[syslinux] New 'quiet' behavior - optional?

[Lucas De Marchi]

On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 7:59 PM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 19:23, Lucas De Marchi
> <lucas.demarchi at profusion.mobi> wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Ferenc Wagner <wferi at niif.hu> wrote:
>>>> When I see these messages by a fraction of a second (not specifically
>>>> in syslinux), I always hear users complaining that the system as a
>>>> whole is not well integrated, there are still some rough edges to be
>>>> polished. The reason is that it appears and goes away faster than the
>>>> user is able to read and slower than necessary to be unnoticed.
>>>
>>> How does the user know that it isn't part of the system BIOS?
>>
>> Ideally the bios doesn't show anything if configuration didn't change
>> since last time the computer was booted (an example of this behavior
>> is the Asus eeepc).
>>
>> Even if BIOS shows something, the common behavior is to blank the
>> screen before going to the boot loader. The final result is that
>> screen is blanked between BIOS and bootloader and then between the
>> banner and the graphical UI. If there isn't anything written in the
>> banner, then there's one less blanking.
>
> Most option ROMs I've seen don't bother with blanking.  Storage
> controllers (Especially Intel Rapid Restore and AHCI on current
> desktops and laptops) and PXE ROMs are the most common ones my users
> would see.  I also see a bunch of other option ROMs on more populated
> systems, especially servers.
>
> With most of these machines, the BIOS blanks the screen then the
> option ROMs load, populating the screen with text, then the bootloader
> loads.  If the option ROMs didn't load (disabled in BIOS; for
> desktop/laptop storage controllers that often means legacy storage
> mode), a blank screen would be the result when proceeding to the
> bootloader.
>
> One idea to make it look "nicer" might be a config directive like
> "UIDELAY", measured in 1/10ths of a second like the timeouts but such
> a feature request would be far easier to implement once the config
> parser is changed over to C.  When used, it could display a message
> like "Loading user interface, please wait..." (maybe another directive
> "UIDELAYMSG").  It would eliminate the flash causing "rough edges"
> such that users could read the message.  This delay/message would
> solely be used at first load and not subsequent loads of the UI within
> one session in Syslinux.
>

As you pointed out in another email, "With regards to the banner,
which includes the copyright, it is
written before the config is loaded".

How are you planning such a config now? Besides, if it has to wait
until the config is parsed, I think it loses its original reason for
existence, i.e. making debug easier.



regards,

Lucas De Marchi