[syslinux] Comments sought on the graphical menu infrastructure

Nazo nazosan at gmail.com
Tue Sep 19 17:47:26 PDT 2006


On 9/19/06, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I would really appreciate feedback on the graphical menu system and its
> infrastructure.  It's not really clear to me that it's what people want;
> it seems to me that it makes more sense than gfxboot, for example (C
> rather than pseudo-Forth), but I can understand people would disagree.
>
> Anyway, the more feedback I get the easier it will be to pick a
> direction and a priority for future work, so any comments are appreciated.
>
>         -hpa
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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.
>
>

Don't know how much my opinion counts for since I'm not actually a
developer.  However, I've been using Syslinux pretty much every since
I first realized that there was a positive benefit to using it on a
harddrive instead of just a CD.  Personally, I say that you've got the
right idea here with the new vesamenu.  You keep the basic
configuration file where all a user has to do is add a few things to
the configuration that make the menu work better -- but then even if
they don't the menu still functions.  Personally, right now I'm just
being lazy and using the vesamenu without changing the background or
anything yet (I'll get around to making a nice one sooner or later,)
but, I still like it a lot better since it's just plain easier on the
eye.

So far the only thing I've seen devs asking for is that they want to
be able to show their own logo (which you've definitely now covered)
and possibly some help text.  This too is covered by the ability to
position the menu differently (perhaps easier documentation covering
this so they can jump right in more easily -- a lot of things you have
to dig through the source or mailling lists to find syntax for, such
as the commands to move the menu itself around) so that you can
actually make an image with text.

IMO the most important thing is the simplicity.  Right now jumping
right on into using the simple menu (either menu.c32 or vesamenu.c32)
is as simple as running the appropriate module.  This makes it easy
for devs new to it to get started.  Right now the biggest problem
seems to be just making people realize that this new system will suit
their needs.  A lot of devs working on things that could benefit in
some small way from a nicer bootup (in particular I'm thinking of all
those working on live linux distros where -- especially in
troubleshooting -- the user is sometimes expected to pass rather a lot
of parameters at bootup and needs to know what those parameters are)
but don't quite realize it yet.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not an actual dev, so my opinion may or may
not actually be useful to you.




More information about the Syslinux mailing list