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:
34 There are a few menu additions to the configuration file, all starting
35 with the keywords MENU or TEXT; like the rest of the Syslinux config
36 file language, it is case insensitive:
41 Give the menu a title. The title is presented at the top of
47 Do not display the actual menu unless the user presses a key.
48 All that is displayed is a timeout message.
53 Exit the menu system immediately unless either the Shift or Alt
54 key is pressed, or Caps Lock or Scroll Lock is set.
59 Insert an empty line in the menu.
64 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
65 Changes the label displayed for a specific entry. This allows
66 you to have a label that isn't suitable for the command line,
71 MENU LABEL Soft Cap ^Linux 9.6.36
72 KERNEL softcap-9.6.36.bzi
75 # A very dense operating system
77 MENU LABEL ^Windows CE/ME/NT
81 The ^ symbol in a MENU LABEL statement defines a hotkey.
82 The hotkey will be highlighted in the menu and will move the
83 menu cursor immediately to that entry.
85 Reusing hotkeys is disallowed, subsequent entries will not be
86 highlighted, and will not work.
88 Keep in mind that the LABELs, not MENU LABELs, must be unique,
89 or odd things will happen to the command-line.
94 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
95 Will add "count" spaces in front of the displayed menu entry.
100 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
101 Makes the entry unselectable. This allows you to make a
102 section in your menu with different options below it.
105 # Entries for network boots
112 MENU LABEL Soft Cap ^Linux 9.6.36
114 KERNEL softcap-9.6.36.bzi
122 APPEND initrd=dos622.imz
127 # Entries for local boots
134 MENU LABEL ^Windows 2000
141 MENU LABEL Windows ^XP
148 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
149 Suppresses a particular LABEL entry from the menu.
154 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
156 Indicates that this entry should be the default for this
157 particular submenu. See also the DEFAULT directive below.
162 ... which can span multiple lines
165 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
167 Specifies a help text that should be displayed when a particular
168 selection is highlighted.
173 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
175 Sets a password on this menu entry. "passwd" can be either a
176 cleartext password or a password encrypted with one of the
177 following algorithms:
180 SHA-1 (Signature: $4$)
181 SHA-2-256 (Signature: $5$)
182 SHA-2-512 (Signature: $6$)
184 Use the included Perl scripts "sha1pass" or "md5pass" to
185 encrypt passwords. MD5 passwords are compatible with most
186 Unix password file utilities; SHA-1 passwords are probably
187 unique to Syslinux; SHA-2 passwords are compatible with very
188 recent Linux distributions. Obviously, if you don't encrypt
189 your passwords they will not be very secure at all.
191 If you are using passwords, you want to make sure you also use
192 the settings "NOESCAPE 1", "PROMPT 0", and either set
193 "ALLOWOPTIONS 0" or use a master password (see below.)
195 If passwd is an empty string, this menu entry can only be
196 unlocked with the master password.
199 MENU MASTER PASSWD passwd
201 Sets a master password. This password can be used to boot any
202 menu entry, and is required for the [Tab] and [Esc] keys to
206 MENU BACKGROUND background
208 For vesamenu.c32, sets the background image. The background
209 can either be a color (see MENU COLOR) or the name of an image
210 file, which should be 640x480 pixels and either in PNG or JPEG
217 Begin/end a submenu. The entries between MENU BEGIN and MENU
218 END form a submenu, which is marked with a > mark on the right
219 hand of the screen. Submenus inherit the properties of their
220 parent menus, but can override them, and can thus have their
221 own backgrounds, master passwords, titles, timeouts, messages
227 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
229 This label will transfer to the named submenu instead of
230 booting anything. To transfer to the top-level menu, specify
236 (Only valid after a label statement inside MENU BEGIN ...
