From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 28 14:21:03 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3AA8F1065675 for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:21:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [65.122.17.42]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CE588FC0A for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:21:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: from bigwig.baldwin.cx (66.111.2.69.static.nyinternet.net [66.111.2.69]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id B4FF146B03; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:21:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from jhbbsd.localnet (unknown [209.249.190.124]) by bigwig.baldwin.cx (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 479D08A027; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:21:02 -0400 (EDT) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:03:32 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.5 (FreeBSD/8.2-CBSD-20110311; KDE/4.5.5; amd64; ; ) References: <16FA7C02-86B0-46E6-A923-BC61357478FA@vicor.com> In-Reply-To: <16FA7C02-86B0-46E6-A923-BC61357478FA@vicor.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201103281003.32661.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.6 (bigwig.baldwin.cx); Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:21:02 -0400 (EDT) Cc: Devin Teske , Devin Teske Subject: Re: New Boot-Loader X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:21:03 -0000 On Monday, March 28, 2011 12:48:03 am Devin Teske wrote: > Hi fellow hackers, > > I'm designing an open-sourced replacement boot-loader for FreeBSD. I feel that the existing options in the boot-loader menu today can be whittled down significantly with a stateful menu system rather than a single-action item menu system. Are you reimplementing loader from scratch or just hacking on the 4th scripts to display the menu, etc.? > In designing the new menu, I'd like to get your opinions. From old: > > FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE: twitpic.com/4e485w > > to new: > > Replacement Boot-Loader: twitpic.com/4e46ol > > NOTE: The final release will have a single-user mode option. > > The new menu allows for more flexibility as selecting options 2 ("Boot Verbose") or 3 ("ACPI Support") independently toggles the status, updates the menu item, and redisplays the menu -- ever-waiting until the user ultimately presses ENTER, "1", or escapes to the prompt and types "boot". Thus, one could potentially launch single-user mode with verbosity on and ACPI disabled (if one so desired). This is good. I think DFly already does this and I had a low priority item on my todo list to eventually implement this in the current menu myself. -- John Baldwin