Boot splash in 2.6.12-8

[Mark D. McCoy]

Jeff Waugh wrote:

> You can take 'splash' out of the kernel parameters (or remove the usplash
> package and re-mkinitramfs) if you don't want to use usplash at all. It is
> okay, you have that choice. :-)
> 
> - Jeff
> 

I updated to the latest usplash, did a
"dpkg-reconfigure linux-`uname -r`", set to boot using the default 
vga16fb driver and rebooted.  Now I can sort of see the usplash coming 
up, but the console is still corrupted.  My laptop simply refuses to do 
640x480 at 4bpp using the vga16fb driver.  Usplash exits gracefully and 
doesn't black out the screen if I use the vesafb driver.

I know that the default is to vga16fb for various reasons 
(suspend/hibernate support), but for those of use who don't care about 
suspend/hibernate, why can't we use higher resolutions or color depths? 
  The images would still be only using 16 colors, regardless of whether 
they were drawn on a 8/16/24 bit display.

Also, where is the artwork for usplash?  Is it possible to make 
different themes?