FreeBSD Man Pages

screensaver(4)

NAME

     splash -- splash screen / screen saver interface

SYNOPSIS

     device splash

DESCRIPTION

     The splash pseudo device driver adds support for the splash screen and
     screen savers to the kernel.  This driver is required if the splash bit-
     map image is to be loaded or any screen saver is to be used.

   Splash screen
     You can load and display an arbitrary bitmap image file as a welcome ban-
     ner on the screen when the system is about to start.  This image will
     remain on the screen during kernel initialization process until the login
     prompt appears on the screen or until a screen saver is loaded and ini-
     tialized.	The image will also disappear if you hit any key, although
     this may not work immediately if the kernel is still probing devices.

     If you specify the -c or -v boot option when loading the kernel, the
     splash image will not appear.  However, it is still loaded and can be
     used as a screen saver later: see below.

     In order to display the bitmap, the bitmap file itself and the matching
     splash image decoder module must be loaded by the boot loader.  Currently
     the following decoder modules are available:

     splash_bmp.ko   W*ndows BMP file decoder.	While the BMP file format
		     allows images of various color depths, this decoder cur-
		     rently only handles 256 color bitmaps.  Bitmaps of other
		     color depths will not be displayed.
     splash_pcx.ko   ZSoft PCX decoder.  This decoder currently only supports
		     version 5 8-bpp single-plane images.

     The EXAMPLES section illustrates how to set up the splash screen.

     If the standard VGA video mode is used, the size of the bitmap must be
     320x200 or less.  If you enable the VESA mode support in the kernel,
     either by statically linking the VESA module or by loading the VESA mod-
     ule (see vga(4)), you can load bitmaps up to a resolution of 1024x768,
     depending on the VESA BIOS and the amount of video memory on the video
     card.

   Screen saver
     The screen saver will activate when the system is considered idle: i.e.
     when the user has not typed a key or moved the mouse for a specified
     period of time.  As the screen saver is an optional module, it must be
     explicitly loaded into memory.  Currently the following screen saver mod-
     ules are available:

     blank_saver.ko    This screen saver simply blanks the screen.
     daemon_saver.ko   Animated BSD Daemon screen saver.
     fade_saver.ko     The screen will gradually fade away.
     green_saver.ko    If the monitor supports power saving mode, it will be
		       turned off.
     logo_saver.ko     Animated graphical BSD Daemon.
     rain_saver.ko     Draws a shower on the screen.
     The timeout value in seconds can be specified as follows:

	   vidcontrol -t N

     Alternatively, you can set the saver variable in the /etc/rc.conf to the
     screen saver of your choice and the timeout value to the blanktime vari-
     able so that the screen saver is automatically loaded and the timeout
     value is set when the system starts.

     The screen saver may be instantly activated by hitting the saver key: the
     defaults are Shift-Pause on the AT enhanced keyboard and
     Shift-Ctrl-NumLock/Pause on the AT 84 keyboard.  You can change the saver
     key by modifying the keymap (see kbdcontrol(1), keymap(5)), and assign
     the saver function to a key of your preference.

     The screen saver will not run if the screen is not in text mode.

   Splash screen as a screen saver
     If you load a splash image but do not load a screen saver, you can con-
     tinue using the splash module as a screen saver.  The screen blanking
     interval can be specified as described in the Screen saver section above.

FILES

     /boot/defaults/loader.conf   boot loader configuration defaults
     /etc/rc.conf		  system configuration information
     /boot/kernel/splash_*.ko	  splash image decoder modules
     /boot/kernel/*_saver.ko	  screen saver modules
     /boot/kernel/vesa.ko	  the VESA support module

EXAMPLES

     In order to load the splash screen or the screen saver, you must have the
     following line in the kernel configuration file.

	   device splash

     Next, edit /boot/loader.conf (see loader.conf(5)) and include the follow-
     ing lines:

	   splash_bmp_load="YES"
	   bitmap_load="YES"
	   bitmap_name="/boot/chuck.bmp"

     In the above example, the file /boot/chuck.bmp is loaded.	In the follow-
     ing example, the VESA module is loaded so that a bitmap file which cannot
     be displayed in standard VGA modes may be shown using one of the VESA
     video modes.

	   splash_pcx_load="YES"
	   vesa_load="YES"
	   bitmap_load="YES"
	   bitmap_name="/boot/chuck.pcx"

     If the VESA support is statically linked to the kernel, it is not neces-
     sary to load the VESA module.  Just load the bitmap file and the splash
     decoder module as in the first example above.

CAVEATS

     Both the splash screen and the screen saver work with syscons(4) only.
     vidcontrol(1), syscons(4), vga(4), loader.conf(5), rc.conf(5),
     kldload(8), kldunload(8)

HISTORY

     The splash driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.1.

AUTHORS

     The splash driver and this manual page were written by Kazutaka Yokota
     <yokota@FreeBSD.org>.  The splash_bmp module was written by Michael Smith
     <msmith@FreeBSD.org> and Kazutaka Yokota.	The splash_pcx module was
     written by Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> based on the splash_bmp
     code.

FreeBSD 5.4		       February 9, 1999 		   FreeBSD 5.4

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