path: root/doc/menu.txt

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 com32/cmenu/ sub-directory.  It allows the user to
create hierarchical sub-menus, dynamic options, check-boxes, and just
about anything.  It requires the menu to be compiled from a simple C
file (see com32/cmenu/simple.c and com32/cmenu/complex.c for examples).

The advanced menu system does not support serial console at this time.

See com32/cmenu/README for more information.


+++ THE SIMPLE MENU SYSTEM +++

The simple menu system is based on a module located at
com32/menu/vesamenu.c32 (graphical) or com32/menu/menu.c32 (text
mode only).  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 [vesa]menu.c32 is in the
appropriate location for the boot medium (the same directory as the
configuration file for SYSLINUX, EXTLINUX and ISOLINUX, and the same
directory as pxelinux.0 for PXELINUX), and put the following options
in the configuration file:

UI menu.c32


There are a few menu additions to the configuration file, all starting
with the keywords MENU or TEXT. As the rest of the Syslinux
configuration file language, it is case-insensitive.

The remainder of this document is a reference of the directives that
are relevant in the Simple Menu System.


MENU TITLE title

	Give the menu a title.  The title is presented at the top of
	the menu.


MENU HIDDEN

	Do not display the actual menu unless the user presses a key.
	All that is displayed is a timeout message.


MENU HIDDENKEY key[,key...] command...

	If the key used to interrupt MENU HIDDEN is <key>, then
	execute the specified command instead of displaying the menu.

	Currently, the following key names are recognized:

	Backspace, Tab, Enter, Esc, Space, F1..F12, Up, Down, Left,
	Right, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Insert, Delete

	... in addition to all single characters plus the syntax ^X
	for Ctrl-X.  Note that single characters are treated as case
	sensitive, so "A" and "a" can bind different commands.  The
	same command can be bound to different keys by giving a
	comma-separated list of them:

	menu hiddenkey A,a key_a_command


MENU CLEAR

	Clear the screen when exiting the menu, instead of leaving the
	menu displayed.  For vesamenu, this means the graphical
	background is still displayed without the menu itself for as
	long as the screen remains in graphics mode.


MENU SHIFTKEY

	Exit the menu system immediately unless either the Shift or the
	Alt key is pressed, or Caps Lock or Scroll Lock is set.


MENU SEPARATOR

	Insert an empty line in the menu.


MENU LABEL label

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
	Change the label displayed for a specific menu entry.  Display
	a label that is not 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

	The caret symbol (^) in a MENU LABEL statement defines a hotkey.
	Hotkeys are highlighted in the menu.  When a hotkey is pressed,
	the cursor will move to the corresponding menu entry.  If MENU
	IMMEDIATE is present, then when a hotkey is pressed the
	corresponding menu entry will be immediately launched.

	Reusing hotkeys has no effect on subsequent entries; they will
	not be highlighted, and the cursor will not move to them when
	the hotkey is pressed again.

	Keep in mind that the LABELs, not MENU LABELs, must be unique,
	or odd things will happen to the command-line.


MENU INDENT count

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
	Add "count" spaces in front of the displayed menu entry.


MENU DISABLE

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
	Make the entry unselectable.  This allows to display a
	section in the menu with different options below it.
	For example:

	# Entries for network boots
	LABEL -
		MENU LABEL Network:
		MENU DISABLE

	# Soft Cap Linux
	LABEL softcap
		MENU LABEL Soft Cap ^Linux 9.6.36
		MENU INDENT 1
		KERNEL softcap-9.6.36.bzi
		APPEND whatever

	# Dos 6.22
	LABEL dos
		MENU LABEL ^Dos 6.22
		MENU INDENT 1
		KERNEL memdisk
		APPEND initrd=dos622.imz

	# Separator
	MENU SEPARATOR

	# Entries for local boots
	LABEL -
		MENU LABEL Local:
		MENU DISABLE

	# Windows 2000
	LABEL w2k
		MENU LABEL ^Windows 2000
		MENU INDENT 1
		KERNEL chain.c32
		APPEND hd0 1

	# Windows XP
	LABEL xp
		MENU LABEL Windows ^XP
		MENU INDENT 1
		KERNEL chain.c32
		APPEND hd0 2

MENU HIDE

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)
	Suppress a particular LABEL entry from the menu.


