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Linux Software

Animate Your LILO 236

Posted by timothy from the an-animated-grub-sounds-disgusting dept.
clarkie.mg writes: "Most linux users still see the four letters LILO when booting the PC. It's now possible to have some cool graphics at boot time with the animated LILO. You can even play a game !" Be careful of the French.
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Animate Your LILO More

Animate Your LILO

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  • This is all very nice... (Score:4, Funny)

    by RinkSpringer ( 518787 ) <.rink. .at. .rink.nu.> on Friday February 01, 2002 @03:45AM (#2936104) Homepage Journal
    But since I try to reboot about once in a month (due to upgrades), I won't see much of it :)

  • grub (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by ma2tias ( 302579 )
    Does anyone know if there is something similar for grub?
    • Well, games would probably be easy for GRUB... after all, it's possible to just give it a path to a binary and it boots that =)

      By the way, one of the reasons why I got GRUB instead of LILO was that it *gasp* had this cool boot menu! Colors and everything, way before LILO =)

    • Word has it (if you install grub as an option) redhat 7.2 sports a nice looking background image in the os selection screen. But I'm a debian user so I wouldnt know. (tee hee)
      • LILO 22 also had an option for a 640x480x16 indexed bitmap for the background... of course, message files have been around for a while now...a game is really going to far! People will now install GNU/Linux only to check out the LILO screens. :P
  • Now if they'd just come up with something to let me play Missile Command while my system boots... }:)
  • it's funny that the x-ray images are from a powerbook titanium G4. That thing uses a different bootloader, last I had SuSE on a mac.

  • Breakout suggestion: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pathwalker ( 103 ) <hotgrits@yourpants.net> on Friday February 01, 2002 @03:56AM (#2936140) Homepage Journal
    How about (to make things a little more exciting) if you miss the ball without hitting n (a randomly selected number ) bricks, there is a 1 in 10 chance that your bootsector gets wiped.
    It would really help increase average uptimes, as admins would find new and innovative ways to avoid having to reboot.
    Linux would reach the tops of the Netcraft uptime chart [netcraft.com] in no time!
    • Uptime and availability are not the same, though. I'd rather reboot a box daily (ok, I'm not running IIS, make that monthly) and have 99.9% availability than having a machine that is never rebooted but fails a couple of percents of requests.


      Says the author of Uptimed [capsi.com], sigh. Nevermind, you're right, rebooting is evil. :-)

    • Re:Breakout suggestion: (Score:5, Funny)

      by Raphael ( 18701 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:58AM (#2936253) Homepage Journal

      As a matter of fact, my plan is to release the "breakout" boot screen in two versions:

      • The normal version would allow you to select any operating system and to boot at any time
      • The "game freak" version (a.k.a. "waste of time" version) would not let you boot your computer until you have passed at least the first level. If you want to select the second OS in the list, then you would have to pass the second level, and so on...

      I could even release an even nastier version that would not let you boot anything until you have passed all levels. Then you would really have to think twice before rebooting... <evil grin>

      P.S.: my site seems to be /.ed for the moment. I suggest that you wait until tomorrow before downloading these boot screens, in order to save some bandwidth today. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit 3D Gamers [3dgamers.com] and have some fun.

      • Any idea why I get this error?

        Fatal: /boot/xray-blue.boot is too big (> 65535 bytes)

        Is the SUsE version of lilo really *that* necessary to get this to work or will the stock 22.1 source do?

        • SuSE LILO required (was Re:Breakout suggestion) (Score:5, Informative)

          by Raphael ( 18701 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @06:06AM (#2936346) Homepage Journal

          Yes, you do need the SuSE version of LILO because this is the only version that includes support for callback functions and timer events. This is mandatory for making the animations work. All other versions of LILO can only display static images and do not let you choose where the menu is displayed, how the keyboard input should be handled, and so on.

          This is explained on my help page [gamers.org].

