Splashy

I recently tried out Splashy, a boot splash program that doesn't require patching the Linux kernel. The Splashy project paints graphic images directly to framebuffers using libdirectfb, which makes for a sleek and impressive boot-up experience.

One of the standout features of Splashy is its customizable VGA settings. You can choose from a range of resolutions and color depths, including 256 colors, 32K colors, 64K colors, and 16M colors. The table provided in the documentation makes it easy to select the right settings for your system.

For example, to get 1024x768 resolution at 16bit (64K colors), you can pass an argument to the kernel like this: vga=791. These values can also be expressed in base16 (hexadecimal), such as vga=0x317.

To pass arguments to the kernel, you'll need to edit your boot loader. The documentation provides instructions for three common boot loaders: Grub, Lilo, and Quik.

Overall, I found Splashy to be a reliable and professional-looking boot splash program. It's especially great for users who want to customize their boot experience without having to mess around with the Linux kernel.