[syslinux] pxelinux menu questions

[Nazo]

On 11/4/05, Nazo <nazosan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/3/05, Grant Gossett <ggossett at symantec.com> wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I have a few questions about the menuing system that I haven't been able
> > to find in the archives (it would be nice if they were available in a
> > searchable form other than having to click on a month-by month basis and
> > read through them - if they are searchable I would love to find a way to
> > do this but it hasn't jumped out at me).
> >
> > My first question is : What is menu.c32? I see some posts of
> > /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default in the archived threads that have simple
> > menus and use this as the "default" entry in pxelinux.cfg/default, yet I
> > see no label in the rest of the file named menu.c32 (I'm thinking this is
> > not right). For example:
> >
> > DEFAULT menu.c32
> >
> > LABEL whatever
> > KERNEL memdisk
> > APPEND somedosbootdisk.img
> >
> >
> > I realize menu.c32 is a program (com32 style?) that is found in syslinux
> > 3.11 under com32/modules. The question is what does it do and why should I
> > use it? Is placing it as the default in a simple menu (as I've described
> > above and feel is wrong) the correct way to use it? I am interested in
> > displaying a menu of choices to users (e.g. dos ghost boot disk, linux
> > kickstart installs, win 98 SE boot disks, etc) so that they either can
> > select an option with enter or know what possible options exist. Using the
> > simple menu with "prompt 1" I get what I would consider a normal LILO-like
> > boot loader prompt:
> >
> > boot:
> >
> > However, I cannot get a list of options (labels) to display and expecting
> > users to remember to answer "win98se_bootdisk" isn't really going to work
> > :). This is probably a job for the advanced menus (unless my assumption
> > that menu.c32 + a simple menu is actually for this purpose (i.e. it shows
> > menu labels that are listed in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default) and I don't
> > know how to use it correctly).
> >
> > Let's say that I am stuck with creating an advanced (compiled com32) menu
> > because my above assumption about menu.c32 is incorrect. So I would make
> > the com32 menu file according to the documentation and my menu needs (no
> > problems there). This leads me to my next question:
> >
> > Do I replace the entire simple menu with just one option (say for instance
> > a label that has the newly made com32 menu as its kernel and also make
> > that label the default)? For example:
> >
> > DEFAULT myfancypants
> >
> > LABEL myfancypants
> > KERNEL myfancynewmenu.c32
> >
> >
> > thanks a bunch for any help clearing this up for me.
> >
> > Grant
> >
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> >
> >
>
> To the question about menu.c32, it's a nice little module that you can
> boot through syslinux and it's other incarnates which gives you a
> really simplistic menu.  No pretty flash graphics or anything, but, it
> gives you nice simple little labels so the user isn't required to know
> exactly what to type to boot a particular item, and you don't have to
> create complex message files to explain to them exactly what to do.
> To use it, you just simply boot it like a kernel.  However, it also
> accepts some new commands in the configuration, such as MENU LABEL
> under each boot item to give it a nicer label visible in the menu.
> Here is an example configuration from my own system to give you an
> idea of how it works:
>
> # Nazo's Extlinux Configuration
>
> DEFAULT menu.c32
> ONTIMEOUT chain.c32 hd0 2
> TIMEOUT 100
> PROMPT 0
> IMPLICIT 1
>
> SAY Enter command line for bootup:
> MENU TITLE Syslinux Bootup
>
>
> LABEL windows
>         MENU LABEL ^Windows
>         MENU DEFAULT
>         KERNEL chain.c32
>         APPEND hd0 2
>
> LABEL linux
>         MENU LABEL Gentoo ^Linux 2005.1
>         KERNEL gentoo
>         APPEND initrd=gentinit vga=0x31b root=/dev/ram0 real_root=/dev/hda7
> udev ramdisk=16384 video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1280x1024-32 at 60
>
>
> LABEL geexbox
>         MENU LABEL ^GeeXBoX
>         KERNEL geexbox
>         APPEND initrd=geexinit.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw init=linuxrc boot=hda1
> splash=0 vga=0x315 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr
>
>
> LABEL pqmagic
>         MENU LABEL ^Partition Magic 8
>         KERNEL memdisk
>         APPEND initrd=/disks/pqmagic.gz floppy
>
> LABEL memtest
>         MENU LABEL ^Memtest86+ 1.60
>         KERNEL memtestp
>         APPEND -
>
> LABEL mprime
>         MENU LABEL Prime^95 24.13
>         KERNEL mprime
>         APPEND initrd=mpinit.gz rw ramdisk_size=5325
>
>
> LABEL dosdisk
>         MENU LABEL DOS ^Bootdisk (Windows 98 based)
>         KERNEL memdisk
>         APPEND initrd=/disks/dos.gz floppy
>
> LABEL dos622
>         MENU LABEL DOS ^6.22 Bootdisk
>         KERNEL memdisk
>         APPEND initrd=/disks/dos622.gz floppy
>
>
> LABEL aida
>         MENU LABEL AIDA (Displays detailed information on every system component)
>         KERNEL memdisk
>         APPEND initrd=/disks/aida.img floppy
>

Sorry, I forgot to say, but, there SHOULD be a README.menu file in the
syslinux archive you can read for more details about how the thing
works.  Also, just so it's 100% clear, this is not specific to
pxelinux.  It will work in any of the syslinux family, including, for
example, isolinux.