          By the way, if you go to a SuSE mirror site to download the required packages, you will find:

          • LILO in .../i386/7.3/suse/a1/lilo.rpm
          • LILO sources in .../i386/7.3/suse/zq1/lilo.spm
          • the program mkbootmsg in .../i386/7.3/suse/ap1/gfxboot.rpm and .../i386/7.3/suse/ap2/gfxboot-devel.rpm
          • mkbootmsg sources in .../i386/7.3/suse/zq1/gfxboot.spm.

          Have fun, but please read the warnings on my help page before playing with LILO.

          • Yes, you do need the SuSE version of LILO because this is the only version that includes support for callback functions and timer events. This is mandatory for making the animations work.

            The version of Lilo with Suse 7.3 does a little bit of animation by default anyway.
    • Good idea - and if you do really really badly it should boot you into Windoze.

    • How about (to make things a little more exciting) if you miss the ball without hitting n (a randomly selected number ) bricks, there is a 1 in 10 chance that your bootsector gets wiped.

      With certain versions of the Linux kernel, this happens already without having to play Breakout.

      - A.P.
    • Linux would reach the tops of the Netcraft uptime chart in no time!

      For values of 'no time' slightly greater than three years...

  • this is a pretty silly gimmick.
    Unless of course you are a 31337 h4x0r and you need to make sure that your leetness is evident by displaying a graffito-style image during your notebooks boot cycle while you have it illegally patched into the pay phone from which you are hacking the defence servers.

    Or of course, i suppose you could use it to display some sort of reminder to take this opportunity to grab yourself a bite to eat in the middle of your 20 hour coding sessions.
    • illegally patching into pay phones will only get you a 14.4 connection (I have this on authority from someone who traveled all over one of the largest cities in the US cutting off payphone handsets and jerry-rigging it to his laptop modem) ...I get the impression that a connection that slow isn't going to buy you enough time to do any hacking against the DOD. :D

      • Re:gimmicky (Score:2, Informative)

        by mosch ( 204 )
        You can get 14.4 with an acoustic coupler, no damage to anything. You can get a full-speed connection if you cut off the handset and hook up with alligator clips. I have this on authority of a lawn gnome, who claims to be a very l33t hax0r.

        As far as hacking the DoD goes, talk to their admins. They have far shittier security than most decent-sized companies.

  • Damn... but not TextMode (Score:3, Interesting)

    by strredwolf ( 532 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @03:57AM (#2936145) Homepage Journal
    Geesh... VGA mode -- which means you need some sort of support with your card (some old laptops don't).

    But how about doing it in TextMode, animating each group of characters? I think PC Tools did it with their on-screen Text-mode mouse pointer which actually looked like a mouse pointer.

    Of course, having a Penguin on the first three or so lines of my screen in text mode all the time would help too. :)

  • More Info and Warning (Score:3, Troll)

    by Metrollica ( 552191 ) <m etrollica AT hotmail D0T com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @03:58AM (#2936148) Homepage Journal
    There is more info on the animated boot screen here [happypenguin.org] with a nice large screenshot. [happypenguin.org]

    There is also a warning on the site for people planning on trying this out:

    Before you try this, have a boot floppy ready. If something doesn't go as planned, you could RENDER YOUR SYSTEM UNBOOTABLE. You have been warned.

  • That explains... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SysadminFromHell ( 535868 ) <yvanNO@SPAMsanctamaria-aarschot.be> on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:03AM (#2936154) Homepage
    ... why games IN Linux don't sell. Is anyone working on quake for LILO?

    Oh wait! let us play xbill on the boot screen. If Bill wins, the system boots Windows. If I win, I get my Linux back.

    • Implement bootp www browser system that let you select from server what "boot" image run from a "SVGA web client frontend".

      1 saludo
      Tei
    • let us play xbill on the boot screen. If Bill wins, the system boots Windows. If I win, I get my Linux back.

      Interesting idea, but difficult to implement because the mouse is not available in LILO so it would be hard to play XBill.

      But maybe it would be possible to design a similar game with keyboard input only? If you have some ideas, feel free to send them to me and I will see if I can implement them easily. Or even better: implement the LILO version of XBill yourself and publish it so that everybody can have fun!

  • Ok, anyone who whines about slashdot reporting this software release should be shot.

    I don't mean to sound as if I'm a pointless loser who tweaks the crap out of linux all day (uhh...) but I haven't had my jaw drop when looking at a screenshot for a LONG time (maybe since some early FVWM-XPM release (which later became E (by the way, anyone who bitches about E, enlightenment combined with nice free gui toolkits revolutionized the look of the linux desktop.. but E really gave it flair that many WMs have now.. anyway (too much parenthetical nesting))))

    so this is one of those statements like the one on the aalib (ansi) quake page, which says, if you have to ask why, you are not a member of the intended audience

  • Make your own boot screen (Score:5, Informative)

    by Metrollica ( 552191 ) <m etrollica AT hotmail D0T com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:08AM (#2936164) Homepage Journal
    Here are instructions [13thfloor.at] on how to make your very own LILO boot screens.

    But to do this you need a few prerequisites.

    ... know what The GIMP is.
    ... have already installed and activated The GIMP.
    ... know how to accomplish simple drawing activities.
    ... have already installed the LILO Splash Screen Script-Fu.
    ... know how to activate the LILO Splash Screen Script-Fu.
    ... know what you want ;)
    • I'm thinking seven dwarves strolling across the screen singing "Lilo. Lilo. It's off to work I go..."

    • That page explains how to make a static splash screen for the old LILO, using the program mklilomsg. This is different from the animated splash screens that can be made with the patched version of LILO included in SuSE Linux (and hopefully someday in the standard LILO) using the program mkbootmsg.

      Programming the animated splash screens is very different, because they require a special script file that defines how the menu is drawn, how the keyboard input is processed, how the various animated bits are displayed on the screen, and so on... This is more work than for a static image, but the result is much more interesting.

  • Removes the sting of improper configuration (Score:5, Funny)

    by khaladan ( 445 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:08AM (#2936166)
    Great, now if there is a problem booting the OS, LILO can say:

    "Error: could not boot OS. Do you want to play a game instead?"

    That's user friendly.

  • The French (Score:5, Funny)

    by mir ( 106753 ) <mirod@xmltwig.com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:09AM (#2936167) Homepage
    Hey, I object to the comment "Be careful of the French".
    We are just regular people you know, we eat crème brulée every day just like the rest of you, drink expensive red wine while making silly faces as any normal person would, use our regular quota of "Oh la vache!" and "Sacrebleu", have run-o' the mill girl names and our poo smells like rose just like everybody else's
    So there!
    • Don't forget the French Fries ;-)

      --
      deja vu
      --
      deja vu

    • Re:The French (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Since this thing is French, I guess this is incompatible with the SOAP protocol.

    • Re:The French (Score:2, Funny)

      by Skirwan ( 244615 )
      Be careful of the French.
      We are just regular people you know...
      Now look here, my good man...
      I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
      Looks, is there someone else up there we could talk to?
      No. Now, go away, or I shall taunt you a second time-a!

      --
      Get on with it!
  • for every time I've heard/seen that disclaimer.... "be careful of the french"

  • purty pictures? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Fruit ( 31966 )

    You lucky, lucky bastard!

    I can't even get mine to say more than "LI" =P

  • From what I can tell, it's only SuSE's particular version of LILO that will be able to use this by default. Are any of their hooks being rolled back in to the upstream source so that the rest of us don't need a help page to get this working? Personally, LILO is not something I want to mess around with too much.

    • Re:SuSE Only (Score:3, Informative)

      by 4im ( 181450 )

      AFAIK this is not SuSE-only, but they are among the first to have it in their distribution.

      I've got a SuSE 7.3 installation with their default LILO stuff, it really looks nice - during bootup, while the kernel messages are scrolling in the middle of the screen, you have graphics around the borders, part of which is animated (top right corner in this case). More of the same during shutdown.

