UBootSplashScreen < DULG

%SECTION0{name=UBootSplashScreen}% Splash Screen Support

Even if you manage to boot U-Boot and Linux into a graphical user application
within 5 or 6 seconds of power-on (which is not difficult), many
customers expect to see "something" immediately. U-Boot supports the concept of
a _splash screen_ for such purposes.

To enable splash screen support, you have to add a
=="#define CONFIG_SPLASH_SCREEN"== to your board configuration file. This will also implicitly enable [[UBootBitmapSupport][U-Boot Bitmap Support]].


After power-on, U-Boot will test if the environment variable ="splashimage"=
is defined, and if it contains the address of a valid bitmap image. If this is the case, the normal startup messages will be suppressed and the defined *splash screen* will be displayed instead. Also, all output (devices =stdout= and =stderr= ) will be suppressed (redirected to the ="nulldev"= device).

For example, to install this feature on a system, proceed as follows:
<verbatim>
=> tftp 100000 /tftpboot/denx_startup.bmp
TFTP from server 192.168.3.1; our IP address is 192.168.3.74
Filename '/tftpboot/denx_startup.bmp'.
Load address: 0x100000
Loading: #############################################################
done
Bytes transferred = 308278 (4b436 hex)
=> cp.b 100000 41F80000 $filesize
Copy to Flash... done
=> setenv splashimage 41F80000
=> saveenv
Saving Environment to Flash...
Un-Protected 1 sectors
Erasing Flash...
. done
Erased 1 sectors
Writing to Flash... done
Protected 1 sectors
=> bmp info $splashimage
Image size    : 640 x 480
Bits per pixel: 8
Compression   : 0
</verbatim>

%X% Note that, for perfect operation, this option has to be complemented
by matching [[LinuxSplashScreen][Splash Screen Support in Linux]].