /dev/tty2).
I installed it last week (patched against a 2.2.17 kernel, BTW. Why not 2.2.18? I have to patch for reiser and ide, and couldn't remember where the ide patches are/were) and it worked fine. It flows quite nicely into XDM.
It's a fun little thing. I'm waiting for a MacOS (Circa 6.0.7) startup screen. Instead of adding those little text messages, add some marching icons.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I remember the first time I booted windows95. The first thing I cried out is "Where is all the bootup information??" . From beeing readily available before, now most of it was hidden.
I don't want a penguin displayed during the bootup. I want the information, as it reveals if something isn't the way it should be, without having to fiddle with logging and other bullshit.
Eye candy is nice, but not when it removes possibly Very Important Information.
No penguin during bootup for me. I want the kernel info.
--
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
--
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Isn't the beauty of linux supposed to be how rarely it needs to be restarted? As much as this sounds just like eyecandy, it's actually got the potential to be a bigger deal than you'd think. Especially for the whole linux as an OS for everyone movement. Think about the average consumer that doesn't care what their computer is doing when booting up, they just want it running. A nice graphical progress bar (something along the lines of the macos startup deal), but maybe just a tad bit more geeky just to keep it interesting. That would mean more to most people than text flying by faster than you can read it.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
If boot up messages intimidate them, wait until they login and are staring at a bash prompt... I think a pretty splash screen is the last thing to worry about when trying to make *nix more newbie-friendly.
But, whatever, it's a little eye-candy... my FreeBSD box has a nice boot splash too :)
"Oh twap!"
Actually, on a x86 machine, it is possible to change your BIOS screen's logo, unfortunately, I believe its bios dependent, and there is no collection of howto's that lists several bioses (biosi?). A google search with your bios and a few other keywords ("change splash screen" or "change image" seems to work) should find it if its possible and a common bios.
Well we are on the subject...
To change Microsoft Windows startup/shutdown screen, do a search for logo.sys (boot), logow.sys (please wait...), and logos.sys (its now safe to...). Back them up, and then replace them with a 256 color bitmap with dimensions of 320 (width) x 400 (height). To remove the annoying startup screen (like I did) just download Tweak UI which can be found at Microsoft's website (its one of their powertools, and a free download). Tweak UI does a couple of other nice tricks, its worth hunting down if you need to use windows. www.regedit.com has a list of other things to customize with windows.
Under linux, I wouldn't want to do a change like this, the information is rather useful that's displayed, and I'd hate for the dang image to cover up the error messages, it seems rather counter-productive.
The KDE and Debian ones seem fairly cool. However I'd have to say that the boot screen for Windows Whistler leaves them all in the dust in terms of coolness ;) (Plus Whistler's XDM login type screen implimentation is really neat looking)
How long before we see distributions package their own boot screen with the OS install?
Mandrake's graphical boot would be nicer if it didn't look like all the graphics were designed by a third-grade art class on Ecstasy using MS Paint. Happy pastel-colored penguins everywhere you look.
Also, it'd be nice if the runlevel menu worked with my USB trackball, and the graphical shutdown actually indicated when it was done shutting down.
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Why are "office suites" the supposed be-all, end-all application that we all need to lead happy and productive lives? For many users, these office suites are among the most underused applications on their desktops. I imagine many Linux users like me would agree. So it's not hard to spend more time customizing your desktop than you do using an office suite, now is it?
Frankly, I'm just getting sick of hearing about how we need office suites to be able to keep our dicks up long enough to get a woman off. Please. WOrd processing and Spreadsheets just aren't that useful.
Gcc and emacs are.
Computers are meant to run around-the-clock. I don't understand this reluctance to have 'em always on.
Interesting... and just what did you put in your named database to cause a kernel panic?
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CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
So Judge Jackson has a monopoly on Microsoft cases? I think they should split him up.
So, what yer saying is...
When ya set up a server, ya build a tank.
Metal seats, olive drab - big and powerful, but not exactly luxury.