MENU DEFAULT

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)

	The particular menu entry is considered the default for the
	particular (sub)menu.  If no default is specified, use the
	first one. See also the DEFAULT directive.


TEXT HELP
Help text ...
... which can span multiple lines
ENDTEXT

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)

	Specify a help text that should be displayed when a particular
	selection is highlighted.


MENU PASSWD passwd

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)

	Set a password on this menu entry.  "passwd" can be either a
	cleartext password or a password encrypted with one of the
	following algorithms:

	MD5		(Signature: $1$)
	SHA-1		(Signature: $4$)
	SHA-2-256	(Signature: $5$)
	SHA-2-512	(Signature: $6$)

	Use the included Perl scripts "sha1pass" or "md5pass" to
	encrypt passwords.  MD5 passwords are compatible with most
	Unix password file utilities; SHA-1 passwords are probably
	unique to Syslinux; SHA-2 passwords are compatible with very
	recent Linux distributions.  Obviously, if you don't encrypt
	your passwords they will not be very secure at all.

	If using passwords, make sure to use "NOESCAPE 1" and
	"PROMPT 0", and either set "ALLOWOPTIONS 0" or use a master
	password (see below).

	If passwd is an empty string, this menu entry can only be
	unlocked with the master password.


MENU MASTER PASSWD passwd

	Set a master password.  This password can be used to boot any
	menu entry. If this directive is used, then the master password
	is also required for the [Tab] and [Esc] keys to work.


MENU RESOLUTION width height

	Request a specific screen resolution when in graphics mode.
	The default is "640 480" corresponding to a resolution of
	640x480 pixels, which all VGA-compatible monitors should be
	able to display.

	If the requested resolution is unavailable, the text mode menu
	is displayed instead.


MENU BACKGROUND background

	For vesamenu.c32, set the background image.  The background
	can either be a color (see MENU COLOR) or the name of an image
	file, which should be the size of the screen (normally 640x480
	pixels, but see MENU RESOLUTION) and either in PNG, JPEG or
	LSS16 format.

	Note: When using an image file as background, its resolution
	should match the values used in MENU RESOLUTION.


MENU BEGIN [tagname]
MENU END

	Begin/end a submenu.  The entries between MENU BEGIN and MENU
	END form a submenu, which is marked with a ">" mark on the right
	hand of the screen.  Submenus inherit the properties of their
	parent menus, but can override them, and can thus have their
	own backgrounds, master passwords, titles, timeouts, messages
	and so forth.


MENU GOTO tagname

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)

	Transfer to the named submenu instead of booting anything.
	To transfer to the top-level menu, specify "menu goto .top".


MENU EXIT [tagname]

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement inside MENU BEGIN ...
	MENU END)

	Exit to the next higher menu, or, if tagname is specified, to
	the named menu.


MENU QUIT

	(Only valid after a LABEL statement.)

	Quit the menu system.

	WARNING: Even if either MENU MASTER PASSWD or "ALLOWOPTIONS 0"
	is set, MENU QUIT will still allow exiting to the CLI; however,
	a separate MENU PASSWD can of course be set for this
	label / menu entry.


MENU START

	(Only valid inside MENU BEGIN ... MENU END)

	Define the starting menu for the menu system, instead of
	starting at the top-level menu.  See also the DEFAULT directive.


DEFAULT label

	Set the global default.  If "label" points into a submenu,
	that menu becomes the start menu.  In other words, this
	directive has the same effect as both MENU DEFAULT and MENU
	START.

	For backwards compatibility with earlier versions of Syslinux,
	this behavior is ignored unless the configuration file also
	contains a UI directive.

	Note: the CLI accepts options after the label, or even a
	non-label.  The menu system does not support that.


