WinSystems, Inc.
GX series
Single Board Computers
BIOS Splash
Screen Customization
Following is a recommended procedure for replacing the splash screen displayed
during bootup with a custom image created and supplied by WinSystems' customers.
After downloading the 'gxsplash.zip' file from the WinSystems website, the
customer should use a computer running Windows 2000 or later to perform this
procedure. This document will assume this computer is the development system
in the following discussion.
Step 1:
Using Windows Explorer:
1.1 Create a new directory for the project such as: C:\GXSPLASH
1.2 Copy the 'gxsplash.zip' file to this project directory, then unzip
the file to extract its content files into the project directory.
Files to be extracted from within 'gxsplash.zip':
XBAP.EXE - A Windows Application used to create a new BIOS
image with the customer's splash screen embedded
into the BIOS image.
LOGO.BAT - A DOS batch file used to convert the bitmap file
created by the customer into files needed by the
XBAP.EXE Windows application.
BMPFLIP.EXE - A DOS executable used in the LOGO.BAT processing.
CPRPAD.EXE - A DOS executable used in the LOGO.BAT processing.
REL.EXE - A DOS executable used in the LOGO.BAT processing.
README.TXT - This file.
Step 2:
2.1 Using Windows Paint or any other suitable program create a bitmap image
file in the standard .BMP format with the following attributes:
Size/Resolution - 640 Horizontal pixels
480 Vertical pixels
Color Depth - 256 colors
2.2 Save the bitmap file using the standard 8.3 DOS file naming convention.
DO NOT use long filenames. They are not supported by the utilities.
Example: C:\GXSPLASH\mysplash.bmp
2.3 Save or copy this new bitmap file into the project directory created in
Step 1.1 above.
Step 3:
3.1 From the Windows desktop, click Start|All Programs|Accessories|Command
Prompt to open a DOS box. Use the DOS command CD to change the current
directory to the project directory created in Step 1 above.
3.2 Run the LOGO.BAT at the DOS box command prompt to process the bitmap
file created in Step 2 into three new output files. The required syntax
for running LOGO.BAT is: logo filename.bmp
Example: LOGO mysplash.bmp
The three new output files created by LOGO.BAT in the project are:
BACKGRND.RLE
BACKGRND.PAL
BACKGRND.RAW
3.3 After LOGO.BAT completes, from the DOS box command prompt, type EXIT
to return to the Windows desktop environment.
Step 4:
Using Windows Explorer:
4.1 Obtain the current revision of the appropriate BIOS image file from
the WinSystems website. This file is specific to the GX series single
board computer product and is normally used as input to the utility
FLASHROM.COM to update the BIOS with a new BIOS revision. The file
will have a filename in standard DOS 8.3 format:
Examples: R060919.BIN
32207156.BIN
4.2 Copy the BIOS image file appropriate for the GX series single board
computer product to the project directory created in Step 1.1 above.
Step 5:
Using Windows Explorer:
5.1 Run the XBAP.EXE Windows application located in the project directory
by double clicking on the executable file. The XBAP.EXE program is a
Windows dialog application and will present a dialog box containing
four edit controls for user input, each accompanied by a browse button
for ease of use. Steps 5.2 thru 5.5 describe its usage.
5.2 'Input ROM File' edit control input:
Type in the filename or browse to select the BIOS image file described
in Step 4.
Example: C:\GXSPLASH\R060919.BIN
5.3 'Output ROM File' edit control input:
Type in the filename desired for the new BIOS image file embedded with
the customer splash screen bitmap created in Step 2.
Example: C:\GXSPLASH\MYSPLASH.BIN
5.4 Click the 'Change the logo' checkbox to activate the remaining edit
controls.
5.5 'Logo file' edit control input:
Browse to select the BACKGRND.RLE file created in step 3.2
5.6 'Palette file' edit control input:
Browse to select the BACKGRND.PAL file created in step 3.2
5.7 Click the OK button to run the XBAP application and create the file
MYSPLASH.BIN in the project directory.
Step 6:
Use the new MYSPLASH.BIN file as input to the FLASHROM.COM utility to
flash the BIOS image into the GX board.