Setting up the splash image

Although the STB can now boot using the provided boot image, the example XML manifest file contains a URL to a splash screen which is currently invalid. The STB will not enter into two-stage boot until this 404 error for the splash image has been configured.

The splash screen is a standard 720x576 bitmap image, but it needs to be cryptographically signed before the STB will accept it. The SDK provides an example, both signed and unsigned, but since it is useful to know how, lets sign the provided bmp. Please note that this splash is being signed with the standard development key in the SDK. This means it will only work on development STBs. For production units, signing via PRiSM is required. To sign the splash:

$ cd <sdk_root>/examples/splash
$ ls
ARRIS_splash.bmp  ARRIS_splash.bmp.sec
$ ../../dist/bin/ukreatv_signtool sign -i ARRIS_splash.bmp -o my_signed_splash.bmp.sec -k ../../dist/config/keys/kreatv_development_bcm15_ak_private.key
Done.
$ ls
ARRIS_splash.bmp  ARRIS_splash.bmp.sec  my_signed_splash.bmp.sec
$ sudo cp my_signed_splash.bmp.sec /var/www/html/

You also need to change the XML manifest file so that the SplashUrl reads http://webserver.ip.address/my_signed_splash.bmp.sec

Booting

Now the STB should be set up to boot correctly. The DBL will first request the manifest file, and if that worked, it will request the boot image and splash image configured in the manifest. After downloading the boot image, the STB will verify it, save it to flash and start it running. You can see all this activity in the boot loader log.

Next, the KreaTV platform starts. No more boot loader log will be emitted, since that comes from the DBL, which is no longer running. KreaTV will launch a WebKit HTML browser, and load a start URL. Depending on how the system is configured this might be a simple white screen, the ARRIS homepage, or a customers middleware portal. Around this point KreaTV enters two-stage boot mode. Two-stage boot can be verified by disconnecting and reconnecting the power cable. Note carefully as the STB boots up that no boot loader log is transmitted, and no GET requests arrive at the HTTP server. This is the expected behavior for two-stage boot mode (see here) since the DBL does not run. The version check for new software occurs once an hour by default. To exit two-stage boot mode, perform a disaster recovery.