Splash screens are usually shown when the kernel reaches to the point that the pre-boot environment is no longer needed. Think of these splash screens as Plymouth splash screens that appear on Debian, or the Windows logo that appears when Windows starts. Nitrocid attempts to simulate the same concept.
The splash tools consists of the following classes:
SplashManager: A class that handles splashes
SplashReport: A class that handles reporting splashes
Splashes also contain a context to tell the splash screen that it's in a specific mode, which is one of the following:
Showcase: This is used to showcase your splash screen and how well it works. Used by the previewsplash for best experience.
StartingUp: Used by the kernel to indicate that the kernel is starting up.
ShuttingDown: Used by the kernel to indicate that the kernel is shutting down.
Preboot: Used by the kernel to indicate that the kernel is currently on the pre-boot stage before configuration is loaded.
Splash Management
The splash management class contains several useful tools to manage them, like loading custom splashes, unloading them, previewing them, etc. The three commonly used functions are:
This function registers your splash from the SplashInfo instance that you've defined in your mod. This allows your mods that have the load priority set to Important to register the splashes before the configuration system loads your config.
Since the main kernel configuration file holds the splash info, we suggest that you set your mod loading importance to Important.
This function removes your splash from the list of known splashes. This function takes the name of your custom splash, usually taken from your splash's SplashInfo instance.
This function checks the list of splashes to query the splash name for its existence. If the splash exists, it returns true. Otherwise, false is returned.
Showing Messages during Kernel Boot
There are ways to show the messages during kernel boot when splashes are enabled.
In your mod start code, please use one of the following ReportProgress() functions to let the splash know that your mod is making progress. Don't call any of the console printing functions, since they don't log and may mess up the splash screen, depending on the splash.
The above functions let you report progress to the splash displayer when the kernel is booting. These messages are passed to the normal progress writer found in the current splash instance, which decides how to display it.
The first function overload for reporting normal progress doesn't increment the progress; it only reports the message to the splash screen for it to display it or to ignore it, depending on the splash.
The above functions let you report warnings to the splash displayer when the kernel is booting. These messages are passed to the warning progress writer found in the current splash instance, which decides how to display it.
The above functions let you report errors to the splash displayer when the kernel is booting. These messages are passed to the error progress writer found in the current splash instance, which decides how to display it.
The above functions reset the progress report so that it says "Loading," so these functions don't actually clear out the progress report. If you have nothing else to report in the splash, you can use these functions.
If you want to show messages or anything interesting during the kernel boot, you may want to use both the BeginSplashOut() and EndSplashOut() functions, surrounding both with code to show a message inside. Here's a simple example to show a test message:
The kernel stores a short boot log buffer for each session. You can get the boot log by going to the administrative shell and executing the bootlog command.
You can also access the LogBuffer property in the SplashReport class, which is defined like this:
