How to make a splash screen and menu

[Pizzasgood]

note: this thread is mainly for Puppy 1.x.x. See this other post for Puppy 2.xx (actually, the new method should work for any Puppy)

This is how to make a splash screen and menu for Puppy. Keep in mind you must remaster the cd for this to work.

Boot Screen
First off, you will either need the ppmtolss16 script or gif2lss. The ppmtolss16 needs perl, the other doesn't. I attached ppmtolss16, and Barry attached giftolss below.
ppmtolss16.pup

Okay, now you need to make an image. It should be 640*400 with 16 colors. You can go two ways depending on which script you're using.

ppmtolss16 method
Make sure it is saved as a 16 color png, not as a 32bit or 256 color png that happens to have only 16 colors. It has to use a palette. You can make it shorter or taller if you want, to leave room for the message. Save it somewhere as goofy.png.

Next, you need to do this:

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       #pngtopnm <goofy.png >goofy.pnm
       #ppmtolss16 <goofy.pnm >goofy.16

Okay, now you just replace the goofy.16 that comes with Puppy. It is on the cd (as in with image.gz and usr_cram.fs, not inside them).


gif2lss method
Make sure it is saved as a 16 color gif, not as a 32 color or 256 color gif that happens to have only 16 colors. It has to use a palette. You can make it shorter or taller if you want, to leave room for the message. Save it somewhere as goofy.gif.

Next, you need to do this:

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       #gif2lss goofy.gif > goofy.16

Okay, now you just replace the goofy.16 that comes with Puppy. It is on the cd (as in with image.gz and usr_cram.fs, not inside them).

Menu
To make the menu, you edit the isolinux.cfg file on the cd (as in with image.gz and usr_cram.fs, not inside them). Here is an example:

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default 1
DISPLAY BOOT.MSG
prompt 1
label 0
	localboot 0x80
label 1
  kernel vmlinuz
  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz ramdisk_size=50490 PFILE=pup001-none-262144
label 2
  kernel vmlinuz
  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz ramdisk_size=50490 PFILE=ask
label 3
  kernel vmlinuz
  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz acpi=off ramdisk_size=50490 PFILE=pup001-none-262144 
label 4
  kernel vmlinuz
  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz acpi=off ramdisk_size=50490 PFILE=ask
label 5
  kernel vmlinuz
  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz PFILE=cd
timeout 100

The default line is the default boot option that will be chosen if the user presses enter or it times out.

The line with BOOT.MSG calls the boot screen. If you don't want it, get rid of this and don't include goofy.16 and BOOT.MSG.
The labels are what will happen if you choose those options.

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localboot 0x80

This goes back to the harddrive and boots from there. That means that if you have windows on the harddrive, it will boot that. If you use lilo to dual boot, the lilo menu will come up. Same with grub.

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  kernel vmlinuz
  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz ramdisk_size=50490 PFILE=pup001-none-262144

This will boot from the pupfile pup001. You can change the pup001 to whatever you want. You can also change it to

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PFILE=ask

without any numbers after it, and it will ask the user which pupfile (if any) to use. If you leave it blank, it won't use a pupfile at all.
The part that goes

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ramdisk_size=50490

is the size that the ramdisk should be. This is the size of image.gz when it is decompressed. If you change image.gz, you need to get it's size. To decompress it, you can use gunzip.
The numbers after the pupfile (262144 in the example) are the size of the pupfile.
In this line

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  append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=image.gz acpi=off ramdisk_size=50490 

The part that says acpi=off turns off acpi. I don't know what this is, but someone must have needed it once, because it was there. Normal people don't use it though.

At the end, it has

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timeout 100

This is how long (in tenths of a second) the menu will stay up before defaulting and continuing.

[BarryK]

You don't need Perl.
Puppy Unleashed has a neat little program, gif2lss, a binary executable.
It's attached.

[Nathan F]

Thanks a lot, Pizzas. Just the info I was looking for earlier.

Nathan

[gliezl]

Hi Nathan! I'm waiting for this.

Yet I'm having trouble with conversion. Could you lend me a hand?

I'll upload my image.

A million thanks.

[Nathan F]

gliezl-
If you can wait a couple of days I'll take a stab at it. I'm leaving in a few minutes for work and will be gone until late Tuesday night.

