Re: [Suggestion] LILO-like direct menu item access && scripting

[Serbinenko Vladimir <serbinenko.vova@list.ru>]

Marc-Jano Knopp wrote:

>Hi all!
>
>I'm only an end user, but didn't find another way to suggest something
>for GRUB 2 except for this mailing list, so here we go:
>
>There is one reason I do not employ GRUB everywhere: With LILO, you
>can blindly select a specific menu item, which you cannot with GRUB
>(at least with GRUB 0.92).
>
>I can assign numbers or different letters to the LILO menu items and so
>directly and blindly access them, independently from the current
>selection bar position, not having to switch on a monitor (or even
>actually have one attached). And at least a year ago or so, I could not
>find anything in the GRUB documentation to make this work.
>
>Now, while you're at it, could you add such a feature to GRUB 2?
>Especially having letters to select menu items would be very helpful
>(l = Linux, f = FreeBSD, n = NetBSD, d = DOS, ...).
>
>Maybe this could be done by introducing a LILO-menu-mode acting
>the way I described, with e.g. special escape- or control-key-
>sequences to directly select LILO-menu- and GRUB-mode (ESC-g/l or
>whatever), with the default mode being definable in /etc/grub.conf,
>errrr, /boot/grub/menu.lst or whatever.
>
>  
>
It will be better if when you press the buttons GRUB highlight
the corresponding entries. Like it's done in some indexes. The
problem are the touchs 'c' and 'e'. Perhaps it's good idea to  move to
C-c  and  C-e

>Oh, and... while this might be possible using some kind of script
>(just read shortly about a pre-alpha scripting engine),
>
About engine:
I made it GCS compatible, commented it and reorganized.
Main current problem is a lack of testing. So if you find a bug or have
a suggestion don't hesitate to contact me by this list or in private.
The other problem is the mails: the patch is quite big and is blocked
somewhere (I sent it to grub-devel but haven't received). If somebody
is interested he can send me private e-email and I'll send the patch in 
private

> a touch of
>user-friendliness like a simple grub.conf entry like "key", e.g.
>
>  title SuSE 7.3 (2.4.29)
>  root (hd0,2)
>  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 vga=extended rootflags=data=journal
>  key l
>
>would be nice. :-)
>
>  
>
Not at all because this syntax will mean that key is executed
before choosing entry that I don't like. I propose the following
syntaxes (I'm waiting for your suggestions which to use):
entry "SuSE 7.3 (2.4.29)":l
{
    root (hd0,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 vga=extended rootflags=data=journal
}
When you press 'l' it highlights  this entry
entry "SuSE 7.3 (2.4.29)":suse
{
    root (hd0,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 vga=extended rootflags=data=journal
}
When you type suse it highlights it

>Best regards
>
>  Marc-Jano
>
>P.S.: If this behavior is already possible with GRUB legacy, please let
>      me know how!
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Grub-devel mailing list
>Grub-devel@gnu.org
>http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel
>
>
>  
>