When ya set up yer own machines, ya build a gold-plated lowrider tank. (Just like in that rap video...you know the one.)
Still big and powerful, but with overstuffed velvet seats, furry trim and 15" subs in the back.
There's no real point to this reply, I just saw a good chance to reference the gold-plated tank
(Which I think is one of the most important innovations of the 20th century. Only a gold-plated lowrider 747 could be better)...
--K
And why shouldn't it?
Even though this was not one of the original poster's assertions, he may want to do it for his clients, i.e., wants to sell his own I-opener
Perhaps we're sick of using Windows for reasons other than loooks, how about that?
Embedded system is a broad concept. Many Linux based consumer gadgets may not need a boot screen, but that doesn't mean them all should not have one.
I'm wondering why adding HTTP static service to look good on benchmarks is a worthy goal and this thing is not. As long as you can (ah, that word again) compile it out, I don't see how that can be bad.
Brushing aside the little fact that Linux, FreeBSD, UNIX [TM] and ITS (oh wait, that was only a typo, right? right?) are different systems with different design goals, which were not laid out by you, and which do not include, I'm fairly confident, "not being intended for the dumb", I have to remind you that "dumb" is a very broad stroke to paint people with. A historian who is a very accomplished scholar has no "right" to use Linux, just because she haven't got the time to learn all the command line option to find(1)? I find that kind of lofty arrogance preposterous and irritating.
Look at the history of what Unix and Unix like systems have been used for, then speak intelligently.
Ok, so read up on your history. In case you're too lazy for that here's the deal in a nutshell: UNIX[TM] was designed for a computer whose manufacturer is now defunct, by a company which is now split in atoms, so that their office employees could write manuals with it and their engineers could play games. It was designed from the start so that end users could use it. Of course, the end user at AT&T's offices in the '70s was used to terminals. That's not the case now.
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Information wants to be beer, or something like that.
...about the splash screen hiding the boot info, try emulating FreeBSD's behavior. Hit space while the splash screen is up, and there's your scrolly messages again. The selection of a splash screen is done in the bootloader too, controlled by a module the bootloader loads (the kernel is loaded the same way as any other module, at least interface-wise, it can even unload a kernel and use a different one).
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I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
Tools are made to be used, not to be learned.
Exactly!
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+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
Well, with Caldera, two of the virtual terminals are displaying stuff; one being the text kernal boot messages, one being something or other else I can't recall off hand.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
The problem with Linux booting isn't the text, its the fact that the text is butt-ugly and poorly formated. ReiserFS even does the no-no of running over a line (which you really don't want to do for a status messege.) If the bootup text was succinct (who cares about every single device enumerated unless you specify a verbose boot?) well formated, and well-organized (system messages, fs messeges, etc in order, and no stupid stuff like saying that the messege is coming from usb.c instead of the usb subsystem) then I think many more people would appreciate the Linux text boot.
;)
Of course, if it booted as fast as BeOS, the whole splash screen issue becomes more or less irrelevant
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
The *only* change that should happen in the current *nix boot sequences is to ad Majel Barrret's voice announcing key checkpoints , such as "going multiuser" and daemon initialization . . . :)
What kind of idiot wouldn't want James Earl Jones announcing the steps of the boot process?
"This is Multiuser"
"Now initializing X Windows"
"Restarting the system"
"System Halted"
I'm sure with all the work he's done we could piece together snippets of movies and voiceovers he's done. Remember, he was in "Cabin in the Sky" way back in the forties.
Besides that, its just not elegant. I don't change the hardware on my machine every other day, and after I know the thing is setup correctly, I really would rather look at a nice bootup screen than see that useless text scroll by.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
> I remember the first time I booted windows95.
> The first thing I cried out is "Where is all the
> bootup information??" . From beeing readily
> available before, now most of it was hidden.
It's still all there. All you had to do was hit ESC and you could see all of it. But let's be honest, how often do you need to? Unless something's wrong there's no reason to watch the same messages over and over again.
