Linux Desktop Hacks

Create Your Own LILO Boot Splash #5

Chapter 1, Booting Linux

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15

HACK

Let’s assume you have up to six entries in your LILO menu. You need only

one column to display that many. So, plug in the coordinates, along with

these details:

bmp-table=55,214,1,6

Now you need to know the coordinates for the timer. Position your mouse

cursor in the upper-left area of the white rectangle where the clock used to

be. This is where the timer will appear. On my screen, the coordinates I

chose were 582, 455. The format of the timer definitions looks like this:

bmp-timer=<x>,<y>,<fg color>,<bg color>,<shadow color>

You know the coordinates already, so you can fill in that much:

bmp-timer=582p,455p,<fg color>,<bg color>,<shadow color>

Note that the coordinates are followed by the letter p, which tells LILO that

the numbers represent pixel coordinates.

Now it’s time to pick colors.

Picking Colors

Here’s the only really tricky part of creating the boot image specification for

lilo.conf. You have to specify the colors to use for the menu and the timer.

You specify these colors using an indexed palette. There is no standard pal-

ette of colors; the Gimp creates one based on the colors in your particular

image. When you converted the image to use 255 indexed colors, the Gimp

created a palette for the 255 colors, and you must use one or more of those

colors for your menu and timer.

Here’s how to display the palette for your image: ...