[syslinux] Having extlinux report the installed vesrion

[Gert Hulselmans]

Regid Ichira wrote:
>
>> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:38:49 -0700
>> From: hpa at zytor.com
>> To: syslinux at zytor.com
>> Subject: Re: [syslinux] Having extlinux report the installed vesrion
>>
>> On 04/15/2010 04:16 AM, Regid Ichira wrote:
>>>
>>> 1) With a running linux system, is there a switch to run extlinux with,
>>> and read on the terminal the extlinux.sys version that is
>>> installed?
>>
>> There isn't; it would not be a bad idea to add, though.
>>
>
>
>   Why?  I have a working extlinux.  I don't upgrade because I don't want
> to fix something that is not broken.  But I do want to replace
> root=/dev/hda1 with root=LABEL=root.  Do newer versions of extlinux
> support
> that?  Let's say they do.  How can I tell weather the extlinux, I am
> otherwise happy with, support that feature?

Automatically retrieving labels and uuids from the boot partition are
currently not supported. Maybe it will be supported in syslinux-4.00 (or
later). Some months ago, I asked Pierre-Alexandre Meyer (Hardware
Detection Tool developer) about supporting it, but he only did want to
implement it in Syslinux 4 (filesystem code written in C) and not in the
Syslinux 3 (filesystem code written in assembler).

>>> 2) Is there a directive to add to the conf file, to see that
>>> information
>>> while booting?
>>
>> It's printed during booting automatically, or you can press Ctrl-V at
>> the boot: prompt.
>>
>
>
>   I haven't noticed that printing.  Can it be because I am printing my own
> text to the screen while booting?  The problem I have with the Ctrl-v is
> that
> I have to remember that.  I think it would be easier to add a directive to
> the configuration file that will print it automatically.  As an aside,
> where
> is that ctrl-V documented, as well as similar commands?
If you use the menu system (menu.c32 or vesamenu.c32) you probably won't
see the EXTLINUX version because the menu comes up to fast.
If you use only text mode, and you clear the screen first before writing
any text, you probably won't see it either.

You can try this extlinux.conf (will display the EXTLINUX version for 2
seconds before starting the menu system):
===========================================
DEFAULT menustart
TOTALTIMEOUT 20
PROMPT 1

LABEL menustart
COM32 menu.c32
APPEND your.conf
===========================================

Look in doc/syslinux.txt for the Ctrl-V and other commands.


- Gert Hulselmans