Syslinux - Apr 2017 - Prompting the user for input in the PXE boot menu?

Hi,

I would like to get some data from the user in the PXE boot menu before
launching OS install. Something along these lines:

Please enter hostname for the system:      <user types the hostname>
Please enter harddisk encryption password: <user types the password>

The values thus obtained would be fed to the kernel command-line and
from there to the OS installer. In our use-case it is not possible to
obtain the above information from an external source (e.g. DHCP) or to
determine it programmatically.

I tried LUA scripting, but the syslinux implementation of LUA seemed to
be missing input support.

Any pointers?

Samuli

Samuli Sepp?nen via Syslinux <syslinux at zytor.com> writes:
> I tried LUA scripting, but the syslinux implementation of LUA seemed to
> be missing input support.
What version did you try?  This works for me:

boot: lua
Lua 5.2.3  Copyright (C) 1994-2013 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> s = io.read ("*l")
foobar
> print (s)
foobar

Input support is indeed limited, but should be sufficient for this.
-- 
Feri

On 10/04/2017 13:05, Ferenc W?gner wrote:
> Samuli Sepp?nen via Syslinux <syslinux at zytor.com> writes:
> 
>> I tried LUA scripting, but the syslinux implementation of LUA seemed to
>> be missing input support.
> 
> What version did you try?  This works for me:
> 
> boot: lua
> Lua 5.2.3  Copyright (C) 1994-2013 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
>> s = io.read ("*l")
> foobar
>> print (s)
> foobar
> 
> Input support is indeed limited, but should be sufficient for this.
> 
I used what was bundled in CentOS 7. I will try again with a more
up-to-date version and report back.

Thanks!

Samuli