Feature #46
closed
Feature #81: Improve CD boot and shutdown
Add a graphical boot splash
Added by Jean-Michel Philippe about 13 years ago.
Updated almost 13 years ago.
Description
Now that the CD is correctly working, it is time to remove the text flowing on screen during the CD boot process. On Debian Lenny we can use splashy. This may of course increase the CD boot time… Optionally we can create a drawing instead of reusing the current DDL boot screen.
Related issues
1 (1 open — 0 closed)
- Status changed from New to In Progress
A first build with splashy was successfully achieved. We now need to write a DDL package for a splashy theme.
- % Done changed from 0 to 50
We need to add a text in the shutdown splash image because the console texts are not visible anymore when the shutdown splash is displayed. The text says that you have to remove the CD and should then only be displayed when DDL is booting from CD. It should also be translated into the CD language.
- Category set to System
- Parent task set to #81
Looking at the source code of splashy, the file HACKING is telling the following:
When talking to the Splashy server you can use the following commands:
[…]
print <string> Print <string> in the text box.
scroll <string> Print <string> in the text box and scroll down.
repaint Redraw the background image.
TEXT <string> Same as "print". For compatibility with usplash.
SCROLL <string> Same as "scroll".
[…]
Sending commands to the Splashy server is then as simple as:
splashy_update exit
or
splashy_update getpass "Type your resume password"
These commands will not block. Commands that expect answer will output the
string to stdout.
So it seems that our shutdown script, which is now playing audio messages to inform about taking the CD, could send a splashy command to tell this on screen too.
- Estimated time changed from 2:00 h to 3:00 h
A new package splashy-themes-doudoulinux is available.
Concerning the shutdown text, the Debian bug report #487414 explains that splashy cannot show the text box without user action (key F2). A patch is available but too many texts are flowing into it while shutting down. This is not a good option.
As a result the only solution is to insert a translated message directly in the shutdown image at CD build, and only for CD's. This will cause difficulties when we'll use isohybrid disk images. A ticket is required for this issue.
Note that the script /etc/init.d/live-initramfs is containing commands usplash_write to put the message “remove CD then press enter”. Maybe we could try to replace these commands with splashy_update.
- Status changed from In Progress to Ready for test
- % Done changed from 50 to 100
Finally the only solution that is working is to use ImageMagick to insert text in images. We now have a script that translates texts then put them in the images using a template image. Note that we may still have difficulties with the font to be found while running the script.
- Status changed from Ready for test to Closed
The final solution consists in temporary installing the package splashy-themes-doudoulinux during CD build, in a chroot script. Finally the most difficult thing was not to get the font file but to get the translation texts. Locales are likely not set in the chrooted environment during build, which means that it is impossible to use gettext. We had to ship the package with prebuilt translation texts in small shell scripts as a workaround.
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