Aries's Information & Knowledge Exchange Corner

How-To: Gentoo Framebuffer & Splash

Requirements

1. Installation of Gentoo system either using the Gentoo 2007 LiveCD or Gentoo-Minimal


2. Internet Connection with at least HTTP and FTP traffic allowed
   
   
3. Kernel 2.6.23-r1 (Gentoo Sources)

Pre-installation

1. If you’re using Gentoo-minimal installation, you probably need this guide http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml


2. After the installation done, reboot the machine and login for the first time. I won’t tell you others basic things that you ne ed to configure the platform as i assume you have Linux knowledge at this stage.

1. Update the Gentoo Portage tree with these commands:
   # emerge –sync
   # emerge portage
   
   You may experience difficulty emerging portage as the package is block by the BASH packages/depend encies.
   You need to run these:
   # emerge =app-shells/bash-3.2_p17-r1
   # emerge sys-apps/portage
   # emerge app-shells/bash

Emerging Splasutils and Themes

You will no need to emerge Splashutils and its themes. Make sure and enable the 'fbcondecor' useflag for splashutils

# USE=”fbcondecor” emerge -av splashutils v86d splash-themes-gentoo splash-themes-livecd

Emerging and Compiling Kernel

1. Get the desire kernel. In my case, i used “gentoo-sources-2.6.23-r9”.
   # USE=”build symlink” emerge =gentoo-sources-2.6.23-r9
   
   
2. Use “Genkernel” to compile and install all modules required.
   # genkernel –menuconfig all
   
   
3. Required kernel optional :
   

Device Drivers >
Graphics support: >
<*> Support for frame buffer devices --->
[ ]   Enable Tile Blitting Support
<*>   VESA VGA graphics support
        VESA driver type (vesafb-tng) --->
(HRESxVRES@FREQ) VESA default mode
< > nVidia Framebuffer Support
< > nVidia Riva support
< > Matrox acceleration
Console display driver support --->
         [*] Video mode selection support
   <*> Framebuffer Console support
   [*] Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations
Block devices:
<*> RAM disk support
(4096) Default RAM disk size (kbytes) (NEW)
[*]   Initial RAM disk (initr
d) support
General Setup >
[*] Initial RAM filesystem and RAM disk (initramfs/initrd) support
(/usr/share/v86d/initramfs)

Configuring Bootloader (Grub)

Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux-2.6.23-r9
root (hd0,0)
kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.23-gentoo-r9 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda3 video=uvesafb:1024x768-32@75,mtrr:3,ywrap splash=silent,theme:gentoo quiet CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 doscsi
initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.23-gentoo-r9

Error Message "The file system mounted in / doesn't contain the /dev/tty1"

mkdir /temp
mount --bind / /temp
mknod /temp/dev/tty1 c 4 1
umount /temp
rmdir /temp

References :
http://dev.gentoo.org/~spock/projects/uvesafb/
http://www.gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_gensplash

posted by Ariesow @ Sunday, June 22, 2008