1 There are two menu systems included with SYSLINUX, the advanced menu
2 system, and the simple menu system.
5 +++ THE ADVANCED MENU SYSTEM +++
7 The advanced menu system, written by Murali Krishnan Ganapathy, is
8 located in the menu/ subdirectly. It allows the user to create
9 hierarchial submenus, dynamic options, checkboxes, and just about
10 anything you want. It requires that the menu is compiled from a
11 simple C file, see menu/simple.c and menu/complex.c for examples.
13 The advanced menu system doesn't support serial console at this time.
15 See menu/README for more information.
18 +++ THE SIMPLE MENU SYSTEM +++
20 The simple menu system is a single module located at
21 com32/modules/vesamenu.c32 (graphical) or com32/modules/menu.c32 (text
22 mode only). It uses the same configuration file as the regular
23 SYSLINUX command line, and displays all the LABEL statements.
25 To use the menu system, simply make sure [vesa]menu.c32 is in the
26 appropriate location for your boot medium (the same directory as the
27 configuration file for SYSLINUX, EXTLINUX and ISOLINUX, and the same
28 directory as pxelinux.0 for PXELINUX), and put the following options
29 in your configuration file:
35 There are a few menu additions to the command line, all starting with
36 the keywords MENU or TEXT; like the rest of the SYSLINUX config file
37 language, it is case insensitive:
41 Give the menu a title. The title is presented at the top of
46 Do not display the actual menu unless the user presses a key.
47 All that is displayed is a timeout message.
51 Insert an empty line in the menu.
55 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
56 Changes the label displayed for a specific entry. This allows
57 you to have a label that isn't suitable for the command line,
62 MENU LABEL Soft Cap ^Linux 9.6.36
63 KERNEL softcap-9.6.36.bzi
66 # A very dense operating system
68 MENU LABEL ^Windows CE/ME/NT
72 The ^ symbol in a MENU LABEL statement defines a hotkey.
73 The hotkey will be highlighted in the menu and will move the
74 menu cursor immediately to that entry.
76 Reusing hotkeys is disallowed, subsequent entries will not be
77 highlighted, and will not work.
79 Keep in mind that the LABELs, not MENU LABELs, must be unique,
80 or odd things will happen to the command-line.
85 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
86 Will add "count" spaces in front of the displayed menu entry.
90 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
91 Makes the entry unselectable. This allows you to make a
92 section in your menu with different options below it.
95 # Entries for network boots
102 MENU LABEL Soft Cap ^Linux 9.6.36
104 KERNEL softcap-9.6.36.bzi
112 APPEND initrd=dos622.imz
117 # Entries for local boots
124 MENU LABEL ^Windows 2000
131 MENU LABEL Windows ^XP
138 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
139 Suppresses a particular LABEL entry from the menu.
144 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
145 Indicates that this entry should be the default. If no
146 default is specified, use the first one.
151 ... which can span multiple lines
154 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
156 Specifies a help text that should be displayed when a particular
157 selection is highlighted.
162 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
164 Sets a password on this menu entry. "passwd" can be either a
165 cleartext password, a SHA-1 encrypted password (starting with
166 $4$), or and MD5 encrypted password (starting with $1$).
168 Use the included Perl scripts "sha1pass" or "md5pass" to
169 encrypt passwords. MD5 passwords are compatible with most
170 Unix password file utilities; SHA-1 passwords are probably
171 unique to SYSLINUX. Obviously, if you don't encrypt your
172 passwords they will not be very secure at all.
174 If you are using passwords, you want to make sure you also use
175 the settings "NOESCAPE 1", "PROMPT 0", and either set
176 "ALLOWOPTIONS 0" or use a master password (see below.)
178 If passwd is an empty string, this menu entry can only be
179 unlocked with the master password.
182 MENU MASTER PASSWD passwd
184 Sets a master password. This password can be used to boot any
185 menu entry, and is required for the [Tab] and [Esc] keys to
189 MENU BACKGROUND background
191 For vesamenu.c32, sets the background image. The background
192 can either be a color (see MENU COLOR) or the name of an image
193 file, which should be 640x480 pixels and either in PNG or JPEG
200 Begin/end a submenu. The entries between MENU BEGIN and MENU
201 END form a submenu, which is marked with a > mark on the right
202 hand of the screen. Submenus inherit the properties of their
203 parent menus, but can override them, and can thus have their
204 own backgrounds, master passwords, titles, timeouts, messages
210 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
212 This label will transfer to the named submenu instead of
213 booting anything. To transfer to the top-level menu, specify
219 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
221 This label quits the menu system.
223 WARNING: if MENU MASTER PASSWD or ALLOWOPTIONS 0 is set, this
224 will still allow exiting to the CLI; however, a separate MENU
225 PASSWD can of course be set for this label.
228 INCLUDE filename [tagname]
229 MENU INCLUDE filename [tagname]
231 Include the contents of the configuration file filename at
234 In the case of MENU INCLUDE, the included data is only seen by
235 the menu system; the core syslinux code does not parse this
236 command, so any labels defined in it are unavailable.
238 If a tagname is included, the whole file is considered to have
239 been bracketed with a MENU BEGIN tagname ... MENU END pair,
240 and will therefore show up as a submenu.
243 MENU AUTOBOOT message
245 Replaces the message "Automatic boot in # second{,s}...". The
246 symbol # is replaced with the number of seconds remaining.
247 The syntax "{singular,[dual,]plural}" can be used to conjugate
253 Replaces the message "Press [Tab] to edit options".
256 MENU NOTABMSG message
258 Takes the place of the TABMSG message if option editing is
259 disabled. Defaults to blank.
