Android Now Supports BIOS Boot Screen

Android fans that are closer to the geek term will be happy to know that an original animated bios boot screen has just surfaced the Internet. Thanks to XDA Member frysee, owners of some specific Android smartphones will now be able to alter their boot screen and add one that will show you the smartphone's hardware configuration.

Also known as POST (Power-On Self-Test), the boot screen is only available on a handful of devices, but more will come in the near future. The first thing that the BIOS will do when it boots the smartphone is to perform what is called the Power-On Self-Test, or POST for short.

The POST is a built-in diagnostic program that checks your hardware to ensure that everything is present and functioning properly, before the BIOS begins the actual boot. It later continues with additional tests (such as the memory test that you see printed on the screen) as the boot process is proceeding.

At the moment there are only eight available devices working with this boot screen: Nexus One ("classic" version, Froyo version, 1333MHz version, fast 1333MHz version), HTC Desire, Motorola Droid/Milestone, HTC Dream (classic version,XP-style), HTC Hero, HTC Incredible, HTC Magic/myTouch 3G and HTC Liquid.

There is also a known issue with the boot screen, as the animation duration depends on ROM boot time, so there's no guarantee that it will run to the final screen on all devices. Basically, depending on how fast your device is able to boot, you will be able to see all of the boot screen or only a fraction of it.

The update comes as a .zip file and can be flashed via recovery (tested with Nexus One) or ADB push to /data/local. Code for ADB: adb push droid-bios-boot.zip /data/local.