[syslinux] Disable clear screen

[H. Peter Anvin]

Dag Wieers wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> 
>> Dag Wieers wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Is it possible to disable the clear screen when loading syslinux ?
>>>
>>> Since the IBM BIOS on xSeries systems shows the MAC address of the onboard
>>> NICs, I would like to have them on screen when people do a kickstart
>>> fro mthe prompt using eg: ksdevice=<MAC address>
>>>
>>> I personally think that the clear screen is unwanted in most cases since
>>> people can add that to the boot message (ctrl-L) if they need it. If all
>>> the drivers in POST would do a clear screen, it would be very
>>> discomforting and even if syslinux is an exception (being the last one in
>>> the row) removing vital messages just before could lead to undetected
>>> problems.
>> Syslinux doesn't clear the screen unless you change video modes (by
>> loading a graphic screen) or run the menu system.
> 
> Hmm, I do neither. :-/
> 
> So it must be the BIOS who is clearing the screen before starting the 
> bootloader. In Qemu it doesn't clear the screen... Bummer.
> 

Note that you can get the MAC address by pressing Ctrl-N at the boot: 
prompt.

	-hpa