> I don't want a penguin displayed during the
> bootup. I want the information, as it reveals if
> something isn't the way it should be, without
> having to fiddle with logging and other
> bullshit.
Fine. Here's an idea, don't load the patch. Then you'll have all your purist kernel messages, and the rest of us can customize our boot process. (BTW, I used that patch in an earlier kernel and it does still show you all the regular kernel messages, it just has Tux in the upper left corner).
Besides, there's always `dmesg`.
> Eye candy is nice, but not when it removes
> possibly Very Important Information.
I don't get it. How is it removing information? Just because you don't have to see it when the system boots doesn't mean it's missing, has been removed, or otherwise taken away from you. If you'd actually investigated some of this instead of instantly deciding it's evil and ranting against it, you'd realize that it's not as bad as you think it is.
Hell for some people it could be quite enjoyable. Think of all the people who use GTK+, enlightenment, Windowmaker, IceWM, or Blackbox themes. Now they can theme their kernel boot sequence. Choice.
Improvise, adapt, and overcome.
I once read a review of Linux by a non-technical writer. Believe it or not, the boot messages scrolling past were irksome to this reviewer, and she asked someone why they were necessary. The reply was "Oh, engineers like that sort of thing". This answer, apparently, summed up everything that was wrong with Linux for this particular reviewer.
Well, of course, if her computer went wrong, I'm sure she'd be glad if the support personell she called had something to go on -- but this does raise a point. Part of making Linux appeal to the masses (if that's your bag -- by no means does everyone even care if the masses use Linux) is to make every stage pretty: prettify X (with Gnome, E etc), prettify logons (gdm vs xdm), prettify the boot process. Many people *are* that shallow.
So: this is a good thing. I'd advocate putting it in the sock kernel; as long as there's a way to switch to the proper boot messages when you need to see them.
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Shouldn't we be working on something more important than eye-candy for spreadsheet monkeys? Like maybe defining a new desktop metapahor? Perhaps finding new ways of presenting information and interacting with it? Why is it that Linux's desktop environments seem bent on copying Windows
Including apparently copying some on Windows' worst "features". e.g. the "end user is sysadmin" paradigm. Fine for someone with their home machine. A pain in any corporate setting. This seems another thing targeted at the "home" user, but at least here it's an option.
Actually, it wouldn't be that hard to do this, if you have a simple program that can send a wave file to your sound card.
/etc/rc.d/init.d and /etc/rc.d/rc[0-6].d/ directories, then add a "initsound" script to /etc/rc.d/init.d that has something like:
/bin/playwav is the program, and
/etc/runlevel_sound[0-6].wav are the sound files.
/etc/runlevel_sound$runlevel.wav
/etc/rc.d/rc[0-6].d/ directory, add the appropriate symbolic link over to initsound:
../init.d/initsound
Hmmm. If you have the common style of startup script directories with
#!/bin/sh
# "initsound"
# play a sound when entering each run level
# assume
#
/bin/playwav
# end of file
Then in each
S01initsound ->
Something like that should do it. I haven't tested this though. It would be amusing to put in the Windows 2000 startup and shutdown sounds.
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
"HTML needs a rant tag" - Alan Cox
Ever see a Netwinder? When it's fully booted you'll hear "Welcome to Netwinder." Once it's shut down you'll hear a "bloop."
It's actually quite useful when there's no monitor. You'll know when you can log in or remove the power. After seeing this, we implemented startup and shutdown sounds on the servers we sell. They're actually spacey sounds because we couldn't get the PC speaker driver working in the kernel.
...and it's not as if Linux users don't already know this. Look how much emphasis is put on theming window managers, widget sets and applications. I bet that in 2000, the total time Linux users spent fiddling with the look of their desktops exceeded the time spent in office suites by a factor of 10.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
...is not something that can be ignored when trying to get one's grandma to install linux or another OSOS.
