GSoC'14 proposal: a new bootsplash screen

[Wojciech A. Koszek]

On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 08:59:49PM +0900, Seiya Nuta wrote:
> Hi, everyone
> 
> I am Seiya Nuta, a university student in Japan and I’m going to submit a GSoC proposal.
> 
> I want to develop a new bootsplash mechanism to add animation such as progress bar.
> It eases concern whether it works on boot and enhances the attractiveness of FreeBSD
> to desktop users.
> 
> I’m willing to work on this even if my proposal is not accepted so I would like you to tell
> me your frank opinion about my proposal.
> 
> My proposal is as follows:
> 
> Description:
> I propose a new bootsplash mechanism. Currently, we can enable bootsplash by adding few
> options such as `splash_bmp_load' to /boot/loader.conf but it only displays an image
> file. I worry whether it works well on boot so I assume we need a new bootsplash which can
> display animation: progress bar, loading circle ball. Themes are kernel modules and draw
> images in two ways: direct drawing and layered drawing.  Direct drawing is same as
> splash_bmp; only draw an image. Layered drawing is a new way; stack images and text. It
> also enables technique like CSS sprite.
> 
> Deliverables:
> - Implementation of bootsplash direct drawing / layered drawing
> - Makefile and scripts for creating bootsplash themes
> - Example themes
> 
> Test Plan:
>   #1:
>     - write code in VM on VirtualBox
>     - `make` and copy generated kernel and modules to /boot
>     - launch .vdi of the VM with QEMU on host OS
>     - check output and dmesg
>   #2:
>     - `make buildinstall` on a real machine.
>     - boot it
>     - check output and dmesg
> 
> Schedule:
>   Work Period #1
>     - (May  19 - May  25) implement direct drawing
>     - (May  26 - June 8)  add changes to src/sys
>     - (June 9  - June 15) write Makefile and scripts for creating themes
>     - (June 16 - June 22) create and enjoy a flip book in bootsplash using direct drawing
>   Work Period #2
>     - (June 23 - June 29) print characters in a framebuffer
>     - (June 30 - July 20) implement layered drawing
>     - (July 21 - July 27) support layered drawing in scripts for creating themes
>     - (July 28 - 'pencils down' date) create themes
> 

Seiya Nuta,

Can you please submit this proposal over Google Melange? It's much easier to
do project review/rating/adjustments for GSoC there.

Thanks,

-- 
Wojciech A. Koszek
wkoszek at FreeBSD.czest.pl
http://FreeBSD.czest.pl/~wkoszek/