262 MENU PASSPROMPT message
264 Replaces the message "Password required".
267 MENU COLOR element ansi foreground background shadow
269 Sets the color of element "element" to the specified color
272 screen Rest of the screen
275 unsel Unselected menu item
276 hotkey Unselected hotkey
278 hotsel Selected hotkey
279 disabled Disabled menu item
281 tabmsg Press [Tab] message
282 cmdmark Command line marker
284 pwdborder Password box border
285 pwdheader Password box header
286 pwdentry Password box contents
287 timeout_msg Timeout message
288 timeout Timeout counter
290 msgXX Message (F-key) file attribute XX
292 ... where XX is two hexadecimal digits (the "plain text" is 07).
294 "ansi" is a sequence of semicolon-separated ECMA-48 Set
295 Graphics Rendition (<ESC>[m) sequences:
297 0 reset all attributes to their defaults
299 4 set underscore (simulated with color on a color display)
302 22 set normal intensity
306 30 set black foreground
307 31 set red foreground
308 32 set green foreground
309 33 set brown foreground
310 34 set blue foreground
311 35 set magenta foreground
312 36 set cyan foreground
313 37 set white foreground
314 38 set underscore on, set default foreground color
315 39 set underscore off, set default foreground color
316 40 set black background
317 41 set red background
318 42 set green background
319 43 set brown background
320 44 set blue background
321 45 set magenta background
322 46 set cyan background
323 47 set white background
324 49 set default background color
326 These are used (a) in text mode, and (b) on the serial
329 "foreground" and "background" are color codes in #AARRGGBB
330 notation, where AA RR GG BB are hexadecimal digits for alpha
331 (opacity), red, green and blue, respectively. #00000000
332 represents fully transparent, and #ffffffff represents opaque
335 "shadow" controls the handling of the graphical console text
336 shadow. Permitted values are "none" (no shadowing), "std" or
337 "standard" (standard shadowing - foreground pixels are
338 raised), "all" (both background and foreground raised), and
339 "rev" or "reverse" (background pixels are raised.)
341 If any field is set to "*" or omitted (at the end of the line)
342 then that field is left unchanged.
345 The current defaults are:
347 menu color screen 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
348 menu color border 30;44 #40000000 #00000000 std
349 menu color title 1;36;44 #c00090f0 #00000000 std
350 menu color unsel 37;44 #90ffffff #00000000 std
351 menu color hotkey 1;37;44 #ffffffff #00000000 std
352 menu color sel 7;37;40 #e0000000 #20ff8000 all
353 menu color hotsel 1;7;37;40 #e0400000 #20ff8000 all
354 menu color disabled 1;30;44 #60cccccc #00000000 std
355 menu color scrollbar 30;44 #40000000 #00000000 std
356 menu color tabmsg 31;40 #90ffff00 #00000000 std
357 menu color cmdmark 1;36;40 #c000ffff #00000000 std
358 menu color cmdline 37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
359 menu color pwdborder 30;47 #80ffffff #20ffffff std
360 menu color pwdheader 31;47 #80ff8080 #20ffffff std
361 menu color pwdentry 30;47 #80ffffff #20ffffff std
362 menu color timeout_msg 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
363 menu color timeout 1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
364 menu color help 37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
365 menu color msg07 37;40 #90ffffff #00000000 std
368 MENU MSGCOLOR fg_filter bg_filter shadow
370 Sets *all* the msgXX colors to a color scheme derived from the
371 fg_filter and bg_filter values. Background color zero is
372 always treated as transparent. The default corresponds to:
374 menu msgcolor #90ffffff #80ffffff std
376 This directive should come before any directive that
377 customizes individual msgXX colors.
382 MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 3
390 MENU HELPMSGENDROW -1
395 These options control the layout of the menu on the screen.
396 The values above are the defaults.
398 A negative value is relative to the calculated length of the
399 screen (25 for text mode, 28 for VESA graphics mode.)
402 F1 textfile background
404 F12 textfile background
406 Displays full-screen help (also available at the command line.)
407 The same control code sequences as in the command line
408 interface are supported, although some are ignored.
410 Additionally, a second argument allows a different background
411 image (see MENU BACKGROUND for supported formats) to be displayed.
414 The menu system honours the TIMEOUT command; if TIMEOUT is specified
415 it will execute the ONTIMEOUT command if one exists, otherwise it will
416 pick the default menu option.
418 Normally, the user can press [Tab] to edit the menu entry, and [Esc]
419 to return to the SYSLINUX command line. However, if the configuration
420 file specifies ALLOWOPTIONS 0, these keys will be disabled, and if
421 MENU MASTER PASSWD is set, they require the master password.
423 The simple menu system supports serial console, using the normal
424 SERIAL directive. However, it can be quite slow over a slow serial
425 link; you probably want to set your baudrate to 38400 or higher if
426 possible. It requires a Linux/VT220/ANSI-compatible terminal on the
430 +++ USING AN ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION FILE +++
433 It is also possible to load a secondary configuration file, to get to
434 another menu. To do that, invoke menu.c32 with the name of the
435 secondary configuration file.
438 MENU LABEL Another Menu
440 APPEND othermenu.conf
442 If you specify more than one file, they will all be read, in the order
443 specified. The dummy filename ~ (tilde) is replaced with the filename
444 of the main configuration file.
446 # The file graphics.conf contains common color and layout commands for
449 MENU LABEL Another Menu
451 APPEND graphics.conf othermenu.conf
453 # Return to the main menu
455 MENU LABEL Return to Main Menu
457 APPEND graphics.conf ~
459 See also the MENU INCLUDE directive above.