Boot Splash Screen on the DM814X

Hi Jon,

We are working on a boot splash from uboot currently. It should be available for DM814x (atleast as a wiki page or a patch) to EZSDK 5.03.

Will there also be support for the DM816x platform? It is often quite important from the end user point-of-view that we present a seamless experience from powering on a device. Blank screens for 20 seconds are not ideal!

Hi,

Its still work in progress. The latest EZSDK displays a colorbar on boot, and we are still working on a stable logo. 

Hi,

Do you have any update on the support of boot logo on the DM8148 EVM?

Thanks,

Sinoj

Hi Sinoj,

We are in the final testing phase. In the meantime, you could pick up patches for Uboot from my git tree http://arago-project.org/git/people/?p=siddharth/arago-c6a8.git;a=tree;f=recipes/u-boot/u-boot-2010.06-psp04.04.00.01;h=cbb2a81eed6d0501a73ff2b80864a8fff7315919;hb=HEAD

Hi Siddharth,

    I've downloaded the git tree you mentioned and modified my DM8148 u-boot code (version is "ti-ezsdk_dm814x-evm_5_03_01_15") based on this,

so far, it works, and I can see the splash logo on the TV (by HDMI) in u-boot stage, but not on the EVM's LCD.

   Whatever, how could I change the video output from HDMI(display0) to LCD(display1), not just only the HDMI output in the u-boot stage.

   We've checked the DM8148 TRM on our hand, and there's no related information about the register setting for our reference,

could you give some suggestion for us? 

   Thanks for your effort and great help.

I would appreciate knowing how to change the output to the LCD as well.  Thanks for the help!

Just wanted to bump this thread again, as I have the same questions.  We have a requirement to display the splash screen on the HDMI, DVO and NTSC/PAL outputs simultaneously at boot. Will this be possible?

Thank you!

Still have a few questions on this... Note that I'm using the U-Boot contained in EZSDK 5.04.00.11.

(1) Could someone point me to where the specs of supported bmp's (i.e., min/max sizes, format) are defined? I didn't see anything in the PSP U-Boot guide, but from U-Boot error messages, I see that the bmp must be 24-bit.

(2) After flashing U-Boot to NAND, I now see the beloved Tux and a garbled (looks like the columns are messed up) build date on my HDMI output when U-Boot starts up. How do I change this boot graphic?

In the DM814x EZSDK Software Developers Guide I see that I should be able to use the bmp display command. bmp info indicates that my boot logo is valid, but bmp display doesn't actually display anything.

(3) Any advice on extending this splash screen functionality to the DVO2 and SD outputs? (Given that I don't have access to the M3 sources).  Not sure if it's feasible to capture M3 register values after running a V4L2 or OMX app in the desired configuration, and then write these from U-Boot...

Many thanks,

Jon

Oops -- forgot one more:

(4) Where does the 15 second limitation on the logotime come from? (The SW Developer's Guide notes this to be the max value.)

With EZSDK 5.04.00.11, I see boot times of ~50 seconds when booting from NAND, and would like the splash graphic to be present for a majority of this. (At least until I can load the HDVPSS firmware.)

Hi Jon,

I contacted the product team and received the following responses to your questions. Please post if anything needs to be clarified.

Thanks,

Clinton

-----------

(1) The u-boot already contains the code to display a bmp image. We are currently using to display 24-bit bmp. The code for displaying the image is present in the file drivers/video/cfb_console.c in the u-boot directory. You could refer to this file for display for any other type of images.

(2) The linux logo comes by default as there is support in the u-boot. That image is defined in the u-boot code itself. If you don’t want to use this image, you could remove the macro CONFIG_VIDEO_LOGO from the file include/configs/ti8148_evm.h. If any custom image needs to be displayed make sure the bmp image is present in the DDR and then try to use bmp display command to show the image on the screen.

(3) Currently the support is for HDMI display. To use the logo on DVO2 and SD output, the registers on the device needs to be programmed at the u-boot.

(4) The time limitation is there as there is an issue to stop the list used to display the image before the loading of firmware. The 15 second limitation was there for the fast boot condition. This time limitation could be increased in the u-boot code by changing the macro for maximum time MAX_LOGO_TIME in the code, but make sure it stops before the firmware starts to load.

