Geert Stappers
2010-Jul-13 15:40 UTC
[syslinux] Hardware detection before booting heavy weight OS
Previous-Subject: constants and line continuation Op 20100713 om 16:21 schreef Dag Wieers:> On Tue, 13 Jul 2010, Jim Cromie wrote: >> On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 3:22 PM, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote: >>> On 07/09/2010 12:40 PM, Warren Block wrote: >>>> If these are FAQ entries, sorry, I searched but did not find. >>>> Maybe the wrong terms. >>>> >>>> Is there a way to define a constant value in a pxelinux.cfg/default >>>> file? >>>> >>>> ? ?httphost=192.168.1.1 >>>> ? ?... >>>> ? ?append fetch=http://${httphost}/... >>>> >>>> Line continuations: it would be slick if multiple append statements >>>> could be used in a single menu entry, breaking up those four-screen-wide >>>> lines. ?Tried that, and backslashes, but no. >>> >>> Not supported in the current version, sorry, but it will happen eventually. >> >> is this a good application for lua ? >> >> if lua is 'ready' when the config is requested and downloaded, >> the file could contain lua code that is run to produce all the >> menus, kernels, append-lines etc. > > Yes, my preference would be to allow for a syslinux.lua instead of a > syslinux.conf that would replace the syslinux.conf.My preference is that Syslinux stays a mean and lean bootloader. That allows making a syslinux.conf that contains kernel lua.c32 append syslinux.lua or more likely kernel lua.c32 append preboot.lua> > That way you can make the menu entries and boot-options depend on: > > - system information (DMI, VPD, PCI, HDD, filesystem labels, HDT info) > - boot conditions (eg. boot-device, syslinux version, ...) > - ask for certain information from the user > > In previous projects it would have been invaluable for projects. If for > provisioning you have more information you can act on at that stage, you > don't need to modify original vendor-supplied boot-images. Or you can > automatically have syslinux follow a work-flow like: > > - check if I see more than one HD to make RAID and reboot > - perform network connectivity and hardware validation tests and reboot > - perform OS installation > > Especially if we can set and read state information (maybe using VPD or > MBR), each of the steps could update the state to influence what needs to > happen next.I think such preboot scripts will pop-up. Thing that worries me, is how long we will wait for each other. Geert Stappers