      It may not be interesting for those chasing uptimes or using their box as servers, but for workstations that get switched off for the night (I don't want to hear that noise all night, and it lets me save the trees along the way) it's a nice display every day.

      I've also seen reports on how to modify this display in some german magazine, can't remember wether it was c't or iX from Heise [heise.de], or the Linux Magazin [linuxmagazin.de]. It's been after SuSE 7.3 came out, but it's been a couple of months at least.

      • Re:SuSE Only (Score:3, Informative)

        by krmt ( 91422 )
        I don't think you're right about that. I'm running Debian unstable, with lilo version 22.1 (package version 6) which matches the upstream's most stable. There's another poster who also is running this, and he can't get it to work. I'm not going to try tonight though, it's too late for me to be messing with the bootloader!

  • Microsoft take note (Score:4, Funny)

    by mgv ( 198488 ) <Nospam.01.slash2dotNO@SPAMveltman.org> on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:33AM (#2936205) Homepage Journal
    Linux has finally thrown that dagger at the heart of microsoft - Bloatware and Eye Candy.

    You are aiming for the same end user as M$ here - this will surely strike fear into the evil empire.

    ;)

    Michael

  • Bonjour? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:36AM (#2936211)
    I fart in your general direction! Your LILO was a hamster, and your kernel smelt of elderberries!

  • hum ? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mirko ( 198274 )
    I am using the newest unstable/testing Debian :
    Here's what I get when I try to install the Breakout (201195 bytes) on my laptop :

    broomstick:~# lilo
    Fatal: /boot/breakout.boot is too big (> 65535 bytes)

    I guess "something is rotten in the realm of Denmark" ;-)
    • Yes - LILO version 22.1 is what's in Debian testing, and it's the freshest available from the LILO distribution site [dyndns.org] - except for the beta, and there's nothing relevant in the changelog for that.
    • It's working on my laptop.

      Install alien if you don't have it yet, then grab lilo.rpm from one of the SUSE mirrors the author of the eye candy pointed out above. I ran "alien lilo.rpm", then "dpkg -i lilo_21.7.5-55_i386.deb" because I wasn't familiar with the alien -i option...

      It works, although my text is all squishy right now. It makes me consider getting the Linux Progress Patch [freshmeat.net] (the homepage is currently fallow, it seems) and gdm or xdm just for uninterrupted graphics.

      I think it could make my parents go "ooooh."
      • Yop, got it : I also downloaded in ap2 gfxboot-devel.rpm in order to hack around the breakout.config as I couldn't play (shift keys not recognized).
        FYI I added the following to play using the F9/F10 keys :

        key keyF9 eq { /bat.dx -6 def } if
        key keyF10 eq { /bat.dx 6 def } if

        before the line :
        key keyStatus eq {

        And now I can play breakout with a freshly switched on computer :-)

  • Tux (Score:1)

    by PHanT0 ( 148738 )
    Now this is a good application for Tux Racer to handle... to you think you can just slide into that OS?

    Not likely...

  • Great... (Score:3, Funny)

    by lowLark ( 71034 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @04:54AM (#2936246)
    No I have to go out and buy some new hardware I don't need so that the drivers take longer to load, so that I can finish my game of break out before the boot is over. Maybe I could just fragment my hard drive...
  • This will be great when we start to see themeable boot menus:

    • A trendy Enlightenment style boot manager
    • Animation of your favourite movie in the background
    • A dragon stalking around
    Then again, I have no ideas of what the potential or limit of this is :)
  • thats nice. how about UT or NFS or Quake or something like that, maybe an IM or netscape running at LILO, man the people are really coming up with weird stuff. Well it could be useful. If I am undecisive about wether to go windoze or Linux then I can play a chance game to decide... very very productive... wait a minute i got a great idea. Howe about a random movie, if the movie is tragic i boot into one OS otherwise into other. And if its a french beauty its even better... I cant read french but i can sure see !