Remember that one of the points that Apple is selling more than anything else about OSX is its graphical 'beauty' (something like that at any rate.) Steve and Apple marketing truly expect that the graphical theme they've layered on top of their GUI and *nix OS will draw users. When I worked on a Mac at a certain design firm, one of the most used applications was Kaleidoscope. (If you didn't know, it's a set of extensions that allows for complete skinning of the Mac0S.) Windows 'Themes' were so important that Microsoft took them out of the 'Plus' packs and put them into the Main OS install for both Win9x and 200x. While themes are available for some of the different X GUI's, *compelete* one button customization is just not there yet. While it doesn't add any real usability, this will be a major step towards getting more mainline acceptance (and mainline apps) for Linux or any other OSOS
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Why is everyone so convinced that Linux has to be prettied up, promoted, and made palatable to the masses?
Because the masses have money. Companies like money. Companies that see the prospect of money in Linux on the desktop are more likely to publish Linux ports of their video games, write Linux drivers for their hardware, and offer Linux-compatible ISP services and online media.
I like Linux game, Linux drivers, and Linux compatibility. Any more questions?
There are many more reasons why even the most hardcore, non-gaming, free-software-only Linux user still benefits by "Linux for the masses", though. You may complain that Red Hat is aiming for a Linux distribution a 3 year old can use... but they're not taking away our Perl interpreters and ssh daemons to do it, and eventually that 3 year old may grow up and spend a little time playing around with the compiler himself.
The other thing that's "vital for desktop acceptance" is an office suite of the caliber of MS Office 2000, which isn't going to happen unless they decide to port it.
Of course it isn't. Free software developers could never produce any sort of useful desktop software on their own, certainly not any office programs. That stuff is just too complicated for a bunch of hackers. Why, where would they even start?
There was also news on Yahoo about some discrimination suit against MS, but that's not as important as the Boogie Bass or this. Go linux! wa hooo! With the linux boot up screen, we are one step closer to taking over the desktop!
Whaddya think? How long before this one comes out?
Because not everyone is convinced that being on the fringe is all that great, because many think that functionality precludes prettiness and lastly, because perceiving their beloved OS as a good thing they want their non-geek friends and relatives to use it too, without having to become geeks themselves.
Is it such a bad idea after all, that should prompt the same old tired reactions every time something like this is advanced? Is it so terrible to have a nice feature that can be used by non-geeks, but can be switched off by the geeky crowd if it displeases them?
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Information wants to be beer, or something like that.
No penguin during bootup for me. I want the kernel info.
Guess you haven't looked at the graphical boot, then. Assuming you're talking out-of-the-box Linux, that penguin sits at the top of the screen peacefully, while kernel info and init scripts scroll by.
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>Text-to-voice has existed for over a decade,
.).
and that's for very loud values of "decade"
ONe otf the things that sticks out most inmy memory of the second west
coast computer faire is the votrax attachment. It connected to a
parallel port, and kept telling passerbys, "My name is vo-trax. I can
say an-y-thing."
Oops, s/parallel/Centronics/ above. It's essentially the same thing,
but the terminology was different then (and they were rarely
bidirectional on the 8 bits . .
You'd have needed a text=>phoneme dictionary, but this was still
shipping technology in the late 70's. If memory serves, it cost
$700 or so . . .
hawk
If you have FreeBSD, check out FreeBSD Splash Screens for how to build what you need into the kernel. There's a few other instructions to follow, too.
oh well you knwo what they say about fools....
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
Yeah, that's the point. Most of the BIOS update programs are DOS executables on floppies, distributed in binary form by BIOS manufacturers.
The neat thing about Qnxflash was that (a) it runs under a UNIX variant, and (b) source is available.
Remember the goal of the article here -- instead of your PC showing Dell or Compaq's logo fullscreen, you want a picture of Tux ;-)
It's not just eyecandy. It's a vital step to desktop acceptance. I've installed linux for non techies on their machines. I showed them how to use it, shoewed them how it differend from windows, and what's the first thing I hear from them when it starts up? "Oh, I don't know if I can do this... look at all those lines scrolling by...."
