Manually replacing the bootloader, replacing splash screen

[jslegers]

I've been using rockbox for a while.  Love it.  I wanted to swap out my splash screen with my own icon.  I also wanted to play around with the code, just to familiarize myself with the development stream, and some of the code.  I know there are some alternate builds that allow the user to set the splash screen to an arbitrary BMP, but I wanted to do it for myself.  I think I would need the same skills for an alternate build anyways.

Anyways:
I want to know how to manually replace the bootloader.  I have replaced the original firmware before.  I know how to swap out the rockbox build ( the .rockbox folder).  But, the splash screen appears to be part of the bootloader, which is not a part of the general build.

I know how to do a normal build, and a bootloader build, but I'm not really even sure how the output of those builds differs.  So, my basic question:

How (in precise detail) do I swap out the bootloader for one that I myself have compiled

Some background, if it helps:

I have a Sansa Click+ with the split LCD, and want to swap out both the original splash screen and the boot-version text with a single image.

I followed the brief dev guide - downloaded ubuntu in virtualbox, and used git to acquire the codebase.  I modified /apps/bitmaps/native/SOURCES to include newsplash.128x64x1.bmp, and added a line in /apps/bitmaps/bitmaps.make to convert that file to a .h library

I modified /bootloader/show_logo.c for my particular build to display the new splash screen.

I created a build directory /build, and in that directory, I ran ../tools/configure to create MAKE files.  I can compile the MAKE files, and they appear to correctly convert the new image.  But, when I drop the newly-created .rockbox on my player, the bootloader isn't changed, and the splash screen remains the same.

I just want to know how to build a bootloader, then merge it with the original Sandisk firmware, and reinstall

[saratoga]

Configure a bootloader build for your target, compile it and then follow the manual install directions from the user manual.  However, instead of downloading a bootloader from the website, use the one you just compiled.