Re: splashy in default desktop environment(was: The project is dead?)
On 8/26/06, Michael Banck <mbanck@debian.org> wrote:
On Sat, Aug 26, 2006 at 05:36:57AM -0400, Luis wrote:
> I agree with you on this. Grub's default and if /boot/grub/menu.lst is
> found, one could safely assume that the user is using it. The next
> thing would be to ask the user whether he/she wants Splashy to
> automatically add the options needed and whether to automatically
> detect what's the best resolution for the system (maybe even give the
> user examples right in the text for the debconf question and let them
> type something like: vga=791)
1. Is there are resolution which works well for everybody?
That's a big assumption, but, i should say that in a desktop, using
anything less than 1024x768 looks very bad, especially under Gnome.
So, with that assumption in mind, most desktop users (if not all) are
using 1024x768 and beyond. So, vga=791 gives you that resolution using
thousands of colors. This is well enough for Splashy to show a kickass
image during boot, and a nice progressbar. Whoever needs to use any
other resolution, could always go and set it to whatever value they
think is better for their systems. Me in particular, I use 1280x1024
at thousands of colors. Also keep in mind that this resolution and
color selection has nothing to do with what X/Gnome/or whatever would
actually use once the system finishes booting. At that point it will
go to whatever the users feel comfortable with.
2. Why does one not have to add vga= to Ubuntu's grub line? Ubuntu is
using usplash AFAIK, and this seems like a compelling argument to maybe
evaluate it again? Or are they just overriding things in their kernel?
Good point.
> Splashy works flawlessly. The only problems we have are with
> initramfs. But running Splashy from regular init works fine.
Well, AFAIK Debian stock kernels use initramfs.
Yep. all kernels after 2.6.12 use initramfs, and all (modern) Linux
distributions use at least a 2.6.12 kernel (Sarge being the exception,
but we know how badly behind debian distributions used to be).
My point was that Splashy doesn't necessarily need to be in initramfs.
Splashy works well to cover the boot text. Just start it as early as
possible (as soon as init starts actually), and prevent any text
before init start to be displayed (this is a real struggle, but Ubuntu
has already solve this problem nicely).
> There might be a bit of text displayed for some users depending on
> what drivers they need for their hardware (quiet doesn't quite cut all
> messages from the boot process before init takes over).
I don't think that is a big problem, giving how the boot process looked
until now. It might be nice to address this for etch+1, though.
People want bootsplashing solutions since yesterday. And by "people" i
mean us end-users. But, this is the nature of open-source software.
Things get done when thy get done. No dead-lines. We are doing our
best to have Splashy initramfs bug dealt with by the time Etch is
released. Let people install it by their own means then, at least for
now.
--
----)(-----
Luis Mondesi
*NIX Guru
Kiskeyix.org
"We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and
you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on" --
Steve Jobs in an interview for MacWorld Magazine 2004-Feb
No .doc: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.es.html
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