[syslinux] syslinux lua support

[James Buren]

I am a developer from the 'Frugalware Linux' distribution. I have been trying to
use the syslinux lua module to support more dynamic menu generation at runtime
for our distributed ISO images, as Grub2 is not very configurable for this. For
example, I need raw access to the PCI bus information to configure the video output kernel boot parameters for specific hardware. Specifically, 'vga=' has to
be used to get a framebuffer for cards that lack KMS. But, you must use 'video='
for KMS capable hardware. Thus, I could really use a better system than what I do
now, which is to forcefully disable KMS and rely on the generic vesa framebuffer.

I have been working on patches to extend the PCI and VESA modules in the lua
module. First, I need access to the full PCI information. It doesn't expose the
device class that is available in the C API. I have written a patch for this, but I don't know if it meets the code standards for this project. Second, I need to have a workingstdin when in VESA mode. As it stands, io.read() fails when in VESA mode. Itappears to be because of the dev_rawcon_r being the assigned input console. IfI modify the source to use dev_stdcon_r, it works as it does outside of VESA mode. However, I need to have raw access to the stdin if I am to design a menu drawing system in lua using ANSI control sequences because I need input control over arrow keys and such. Third, I need to get access to the cell dimensions. I have already written a patch for this which exposes the cell dimensions through the VESA module. I only need this if I have to write the menu drawing myself. Lastly, I could instead use the menu library API I saw in the C API, but it's not available at all for use in the LUA module. I have not the experience to easily do
 this myself.

Any advice on how I can address these issues?