Bug#493548: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD
severity 493548 wishlist thanks On Tue, 2008-09-09 at 08:52 +1000, Trent W. Buck wrote: On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 08:04:44PM +0100, Chris Lamb wrote: Trent W. Buck wrote: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD Unfortunately, menu.c32 does not work on some [..] roms. What happens is that attempting to load menu.c32 on such systems results in the entire screen going black (not even a flashing underscore), and it does not respond to any keypresses. I don't really follow understand the problem that adding PROMPT 0 would cause on the broken systems - if the buggy BIOSes essentially freeze the machine and generally don't work, then it's not going to work anyway, right? The machines in question work without problems -- unless menu.c32 is loaded. PROMPT 0 means that the user would need to know to hold down Shift, and possibly also how to enter the TFTP path to the kernel and the kernel arguments (e.g. ramdisk) -- I don't know if holding shift results in the rest of the config being loaded; I suspect not. I wanted di-n-a to be compatible with oldstable (i.e etch ;), so I used menu.c32 (switching to vesamenu 1 month before Lenny's freeze wasn't reasonable, IMHO) In Lenny+1, I'm planning to use vesamenu. More incompatibility may appear, so having the option to use menu.c32 or vesamenu.c32 will help. If I get no bug, I would then enable PROMPT 0 with vesamenu. Thank you for reporting this bug, Franklin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#493548: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD
Trent W. Buck wrote: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD - it seems a little silly to me for di-netboot-assistant to construct a pretty menu and then ask the user to randomly press enter 99.9% of the time, especially as that screen is full of technical PXE debugging output, etc. Unfortunately, menu.c32 does not work on some PXE roms. When I was discussing it with the upstream author hpa about six months ago, he said that his basically shouldn't happen, and that the PXE ROMs in question are buggy. What happens is that attempting to load menu.c32 on such systems results in the entire screen going black (not even a flashing underscore), and it does not respond to any keypresses. I don't really follow understand the problem that adding PROMPT 0 would cause on the broken systems - if the buggy BIOSes essentially freeze the machine and generally don't work, then it's not going to work anyway, right? (I Am Not A PXE Expert.) Regards, -- Chris Lamb, UK [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG: 0x634F9A20 signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Bug#493548: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD
On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 08:04:44PM +0100, Chris Lamb wrote: Trent W. Buck wrote: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD - it seems a little silly to me for di-netboot-assistant to construct a pretty menu and then ask the user to randomly press enter 99.9% of the time, especially as that screen is full of technical PXE debugging output, etc. Unfortunately, menu.c32 does not work on some PXE roms. When I was discussing it with the upstream author hpa about six months ago, he said that his basically shouldn't happen, and that the PXE ROMs in question are buggy. What happens is that attempting to load menu.c32 on such systems results in the entire screen going black (not even a flashing underscore), and it does not respond to any keypresses. I don't really follow understand the problem that adding PROMPT 0 would cause on the broken systems - if the buggy BIOSes essentially freeze the machine and generally don't work, then it's not going to work anyway, right? The machines in question work without problems -- unless menu.c32 is loaded. PROMPT 0 means that the user would need to know to hold down Shift, and possibly also how to enter the TFTP path to the kernel and the kernel arguments (e.g. ramdisk) -- I don't know if holding shift results in the rest of the config being loaded; I suspect not. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#493548: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD
On Sun, Aug 03, 2008 at 07:09:00AM +0100, Chris Lamb wrote: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD - it seems a little silly to me for di-netboot-assistant to construct a pretty menu and then ask the user to randomly press enter 99.9% of the time, especially as that screen is full of technical PXE debugging output, etc. Unfortunately, menu.c32 does not work on some PXE roms. When I was discussing it with the upstream author hpa about six months ago, he said that his basically shouldn't happen, and that the PXE ROMs in question are buggy. What happens is that attempting to load menu.c32 on such systems results in the entire screen going black (not even a flashing underscore), and it does not respond to any keypresses. Here is a list of MAC addresses that I have personally verified have this issue: ### These systems don't support simple menus. ## Asiarock Incorporation 00-0b-6a-1f-57-5d main-line.cfg ## Not in ethercodes.dat. Clear cases? 00-13-8f-34-bc-9b main-line.cfg 00-15-f2-5a-59-b5 main-line.cfg 00-15-f2-5a-59-c2 main-line.cfg ## Some kind of SiS chipset 00-13-8f-34-bb-61 main-line.cfg 00-11-d8-49-45-b5 main-line.cfg What I've been doing (I haven't adopted di-netboot-assistant yet) is to simply create two pxelinux.cfg files -- one that uses menu.c32 (with PROMPT 0) and one that doesn't. Having said all that, I agree with this proposed change -- the majority of systems WILL work with menu.c32 and so PROMPT 0 is a good thing. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#493548: Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD
Package: di-netboot-assistant Version: 0.36 Tags: patch Severity: wishlist Hi, Please default PROMPT to 0 in pxelinux.HEAD - it seems a little silly to me for di-netboot-assistant to construct a pretty menu and then ask the user to randomly press enter 99.9% of the time, especially as that screen is full of technical PXE debugging output, etc. The attached patch does this, as well as adds a note to the commented out sample entry indicating what they must do to use it if it was uncommented. (It seems reasonable to me that anyone using entries like that should alter PROMPT--unless they plan on holding Shift or Alt whilst booting--for the benefit of the default users who do not add entries there who get to avoid the aforementioned strange prompt.) Regards, -- Chris Lamb, UK [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG: 0x634F9A20 diff -urNad di-netboot-assistant-0.36.orig/etc/di-netboot-assistant/pxelinux.HEAD di-netboot-assistant-0.36/etc/di-netboot-assistant/pxelinux.HEAD --- di-netboot-assistant-0.36.orig/etc/di-netboot-assistant/pxelinux.HEAD 2008-08-03 06:55:15.0 +0100 +++ di-netboot-assistant-0.36/etc/di-netboot-assistant/pxelinux.HEAD 2008-08-03 07:00:28.0 +0100 @@ -5,11 +5,13 @@ SAY (Press enter to display Debian-Installer overview menu) DEFAULT menu -PROMPT 1 +PROMPT 0 MENU TITLE Debian-Installer netboot overview menu #A sample entry, with your prefered settings +#You will need to set PROMPT 1 or hold Shift or Alt whilst booting +#to be given a boot: prompt. #LABEL quick # MENU LABEL Debian Installer (Lenny ; i386 + Preseed) # kernel debian-installer/lenny/i386/linux signature.asc Description: PGP signature