Nathan

[Pizzasgood]

I already did it, but it's complaining about "the maximum filesize for all Attachments is reached" so I'll have to try again later.

[Pizzasgood]

Here we go!

[Lobster]

Nothing in that file when I downloaded it (thought it was a bit small)

[Pizzasgood]

Sorry 'bout that. I accidentally did the first one in the tmp directory, meaning to upload it immediately, but the forum wouldn't let me and I forgot, so when I came back today it was gone. So I did it again, but mis-typed something. I fixed it, but the forum is acting up again, so I'll come back when I get tired of working on my essay.

[Pizzasgood]

Forget it. I just uploaded it to my website. Here:
http://www.pizzasgood.com/images/goofy_178.16.gz

Now, hopefully you can download .gz's from there


EDIT: Yep. You might have to right click it and use save link, though. Firefox tried opening it as a text file, but it downloaded fine. I also checked it this time, and it wasn't blank.

[Nathan F]

I got everything in order quickly using these instructions and the file Barry uploaded. It adds a lot of polish to my project-thanks guys.

Nathan

[Browny]

Hello all,

Could you any body tell me how to make splash screen while booting puppy216 from unleashed.

Browny.

[angularspoon]

Hey just wondering if it's possible to do this when puppy is installed on the HD? Or is there any software that can make a bootsplash. I know other linux distros have software where you can edit the bootsplash, this is a feature i'd really like to have in puppy.

[hankyknot]

Okay, now you just replace the goofy.16 that comes with Puppy. It is on the cd (as in with image.gz and usr_cram.fs, not inside them).

Ok so Im a total noob I know but I got as far as this and cant see where I need to replace this file. I have goofy.16 under the root folder but dont know what to do next.

[gliezl]

Does higher versions of Puppy support this?

[Pizzasgood]

Does higher versions of Puppy support this?

Yep, but I don't know the details off the top of my head. You have to modify some files in the iso now to get it to load an image. I'm not back from vacation yet though (I move into my dorm next weekend) so I can't check specifics yet.

Hey just wondering if it's possible to do this when puppy is installed on the HD? Or is there any software that can make a bootsplash. I know other linux distros have software where you can edit the bootsplash, this is a feature i'd really like to have in puppy.

Not with this method. This only works from the CD. Even so, it doesn't show during the whole boot, just during the very beginning.

I do have some packages out that would work from the harddrive and last through the whole boot, but they only do static images so far (as in no loading bar). I've only tested them with a Frugal HD install though, not a Full HD install, so I'm not certain it will work perfectly. Search for threads about "Pebble" by "Pizzasgood" and they should turn up. Installation takes a little know-how though. Oh, and I think I only made packages for Puppy 2.12 and 2.14 so far, though there's sort of a do-it-yourself package too that someone who knows what he's doing could use to get it working in newer versions of Puppy.

I'm planning on updating it and adding support for animation sometime after I move back into the dorm and get settled down. I won't be able to make it much easier to install though, due to the nature of Puppy. It'll be included in the next Pizzapup, whenever I get around to making that (Really, I have no idea. I'm not even back from vacation yet. Still "livin' in and out of a big fat suit case." )



So, back on topic, when I get moved in and hooked up, I'll make sure this thread is updated on how to do this with more recent Puppies. Probably I'll have to provide a boot.msg file and a template boot image. Using a more sensible name than goofy.16 (goofy referred to the font style I used on the bootscreen Barry chose to use, as there was also an LCD version).

[Lobster]

after I move back into the dorm and get settled down.

Glad to have you (almost) back from working on the farm
I spent a couple of summers in France when your age, working on the corn crops, castrating male plants ('castration du maize'), probably mentioned that last year

[youji]

How's this?

[Pizzasgood]

Nice. I saw the "real" version of that wallpaper when I skimmed the forum after returning and thought it was pretty darn cool. Was that you who made it?

I think that should work. I'll make a template package out of that tonight or tomorrow.

[Pizzasgood]

Okay, I set up a small package to add a splash to an iso:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 032#137032

I didn't mess with any of the menu stuff I mentioned in this thread though. Mainly because Puppy 2.xx doesn't bother with them. You could come back to this thread after adding the splash and then adjust the menu stuff if you really wanted to though. Just keep in mind the boot parameters have changed (check Barry's info at puppylinux.com for more info on those).