# Colored Boot Messages / Service Status



## Leander (Jul 14, 2013)

Hi,

I'm trying to enable colored status at boot time on FreeBSD like it is enabled on FreeSBIE. Something like


```
start ntp            [   OK   ]
start apache         [ FAILED ]
start dhcpd          [ SKIPED ]
```

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much about how to enable this. Any hint how to do it or where I could get further information about how to do it?

Thx Thanks.


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## Leander (Jul 15, 2013)

I found this Mailinglist Post, but it seems pretty old and links seem down. Any idea whether there is something up to date out there?

So this should be the way to control it via /etc/rc.conf:

```
### RC Fancy
rc_fancy="YES"         # rc_fancy="COLOR"
rc_fancy_color="YES"
rc_fancy_verbose="NO"
rc_fancy_msg_ok="OK"
rc_fancy_msg_failed="FAILED"
rc_fancy_msg_error="ERROR"
rc_fancy_msg_skipped="SKIPPED"
rc_fancy_msg_skip="SKIP"
rc_fancy_msg_width="6"
rc_fancy_cols="80"
```
Unfortunately it doesn't look like it is implemented as a default in FreeBSD yet neither am I finding an online site where to get the latest patch for this feature.

Any ideas/hints/actual news about this topic?

Thx Thanks.


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## Amzo (Jul 15, 2013)

Those patches have been gone for a long time, and I don't think anyone has made any since. However, there is OpenRC. (I'll probably get wrong for saying this) but it works on FreeBSD, and is BSDL. 

The only issue here, is you'd be on your own for all init scripts. So other than that, you'd either have to patch FreeBSD rc scripts by yourself, or (not recommended) switch to one that uses colors by default.

Though, try this ISO: This is an ISO I made that uses OpenRC to boot:

OpenRC + FreeBSD ISO


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## Leander (Jul 15, 2013)

Cool! Thx for the iso & thx for the hint! Thanks for the ISO and thanks for the hint!

Best regards.


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