Which bootsplash method will be used in openmoko?

Michael 'Mickey' Lauer mickey at openmoko.org
Fri Feb 16 20:45:42 CET 2007


Hi Koen,

> [after some debate I decided distro-devel would be a better place as om-devel to ask]

Wise decision. OpenMoko-devel is for openmoko specific applications,
bootsplash is definitely more distro level here.

> I was reading about using u-boot to display a bootsplash, which is a pretty neat idea, but
> it has 2 downsides:

> 1) it's bound to u-boot, which is OK for the neo, but not for other machines
> 2) it doesn't allow a progressbar

The bootsplash issue has a couple of layers. We have to distinguish
between U-Boot bootup, Kernel bootup, Userland bootup (read: sysinit).

We definitely want to use U-Boot bootsplash, since loading the uImage
from flash takes a while. We then want to keep this displayed during
kernel display (hence overriding the default penguin/konsole) right
until init kicks in. What we do then is open for discussion. psplash
sounds like a good option, however since the init system is probably
going to be substituted anyway (sysvinit is unbearably slow, i'm
leaning towards runit or upstart), it needs to be considered after we
decided on the init system.

> I made a mockup using psplash in a spare minute:
> http://dominion.kabel.utwente.nl/koen/cms/theming-psplash-for-openmoko

Sweet!

For phase 0 and 1, I'd appreciate seeing psplash in OpenMoko -- your
work looks like a good starting point. Could you take care about the
gray line and the progress bar position as well?

Thanks a lot!

P.S. It might make sense to open up a bugzilla entry for the
bootsplash situation.

Regards,

:M:
-- 
Michael 'Mickey' Lauer | IT-Freelancer | http://www.vanille-media.de




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