Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:00:47 -0700 From: "Devin Teske" <dteske@vicor.com> To: "'Dieter BSD'" <dieterbsd@engineer.com>, <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: [RELEASE] New Boot-Loader Menu Message-ID: <DD1F639830154CDF9EFF3DF790795293@shxd.ath.cx> In-Reply-To: <20110430192737.287270@gmx.com> References: <20110430192737.287270@gmx.com>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd- > hackers@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Dieter BSD > Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2011 12:28 PM > To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: [RELEASE] New Boot-Loader Menu >=20 > [ attempt #2 - grumble - sorry about the blank message, hope it > works this time - grumble- ] >=20 > > I hope that works for serial console.=A0 VT100 may be a reasonable > > default in that case, but it would be good to make sure that menu > > works even on a dumb terminal. Perhaps we should put 'key' letter > > in brackets then? >=20 > This needs to work, correctly, everywhere.=A0 This needs to be easy to > understand by a stressed out user whose machine is having problems. >=20 > Therefore: >=20 > Thou shalt not assume graphics. > Thou shalt not assume color. > Thou shalt not assume VT100 or any specific terminal. > Thou shalt not assume ability to display bold. > Thou shalt not assume ability to underline text. > Thou shalt not assume availability of multiple fonts. > Thou shalt not assume more than 24x80 chars. > Thou shalt not assume scrollback. > Thou shalt not assume fancy cursor movements. > Thou shalt not assume presence of function keys. > Thou shalt not assume presence of arrow keys. > Thou shalt not assume a fast interface. > Thou shalt not assume the three-finger-salute works. >=20 I agree with all those decrees. I'll make the next version will meet all those requirements in its "out of the box" configuration. If users want to make it colorized, I'll provide a knob that can be added to loader.conf(5) (how about ``loader_color=3D1'' ??). Already on the to-do list is to support ``loader_logo=3D...'' in /boot/loader.conf > Putting brackets around letters (and numbers) sounds good. > If there is room, perhaps add a message explaining that > the user should enter one of the choices in brackets. >=20 I think I'm going to have to play with this and see what we come up with. I don't want to make it too "busy" if you know what I mean. That's with respect to the brackets. As for adding a messages... things are a bit tight and again, I'm afraid of making it too cluttered. I'll post some screenshots of some mock-ups tomorrow, incorporating the various requests. > A help option would be useful, giving a reminder of what > things like ACPI and APIC stand for, what "safe" mode does, etc. >=20 This is not altogether infeasible. Since this menu (unlike the current one) has the ability to be wiped from screen and then recalled completely in the original state is was left in ... implementing an F1 feature that reads text from a file would be very do-able. I was at one time experimenting with reading a "version.inf" file from disk to be displayed at the bottom-right of the screen (under beastie logo) ... a way of indicating the version of either loader, OS, both, or more (could be auto-generated as part of release(7) for each/every release). > Would be nice: "uname -v" of the kernel it will boot. >=20 That's a bit more technically challenging. I'll have another look at the FICL words available, but I don't recall if there was a way to crawl the object space of the items loaded with ``load'' (looking for the uname). I'm open to suggestions if you had an idea of how to do this in Forth -- else I'd think this would need to be a loader(8) modification. > Would be nice: a user friendly way to boot from a different > disk/partition/kernel.=A0 Without the user having to know the > mapping between what the firmware calls disks and what FreeBSD > calls disks.=A0 And without writing anything to disk. >=20 That's also a bit technically challenging in Forth, I think. Open to suggestions, but again would likely be best implemented as a change to loader(8), no? > Would be nice: a fix for having to lean on a key autorepeating > for a couple seconds. >=20 Could you explain? I don't follow. --=20 Devin > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hackers-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" _____________ The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or confidentia= l. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (i) delete the message an= d all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute or use the message in any ma= nner; and (iii) notify the sender immediately. In addition, please be aware= that any message addressed to our domain is subject to archiving and revie= w by persons other than the intended recipient. Thank you. _____________
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