  • LILO Games... not new (Score:4, Funny)

    by iritant ( 156271 ) <lear.ofcourseimright@com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @05:42AM (#2936310) Homepage
    On old Pyramid 90x hardware (anyone remember them?) you could play Space Invaders on the system console, in what was known as the Console Operating System (COS) while the kernel was running. If you played too long, the console buffer would fill and the system would crash.

    In other words, when you won, everyone else on the system lost.

  • Be careful of the French. (Score:3, Flamebait)

    by CubicZirconia ( 555781 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @05:55AM (#2936333)
    Yes, thanks for the reminder -- they can be devious and underhanded and take advantage of you when you're at your most vunerable ;)

  • Don't Forget GRUB (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @05:55AM (#2936335) Homepage Journal

    Although I've used LILO for many years, I think at this point I've pretty much converted over to the GNU GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) [gnu.org].

    What makes GRUB especially cool is that it doesn't need to be installed on the hard disk in order to boot systems from it. Not only can GRUB locate every hard disk in the system, not only does it understand different partitioning schemes (including BSD-style partitions), but it can also understand various filesystem structures. So if you forgot the name of that latest kernel image you wanted to test, GRUB will let you poke around the filesystem looking for it. GRUB even has a find command to do it for you.

    GRUB also supports other systems by performing the traditional read-the-first-block-from-the-partition method using the chainloader command. This lets you boot other OSes whose filesystems GRUB doesn't understand.

    Once you get past the arcane command syntax, GRUB turns out to be a wonderful tool. I recommend checking it out.

    Schwab

    • Yha, but if I can't play tetris then what good it it?
    • Of course, GRUB still requires to be installed on the hard drive (otherwise it wouldn't boot), but what is different is that it is divided into two stages, Stage1 is like LILO, except more minimal, and Stage2 does the magic (fancy commandline, VFAT, ext2, reiserfs support) from a separate partition, probably a linux partition for most readers. Because it has intelligent FS drivers, it doesn't need to be re-installed on every kernel compile, and can on the fly load any linux kernel on the disk and boot from it, in addition to other neat stuff. Don't forget that it of course offers nice menus that are likely pre-configured by your distro so the "arcane" syntax can be ignored by many users, lilo-like functionality requires little additional knowledge. And yes, it supports graphics in a sense, can go into a framebuffer mode and have a static, 16 color background.
    • Two reasons I much prefer GRUB to LILO:
      LI

      (If you don't get it, keep using LILO.)

    • Re:Don't Forget GRUB (Score:2, Informative)

      by fsck! ( 98098 )

      Arcane command syntax? Where? The best thing GRUB has going for it is the whole unix command line identity crisis. All of the keys that bash users are accustomed to are available from GRUB, including autocompletion. That said, how complicated is the syntax for booting from, say, that kernel you just built?

      grub> kernel (hd0,0)/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage vga=5 idebus=66
      grub> boot

      The partition synatx may be new, but I think 'arcane' is a little harsh. (hd0,0) means first bios disk, first partition. Pretty self-explanitory and logical.

      • Sure, that particular example is fairly easy. But don't tell me the install command is anywhere near that clear-cut.

        Also, if you're trying to boot Windoze, the chainloader command may be a bit non-obvious (not to mention the drive-swapping and partition activation commands that may be necessary).

        In any case, I found it a bit overwhelming at first and ended up having to read the manual twice before I got a handle on how to write a bootmenu. But as you say, once you've got the basics down, GRUB rocks.

        Schwab

    • splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

      Just a gzip'd 640x480 xpm, trivial to replace. VERY cool.
    • What makes GRUB especially cool is that it doesn't need to be installed on the hard disk in order to boot systems from it.

      I never found that to be a deficiency in Lilo myself.

      Not only can GRUB locate every hard disk in the system, not only does it understand different partitioning schemes (including BSD-style partitions), but it can also understand various filesystem structures.

