Is it possible to suppress kernel messages (show splash instead) when using VESA driver?
After I installed the VESA driver, I no longer see the OPENSTEP loading screen upon boot. Instead, I get a window that shows kernel messages as it boots. While the VESA driver provides acceptable desktop performance once the system is booted, the kernel messages scroll very slowly and it looks like it's slowing the whole boot process as well as looking under-powered.
I've tried installing OmniFastVideo driver, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Though I'm running on a Pentium 3, and I don't know if the driver actually works on anything past a Pentium 2.
I'd really like to save money and not have to buy a G400 PCI on Ebay, so I hope there's a way to disable showing kernel messages on boot.
Any help would be much appreciated.
No, it's not possible. When using the VESA driver you will always see the messages.
This is because the kernel switches to the selected VESA mode immediately after loading the driver which happens very early in the boot process. The splash screen uses good old VGA registers for displaying IIRC which is either no longer available or not able to draw on screen once VESA mode with framebuffer is activated.
This is also causing the slow scrolling of the messages as the display is already in high res graphics mode and not in low res mode as it would be without the VESA driver. It seems the framebuffer support at boot time is quite low level and does not use dual buffering or copying parts of the framebuffer around (just a guss). Once the WindowServer is started speed should be okay though it will still be a bit slower than with a native graphics driver as everything has to pass the VESA emulation layer