[release] customizing the boot screen

I always use the latest Norton definitions,.. so that's safe when using d/l'd bootscreens.

Problem is I want an accuracte osx boot and login.

Judge what I mean is that the STYLE should be constant. Right now in the bootscreen that's floating around (I know you don't use bootscreens but listen...) ,

Right now in the bootscreen that's floating around it's the same background as on your logon screen, (i.e. the "quantum foam" blue). The logon screen (i.e. yours) ALSO has this "quantum foam blue" background)

Now what I am insinuating is that we don't use a wallpaper (i.e. "Quantum Foam blue") as the background for these boot & logon screens.

WHY?

Because it looks funny when you have a different wallpaper than "Quantum Foam Blue" on your desktop,. and you log off,.. "Quantum blue" comes on, it looks amateur.

WHAT DO I SUGGEST?

I suggest we create a SEPARATE "theme" for OSX style boot & logon screens for XP. The ONLY difference being that instead of "Quantum Foam" blue, we use a different background. What colour?

I suggest we use "real" osx's boot colours.

I.e. OS X's original bootscreen is GREY. Now I suggest that we have a boot screen (ok not you) & a logon screen which can be used as the standard OSX bootscreen & logon for XP.

So when we use different coloured wallpapers and log-off and boot, people don't say,.. ok but why did you pick this wallpaper "Quantum Blue" as the background for these system screens... why not the "real" OSX theme of Grey?

I am getting on this,.. all I have to do is buy photoshop 7, and start.

EDIT: basically all I am asking is whoever had that apple grey brushed bootscreen, to do a non brushed version with selective colour replace (Photoshop: shift select--> then colour reduce to whatever XP boot allows (256 colour I think) on the "apple". So the colours of the apple stay.

This would be an awesome bootscreen, it would NOT look dithered (256 colour) the way most XP bootscreens do, BECAUSE the background is a single colour, a selective colour replace would make the APPLE logo look almost 32-bit.

When we have that bootscreen, it's easy to just hack logon screens , it's just using resource hacker.

Problem is I can't make bootscreens.

MartinG2k, you are the only one who understands me.

#13436

lol! Well Three Drives, you have certainly made yourself to be understood this time. Sounds like a good project, good concept. Good luck!

Here is the image that needs fixing for the boot screen.

http://martingy2k.no-ip.com/Out-Going/1033.bmp

The forum doesn't allow bmp images so you'll have to click the link.

#13441

#13553

Ok the best I could do with MS Paint is this.

I wish the guy that did the original brushed theme would just do it. All he has to do is do a colour replace. The brush effect he has is only 2 colours. Simply replace the "highlighted metal streak colour" with "normal metal streak colour.", then we'd have something that looks like the picture below.

You can use the picture below but be sure to first convert to .bmp that the ntosboot, or ntoskrnl.exe will take.

I have no idea how to put the picture in the ntos*.exe file though. (Reshack won't do it, for NON SP1)

#13556

There is a tutorial at www.deskarte.com, wich is my spanish reference for deskmodding. I could translate it for you after having having lunch ok? (It is time to eat in Spain)

#13575

Well, let´s start:

1. Windows XP boot image is composed by three single images:

and

2. Reshack ntoskrnl.exe and replace those images (wich are number 1, 8 and 10 in the Professional edition and numer 1, 7 and 9 in Home edition) with our image. The main work is to copy the exact part of our image that matches the progress bar and edition info bitmaps. After reshacking the file, with should save it as Bootxp.exe or whatever you want.

3. The last step consists in editing boot.ini adding this at the end of the last line:

/kernel=boot_xp.exe

You can also cretae several boot images for your different OS´s. Remember that our image must be in 16 colours and bmp format.

#13580

Sorry, the third image is this:

#13582

Here is the image again using photoshop to replace the colors. It looks to me like it needs antialiasing but maybe this is how it's supposed to look. Can someone smooth out the edges?

http://martingy2k.no-ip.com/Out-Going/+1033.bmp

Edit I just replaced the image I had here becaust I had saved it as 8bit bmp and reshac gave an error when I tried to replace. So I saved it again as 4 bit bmp and reshac accepted it.

#13584

Ok, I'll try to improve the image and create the little ones as well

#13591

Is 4 bit bmp the same as 16 colors? If so than it needs to be 16 colors.

#13592

I'm trying to reshack ntoskrnl.exe and replace the main image but i'm having problems. Sure that the image is 16 colours? By the way, does anyone know where to achieve the 16 colours palette for Photoshop?

#13594

If you used the second image I posted then try again. I had saved the image wrong but now I have replaced it. For photoshop I had to save it as a 4 bit bmp before reshac would take it.

#13596

I succeed replacing the bitmap, but after the first test, the background of our image turns into an ugly and loudy green...

#13599

Here is stuffit to unpack the .sit files from theapplecollection if anyone needs it [here] (Comes with what you need to reg it.)

Photoshop could not open the Apple_Logo.psd because it's not a valid photoshop file. You must need a mack version of photoshop to view the file.

