BeagleBox

Bootsplash options are built into the kernel now. See Drivers->Graphics Support->Bootup Logo. However, this is not configurable with alternative boot splash images. Patching is probably required, though whether that would be to the rootfs or the kernel is unclear.

Looks like you can copy in a logo image to drivers/video/logo/logo_linux_clut224.ppm and enable
CONFIG_LOGO=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224=y

The image needs to be in the kernel source tree before building the kernel. The image is a 224 color 80x80 PPM image.

This is not the same as a splash image, however. It's just a tiny logo at boot up. To get a real bootsplash, see

openembedded/recipes/bootsplash/bootsplash_3.0.7.bb

It's possible the console output will only go to the serial console and the only the boot splash will show on the TV. This is probably configured either via the kernel config or on the kernel command line via the boot loader.

The Angstrom validation build for Beagle Board works this way. The TV gets color bars only. The console output goes to the serial console.

With TV out working in the current kernel we can disable the console to tty0 and have the splash image go there instead.