[syslinux] menu.c32 selection bar visibility on serial console

[Jodok Ole Muellers]

Hello,

I am using a menu with the help of menu.c32 which
looks like this on a serial console (HP ILO Virtual Serial Port):


  +----------------------------------------------------------+        
  |                          Main                            |        
   ----------------------------------------------------------        
  |                                                          |        
  | Boot from Harddisk (C:)                                  |        
  | WDS - Windows Deployment Services                        |        
  |   Debian -->                                             |        
  |   Redhat -->                                             |        
  |   Ubuntu -->                                             |        
  |   Other -->                                              |        
  | EXIT/Abort PXE                                           |        
  |                                                          |        
  |                                                          |        
  |                                                          |        
  |                                                          |        
  +----------------------------------------------------------+      


Unfortunately it's not possible to see what is selected 
while navigating through this menu with the up/down keys.

This is the pxelinux.cfg/default:


DEFAULT menu.c32
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 600

MENU TITLE Main 
MENU SEPARATOR
MENU NOTABMSG 
MENU COLOR sel          1;7;37;40    #e0000000 #20ff8000 all

LABEL   0
        MENU LABEL Boot from Harddisk
        MENU default
        LOCALBOOT 0
        TYPE 0x80

LABEL   1
        MENU LABEL WDS - Windows Deployment Services
        KERNEL pxeboot.0

LABEL   2
        MENU LABEL Debian -->
        MENU INDENT 2
        KERNEL menu.c32
        HELP 
        APPEND pxelinux.cfg/debian.menu

LABEL   3
        MENU LABEL Redhat -->
        MENU INDENT 2
        KERNEL menu.c32
        APPEND pxelinux.cfg/redhat.menu       

LABEL   4 
        MENU LABEL Ubuntu -->
        MENU INDENT 2
        KERNEL menu.c32
        APPEND pxelinux.cfg/ubuntu.menu

LABEL   5
        MENU LABEL Other -->
        MENU INDENT 2
        KERNEL menu.c32
        APPEND pxelinux.cfg/other.menu

LABEL   99
        MENU LABEL EXIT/Abort PXE
        KERNEL abortpxe.0



My understanding of  http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Comboot/menu.c32
is that "MENU COLOR sel 1;7;37;40    #e0000000 #20ff8000 all" should display
the selection bar with these (ANSI?) attributes:

	sel   Selection bar
	1     set bold
	7     set reverse video
	37    set white foreground
	40    set black background

I believe that these ANSI attributes are only available on a advanced terminal (xterm,linux,vt220)
but not on a serial console.


Is there any way to make the selection bar visible on a serial console ?
E.g. by putting a "*" in front front of the selected item, or enclose the > selected item with < less-than,greater-than ?



Regards
Jodok