[syslinux] GFXBoot & PXELinux

[Steffen Winterfeldt]

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> a178235 wrote:
> > I understand the reasoning behind not integrating the dirty gfxboot patch into isolinux and pxelinux, but with many of the major distributions implementing gfxboot, it would be nice for a seamless boot interface across syslinux, isolinux and pxelinux so that the same menu file, look and feel, can be used to boot from the hard drive, USB thumb drive, floppy, or PXE. With isolinux being the primary method of Linux distributions, and more companies adopting Linux, it would make sense that the same method be used by CD’s and PXE boot would help the Linux adoption. Additionally, integrating syslinux, isolinux, and pxelinux into one unified syslinux that support all boot methods may make sense, but I don’t know all of the technical hurdles that would need to be resolved.
> >    
> >   Is there currently ANY solution that would allow for a gfxboot splash screen using PXE?
> 
> The best would be if someone would offer to reimplement gfxboot as a 
> com32 module.  However, *I* don't have time for it.

That is in fact on my TODO. But I have to keep it working on lilo & 
grub, too. So the switch is not that easy.

> There are other problems with gfxboot, too (no transparent serial 
> console support, complex byte-coded stuff)

Serial line handling has been often requested, but I didn't find the time
yet.


Steffen