239 Exit to the next higher menu, or, if tagname is specified, to
245 (Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
247 This label quits the menu system.
249 WARNING: if MENU MASTER PASSWD or ALLOWOPTIONS 0 is set, this
250 will still allow exiting to the CLI; however, a separate MENU
251 PASSWD can of course be set for this label.
256 (Only valid inside MENU BEGIN ... MENU END)
258 Indicates that the menu system should start at the menu being
259 defined instead of at the top-level menu. See also the
260 DEFAULT directive below.
265 Set the global default. If "label" points into a submenu,
266 that menu becomes the start menu; in other words, this
267 directive has the same effect as both MENU DEFAULT and MENU
270 For backwards compatibility with earlier versions of Syslinux,
271 this directive is ignored unless the configuration file also
272 contains a UI directive.
274 Note: the CLI accepts options after the label, or even a
275 non-label. The menu system does not support that.
280 Remember the last entry selected and make that the default for
281 the next boot. A password-protected menu entry is *not*
282 saved. This requires the ADV data storage mechanism, which is
283 currently only implemented for EXTLINUX, although the other
284 Syslinux derivatives will accept the command (and ignore it.)
286 NOTE: MENU SAVE stores the LABEL tag of the selected entry;
287 this mechanism therefore relies on LABEL tags being unique.
288 On the other hand, it handles changes in the configuration
291 The MENU SAVE information can be cleared with
292 "extlinux --reset-adv".
295 INCLUDE filename [tagname]
296 MENU INCLUDE filename [tagname]
298 Include the contents of the configuration file filename at
301 In the case of MENU INCLUDE, the included data is only seen by
302 the menu system; the core syslinux code does not parse this
303 command, so any labels defined in it are unavailable.
305 If a tagname is included, the whole file is considered to have
306 been bracketed with a MENU BEGIN tagname ... MENU END pair,
307 and will therefore show up as a submenu.
310 MENU AUTOBOOT message
312 Replaces the message "Automatic boot in # second{,s}...". The
313 symbol # is replaced with the number of seconds remaining.
314 The syntax "{singular,[dual,]plural}" can be used to conjugate
320 Replaces the message "Press [Tab] to edit options".
323 MENU NOTABMSG message
325 Takes the place of the TABMSG message if option editing is
326 disabled. Defaults to blank.
329 MENU PASSPROMPT message
331 Replaces the message "Password required".
334 MENU COLOR element ansi foreground background shadow
336 Sets the color of element "element" to the specified color
339 screen Rest of the screen
342 unsel Unselected menu item
343 hotkey Unselected hotkey
345 hotsel Selected hotkey
346 disabled Disabled menu item
348 tabmsg Press [Tab] message
349 cmdmark Command line marker
351 pwdborder Password box border
352 pwdheader Password box header
353 pwdentry Password box contents
354 timeout_msg Timeout message
355 timeout Timeout counter
357 msgXX Message (F-key) file attribute XX
359 ... where XX is two hexadecimal digits (the "plain text" is 07).
361 "ansi" is a sequence of semicolon-separated ECMA-48 Set
362 Graphics Rendition (<ESC>[m) sequences:
364 0 reset all attributes to their defaults
366 4 set underscore (simulated with color on a color display)
369 22 set normal intensity
373 30 set black foreground
374 31 set red foreground
375 32 set green foreground
376 33 set brown foreground
377 34 set blue foreground
378 35 set magenta foreground
379 36 set cyan foreground
380 37 set white foreground
381 38 set underscore on, set default foreground color
382 39 set underscore off, set default foreground color
383 40 set black background
384 41 set red background
385 42 set green background
386 43 set brown background
387 44 set blue background
388 45 set magenta background
389 46 set cyan background
390 47 set white background
391 49 set default background color
393 These are used (a) in text mode, and (b) on the serial
396 "foreground" and "background" are color codes in #AARRGGBB
397 notation, where AA RR GG BB are hexadecimal digits for alpha
398 (opacity), red, green and blue, respectively. #00000000
399 represents fully transparent, and #ffffffff represents opaque
402 "shadow" controls the handling of the graphical console text
403 shadow. Permitted values are "none" (no shadowing), "std" or
404 "standard" (standard shadowing - foreground pixels are
405 raised), "all" (both background and foreground raised), and
406 "rev" or "reverse" (background pixels are raised.)