MENU SAVE
MENU NOSAVE

	Remember the last selected entry and make that one the default
	for the next boot.  A password-protected menu entry is *not*
	saved.  This requires the ADV data storage mechanism, which is
	currently only implemented for SYSLINUX, although the other
	Syslinux derivatives will accept the command (and ignore it).

	NOTE: MENU SAVE stores the LABEL tag of the selected entry.
	This mechanism therefore relies on LABEL tags being unique.
	On the other hand, it handles changes in the configuration
	file gracefully.

	NOTE: In software RAID-1 setups, MENU SAVE only stores the
	default label on the actual boot disk.  This may lead to
	inconsistent reads from the array, or unexpectedly change the
	default label after array resynchronization or disk failure.

	The MENU SAVE information can be fully cleared with
	"extlinux --reset-adv <bootdir>".

	A MENU SAVE or MENU NOSAVE at the top of a (sub)menu affects
	all entries underneath that (sub)menu except those that in
	turn have MENU SAVE or MENU NOSAVE declared.  This can be used
	to restrict which specific entries are allowed to be saved when
	executed.


INCLUDE filename [tagname]
MENU INCLUDE filename [tagname]

	Include the contents of the "filename" configuration file at
	this point.

	In the case of MENU INCLUDE, the included data is only seen by
	the menu system; the core Syslinux code does not parse this
	command, so any labels defined in it are unavailable.

	If a tagname is included, the whole file is considered to have
	been bracketed with a "MENU BEGIN tagname ... MENU END" pair,
	and will therefore show up as a submenu.


MENU AUTOBOOT message

	Replace the message "Automatic boot in # second{,s}...".  The
	"#" symbol is replaced with the number of remaining seconds.
	The syntax "{singular,[dual,]plural}" can be used to conjugate
	appropriately.


MENU TABMSG message

	Replace the message "Press [Tab] to edit options".


MENU NOTABMSG message

	Take the place of the TABMSG message when the [Tab] key is not
	allowed, i.e. if the possibility to edit the command is
	disabled. Defaults to blank.


MENU PASSPROMPT message

	Replace the message "Password required".


MENU COLOR element ansi foreground background shadow

	Set the color of element "element" to the specified color
	sequence:

	screen          Rest of the screen
	border          Border area
	title           Title bar
	unsel           Unselected menu item
	hotkey          Unselected hotkey
	sel             Selection bar
	hotsel          Selected hotkey
	disabled	Disabled menu item
	scrollbar       Scroll bar
	tabmsg          Press [Tab] message
	cmdmark         Command line marker
	cmdline         Command line
	pwdborder       Password box border
	pwdheader       Password box header
	pwdentry        Password box contents
	timeout_msg     Timeout message
	timeout         Timeout counter
	help		Help text
	msgXX		Message (F-key) file attribute XX

	... where XX is two hexadecimal digits (the "plain text" is 07).

	"ansi" is a sequence of semicolon-separated ECMA-48 Set
	Graphics Rendition (<ESC>[m) sequences:

	0     reset all attributes to their defaults
	1     set bold
	4     set underscore (simulated with color on a color display)
	5     set blink
	7     set reverse video
	22    set normal intensity
	24    underline off
	25    blink off
	27    reverse video off
	30    set black foreground
	31    set red foreground
	32    set green foreground
	33    set brown foreground
	34    set blue foreground
	35    set magenta foreground
	36    set cyan foreground
	37    set white foreground
	38    set underscore on, set default foreground color
	39    set underscore off, set default foreground color
	40    set black background
	41    set red background
	42    set green background
	43    set brown background
	44    set blue background
	45    set magenta background
	46    set cyan background
	47    set white background
	49    set default background color

	These are used (a) in text mode, and (b) on the serial
	console.

	"foreground" and "background" are color codes in #AARRGGBB
	notation, where AA RR GG BB are hexadecimal digits for alpha
	(opacity), red, green and blue, respectively.  #00000000
	represents fully transparent, and #ffffffff represents opaque
	white.

