HOWTO set up a FreeBSD splash screen ------------------------------------- o Creating the splash screen FreeBSD supports 256-color BMP for splash screens. So you can create a splash screen using any graphics application that supports BMP format -- e.g. the Gimp. * Converting your image into 256-color BMP with the Gimp - Image -> Mode -> Indexed - Select 256 colors - Save as BMP o Configuring BSD to load splash screen Provided that your kernel supports splash pseudo-devices, all you need to to is add the following lines to /boot/loader.conf: splash_bmp_load="YES" # For Windows .bmp files or vesa_load="YES" # If the image is greater than 320x200 bitmap_load="YES" bitmap_name="/boot/splash.bmp" # Name of the splash image file NOTE: To enable support for splash screens in your kernel, uncomment the "device splash" line in your kernel if it isn't uncommented already. NOTE: If you configured your kernel with the VESA option enabled (check for "options VESA" in your kernel config), then you can omit the vesa_load line above.