README.menu

$Id$

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, 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

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.


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.

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.