Manu, Thanks for the reply and its consideration. My most-desired outcome would be to boot my system: bios screen -> boot_mute screen (either of custom choice, solid black, FreeBSD word-logo) -> login.
Alternatively said, I want nothing of beastie or beastie orb. And I don’t care about kernel problems screen output OR RC startup output. I do my kernel builds on old hardware — using FreeBSD to help with giving old machines new life / longer life is a contribution I can make to reducing electronic waste. I have a build running right now so I can’t double check the language / versioning in the man pages, but will update later today after I install the world. On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 03:02, Emmanuel Vadot <[m...@bidouilliste.com](mailto:On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 03:02, Emmanuel Vadot <<a href=)> wrote: > Hi, > > On Fri, 21 Mar 2025 22:13:29 +0000 > "Steven Harms (High-Security Mail)" <sgha...@stevengharms.com> wrote: > >> Folks, >> >> I am attempting to figure out what boot_mute wants me to do. I'm trying to >> make a "laptop guide" and I'm confused. I'm not a C programmer at this scale >> of sophistication so there's a decent chance I'm foolishly making an error, >> but current is not doing what I expect. >> >> - boot_mute doesn't appear in [loader.conf(8)][1] > > Indeed, this sould be fixed :) > >> - In the defaults/loader.conf file it [appears][2] and says: that it exists >> to mute the console. I daresay that it's doing more than that, because >> activating it puts a logo + beastie orb on the screen. Question: Should the >> comment be updated? > > It shouldn't put the orb on the top of the screen, this is controlled > by kern.vt.splash_cpu which defaults to 0 > >> - The only other mention of boot_mute is on the line that specifies that the >> overlay image can be controlled through configuration of the [splash] value >> implying that instead of using the encoded array of unsigned char in the >> kernel at >> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/main/sys/dev/vt/logo/logo_beastie.c. >> Whoa! A nice configurable option? Nice. Looking at the git history on that >> file it appears to be part of splash(4). And /that/ document says ..."work >> with syscons(4) only". OK so maybe that comment in defaults also needs >> updating? Because... > > The splash(4) man pages was updated to reflect this, are you looking > at an older revision of the man page ? > >> - My impression is that vt(4) is the way forward at present which means that >> I was following a bad path and we're /back/ to using the [in-kernel defined >> image][3] for the splash screen that's triggered by boot_mute? I really >> don't understand the image packing as chars well enough to reverse how to >> create a BMP from an array of hex values, but, eh...is this the one that's >> being shown? Seems like it. There's also quite a bit of logic inside of >> sys/dev/vt/vt_cpulogos.c[3] that suggests that it's trying to use arrays of >> chars as overlay. > > No need to create an image embedded in kernel, with vt(4) you can load > a png image. > >> OK, so AFAICT, there are two terminal rendering systems, >> under-/mis-documented loader.conf flags, and two places where images are >> defined: in the vt device directory and the images/ directory. Question: Can >> anyone confirm / deny my assessment? > > Looks correct yes. > >> After all that I'm still a bit confused as to what the expected/desired >> behavior is. Can anyone help me figure out what the desired behavior is (and >> maybe I can update the comments)? My current plan is to turn the array into >> 0x00 and see what happens, but I'd like to know how I can turn the results >> of that experiment into a patch. > > What are you trying to do exactly ? > >> Best, >> >> Steven >> >> [1]: >> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/main/stand/defaults/loader.conf.5 >> [2]: >> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/283be95ea29abd7f867e4084bafe368c47f6c038/stand/defaults/loader.conf#L134 >> [splash]: >> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/283be95ea29abd7f867e4084bafe368c47f6c038/stand/defaults/loader.conf#L30 >> [3]: >> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/main/sys/dev/vt/vt_cpulogos.c#L79-L91 >> --- >> >> Public Key: 22BE39E2FA68D8BA8DC4B43A55A16D8CE2B036DE >> >> Messages from this account are considered the best-secured and most >> reliable. Send information regarding health, wealth, or requiring higher >> standards of security to this address. >> >> Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email. > > Cheers, > > -- > Emmanuel Vadot <m...@bidouilliste.com> <m...@freebsd.org>
