3 things..
1st:
Your going to have to upgrade that kernel.
4.4.16-ti-rt-r38 used "kernel" overlays... To support these almost
everything is built as a module. So the display comes up way late to
do any boot splashing..
so first upgrade to: 4.4.68-ti-rt-r110
2nd:
Switch u-boot to use "U-Boot" overlays:
http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#U-Boot_Overlays
3rd:
Tweak, 4.4.68-ti-rt-r110's config to bring up pwm, tilcd, etc as
built-in (y), i've started doing this in v4.9.x-ti but haven't
backported those changes to v4.4.x-ti
Regards,
--
Robert Nelson
https://rcn-ee.com/