path: root/README.menu

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/vesamenu.c32 (graphical) or com32/modules/menu.c32 (text
mode only).  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 [vesa]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 keywords MENU or TEXT; 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 HIDDEN

	Do not display the actual menu unless the user presses a key.
	All that is displayed is a timeout message.     
     
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.


TEXT HELP
Help text ...
... which can span multiple lines
ENDTEXT

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
	Specifies a help text that should be displayed when a particular
	selection is highlighted.


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 BACKGROUND background

	For vesamenu.c32, sets the background image.  The background
	can either be a color (see MENU COLOR) or the name of an image
	file, which should be 640x480 pixels and either in PNG or JPEG
	format.


INCLUDE filename
MENU INCLUDE filename

	Include the contents of the configuration file filename at
	this point.

	In the case of MENU INCLUDE, the included data is only seen by
	the menu system; the core syslinux code does not parse this
	command, so any labels defined in it are unavailable.


MENU AUTOBOOT message

	Replaces the message "Automatic boot in # seconds".  The
	symbol # is replaced with the number of seconds remaining.


MENU TABMSG message

	Replaces the message "Press [Tab] to edit options".


MENU NOTABMSG message

	Takes the place of the TABMSG message if option editing is
	disabled.  Defaults to blank.


MENU PASSPROMPT message

	Replaces the message "Password required".


MENU COLOR element ansi foreground background shadow

	Sets the color of element "element" to the specified color
	sequence:

	screen          Rest of the screen
	border          Border area
	title           Title bar
	unsel           Unselected menu item
	hotkey          Unselected hotkey
	sel             Selection bar
	hotsel          Selected hotkey
	scrollbar       Scroll bar
	tabmsg          Press [Tab] message
	cmdmark         Command line marker
	cmdline         Command line
	pwdborder       Password box border
	pwdheader       Password box header
	pwdentry        Password box contents
	timeout_msg     Timeout message
	timeout         Timeout counter
	help		Help text
	msgXX		Message (F-key) file attribute XX

	... where XX is two hexadecimal digits (the "plain text" is 07).

	"ansi" is a sequence of semicolon-separated ECMA-48 Set
	Graphics Rendition (<ESC>[m) sequences:

	0     reset all attributes to their defaults
	1     set bold
	4     set underscore (simulated with color on a color display)
	5     set blink
	7     set reverse video
	22    set normal intensity
	24    underline off
	25    blink off
	27    reverse video off
	30    set black foreground
	31    set red foreground
	32    set green foreground
	33    set brown foreground
	34    set blue foreground
	35    set magenta foreground
	36    set cyan foreground
	37    set white foreground
	38    set underscore on, set default foreground color
	39    set underscore off, set default foreground color
	40    set black background
	41    set red background
	42    set green background
	43    set brown background
	44    set blue background
	45    set magenta background
	46    set cyan background
	47    set white background
	49    set default background color

	These are used (a) in text mode, and (b) on the serial
	console.

	"foreground" and "background" are color codes in #AARRGGBB
	notation, where AA RR GG BB are hexadecimal digits for alpha
	(opacity), red, green and blue, respectively.  #00000000
	represents fully transparent, and #ffffffff represents opaque
	white.

	"shadow" controls the handling of the graphical console text
	shadow.  Permitted values are "none" (no shadowing), "std" or
	"standard" (standard shadowing - foreground pixels are
	raised), "all" (both background and foreground raised), and
	"rev" or "reverse" (background pixels are raised.)

	If any field is set to "*" or omitted (at the end of the line)
	then that field is left unchanged.


	The current defaults are:

	menu color screen	37;40      #80ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color border	30;44      #40000000 #00000000 std
	menu color title	1;36;44    #c00090f0 #00000000 std
	menu color unsel	37;44      #90ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color hotkey	1;37;44    #ffffffff #00000000 std
	menu color sel		7;37;40    #e0000000 #20ff8000 all
	menu color hotsel	1;7;37;40  #e0400000 #20ff8000 all
	menu color scrollbar	30;44      #40000000 #00000000 std
	menu color tabmsg	31;40      #90ffff00 #00000000 std
	menu color cmdmark	1;36;40    #c000ffff #00000000 std
	menu color cmdline	37;40      #c0ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color pwdborder	30;47      #80ffffff #20ffffff std
	menu color pwdheader	31;47      #80ff8080 #20ffffff std
	menu color pwdentry	30;47      #80ffffff #20ffffff std
	menu color timeout_msg	37;40      #80ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color timeout	1;37;40    #c0ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color help		37;40      #c0ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color msg07	37;40      #90ffffff #00000000 std


MENU MSGCOLOR fg_filter bg_filter shadow

	Sets *all* the msgXX colors to a color scheme derived from the
	fg_filter and bg_filter values.  Background color zero is
	always treated as transparent.  The default corresponds to:

	menu msgcolor #90ffffff #80ffffff std

	This directive should come before any directive that
	customizes individual msgXX colors.


MENU WIDTH 80
MENU MARGIN 10
MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 3
MENU ROWS 12
MENU TABMSGROW 18
MENU CMDLINEROW 18
MENU ENDROW -1
MENU PASSWORDROW 11
MENU TIMEOUTROW 20
MENU HELPMSGROW 22
MENU HELPMSGENDROW -1
MENU HIDDENROW 20
MENU HSHIFT 0
MENU VSHIFT 0

	These options control the layout of the menu on the screen.
	The values above are the defaults.

	A negative value is relative to the calculated length of the
	screen (25 for text mode, 28 for VESA graphics mode.)


F1 textfile background
...
F12 textfile background

	Displays full-screen help (also available at the command line.)
	The same control code sequences as in the command line
	interface are supported, although some are ignored.

	Additionally, a second argument allows a different background
	image (see MENU BACKGROUND for supported formats) to be displayed.


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.


	+++ USING AN ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION FILE +++


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

If you specify more than one file, they will all be read, in the order
specified.  The dummy filename ~ (tilde) is replaced with the filename
of the main configuration file.

# The file graphics.conf contains common color and layout commands for
# all menus.
LABEL othermenu
	MENU LABEL Another Menu
	KERNEL vesamenu.c32
	APPEND graphics.conf othermenu.conf

# Return to the main menu
LABEL mainmenu
	MENU LABEL Return to Main Menu
	KERNEL vesamenu.c32
	APPEND graphics.conf ~

See also the MENU INCLUDE directive above.