[syslinux] [PATCH] core: Allow pasting from a VMware host by typing Ctrl-P

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

On Fri, 2011-02-18 at 10:33 -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 02/18/2011 05:34 AM, Jeffrey Hutzelman wrote:
> > When Syslinux is running in a VMWare virtual machine and Ctrl-P
> > is typed while editing the boot command line, insert the contents
> > of VMware's clipboard.  This allows text to be copied from the
> > host (or wherever the console client is running) into Syslinux.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Jeffrey Hutzelman <jhutz at cmu.edu>
> 
> No way in hell, sorry.  You're touching I/O ports without first
> verifying that touching those I/O ports is safe.  And no, I don't
> consider VMware's idea that you can just do a random "in" to be a safe
> method of detection.

It's dubious, but also the only thing they make available.  I suppose in
a world where the core has all become 32-bit, it would not be too hard
to look at DMI to decide whether we're on a VMware machine.  In that
world, would you consider an interface that would allow a module to
extend the command-line editor in this way?


> The other thing is that this would have to do into a lot more places
> than this.

True.  This is a case of sending what I have been running for a few
years.  If a way forward were to appear, I'd consider finding all of
those other places and proposing appropriate changes.  Or maybe we'll
get lucky and some of them will end up being consolidated.

-- Jeff