[syslinux] Configuration question for syslinux 3.11 menu and ontimeout option

[Nazo]

On 12/12/05, Geert Stappers <stappers at stappers.nl> wrote:
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> On Mon, Dec 12, 2005 at 10:26:14AM +0100, Arnold Maderthaner wrote:
> > I just started to play with syslinux 3.11 and have some problems with the
> > configuration. I want to implement following:
> > wait 5 seconds till the users chooses the right label. if nothing is done
> > for 5 seconds it should boot from next boot device specified by the BIOS.
> > I configured syslinux like that:
> >
> > default menu.c32
> > prompt 0
> > timeout 50
> > ONTIMEOUT localboot
> > totaltimeout 200
> > display boot.msg
> > MENU TITLE Installation Version 1.2
> > label linux
> >   MENU LABEL Linux
> >   kernel vmlinuz
> >   append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=8192
> > label localboot
> >   MENU LABEL Boot from local disk
> >   MENU DEFAULT
>
>
> What does the above 'DEFAULT' mean?
>
> >   LOCALBOOT -1
> >
> > it does all the stuff that I want except for the 5 seconds delay. I wait 5
> > seconds (I see the counter counting to 0) and then it refreshes the screen
> > and starts again with the 5 seconds.
> > Anyone can help me with this ?
>
> What happens if the 'MENU DEFAULT' is removed?
>
>
> GSt
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MENU DEFAULT specifies that a particular item is the default menu selection.

My guess is that the problem here lies in the ONTIMEOUT statement just
being localboot.  If I'm not mistaken, you're essentially telling it
to start the boot sequence over, so it's going to boot the first
device, which will be the device you've installed syslinux complete
with it's menu.  Hence you'd be getting a loop where it returns you
back to the menu and would seem to just be clearing the screen.  BTW,
word of warning, localboot doesn't 100% work in all BIOSes, ESPECIALLY
localboot -1.  Officially what you should use is chain.c32 if you can,
though obviously it's a pain if you are working with something that
may be booted on multiple systems and the default harddrive and
partition that would be booted may not always be hd0 1.