[syslinux] Patch sensible callback framework

[Steffen Winterfeldt]

On Thu, 29 Apr 2010, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> On 04/29/2010 12:29 AM, Steffen Winterfeldt wrote:
>>
>> Well, yes and no. If you think about disks and maybe even ssds that's
>> probably true. I was thinking more along pxe and dvd.
>>
>
> Those too.

I don't know. There's no noticeable speedup here in using 1MB blocks over,
say, 64k.

>> The other issue with 1MB chunks is that with about 10MB kernel+initrd this
>> would give only about 10 steps.
>
> And this is a problem?

The question then is, why bother at all? If startup is so fast, then what's
the point of a progress indicator at all? grub et al live without for years.
And the trend is anyway to fast seamless boot, so nothing needs to be shown.
Certainly a 10-step thingy flashing up for half a second is no real help and
reminds me more of file-copy popups in ancient MS filemanagers.

My point is that a progress bar makes only sense _if_ the data connection
is slow and it is visible about a few seconds. Given the typical
kernel+initrd size of 10-20MB, a 1MB blocksize seems not optimal for all
cases, so it might be a good idea to make it configurable.


Steffen

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