[syslinux] A few questions and notes

[Gene Cumm]

On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 03:52,  <vfaj-q0gm at dea.spamcon.org> wrote:
> (Using syslinux 4.02, pxelinux, and menu.c32)
>
> 1. Is it possible to make a multi-line MENU TITLE?  I tried \n
>   and line continuation \ and neither worked.

At the moment, I don't believe so.

> 2. The menu.c32 Wiki page states that the ANSI color codes are
>   used for text mode.  But nothing is said about the
>   foreground/background "#" codes or shadow.  I suspect they
>   apply only to a graphical menu, as I didn't see any effect
>   with a text menu.  The Wiki should clearly state what they
>   apply to.

Correct.  It's implicit in the statement "These are used (a) in text
mode, and (b) on the serial console." that the ansi field applies to
text modes and the remaining 3 attributes apply to the graphical mode.
 I think explicitly stating this may help (either first thing or just
after the element portion):

"ansi" is used in text mode and on the serial console while
"foreground", "background" and "shadow" are using in graphical modes.

> 3. Is there a tool that would let me see the PXE boot menu at my
>   desk, instead of having to go physically boot a machine to see
>   it?  Using a VM is too heavyweight.  I would expect something
>   in the syslinux suite or a 3rd party tool that could at least
>   show the menu.c32 text menu at a [SSH] console or a graphical
>   desktop.

What about emulators like bochs and qemu (especially the non-kvm
qemu), configured for a minimal amount of RAM?  4 - 16 MiB should be
more than enough.

Other than that, I can not think of anything.

-- 
-Gene