      Again, as a new stable distribution tested kernel (which is what I run on my workstation adn server boxes) comes out maybe twice a year, I frankly don't see the need for this.

      So if you forgot the name of that latest kernel image you wanted to test, GRUB will let you poke around the filesystem looking for it. GRUB even has a find command to do it for you.

      Indeed. Grub works well for testers. For the rest of us:
      * Grub uses a completely different device syntax than my OS which I can't be bothered learning
      * Grub has an arcane syntax if you do actually want some kind of interactive bootloader

      Grub advocates also seem to miss two points:
      * Grub has a pretty menu and can boot beyong cylinder 1024 / 8GB. Lilo has been able to do this for a couple of years too. Moot point.
      * Grub complies to the `miltiboot specification'. Seeing as the Grub people wrote the `multiboot specification', who cares?

      Mike

  • What about BarBoot? (Score:2, Informative)

    by evilviper ( 135110 )
    I had been using a program called BarBoot that was a hacked LILO which displayed animated flames at bootup. I guess that was quite a while back, say before Redhat 6.
  • When will the first LILO virus be out :)
  • is the sense of emptyness in the Linux world that the free availability has brought.

    Even Linux needs a place for 64k demos that plays a tune and shows a cool plasma effect while a sinus scroller shows:
    "Linux SuSE booter hacked by Triumph Greetings to...

  • Sounds cool. I almost wished that I had windows or some other OS besides linux to dual boot

  • So when can we expect LilOS 1.0?
    and will there be a LILOLO (Linux boot loader loader)? ;)

    /K

  • Waste (Score:1)

    by tsa ( 15680 )
    I think this is an outrageous waste of computing power and electricity. We have to put a stop to things like this. When I was young computers weren't used for frivolous things like this! When I was young computers were used to do what they were invented for: serious stuff like calculating where to aim to hit your enemy the hardest. They were improving societey! But now... Since the invention of the graphics terminal the world is deteriorating fast...

  • easier way.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Marcus Brody ( 320463 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @08:00AM (#2936504) Homepage
    personally I just put a little bit of script into rc.6, so that every time i reboot it cat's the output of 'cookie' into the boot message.

    Hey Presto, new proverb every time you reboot.

  • Mandrake bootscreen (Score:2, Informative)

    by Okneff ( 522357 )
    Here's a link [webweaver.de] for Mandrake users. Beware of the german ;-)
    Short instructions:
    - make .bmp 640x480 max 128 colors
    - use bmp2mdk script
    - edit lilo.conf
    There are two examples. Have a look at /usr/share/doc/lilo-/README.graphic.

  • Boot sector Russian roulette (Score:3)

    by pyramid termite ( 458232 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:06AM (#2936853)
    There is a screen of a gun. Press your mouse to play and pull the trigger. If the chamber has no bullet in it you will hear a click and boot into Linux. If it has a bullet in it, the gun will go off and you will boot into Windows. Do you want to play? (Y/N)

  • This brings memory (Score:3, Funny)

    by HeUnique ( 187 ) <hetz-homeNO@SPAMcobol2java.com> on Friday February 01, 2002 @10:21AM (#2936940) Homepage
    Oh yeah, that surely reminds me of my old Amiga 1000 - graphics, sound, sprites, simple vectors - and all in 1 boot sector! (yeah, I know - the data was on the last track on floppy but it surely looked great...

    Who knows, maybe someone will implement it on LILO or GRUB - it will surely be more fun to boot ;)
  • The site is slashdotted, so here are the link to the pictures and the text from the main page.

    pictures
    green [gamers.org]
    blue [gamers.org]
    penguins [gamers.org]
    game [gamers.org]

    text

    Animated splash screens for LILO

    Introduction

    Since mid-2001, most Linux distributions include some patched versions of LILO (the LInux LOader) that support VGA or VESA graphical modes and make it possible to have a nice background image while booting. Starting with SuSE Linux 7.2, the SuSE distribution includes an interesting extension to LILO that allows a programmer to define some callback functions that are triggered when some events occur (key pressed, timeout, ...). It gives a much greater flexibility than the other extensions that are provided by most of the other Linux distributions, including the new graphical modes that have recently been added to the official version of LILO 22.x.

