When I was testing openSUSE about a week ago, I noticed that tty1 (yes, just tty1) had the openSUSE background. I want to do the same in Ubuntu.
I found a way using fbsplash. I'm not too keen on that since it involves modifying the kernel.
Then I found fbterm, which allows you to use your own background and it doesn't involve modifying the kernel.
So I got fbterm working; I set it up and now I can run it as myself (not as root) and it works just fine.
Now all I need is how to make it start in the tty when I start Ubuntu.
Edit: It also needs to act something like getty when I start it up; otherwise I won't be able to log in.