Hi Clinton,

First all,  thank you to you and the product team members! 

I could use 1 (hopefully very quick) clarification, and then I think I have enough to mark this thread "Verified."

(2) As I outlined above, I already tried bmp display; is this command known to work?

I'm just a bit confused as to what I might be missing here. As I described in my previous post, the "Tux" logo is displayed and then goes away. An attempt to use bmp display appears to have no effect. (It runs and returns to the shell; no error output is presented.)

Perhaps the firmware is stopped (upon the expiration of MAX_LOGO_TIME) by the time I drop into the U-Boot hush shell to tftp a test bmp and issue this command?

Thanks again,

Jon

Hi, Clinton!

You said "To use the logo on DVO2 and SD output, the registers on the device needs to be programmed at the u-boot."

We need the boot logo on dvo2, as this is our primary display. So can we program mentioned registers without NDA?

If not when do we can expect this feature will appear in ezsdk's u-boot?

Best Regards,

Alexander Vasiljev.

Hi all,

I just wanted to confirm that with the information on this thread, I was indeed able to change my U-boot splash screen.  Some relevant items I'd suggest others to look into are the U-Boot preboot and splashimage variables. (Both of these will require you to add CONFIG_* items to your board config).

@Alexander: Please post back when you deem the answer to your above question satisfactory. I will mark the thread "Verified" once someone from TI has provided this answer.

Regards,

Jon

Hi Clinton.

Thank you for reply!

So now we have NDA. How can we receive necessary documentation? Can we get the source code that is currently used to make bootsplash on hdmi in the ezsdk's uboot?

Best regards,

Alexander Vasiljev.

Hi Alexander,

I believe all of the documentation and code needed is already available to you based on the responses the product team gave me. Please see my earlier post in this thread to Jon (referenced in the link below).

http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/davinci_digital_media_processors/f/716/p/150496/733385.aspx#733385

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi, Clinton.

I am interested in boot logo on dvo2. And because this is not yet supported in u-boot and won't be supported in the nearest future as you said, i want to make it myself. I have NDA. Can i get the current source code for M3, which shows boot logo on hdmi? I need it as a reference. I think i will also need some documentation for dvo2 registers. How can i get it, if i can?

Best regards,

Alexander Vasiljev.

As Alexander's questions are going offline, I'm going to mark this thread verified now; additional questions probably deserve a fresh thread.

Thank you again Clinton and the TI teams involved.

Clinton,

Could you please provide the procedure by which a customer (having already gotten necessary NDAs in place) can request the M3 register information necessary to develop LCD and SD display boot logo support? We have both the DM8148EVM and the DM8127 IPNC, but are not seeing this information in the included documentation, and are not sure who we need to have our FAE contact.

Hi Jon,

I have a couple documents regarding the ISS and HDVPSS that may be useful in this regard. I am going to e-mail them to you.

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi Clinton,

Could you please share these documents on the forum or do I have to get them through my FAE? We're also interested in displaying a boot splash on the DVO2 output.

Thanks.

-Jeppe

Hi Jeppe,

These documents require and NDA. I would recommend you contact your FAE for this information. Feel free to reference this thread and my name.

Thanks,

Clinton

Hi Clinton,

My company also have a DM816x product that uses dvo2 as the primary display and needs u-boot to show a splash screen on dvo2. We already had a NDA with TI and can access the DM816x HDVPSS registers without calling the M3.  (Note: we encountered another serious problem that the LCD display becomes black randomly and the M3 is locked up when this happens).  We want to try calling HDVPSS registers to show a splash screen in u-boot code and see if the black screen still exists.  Could you help me to find out how to set the HDVPSS register in order to send display to dvo2, not HDMI?  Or, any sample u-boot code to do it. 

We are using ti-ezsdk_dm816x-evm_5_04_00_11

Regards,

Frank Huang

Hi Frank,

I have been working on the same item (DM816x splash screen on LCD from u-boot).

I found an app note in the documentation directory of the DVR RDK (3.0) that describes what we want to do.

I will post back later (once we have tried it) on how effective this is.

location of file within the RDK: dvr_rdk/docs/AppNotes/DM81xx_DVR_RDK_Boot_Logo_on_External_Device.pdf