Design your splash screen image and place it somewhere easily readable.
Install fbi, the framebuffer image viewer, by running `apt install fbi` as root.
Create the file `/etc/systemd/system/splashscreen.service` with the following content:
```
[Unit]
Description=Splash screen
DefaultDependencies=no
After=local-fs.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/fbi -d /dev/fb0 --noverbose -a /opt/splash.png
StandardInput=tty
StandardOutput=tty
[Install]
WantedBy=sysinit.target
```
Replace `/opt/splash.png` with the path to the splash screen image as appropriate.
The `-d /dev/fb0` option will tell fbi which framebuffer to display the image on. `--noverbose` will suppress the fbi ‘status bar’ at the bottom of the screen. `-a` will allow fbi to automatically select the correct zoom level for the image. If your image is already at the correct resolution for the display, you may omit this option.
fbi expects access to a tty, so the StandardInput and StandardOutput options will allow for this. You may also be able to omit these options and instead pass the `-T` flag to fbi, specifying the number of the tty you wish to use.
The DefaultDependencies option will override systemd's default behaviour of launching the service late in the boot process (as most ordinary services require access to resources), and the `WantedBy` option will cause fbi to be loaded early in the boot process, though not before the file system (and hence image) are ready, through the After option.
Enable the service to be run at boot by running `systemctl enable splashscreen` as root.
You may now be able to test the splashscreen by running `systemctl start splashscreen` as root, or simply reboot the Pi.
