$Id: README.menu,v 1.11 2005/08/28 23:58:35 hpa Exp $
There are two menu systems included with SYSLINUX, the advanced menu system, and the simple menu system.
+++ THE ADVANCED MENU SYSTEM +++
The advanced menu system, written by Murali Krishnan Ganapathy, is located in the menu/ subdirectly. It allows the user to create hierarchial submenus, dynamic options, checkboxes, and just about anything you want. It requires that the menu is compiled from a simple C file, see menu/simple.c and menu/complex.c for examples.
The advanced menu system doesn't support serial console at this time.
See menu/README for more information.
+++ THE SIMPLE MENU SYSTEM +++
The simple menu system is a single module located at com32/modules/menu.c32. It uses the same configuration file as the regular SYSLINUX command line, and displays all the LABEL statements.
To use the menu system, simply make sure menu.c32 is in the appropriate location for your boot medium (the same directory as the configuration file for SYSLINUX, EXTLINUX and ISOLINUX, and the same directory as pxelinux.0 for PXELINUX), and put the following options in your configuration file:
DEFAULT menu.c32
PROMPT 0
There are a few menu additions to the command line, all starting with the keyword MENU; like the rest of the SYSLINUX config file language, it is case insensitive:
MENU TITLE title
Give the menu a title. The title is presented at the top of
the menu.
MENU LABEL label
(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
Changes the label displayed for a specific entry. This allows
you to have a label that isn't suitable for the command line,
for example:
# Soft Cap Linux
LABEL softcap
MENU LABEL Soft Cap ^Linux 9.6.36
KERNEL softcap-9.6.36.bzi
APPEND whatever
# A very dense operating system
LABEL brick
MENU LABEL ^Windows CE/ME/NT
KERNEL chain.c32
APPEND hd0 2
The ^ symbol in a MENU LABEL statement defines a hotkey.
The hotkey will be highlighted in the menu and will move the
menu cursor immediately to that entry.
Reusing hotkeys is disallowed, subsequent entries will not be
highlighted, and will not work.
Keep in mind that the LABELs, not MENU LABELs, must be unique,
or odd things will happen to the command-line.
MENU HIDE
(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
Suppresses a particular LABEL entry from the menu.
MENU DEFAULT
(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
Indicates that this entry should be the default. If no
default is specified, use the first one.
MENU PASSWD passwd
(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
Sets a password on this menu entry. "passwd" can be either a
cleartext password or a SHA-1 encrypted password; use the
included Perl script "sha1pass" to encrypt passwords.
(Obviously, if you don't encrypt your passwords they will not
be very secure at all.)
If you are using passwords, you want to make sure you also use
the settings "NOESCAPE 1", "PROMPT 0", and either set
"ALLOWOPTIONS 0" or use a master password (see below.)
If passwd is an empty string, this menu entry can only be
unlocked with the master password.
MENU MASTER PASSWD passwd
Sets a master password. This password can be used to boot any
menu entry, and is required for the [Tab] and [Esc] keys to
work.
MENU WIDTH 80
MENU MARGIN 10
MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 3
MENU ROWS 12
MENU TABMSGROW 18
MENU CMDLINEROW 18
MENU ENDROW 24
MENU PASSWORDROW 11
MENU TIMEOUTROW 20
These options control the layout of the menu on the screen.
The values above are the defaults.
The menu system honours the TIMEOUT command; if TIMEOUT is specified it will execute the ONTIMEOUT command if one exists, otherwise it will pick the default menu option.
Normally, the user can press [Tab] to edit the menu entry, and [Esc] to return to the SYSLINUX command line. However, if the configuration file specifies ALLOWOPTIONS 0, these keys will be disabled, and if MENU MASTER PASSWD is set, they require the master password.
The simple menu system supports serial console, using the normal SERIAL directive. However, it can be quite slow over a slow serial link; you probably want to set your baudrate to 38400 or higher if possible. It requires a Linux/VT220/ANSI-compatible terminal on the other end.
It is also possible to load a secondary configuration file, to get to another menu. To do that, invoke menu.c32 with the name of the secondary configuration file.
LABEL othermenu
MENU LABEL Another Menu
KERNEL menu.c32
APPEND othermenu.conf