[syslinux] CPU usage while at syslinux boot prompt

[Gene Cumm]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Dag Wieers <dag at wieers.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Nov 2008, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>
>> Dag Wieers wrote:
>>> I was wondering if this was known behaviour ? And if it is something that
>>> we can fix ?
>>
>> I guess I might put a HLT in *as an option* (because people *will*
>> complain that the serial port loses characters), but perhaps a better
>> thing would be to not start the VM until you actually need it...
>
> One problem for us is that the connected ISO images cannot be ejected
> (disconnected) like a physical system, otherwise they could reboot
> directly into the newly installed system like we would prefer.
>
> That's a feature request for VMware...
>

For systems using slim height optical drives, they have no means to
retract the drive tray back in to protect against dust like the half
heights do.

Can you remaster the ISO such that it times out to either localboot or
chain load the local hard drive?  The timeout would allow you to
manually boot into the installer (watching the VM via the console in
the VIC) yet auto-boot to the local hard drive if you're not there.

It's either that or put in a COMBOOT/COM32 module to detect whether or
not the install has completed.  I know that the Windows installer
discs attempt to detect if there might be an installed system and
times out after 5-15 seconds to just booting the local hard drive.

You might also be able to script the VM to change state from connected
to disconnected.

You might also have luck with a PXE system (again detecting if
installed or having the PXE server deal different info).

Also, Novell NetWare is just as bad as DOS until VMware Tools is
installed (NOP versus HLT, I believe).