GSoC'14 proposal: a new bootsplash screen

[Seiya Nuta]

Hi, everyone

I am Seiya Nuta, a university student in Japan and I’m going to submit a GSoC proposal.

I want to develop a new bootsplash mechanism to add animation such as progress bar.
It eases concern whether it works on boot and enhances the attractiveness of FreeBSD
to desktop users.

I’m willing to work on this even if my proposal is not accepted so I would like you to tell
me your frank opinion about my proposal.

My proposal is as follows:

Description:
I propose a new bootsplash mechanism. Currently, we can enable bootsplash by adding few
options such as `splash_bmp_load' to /boot/loader.conf but it only displays an image
file. I worry whether it works well on boot so I assume we need a new bootsplash which can
display animation: progress bar, loading circle ball. Themes are kernel modules and draw
images in two ways: direct drawing and layered drawing.  Direct drawing is same as
splash_bmp; only draw an image. Layered drawing is a new way; stack images and text. It
also enables technique like CSS sprite.

Deliverables:
- Implementation of bootsplash direct drawing / layered drawing
- Makefile and scripts for creating bootsplash themes
- Example themes

Test Plan:
  #1:
    - write code in VM on VirtualBox
    - `make` and copy generated kernel and modules to /boot
    - launch .vdi of the VM with QEMU on host OS
    - check output and dmesg
  #2:
    - `make buildinstall` on a real machine.
    - boot it
    - check output and dmesg

Schedule:
  Work Period #1
    - (May  19 - May  25) implement direct drawing
    - (May  26 - June 8)  add changes to src/sys
    - (June 9  - June 15) write Makefile and scripts for creating themes
    - (June 16 - June 22) create and enjoy a flip book in bootsplash using direct drawing
  Work Period #2
    - (June 23 - June 29) print characters in a framebuffer
    - (June 30 - July 20) implement layered drawing
    - (July 21 - July 27) support layered drawing in scripts for creating themes
    - (July 28 - 'pencils down' date) create themes

Regards,
Seiya Nuta