[IDEA] MOODE Startup Spashscreen

[pkdick]

Hello everyone,

I hope that everybody is healthy and safe at home (like me in lockdown in France).

I am currently building a DIY DAC based on the ALLO Katana DAC and MOODE. I am also using a 5" touch display and during the startup of MOODE, it displays all the boot information before showing the MOODE software.

Could it be possible to display a MOODE splashscreen instead all the boot information ? I searched the web for this (it seems that Volumio is proposing such an option), but nothing works properly up to now for me.

Thank you in advance.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Hello everyone,

I hope that everybody is healthy and safe at home (like me in lockdown in France).

I am currently building a DIY DAC based on the ALLO Katana DAC and MOODE. I am also using a 5" touch display and during the startup of MOODE, it displays all the boot information before showing the MOODE software.

Could it be possible to display a MOODE splashscreen instead all the boot information ? I searched the web for this (it seems that Volumio is proposing such an option), but nothing works properly up to now for me.

Thank you in advance.

What have you tried which didn't work?


The following comments are off the top of my head. I think they are generally correct but not necessarily in detail 

In a default Raspbian configuration, the HDMI port is driven from /dev/fb0 (framebuffer 0) and output from Raspbian to the terminal console is written to /dev/fb0. That's why you're seeing boot information. Once X11 initializes late in the boot process, it takes over the framebuffer and you start seeing the moOde graphics.

So, your question has two parts:

1) how to stop seeing the boot information? Change the Raspbian boot configuration to direct the terminal console to framebuffer 1. (Only framebuffer 0 is hardware accelerated; you want to keep it for X11 output.)

2) how to display a splash screen? This seems a bit harder. If you want it "instantly", before X11 initializes, you'll have to create some code which writes an image to /dev/fb0.

I went a different way with an HDMI-driven 3.5" LCD on a moOde player. I chose not to use X11 and the moOde local display because I found the text too small and the resistive touch screen too insensitive. Instead I wrote a Python routine which works directly with the framebuffer to compose and display views of my own choosing. I did not try blanking the initial console output but now that you bring it up, I'll have to try.

And, yes, I need to write up what I did.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Prolly something like below.
https://scribles.net/customizing-boot-up...pberry-pi/
https://github.com/retropie/retropie-set...lashscreen

[TheOldPresbyope]

Prolly something like below.
https://scribles.net/customizing-boot-up...pberry-pi/
https://github.com/retropie/retropie-set...lashscreen

Nice. the first link basically fleshes out what I outlined but in a different way. 

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Thats cool. I've never tried the recipe but if someone can confirm it works then I'll add to the TODO list for post 6.5.0

[pkdick]

Hi,

Thank you for your suggestions and your support.

You must have noticed that I do not have the programmer level that allows me to develop such solutiion as the one you described. I tried however the first approach that Tim proposed but without success.

For me, a startup splashscreen should be an option for MOODE as it is a sofware to play music, but I have no idea about the effort that such an option will require. There are two kind of people using it: some of them are good programmers able to develop solutions to their needs and others like me that are "specialised" in reading "how-tos" and tutorials...  And I admit that I like very much to read the forum: my only problem is that many developments often lead me to buy new electronic parts just to try how it is (I have many OLED displays that I tried before going for a LCD display)... 

I would be grateful to know the way you developped for your 3.5" LCD Display (like Tim apparently).

Best regards

[TheOldPresbyope]

Not to worry about your programming skills. Nobody is born knowing how to make bits flip in a computer.

I'll try the recipe in the first link to see if I can figure out why it might be going wrong for you...as well as help Tim decide whether to include it in moOde.

Regards,
Kent

PS - I promise I'll hurry up my documentation if you tell me whether your username reveals you as a fan of a certain writer of dystopian science-fiction 

[TheOldPresbyope]

Argh, now that I actually read the first article rather than just skim the subtitles, I see it's mostly not what we want. A lot of it is focused on Debian Plymouth, which isn't installed in Raspbian lite. It looks like the RetroPie solution is based on Plymouth too.

From the Debian Wiki

Plymouth presents a graphic animation (also known as bootsplash) while the boot process is occurring in the background. It is designed to be used with the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) modesetting drivers. For systems that don't have DRM mode settings drivers, plymouth falls back to text mode - it can also use a legacy /dev/fb interface using a variation of these instructions (yet to be added).

I'm not convinced we need the excess baggage but I can't prove it yet.

This'll take a bit of head scratching...aided perhaps by a glass of wine (a fresh delivery came today, yay!).

Regards,
Kent

[pkdick]

Not to worry about your programming skills. Nobody is born knowing how to make bits flip in a computer.

I'll try the recipe in the first link to see if I can figure out why it might be going wrong for you...as well as help Tim decide whether to include it in moOde.

Regards,
Kent

PS - I promise I'll hurry up my documentation if you tell me whether your username reveals you as a fan of a certain writer of dystopian science-fiction 

Hello Kent,

Yes, this writer is one of my favourite !  

Regards,

[DRONE7]

snip<>snip

This'll take a bit of head scratching...aided perhaps by a glass of wine (a fresh delivery came today, yay!).

Regards,
Kent

They deliver by the glass ??!