[syslinux] maximum resolution

[Murali Krishnan Ganapathy]

Nazo wrote:
> On 1/11/06, Geert Stappers <stappers at stappers.nl> wrote:
>   
>> On Wed, Jan 11, 2006 at 06:20:02PM -0500, Andrey Vul wrote:
>>     
>>> in isolinux, what's the maximimum text resolution (how many characters
>>> per screen)?
>>> i need to expand the f2 file and i don't know if the limit's been reached
>>>       
>> I never knew ISOLinux does switch text resolution. Neither didn't known
>> that it can have different resolutions on different screens.
>>
>>
>> Geert Stappers
>> (missing the context of the original question)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SYSLINUX mailing list
>> Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com
>> Unsubscribe or set options at:
>> http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
>> Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.
>>
>>
>>     
> Andrey is asking due to the fact that it can use images. 
> Unfortunately, Syslinux is unable to change resolutions as you
> suspected.  In fact, what it actually does is use the default
> 640x480x4 that is set by the VGA bios (so don't go setting it to EGA
> or you may get troubles.)  The easiest solution for when you run out
> of room on the F2 page is to make an F3 page.  Of course, you can
> always create a module (I'm thinking complex menu would be a start)
> and you could maybe do a bit using that, and, you can also boot
> another bootloader like lilo (which seems to be able to support VESA,
> though I don't really know how it does it since the only times I use
> lilo are when an installer sets it up for me.)
>   
I wonder if something like this can be done?

Extend the syntax of "F1 filename" to "F1 prog arg1 arg2 ....". If the 
user hits F1, then prog is launched with specified arguments. Ofcourse 
when only one word appears after F1 we default to current 
interpretation. We assume that "prog" is a well behaved program, i.e. 
either it does not switch text modes (preferred) or if it does switches 
back when control goes back to syslinux. If this is done, then one can 
write a small comboot code which displays the contents of a text file 
and allows the user to scroll through the text file.

Extending this analogy even further, it might be cool to be able to 
assign shortcut keys to certain commands. But given the size constraints 
I dont know if it is a good idea. This might be possible if we had a 
comboot version of the current CLI. This way those who want to add 
features can just add it to the comboot and use their CLI.

- Murali