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Date:      Sun, 7 Oct 2012 12:52:55 -0700
From:      Garrett Cooper <yanegomi@gmail.com>
To:        Devin Teske <dteske@freebsd.org>
Cc:        =?iso-8859-1?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=F8rgrav?= <des@des.no>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: New Boot Loader Menu
Message-ID:  <A5FE9B8C-742B-45E0-85EB-1092A7D58D04@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <D61F7ED5-76C3-453D-878A-F0C678198C87@fisglobal.com>
References:  <0655B56F-AD43-402B-872C-568378E650F9@fisglobal.com> <86k3v21qsx.fsf@ds4.des.no> <3EB58454-7820-43C4-911E-7DEF2D02C880@fisglobal.com> <86fw5q15f9.fsf@ds4.des.no> <D61F7ED5-76C3-453D-878A-F0C678198C87@fisglobal.com>

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On Oct 7, 2012, at 12:03 PM, Devin Teske wrote:

> On Oct 7, 2012, at 11:51 AM, Dag-Erling Sm=F8rgrav wrote:
>=20
>> Devin Teske <devin.teske@fisglobal.com> writes:
>>> Dag-Erling Sm=F8rgrav <des@des.no> writes:
>>>> What problem are you trying to solve, exactly?
>>> Many in-fact:
>>> [list of things that bear no relation whatsoever to what was =
actually
>>> in the email I replied to]
>>=20
>=20
> I disagree with your slight that those "things =85 bear no relation =
whatsoever to what was actually in the e-mail [you] replied to".
>=20
> It only *seem* as those are unrelated. I assure you, they are _very_ =
related (and it's very much my mistake for not making it clear in my =
initial e-mail). I must apologize for this lack of clarity (I try to =
rectify it below).
>=20
>> Then maybe you should have focused on that in your original email.
>>=20
>=20
> Yes, perhaps.
>=20
> Perhaps it would have been better to explain:
>=20
> Hey=85
>=20
> + iX and I are working on enhancing the boot loader menu to include a =
new submenu for selecting a Boot Environment (BE). I'm providing the =
menu infrastructure, iX is providing the C code to populate that menu.

Sounds like GRUB/Plymouth's model... sorta.

> + We can't add this new menu item without pigeon-holing ourselves into =
a position where no more menuitems can be added.

Understood.

...

> + What do you think of how it looks?


Comments:

- Graphics look ok for a text boot loader. Not too radically different =
from the original rewrite, which is good.
- Look at other OSes and devices for inspiration for their boot menus: =
OSX and Windows might not be a good template because the menu is =
obscured from the end user (or maybe not?), but there might be some =
Android/Linux platforms out there that can serve as inspiration for =
things which should be put in a menu. It would probably be best just to =
come up with a general template based on common use cases. Once you have =
an idea of the breadth of common uses in a boot menu, I would design =
from there trying to determine what dimensions are that you need to make =
things work (I have X items, Y levels deep to work with -- 2 is good, =
and I can categorize them in this manner, which means I need this many =
groups max in order to accommodate everything).
- Have you considered high resolution screens/fonts; there are some =
already in FreeBSD hooked into syscons, but that's available later on at =
boot? I mention this because there's a lot of wasted real estate on my =
30" or 24" LCDs when I boot up FreeBSD.

I'd like to see sketches or a general idea of what you have in mind =
before investing too much time in a direction that doesn't bear a lot of =
fruit. I'm sure others here agree.

Thanks!
-Garrett=



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