Custom Boot Image Splash Screen for VMware VI3 Installation

This is a great idea for consultants who want their company’s logo to be plastered during a scripted boot sequence. It takes a bit of work but I think it’s definitely worth it.

Follow these instructions for creating your custom CD. The location of the image file is in /isolinux, filename = splash.lss.

LSS is an old and limited picture format so you need to do a bit of work. Using your favorite picture editor, create a new image with dimensions of 640×212 pixels and a max of 14 colors (limitation of the LSS format). Save as a splash.ppm (there are GIF to PPM converters out there if need be).

Once you’ve created your beloved image, copy it over to your VMware VI3 server. You will need a tool to perform the PPM to LSS conversion. Fortunately, there’s a free one in the syslinux RPM. Download syslinux-3.11-20.3.i586.rpm onto your VMware VI3 server (I threw mine in /tmp) and run the following command to extract its contents, without installing:

rpm2cpio syslinux-3.11-20.3.i586.rpm | cpio -idmv

Now in /tmp/usr/bin you should have “ppmtolss16.”

To convert your PPM to LSS
cd /tmp/usr/bin
./ppmtolss16 < splash.ppm > splash.lss

Going back to the guide on creating your own .iso, copy your new splash.lss into /isolinux and replace the existing file. All set! Now just run the mkisofs command to generate your .iso.

If you want to work with the current VMware splash, you can convert the LSS to PPM (and then copy it to your workstation and edit it) with:

./lss16toppm splash.ppm

My current splash (poor quality due to ILO screen cap):

Enjoy.

- Jason Langone

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