[syslinux] problems with isolinux over serial console

[Ady]

> Hi,
> 
> I'm missing something in my isolinux.cfg configuration but I'm not quite
> sure what it is. menu.c32 displays properly over video console, but on the
> serial connection, the first letter of the labels are duplicated, and the
> margin is pushed off towards the right:
> 
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59666947/isolinux.jpg
> 
> my config is:
> 
> --- cut ---
> 
>    1. serial 0 115200
>    2. console 0
>    3.
>    4. menu color screen 0;0
>    5. menu color border 0;0
>    6. menu color title 0;0
>    7. menu color unsel 0;0
>    8. menu color hotkey 0;0
>    9. menu color sel 37;40
>    10. menu color disabled 0;0
>    11. menu color scrollbar 0;0
>    12. menu color tabmsg 0;0
>    13. menu color cmdmark 0;0
>    14. menu color cmdline 0;0
>    15. menu color pwdborder 0;0
>    16. menu color pwdheader 0;0
>    17. menu color pwdentry 0;0
>    18. menu color timeout_msg 0;0
>    19. menu color timeout 0;0
>    20. menu color help 0;0
>    21.
>    22. default menu.c32
>    23. timeout 600
>    24.
>    25. display boot.msg
>    26.
>    27. Menu title RHEL6 rescue image
>    28.
>    29. label rescue
>    30.   menu label ^Rescue installed system
>    31.   kernel vmlinuz
>    32.   append initrd=initrd.img ks=
>    http://ksserver/kickstart/ks/labserver002-rescue.ks ksdevice=eth0
>    console=tty console=ttyS0,115200  ramdisk_size=32758 ip=45.32.255.21netmask=
>    255.255.255.128 gateway=45.32.255.1 dns=45.3.128.10 rescue
>    33.
>    34. label local
>    35.   menu label Boot from ^local drive
>    36.   localboot 0xffff
>    37.
>    38. label memtest86
>    39.   menu label ^Memory test
>    40.   kernel memtest
>    41.   append -
> 
> --- /cut ---
> 
> Is there anything I can do to get the menu displayed properly over serial
> console?
> 
> regards,
> Marc

Try the following:

Between lines 22 and line 25, replace them with:

 *** start replacing ***

DEFAULT textmenu
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 600
ONTIMEOUT rescue
DISPLAY boot.msg

LABEL textmenu
MENU HIDE
COM32 menu.c32

 *** end replacing ***

I think you might also want to test "PROMPT 1" instead of "PROMPT 0" 
and evaluate both serial and video outputs.

Note that the "ONTIMEOUT" directive points to the "rescue" label, but 
if you have other labels adequate for serial console, you might want 
to evaluate which exact label to use in this directive.

Also you might be interested in the TOTALTIMEOUT directive too, and 
in adapting the info about the new menu in boot.msg (we don't know 
its current content).