408 If any field is set to "*" or omitted (at the end of the line)
409 then that field is left unchanged.
412 The current defaults are:
414 menu color screen 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
415 menu color border 30;44 #40000000 #00000000 std
416 menu color title 1;36;44 #c00090f0 #00000000 std
417 menu color unsel 37;44 #90ffffff #00000000 std
418 menu color hotkey 1;37;44 #ffffffff #00000000 std
419 menu color sel 7;37;40 #e0000000 #20ff8000 all
420 menu color hotsel 1;7;37;40 #e0400000 #20ff8000 all
421 menu color disabled 1;30;44 #60cccccc #00000000 std
422 menu color scrollbar 30;44 #40000000 #00000000 std
423 menu color tabmsg 31;40 #90ffff00 #00000000 std
424 menu color cmdmark 1;36;40 #c000ffff #00000000 std
425 menu color cmdline 37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
426 menu color pwdborder 30;47 #80ffffff #20ffffff std
427 menu color pwdheader 31;47 #80ff8080 #20ffffff std
428 menu color pwdentry 30;47 #80ffffff #20ffffff std
429 menu color timeout_msg 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
430 menu color timeout 1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
431 menu color help 37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
432 menu color msg07 37;40 #90ffffff #00000000 std
435 MENU MSGCOLOR fg_filter bg_filter shadow
437 Sets *all* the msgXX colors to a color scheme derived from the
438 fg_filter and bg_filter values. Background color zero is
439 always treated as transparent. The default corresponds to:
441 menu msgcolor #90ffffff #80ffffff std
443 This directive should come before any directive that
444 customizes individual msgXX colors.
449 MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 3
457 MENU HELPMSGENDROW -1
462 These options control the layout of the menu on the screen.
463 The values above are the defaults.
465 A negative value is relative to the calculated length of the
466 screen (25 for text mode, 28 for VESA graphics mode.)
469 F1 textfile background
471 F12 textfile background
473 Displays full-screen help (also available at the command line.)
474 The same control code sequences as in the command line
475 interface are supported, although some are ignored.
477 Additionally, a second argument allows a different background
478 image (see MENU BACKGROUND for supported formats) to be displayed.
481 The menu system honours the TIMEOUT command; if TIMEOUT is specified
482 it will execute the ONTIMEOUT command if one exists, otherwise it will
483 pick the default menu option. WARNING: the timeout action will bypass
484 password protection even if one is set for the specified or default
487 Normally, the user can press [Tab] to edit the menu entry, and [Esc]
488 to return to the Syslinux command line. However, if the configuration
489 file specifies ALLOWOPTIONS 0, these keys will be disabled, and if
490 MENU MASTER PASSWD is set, they require the master password.
492 The simple menu system supports serial console, using the normal
493 SERIAL directive. However, it can be quite slow over a slow serial
494 link; you probably want to set your baudrate to 38400 or higher if
495 possible. It requires a Linux/VT220/ANSI-compatible terminal on the
499 +++ USING AN ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION FILE +++
502 It is also possible to load a secondary configuration file, to get to
503 another menu. To do that, invoke menu.c32 with the name of the
504 secondary configuration file.
507 MENU LABEL Another Menu
509 APPEND othermenu.conf
511 If you specify more than one file, they will all be read, in the order
512 specified. The dummy filename ~ (tilde) is replaced with the filename
513 of the main configuration file.
515 # The file graphics.conf contains common color and layout commands for
518 MENU LABEL Another Menu
520 APPEND graphics.conf othermenu.conf
522 # Return to the main menu
524 MENU LABEL Return to Main Menu
526 APPEND graphics.conf ~
528 See also the MENU INCLUDE directive above.