Microsoft learned a long time ago that 99% of their users don't understand or care about those lines scrolling by, and in fact it intimidates them. It is generally not considered a good idea to intimidate your users. It just makes them not want to use your system.
Sure, in the perfect world nobody would be intimidated, and everybody would understand implicity that they really don't need to pay attention to most of those messages in most cases. But the world's no perfect, and neither are the people in it.
Want some cheese to go with that?
Seriously, this is pretty cool if we *ever* expect Linux to gain a substantial foothold on the 'desktop.' The majority of users don't care how many bogomips or the details of how their scsi card is initialized, they just want to get going. All that junk *may* actually intimidate the average/novice user into thinking they're getting into something over their head.
Oh, and don't forget, in Win 9x/Me, you CAN hit -Esc- to show you all the juicy startup info....
Blech. Signatures.
I tried the Linux Progress Patch sometime last week and found it to be interesting. Sure, it was neat seeing this fancy debian boot screen, but it was not all that easy. A patching of the kernel and entire kernel recompile is neccessary in order to get it working.
If I were to suggest anything, it would be to allow the user the hit escape to view the boot information. Sure you can hit F2 to see it there, but I would like it much more to just hit escape.
Another key point is that if you move the mouse while it's booting, it leaves big black streaks across the screen (but then again, why would you move your mouse).
Overall it's an okay program with lots of work to go. When it can be integrated into a users system in a matter of seconds is when people will start checking it out more.
(Also, you need to put a ml at the end of the Energy Star link in this story).
--
Scott Miga
suprax@linux.com
I feel the same way, but this has a place©
In a perfect world, a splash screen would be on the primary console and bootup on the second© Ninety percent of the time, I don't even look at the bootup messages and that's because I rarely have a problem© However, if I've made some changes, to the machine and suspect that it might act up, I could alt-F2 to the bootup console and see if I can spot the problem© Its the best of both worlds and another win for Linux©
One of Linux's greatest strengths is that it can be whatever you want it to be from a firewall to a web server to a desktop© Anything that makes it better in a given area without sacrificing another is always a good thing©
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
Computer 1 - A P-III 600 with 128M of RAM and Windows 98
Computer 2 - A P-II 350 with 96M of RAM and Linux running kernel 2.4
I can start the Windows machine rebooting while at the CLI on the Linux machine. Once the Windows machine it through the BIOS messages, I start the Linux machine rebooting. By the time Windows is to the desktop and done loading, I have already booted into Linux and started X.
Maybe you need to look at your rc.d directory?
Openflash
This runs in QNX from the console, but there's no reason it couldn't be adapted to other motherboards and BIOS setups.
The nice thing is that it's a BIOS hack, so even if you yank out a hard drive to boot Windoze to play some games, you still have your funky boot logo.
Yeah, I also like watching my PC autodetect the hard drives, and I also like seeing all the boot log stuff scrolling by on a *nix boot. But as others have correctly pointed out, this just scares most sheeple, who want to look at something pretty so they don't have to wonder what's going on under the hood. Whether we like their preference or not, it's real, and our obligation should be to the user, not to our notions of what a *nix boot "should" look like.
... I still like to be able to see my nameserver flip out and go "kernel panic!" after line 12!
Linux is about choice. You should be able to have a graphical login, AND see the last line of the boot messages at the same time. Or else you hit return and you get the boot messages. I don't know if the boot prompt actually does this, but it should.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
I'll take RiscOS as an example
In this case we have:
It is really quick and hence, not disturbing.
In case there is an hardware error here, just remember the last color you saw and check with the manual if it was due to the mainboard, the ram, the sound/video chip (VIDC) or the cpu.
So my question is : Do we need machines that are nice to contemplate while one's waiting for them to finish booting or do we need machines with a quick, informative and efficient boot sequence ?