#13610

The best image I think would be a non black bordered image.

And I also think that there should be no XP style moving blue bar across the bottom of the bootscreen. That would just give it away as xp.

I think there should just be nothing moving at the bottom of the apple. Just grey.

Man,.. I'm no artist and am on MS Paint, isn't there an artist that could whipp this up in like 3 minutes?

Judge if you could do it then we'd be in your debt.

I did the image on the first page in MS Paint in like 7 minutes.

#13623

OK here is the apple:

I had to make the preview small because the actual size is 1400x1600!!

It wasn't black so I made it black: [Apple_Logo.psd 1400x1600] (zip file)

Here is the original, it's multicolored: [Apple_Logo.sit] (.sit file)

#13637

Uhhm are we sure the real osx bootscreen apple is black though?

I though it was like dark grey?

Damn we don't even know what it looks like,.. wait i'll look on the net.

#13649

Ok I found this:

http://www.fishbacksw.com/helloJaguar/

A new bootscreen for Aqua,.. which ...--> and this is important--> has the original grey apple included incase you want to switch back. Macintosh file format though.

EDIT: Damn!!!! 8 years of net use really paid off. After searching for 1 hour,... in the depths of the jungle that is the internet,.. I found http://www.macfora.com/forums/archive/topic/5384.html (read this thread)

which leads to

Who da man......

#13653

Ya, that looks like it. But, how do we know what the boot screen is on the new iMacs?? Is it the same one as the old imacs? The picture that you are displaying there is obviously an old imac. The question is: is this image the same on the new imac and is there even a boot screen? I have never seen a new imac boot up. If anyone has access to one or has the time, they could just go and restart one and check it out. Maybe they could even extract image file somehow, although I doubt that.

EDIT:

Actually there is also this. (something you missed)

You will notice that there is a small flower like throbber located under the Apple. This is new with Jaguar. It would be really great if this could be incorporated! I just like it.

I also found out the boot screens are the same for all imacs if they have jaguar. It doesn't matter if its the old or the new, if it has jaguar the boot screen will be the same! Good luck guys. I might be able to help a little also. I have photoshop 7. If anyone gets me any high quality images, I can do a lot with them.

#13661

Alright people geeze. Yes that is the boot screen. We run 10.2.3 here in the Multimedia labs at the school and that is still the screen. It's an extremely simple boot screen, can't someone just throw it together? The real boot screen also has a throbber animation at the bottom that spins. I think it would be neat even though we can't have a static progress bar, to use the static image of the throbber and have it scroll as the progress bar, with no background.

This shouldn't be that difficult, lol.

#13662

Flyakite-

I think it would be possible to have that throbber animated. Its just a bunch of simple images cycling through one after the other. It is very possible. I should read up some more on this.

It would sure be great to have an authentic boot screen to put on top of our beautiful Mac-ified desktops!!!

#13665

Here's the throbber:

#13673

It's not images cycling over and over. It's a bitmap that just gets moved on screen. If you use a Boot Screen editing program you will see that. So far I have NEVER seen a progress bar that didn't move, because NTOSKRNL takes the bitmap and moves it horizontally across the screen until it gets to the end and it just repeats. That's all it does. Yes, it is also grey on grey. It is definitely NOT black. I've seen it in motion here at school so I know what I am talking about.

#13678

I just made my preview pic black. In the psd zip file I posted is the apple logo that Judge pointed out at theapplecollection. It is the rainbow kinda logo, but it can be changed to any color, duh. And it is super high res 1400x1600.

Why cant someone rewrite the kernal so it doesn't move the file horizontally? Look at that pic up there. It looks just like the throbber I posted. As a matter of fact I got it from resexellence.

#13680

First of all, I really dont wanna sound offensive in general, but cant the title of this thread be a lil more vague and unrelated to the forum section general discussion? - I never went in here until today because i thought its one of those meaningless threads, specialy in the general discussion forum (though this one is definatly NOT insignificant).

So just a lil question, how about renaming the title of this thread? it cant be worse then what it is now. - ill at least move it to where it should be. Thats all anyway.

ok, regarding whatever is in here, i already made a nice looking boot bmp, way smooth and less jaggy based on very few colors and still better than what i saw so far. I wont be on the computer in the next couple of hours, but i can post that image when i get back so you guys can apply that into the boot and make anything you need with it in order to work it out.

Another thing, long time ago i was asking the same question about having a PROGRESS BAR as an avi file, on the LOGON screen (not boot), just like the mac shows how it builds it's OS. I got supportive replies, but i was told its practically impossible, since windows isnt loaded completely in order to recognize AVIs (like what you see in a download dialog for example). So i guess it goes for the boot screen as well, though id be happy to know someone could hack that and change it completely, both for the boot and logon.

Also, XP still rules among most of us, and SP1 isnt that of a divine thing every person will switch to instantly, unless 50% of the programs arent competible with the 'regular' XP. so incase someone makes that type of BOOT for windows, please make sure to make one for the xp and the sp1.

Thanks.

later.

#13683