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I want to customize the Raspbian OS in such a way that when boots no text is displayed on the screen but a custom image instead.

What I have is web based application and I start it with chromium in kiosk mode. The raspberry boot to the console and starts x from ~/.bashrc (startx). Then the chromium runs in kiosk mode when X starts.

I found a solution to this but it is not sufficient for my needs. By editing /boot/cmdline.txt some text can be pointed to console=tty3. However this is not only text that appears. When X server starts and when automatically loging to the console as user pi I also get some text displayed on the screen (1-2 sec). Also I get some texts when I use reboot or shutdown (when X stops). By using asplashscreen I can display customized image/video, but is not in the same way as default image when it is incorporated in the kernel.

Thanks in advance!

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  • The console=tty3 thing is clever. Good show.
    – SDsolar
    Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 20:25

2 Answers 2

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I resolved the problem in half. In order to display an image on the framebuffer console when raspberry pi boots you need to compile the kernel with your image. The default image is located at:

~/linux/drivers/video/logo/logo_linux_clut224.ppm

You need to have your image in jpeg/png etc. then you need to use netpbm to convert the image to ppm. Use the following commands:

convert logo.jpg logo.png

pngtopnm /path/to/logo.png | ppmquant -fs 223 | pnmtoplainpnm > logo_linux_clut224.ppm

Copy the new logo:

cp /path/to/logo_linux_clut224.ppm ~/linux/drivers/video/logo/logo_linux_clut224.ppm

Then compile the kernel.

That will replace the default logo. However when the logo is on full screen then the text on boot will appear on top of it. I have managed to disable the kernel messages when the system boots in /boot/cmdline.txt. Anyway there is still little text that can appear on the screen when shutting down or booting to the console(starting x session). I'm looking to complete solution which will disable all text to the framebuffer console. If anyone has a solution to that please share!

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You can change the color of your boot-up text to black.

To do this, change the first line of the /boot/cmdline.txt by adding this at the end of the line:

vt.default_blk=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

The first zero keeps the background black. Not sure why the rest is 7 zeroes; I would have expected four. But this has been tested (by others) and works. You end up with black on black text.

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  • I believe this only affects the boot screen and your terminal screens will be unaffected. If you want to change the colors of the terminal screens once booted up it is more complicated, but from your OP it doesn't sound like this would affect you anyway. PuTTY sets its own colors, in any case.
    – SDsolar
    Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 20:18
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    I manage to build the kernel with custom image changing the ppm file in /drivers/video/logo/logo_linux_clut224.ppm. What left is to get rid of the text when shutting the system down
    – Angel
    Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 20:26
  • That is such good information, Angel, that I would suggest you post it as an actual answer. Any particular tricks involved in building a kernel with this change? And what format does the image need to be in?
    – SDsolar
    Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 20:31
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    I'm still working on getting the right image colors and resolution. When I done with all this I will. The image needs to be ppm format for that you are going to need apt-get install netpbm.Then to convert png to ppm you need to type pngtopnm /path/to/logo.png | ppmquant -fs 223 | pnmtoplainpnm > logo_linux_clut224.ppm
    – Angel
    Commented Sep 16, 2016 at 20:33
  • Now who in the world would downvote this answer? And why?
    – SDsolar
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 16:53

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