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
If not that, use flash and a limited runtime boot program, such as the one I mentioned earlier. Who wouldn't want to see boot messages drift away like StarWars credits. (OK...once in a while. After all, how many times do you need to reboot your machine each year?)
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Rather than a boot logo, I'd like the information that currently scrolls by to be presented a little more usefully.
The stuff that scrolls by 1)goes by too fast 2)is filled with noise that obscures useful information.
How about a table (kind of like the bios info table) that gets filled in as the boot process continues. Possible entries:
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
Perhaps I'm the only one that actually went to the site, but it appears that bootup messages are piped to the splash screen. I'd double-check the code before I installed it, though.
Personally, I'll definitely be giving this a try...anything to make my box more custom, sleek, and sexy is cred by me. I've single-handedly drawn most of my friends to Linux by extolling it's many virtues, and this is just another "Wow, cool!" factor.
Bottom line: It's Open Source Software. The beauty of that is, you have a choice. Install it or don't, but don't shit all over the people who think this is a cool thing.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker (who gets paid to 'fiddle with logging and other bullshit')
El riesgo vive siempre!
Blue text on a black background is kewl and rad, but unreadable.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
I just got something like that working this morning. The answer: start XDM first thing after mounting the partitions. My boot scripts are custom made (by me), so it's easy for me to do, but it shouldn't be too hard even on distro scripts.
So, my computer checks the filesystems, mounts them, starts xdm, and then continues on to set up networking, services, etc. I'm working as soon as it starts xdm.
My X setup takes mouse data from gpm. This could cause some problems with kdm (which can use the mouse), but the mouse is not needed or used in xdm. I have gpm starting afterwards, and gpm is loaded by the time I finish logging in.
Hope this helps,
-Chris
Another pretty boot manager is Icepack Linux Boot Manager, which is free and graphical.
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
There is also those other strange people who want to put every bell, light and whistle on their rig, even if it is just to scare people, and intimidate the neighbors. Sort of like the Hell's Angels (with paint jobs, etc) or other motor cycle enthuthiasts with lights, radios, and enough gear to outfit a mobile home.
As a side note, this might be related to this story over the holidays describing how men in bars flaunt their mobile phones to attract women (and it works). The geek with the most impressive rack of equipment could attract the best partners. Or so the logic would go.
The only point here is that mental/emotional factors have to be considered as well.
So an opening animated graphic (or even a shockwave/flash file) would be attract to some people, beginners and otherwise. I imagine you could even have a whole operating system where many cues are not done by sound files(as in windows) but are by embedded flash files, etc. The computer could seem to be alive to the beginner, if this were done cleverly.
This would certainly attract alot of people.
Are these people the kind of people we want to attract?
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The NeXT boot sequence was quite pretty, graphical, and told you what was happening with minimal detail.
However sometimes you needed the real info, in which case there was an alternative boot time switch that let you do just that (I can't remember the exact process, but it would be equiv to adding a parameter to a lilo command line).
RedHat 7.0 users will probably find this useful : I've built a patched version of the "initscripts" package that includes tests to display the services startup messages with the Linux Progress Patch (of course, you can still use a non-patched kernel without any problems).
My scripts are available in the official packages, but you can grab an updated RPM (easier and cleaner to install) from my website in the "initscripts-lpp" directory
http://redhat.aldil.org/
A link to this RPM should soon be on the new official website (lpp.freelords.org) anyway.
Matthias
-- Life wasn't meant to be easy...
It's not just unnecessary, it's *evil*.
:)
For crying out loud. First they took away my toggle switches, and then the whole front panel.
Then the machines started taking it upon themselves to boot a DOS or TOS without even a "by your leave," let alone a keyboard command from the monitor.
Then they took the monitor.
NOw you want to take my boot sequence from me?
evil, evil, evil.
The *only* change that should happen in the current *nix boot sequences is to ad Majel Barrret's voice announcing key checkpoints , such as "going multiuser" and daemon initialization . . .
hawk, crankier than usual
Fantasy? Not any more
fast working on that new xdm login screen
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.