hey folks, Im using pxelinux to boot a Soekris box (which works fine to a default image) Ive added a bunch of LABEL, KERNEL pairs, but I cant read the display; Im buried in escape codes. Ive captured some of it to a typescript file: it starts out kosher, but goes unreadable rather quickly, 0005520 \r T F T P . 0005540 / \b \r 0005560 * 0005660 \r \r 0005700 * 0006000 \r 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ G 3 0006020 ; 9 7 H 033 [ s P 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0006040 0 1 H 033 [ s X 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 0006060 1 H 033 [ s E 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 0006100 H 033 [ s L 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 0006120 033 [ s I 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 0006140 [ s N 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ 0006160 s U 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ s 0006200 X 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ s 0006220 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ s 2 033 I upgraded to pxelinux 2.11 just to be sure, same results. Im using picocom, which is simple, and quite usable for working at a bash shell (more doesnt handle window size changes, but thats livable). Minicom feels totally focussed on modem ops, I was unable to use it for basic serial comm. FWIW, I tried using a DISPLAY file with lots of <FF>s, (^Ls too) this did little/nothing to unclutter the screen (but I did see the FFs show up literally in the window). I was able to partly clear the screen by adding the following should say '... booting\n please stand by\n' ting[sg[u boo[so[u y[sy[ustand b[sb[u If I type a label (blindly), the expected kernel boots. As soon as the kernel starts booting, it scrolls the clutter off the screen, and the display becomes readable. for the kernel, I have APPEND console=ttyS0,19200n81 and for pxelinux, I have SERIAL 0 19200 I looked in keywords for a TEXT 1 like directive to toggle the display, is that a reasonable request to make ? (or is there a better way ?) Related: this seems to work, (assuming suitable labelname) DEFAULT $labelname is that just coincidence ? (it seems not. the line is not 1st or last in file) Less related: LILO gives me some display issues too; it doubles the chars, so 2.6.8 label looks like 22..66..88, and it fouls up newlines. are these both related to an inadequate serial-terminal interface ? if so, any other recs ? (maybe a minicom serial-only config?) Finally, is this a reasonable statement of operations ? (if so, feel free to use it in FAQs, whereever) The PXEBOOT protocol starts with client running code from ROM, which runs BOOTP/DHCP protocol out its network interface. Your server's tftpd/dhcpd picks up the request and returns an IP, and (in our case) pxelinux.0, which is analogous to the MBR on your hard-disk. pxelinux.0 is loaded and run, it fetches pxelinux.cfg/* (with * starting at hex version of client IP, and trimming chars, till none left, then fetching 'default', explained better elsewhere) pxelinux.0 reads the file, promts the user as configured, then pulls the kernel (and initrd if given), and 'execs' it. sorry for the verbosity, I wanna be thorough.. tia jimc
H. Peter Anvin
2004-Sep-08 23:59 UTC
[syslinux] escape char clutter makes prompt unreadable
Jim Cromie wrote:> hey folks, > > Im using pxelinux to boot a Soekris box (which works fine to a default > image) > > Ive added a bunch of LABEL, KERNEL pairs, > but I cant read the display; Im buried in escape codes. > > Ive captured some of it to a typescript file: > it starts out kosher, but goes unreadable rather quickly, > > 0005520 \r T F T P . > 0005540 / \b \r > 0005560 > * > 0005660 \r \r > 0005700 > * > 0006000 \r 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ G 3 > 0006020 ; 9 7 H 033 [ s P 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; > 0006040 0 1 H 033 [ s X 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 > 0006060 1 H 033 [ s E 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 > 0006100 H 033 [ s L 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H > 0006120 033 [ s I 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 > 0006140 [ s N 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ > 0006160 s U 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ s > 0006200 X 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ s > 0006220 033 [ u 033 [ G 3 ; 0 1 H 033 [ s 2 033 > > > I upgraded to pxelinux 2.11 just to be sure, same results. >You have serial redirection enabled in your BIOS. Serial redirection uses ANSI/VT escape codes to mimic the display. Apparently picocom doesn't handle that.> Less related: > LILO gives me some display issues too; it doubles the chars, > so 2.6.8 label looks like 22..66..88, and it fouls up newlines.This is because you have serial port redirection enabled in the BIOS, *AND* serial console enabled in LILO. The two make a bad mix. -hpa
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