Bug 4784

Summary:	Allow user to choose boot action in live images
Product:	[Build System, Metadata & Runtime] OE-Core	Reporter:	Chen Qi <Qi.Chen>
Component:	core	Assignee:	Chen Qi <Qi.Chen>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Low	CC:	jessica.zhang, liezhi.yang, mark.hatle, meta.mr.watcher, meta.watcher, sgw, tf+bugs.yocto, yi.zhao
Version:	1.4
Target Milestone:	1.5 M2
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Multiple
Whiteboard:
OS type for building Yocto:	---	Type of Regression:	---
Verified:		Documentation change:	---

Description Chen Qi 2013-06-27 10:14:40 UTC

For now, the action that the live image takes when booting up is totally determined by the LABEL value in the boot parameters (/proc/cmdline). If the LABEL is 'boot', it mounts the root image and boots it; if the LABEL is 'install', it tries to install the root image.
This behaviour is not very convenient for users, from my point of view. What if the user just wants to drop to a shell for troubleshooting? Or the user wants to install the live image while the LABEL is 'boot', which is the default value if we don't change it in the some conf file like local.conf.
So I think we present to the user a menu, through which he/she could choose the boot action.
The interface would be something like the following:

Boot options:
[1] boot: boot the live image
[2] install: install the live image to a local disk
[3] shell: drop to a shell
Please enter your choice in 6 seconds [or default to *xxx*]:
(P.S. xxx is determined by the LABEL value in /proc/cmdline.) 

//Chen Qi

Comment 1 tf 2013-07-10 08:37:32 UTC

This functionality has always been available, the default LABEL can be modified from the syslinux prompt -- if you want a more user friendly menu and/or longer pause, then you can modify the syslinux config to suit.

Comment 2 Chen Qi 2013-07-10 08:46:51 UTC

(In reply to comment #1)
> This functionality has always been available, the default LABEL can be
> modified from the syslinux prompt -- if you want a more user friendly menu
> and/or longer pause, then you can modify the syslinux config to suit.

Thanks for providing this info.
Could you please provide a sample configuration here? Such that I can close this bug as WONTFIX.

//Chen Qi

Comment 3 tf 2013-07-10 08:59:48 UTC

The code that generates the menu is in the syslinux.bbclass: http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit/cgit.cgi/poky/tree/meta/classes/syslinux.bbclass, I think you should be able to modify what the menu looks like just by by setting up the appropriate variables in the image recipe. (The Yocto syslinux set up could do with some TLC though some day for a nicer looking menu then just the plain text console.)

General syslinux documentation is at http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX

Comment 4 Chen Qi 2013-07-10 09:14:40 UTC

Closing this bug as WONTFIX.
Reason detailed by tf in the last comment.

//Chen Qi