Text bootsplash for MX-14.2-pae

[BitJam]

Edit: IMO, dolphin_oracle's video is the easiest and best way to evaluate tsplash.

MX-14 has been criticized for being ugly (by some people) when seen for the first time. This might be partially due to the flood of text that is displayed while it boots. While I'm old-school we don't need no stinkin' bootsplash, I think the critics have a point (if the flood of text is part of the issue, even subconsciously). It makes no sense to display text that the user is not normally supposed to read. It certainly can look like something is wrong and they have lost control of the machine.

So I wrote a little script that covers up the flood of text with a much simpler text screen. See the screenshots below. It is not as pretty as fbcondecor (fbsplash) or Plymouth but it does have several advantages, primarily that it is small and robust (at least in theory). It does not require a framebuffer but it is able to work with a framebuffer if it exists. The primary purpose is to hide the flood of text and tell the user Don't Panic and that things are under control. It can start early in the boot process on all machines regardless of the graphics hardware and drivers.

I don't know if this is a direction we want to go in or not. The alpha-02 version is available now for testing on MX-14.2-pae LiveUSBs. I also provide an xdelta3 patch to create an iso file for either burning to CD or for running in a virtual environment such as VirtualBox. Everything you need to try it is available in my Dropbox MX-14.2-pae-tsplash-02 directory. Instructions are in the README file. It is not a finished product but it does give you a good idea of what it will look like and what the effect is. It only works on Live systems. I don't plan to make it work on installed systems.

In addition to the text bootsplash (tsplash) script I have also made a slight modification to display a background image slightly earlier when X starts so there is less time with a blank screen. I show the lighter Turbulence image so you can more easily notice when the darker xfce background shows up. Of course we can use any image for the early background and the image can have text on it.

I've attached two screen shots. The first shows what it looks like with the standard 640x480 resolution and the second one shows it at 1280x1024 (using the vga=795 boot parameter). This highlights one of the problems of a text-based approach: the characters get smaller as the screen resolution increases. You can prevent the resolution from increasing (on some systems) by using the "F5 Video Mode" --> "safe" option in the bootloader but this has some negative consequences, mostly that there is flicker and delay when switching between the virtual consoles and X-windows.

[Utopia]

Looking good and works great.
The frame is the same size all the time. The text is getting smaller when the resolution changes, but as it keeps it's centered position, it looks fine and isn't disturbing at all. No flicker anywhere.
The early wallpaper is perfect, the transition to xfce is seamless, no hint of black screen or flicker.
Better than Plymouth, which never had this perfect timing.
The xtra package could need some improved instructions to use, had to extract it first and then copy to /live/boot-dev/antiX. The permissions made it impossible to extract after copying.
Henry

[Gordon Cooper]

I have no problems with the present boot/load presention, although a couple of my Mx converts were a bit
alarmed by the text display. Your "Wait etc" gets over this. A good idea.

[Topher]

I like this for brand new users to Linux and even others, like my wife or sister, who get nervous seeing all that text go by. And there is still the capability to see the text if you want to.

[NGIB]

I really like this approach as there are many folks, my wife included, that freak out a little when confronted with the wall of text...

[richb]

This is an excellent approach and executed very well.

[Paul..]

Nice solution, BitJam.

[dolphin_oracle]

looks good to me.

quickie vid here for those that want to see the options in action but don't want to mess around with an iso/usb build.

http://youtu.be/Mm3Ytk9ypFU (video should be live now).

[richb]

looks good to me.

quickie vid here for those that want to see the options in action but don't want to mess around with an iso/usb build.

http://youtu.be/Mm3Ytk9ypFU (give it about 10 minutes to go live, still uploading). should be ready by 11:10 EST

Video is private. As you know, you need to make it public.

[dolphin_oracle]

video is not ready yet....its unlisted but public. give it till 11:10.