Introduction
Animenu
AWBMTools
CamCardSync
ImgTarget
IRMix
Separate
EPIA TVOut driver
EPIA TVTool
XvTestcard
|
a
pair of utilities for creating full-screen BIOS Boot logos For the VIA
EPIA motherboard
*NEW RELEASE* 12/04/03
This version no
longer chokes on greyscale TIFFs that have alpha
channels,
and copes better with greyscale images in general.
WARNING:
Flashing the
BIOS on your computer is risky at the best of times -
flashing
the BIOS with a modified BIOS image is VERY
DANGEROUS
and may well result in a non-working motherboard that
is
very difficult, if not impossible, to resurrect. You use these
programs,
and their results entirely at your own risk.
If you do come
to grief and end up with a machine that won't boot, it
may
still be possible to resurrect it. If your BIOS chip is
removable, http://www.flashbios.org
will
either re-flash it for you, or provide you with a new one, ready
flashed
with the BIOS of your choice. When I needed a dead motherboard
resurrected,
my BIOS chip and payment winged their way over to The Netherlands, and
the
chip was returned, reflashed and working, in around a fortnight :)
Background
Recent Award
BIOS versions have the ability to display a fullscreen
boot
logo when booting, instead of the usual POST screen. The logo
itself
is embedded in the BIOS image, and although its 'filename' has the
extension
.BMP, it is *not* a BMP file - it's an odd but simplistic format
referred
to herein as AWBM.
The boot logos
created by this program have only been tested so far
with my VIA
EPIA
motherboard.
In theory they
should work with other recent Award BIOS versions that
incude
full-screen logo support, but I have yet to test this.
What does it do?
AWBM2TIFF and
TIFF2AWBM convert images between 8-bit (256-colour) TIFF
and
the custom AWBM format used by the EPIA BIOS.
What doesn't it do?
These programs
*CANNOT* modify a BIOS image, or extract logos from a
BIOS
image. For that you need a program like CBROM (version 2.xx
recommended,
Windows only, unfortunately).
These programs
are only intended for use with full-screen logos - they
*CANNOT*
be used to create EPA (Energy Star) logos.
How do I customise my Boot
Logo?
First create
your logo in a graphics package. For the EPIA you
need
to make a 640x480 image with 256 colours. Once you've done that,
save
it as a TIFF file, and use:
tiff2awbm
logo.tiff
logo.bmp
to convert to
AWBM format. (The original logo in the EPIA BIOS
has the
filename VPSD.BMP, though it's most definitely *not* a BMP file...) Now
use
CBROM to insert this logo into the BIOS image, by typing:
CBROM
EPIA0207.BIN
/logo
logo.bmp
If this
succeeds, you can now flash your machine with the modified BIOS
image.
Note - if your
logo is very elaborate, CBROM may complain that there
isn't
enough room in the BIOS file. The EPIA0205.BIN BIOS has about 18k
of
free space for the logo - but a 640x480x256 image takes about 300k
uncompressed.
The BIOS image
is a basically a catalogue of lha files, so you can use
lha
to guage how much space your logo will take when it's compressed:
lha a
test.lha logo.bmp
HINT: If you're having
trouble
keeping your logos small enough, try to avoid dithering, and make sure
any
gradients are vertical (i.e. horizontal scanlines have constant
colour); this
will help maximise the compression that can be achieved.
*UPDATE*
If you're
desparate for more BIOS space for your logo, it may be
possible
to remove certain parts of the BIOS to make room. On the EPIA
5000/800
BIOS version 0207, you can safely remove the pxe.lom network boot rom,
and
the EPA logo, with:
CBROM EPIA0207.BIN /pci release
CBROM EPIA0207.BIN /epa release
Obviously, doing
this results in a machine that can no longer boot over
a
network, but the free space for the boot logo is increased to around
45k.
If you still need network boot functionality, it may also be
possible
to replace the pxe.lom boot rom with via-rhine etherboot rom, which
supposedly
works, but is considerably smaller. Please note, though, that I
haven't
tried this...
*WARNING*
While I am
currently using a pxe-less BIOS on my EPIA-5000, and it's
working
nicely, it's quite possible that attempting the same thing on other
machines
/ BIOS revisions will result in a system that won't boot. You
proceed at your own risk!
Download:
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