    While testing the SuSE version of LILO and the helper program mkbootmsg, I was wondering if the timer callbacks together with the function that copies parts of the image to the screen could be used for creating animations. I quickly found out that it was indeed possible to enhance the boot screen with animations. Since my friends liked the results, I decided to share them on this web site.

    These animated boot screens have been tested with SuSE Linux 7.2 and 7.3. They should also work with other Linux distributions, as long as you install the appropriate version of LILO. This is explained on my help page.

    Why?
    Several people told me that LILO was not designed to do this kind of things and asked me why I did this. So here are some reasons: because LILO was not designed to do this kind of things, because it is fun, because some people like to waste their time looking at pretty animations when their computer is booting.

    Of course, these boot screens will not be so useful for those who keep their Linux server running for several months without rebooting (some of my servers have been running for more than a year). But these animations were not designed for these servers: they are more interesting for desktop computers that are rebooted from time to time. I created the first boot screens for a laptop that I boot and shut down at least once a day.

    Animated boot screens
    Click on one of these images to go to a separate page from which you can download the file to use with LILO as well as all source files.

    xray-green
    640x480, 256 colors (VESA)
    Animations:
    - progress bar (timeout)
    - hard disk motor
    - two flashing lights

    xray-blue
    640x480, 256 colors (VESA)
    Animations:
    - progress bar (timeout)
    - hard disk motor
    - two flashing lights
    - rotating fan

    penguins
    640x480, 256 colors (VESA)
    Animations:
    - walking penguin at the bottom of the screen
    - walking X-Mas penguin on top of the menu
    - falling penguin (tumbler) for the LILO timeout
    Special keys: F1, F2, F3 influence the penguins
    breakout
    640x480, 256 colors (VESA)
    This is a full, playable game, not a simple animation.
    Special keys:
    - F1 for help
    - F2 starts a game
    - Shift and Ctrl control the bat

    Copyright

    I am releasing these animated boot screens under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2 or later (at your option).

    This means that you are allowed to use, modify, copy and distribute them freely. You can even sell your own version if you want. But if you distribute them to others, then you must also distribute the source code for these boot screens. In this case, the "source code" ("the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it") means the configuration file(s) and the source of the image(s), including all layers and masks if applicable. It should be possible for those who get the source code to modify the animation easily, so distributing only the final PCX image is usually not sufficient because that would not be the the preferred form for making modifications to the image (unless you worked only on that bitmap file and painted it pixel by pixel, but then I pity you).

    For more details, see the full text of the GPL (also available in HTML version from www.gnu.org).

  • gaah (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kin_korn_karn ( 466864 ) on Friday February 01, 2002 @01:03PM (#2937863) Homepage
    I'm going to get -infinity for this but, OK.

    this is too much. crap like this, thrown in because it's "kewl", is why the real world doesn't take Linux seriously.

    I want LILO to load my OS, and no more. I can wait until I boot to play games and see the pretty colors.
    • Come on, man, this is just a fun little program. It's completely optional to download and install. It's not like this will come standard with every version of RedHat from this day forward. It's just a lighthearted little hack released for the fun of it.

      One thing it is definitely not is a reason why people don't adopt Linux. On the contrary, I think it would reflect nicely on the world of Linux, as it shows how open the system is. You're perfectly free to load LILO in plain-vanilla form, but if you're up for it, you can install some eye candy if you want.

  • Booting Linux? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by thrillbert ( 146343 )
    Most linux users still see the four letters LILO when booting the PC.

    Then again, most users only see the LILO screen once every blue moon.

    9:31am up 122 days, 22:40, 0 users, load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00


    Now, installing the graphical LILO to boot my windows box, now that's entertaining!

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