	"shadow" controls the handling of the graphical console text
	shadow.  Permitted values are "none" (no shadowing), "std" or
	"standard" (standard shadowing - foreground pixels are
	raised), "all" (both background and foreground raised), and
	"rev" or "reverse" (background pixels are raised).

	If any field is set to "*" or omitted (at the end of the line)
	then that field is left unchanged.


	The current defaults are:

	menu color screen	37;40      #80ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color border	30;44      #40000000 #00000000 std
	menu color title	1;36;44    #c00090f0 #00000000 std
	menu color unsel	37;44      #90ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color hotkey	1;37;44    #ffffffff #00000000 std
	menu color sel		7;37;40    #e0000000 #20ff8000 all
	menu color hotsel	1;7;37;40  #e0400000 #20ff8000 all
	menu color disabled	1;30;44    #60cccccc #00000000 std
	menu color scrollbar	30;44      #40000000 #00000000 std
	menu color tabmsg	31;40      #90ffff00 #00000000 std
	menu color cmdmark	1;36;40    #c000ffff #00000000 std
	menu color cmdline	37;40      #c0ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color pwdborder	30;47      #80ffffff #20ffffff std
	menu color pwdheader	31;47      #80ff8080 #20ffffff std
	menu color pwdentry	30;47      #80ffffff #20ffffff std
	menu color timeout_msg	37;40      #80ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color timeout	1;37;40    #c0ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color help		37;40      #c0ffffff #00000000 std
	menu color msg07	37;40      #90ffffff #00000000 std


MENU MSGCOLOR fg_filter bg_filter shadow

	Set *all* the msgXX colors to a color scheme derived from the
	fg_filter and bg_filter values.  Background color zero is
	always treated as transparent.  The default corresponds to:

	menu msgcolor #90ffffff #80ffffff std

	This directive should come before any directive that
	customizes individual msgXX colors.


MENU WIDTH 80
MENU MARGIN 10
MENU PASSWORDMARGIN 3
MENU ROWS 12
MENU TABMSGROW 18
MENU CMDLINEROW 18
MENU ENDROW -1
MENU PASSWORDROW 11
MENU TIMEOUTROW 20
MENU HELPMSGROW 22
MENU HELPMSGENDROW -1
MENU HIDDENROW -2
MENU HSHIFT 0
MENU VSHIFT 0

	These options control the layout of the menu on the screen.
	The values above are the defaults.

	A negative value is relative to the calculated length of the
	screen (25 rows for text mode, 28 rows for VESA graphics mode).


F1 textfile [background]
...
F12 textfile [background]

	Display full-screen help (also available at the command line).
	The same control code sequences as in the command line
	interface are supported, although some are ignored.

	Additionally, an optional second argument allows a different
	background image to be displayed by vesamenu.c32 (see MENU
	BACKGROUND for supported formats).  The CLI and menu.c32 will
	ignore the second argument.


MENU HELP textfile [background]

	Create a menu entry which, when selected, displays
	full-screen help in the same way as the F-key help.


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.  WARNING: the TIMEOUT action will bypass
password protection even if one is set for the specified ONTIMEOUT
and/or DEFAULT entry!

Normally, users 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, and if
MENU MASTER PASSWD is set, they require the master password.

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.


	+++ USING AN ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION FILE +++


It is also possible to load a secondary configuration file, to get to
another menu.  To do that, invoke (vesa)menu.c32 with the name of the
secondary configuration file.

LABEL othermenu
	MENU LABEL Another Menu
	KERNEL menu.c32
	APPEND othermenu.conf

If you specify more than one file, they will all be read, in the order
specified.  The dummy filename ~ (tilde) is replaced with the filename
of the main configuration file.

# The file graphics.conf contains common color and layout commands for
# all menus.
LABEL othermenu
	MENU LABEL Another Menu
	KERNEL vesamenu.c32
	APPEND graphics.conf othermenu.conf

# Return to the main menu
LABEL mainmenu
	MENU LABEL Return to Main Menu
	KERNEL vesamenu.c32
	APPEND graphics.conf ~

See also the MENU INCLUDE directive above.