[syslinux] maximum resolution

[Murali Krishnan Ganapathy]

Nazo wrote:
> On 1/12/06, Murali Krishnan Ganapathy <gmurali at cs.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>   
>> Nazo wrote:
>>     
>>> On 1/12/06, Murali Krishnan Ganapathy <gmurali at cs.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> 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)
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>             
>>>>> 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
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Well, the usual argument is that these things can be done easily
>>> enough with the menu systems.  As for more extended help, the argument
>>> is that the only sure-fire proper way to do that would be to write a
>>> COM32 module.
>>>
>>> You know, it strikes me that this sort of problem crops up rather
>>> often.  I can't help but wonder if there isn't some way that someone
>>> with more programming knowledge could come up with a sort of generic
>>> COM32 help module that can parse some external file (I'm thinking it'd
>>> be nicest if it didn't have to be xxxlinux.cfg since that means the
>>> module will only work in the latest versions.)  Such a system would be
>>> easy enough that those of us with less programming abilities can even
>>> do it.  I'm kind of thinking something along the lines of a program
>>> like less, or maybe even just more (funny how less is more, but, more
>>> is less.)  d-:
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Yes. It is better for the menu system to support these features and let
>> syslinux stick to what it does best.
>>
>> The complex menu supports context sensitive help (as long as each help
>> screen is limited to a page). Currently the major shortcoming of the
>> complex menu is that one needs to know some C programming to use these
>> features. Eliminating that requirement is a long term goal, but for the
>> short term I am working on a python script which reads a ".menu" file
>> and generates the C program for you. It currently supports intricate
>> menu systems, user authentication (and permissions on menu entries),
>> checkboxes and context sensitive help. Eventually most things which can
>> be done using a C program which is not dynamic in nature (eg. selecting
>> a checkbox makes an invisible menu visible) should be do-able using just
>> the .menu file. Hopefully this should satisfy the needs of most
>> potential users of a menu system.
>>
>> - Murali
>>
>>     
> Wow, that does sound handy.  Now you've got my hopes up.  d-:  I hope
> that you'll give us an announcement in the mailing list whenever you
> come up with that.
>
> BTW, I forgot to say, but, back on answering the poster's questions, I
> should point out that the simple menu (menu.c32) does do shortcut keys
> (at least, for selecting the item.)  I personally recommend to
> everyone that I can that they at least try the simple menu because
> it's so easy to integrate and will work on some quite old versions of
> syslinux (actually, even the ones that don't support the menu commands
> in the configuration will just spit out warnings of unknown lines but
> they still go on despite that if I recall correctly.  At least, I
> think that's what happened once when I tried menu.c32 on a really old
> version.)
>
>   
Just finished the python script and it should appear with the next 
pre-release. Hope this increases the number of users of the complex menu.

- Murali