Status of gfxboot
Hi,
[ for those not having read previous threads about it: for quite a long
time included in debian already, syslinux version 3.74 includes a
gfxboot interface plugin, which allows using a more intuitive interface
in bootscreens of syslinux payloads (isolinux, pxelinux, etc.), as well
as with grub and lilo. in order to make it possible to use the gfxboot
menu structure in debians live and installation media, a few things are
left to be done. ]
I've packaged and uploaded the userland tools (gfxboot[0]) and upstreams
'sample' themes (gfxboot-themes[1]) to unstable, they will hit the
archive after the usual NEW delay. In the meanwhile, those packages can
be downloaded from the maintainers site[2].
This is the newest upstream version of gfxboot, 4.1.19, obsoleting both
ubuntus very outdated gfxboot version 3.3.39 and their hacked syslinux
version 3.63. gfxboot-theme-ubuntu needs a small patch (attached) to
adjust to the renaming of the userland executables. I've tested it
successfully with debians syslinux version 3.82+dfsg-4.
Note that the syslinux config file needs a change in syntax as well:
With the hacked syslinux version, one had in the config file a line like
this:
gfxboot bootlogo
With the gfxboot com32 module, this has to be changed to:
ui gfxboot bootlogo
There might be a limitation in syslinux 3.82 that requires to *not* use
include statments within the syslinux config file, meaning that e.g.
isolinux.cfg is a monolithic configuration file. I have not yet verified
that aspect myself, but on the bright side, others are claiming that
this has been fixed within the syslinux 4.0~pre series.
If the limitation turns out to be true, this is very unfortunate. Not
exactely knowing the ETA for a syslinux 4 final release, I might look
into backporting that fix for 3.82 instead of waiting for the 4 release,
so that we can keep using modularized syslinux configs for squeeze just
like we did in lenny.
What's left?
I'll look into creating a gfxboot-theme-debian using a newer version of
the bootsplash graphic redesigned[3] by pixelgirl. When there's
something to show off, I'll post again an update so others can express
their opinions.
Once we have a menu working and in the archive, live-helper will be
updated to be using gfxboot by default for sid and squeeze images. I
guess, debian-cd maintainers will most likely do something similar with
debian-cd at some point.
Regards,
Daniel
[0] http://git.debian-maintainers.org/?p=syslinux/gfxboot.git
[1] http://git.debian-maintainers.org/?p=syslinux/gfxboot-themes.git
[2] http://archive.debian-maintainers.org/syslinux/packages/gfxboot/
http://archive.debian-maintainers.org/syslinux/packages/gfxboot-themes/
[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2009/07/msg00211.html
--
Address: Daniel Baumann, Burgunderstrasse 3, CH-4562 Biberist
Email: daniel.baumann@panthera-systems.net
Internet: http://people.panthera-systems.net/~daniel-baumann/
diff -Naurp gfxboot-theme-ubuntu.orig/Makefile gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/Makefile
--- gfxboot-theme-ubuntu.orig/Makefile 2008-04-16 12:34:50.000000000 +0000
+++ gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/Makefile 2009-09-03 19:43:20.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
ifneq ($(BINDIR),)
BINDIR := $(BINDIR)/
else
-BINDIR := $(dir $(firstword $(wildcard /usr/bin/mkbootmsg) $(wildcard ../../mkbootmsg)))
+BINDIR := $(dir $(firstword $(wildcard /usr/bin/gfxboot) $(wildcard ../../gfxboot)))
endif
ifneq ($(PRIVBINDIR),)
PRIVBINDIR := $(PRIVBINDIR)/
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ else
PRIVBINDIR := $(dir $(firstword $(wildcard /usr/share/gfxboot/bin/keymapchars) $(wildcard ../../keymapchars)))
endif
-MKBOOTMSG = $(BINDIR)mkbootmsg
+MKBOOTMSG = $(BINDIR)gfxboot-compile
KEYMAPCHARS = $(PRIVBINDIR)keymapchars
BFLAGS = -O -v -L ../..
INCLUDES = $(wildcard *.inc)
diff -Naurp gfxboot-theme-ubuntu.orig/debian/changelog gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/debian/changelog
--- gfxboot-theme-ubuntu.orig/debian/changelog 2009-08-27 10:22:29.000000000 +0000
+++ gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/debian/changelog 2009-09-03 19:47:26.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+gfxboot-theme-ubuntu (0.8.3.1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
+
+ * Updating executable names of gfxboot utilities in Makefile to work
+ with gfxboot version 4.1.19.
+
+ -- Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org> Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:23:06 +0200
+
gfxboot-theme-ubuntu (0.8.3) karmic; urgency=low
* Add localisation for "Install Ubuntu ^Enterprise Cloud".
diff -Naurp gfxboot-theme-ubuntu.orig/debian/control gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/debian/control
--- gfxboot-theme-ubuntu.orig/debian/control 2009-08-10 20:32:12.000000000 +0000
+++ gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/debian/control 2009-09-03 19:47:16.000000000 +0000
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Source: gfxboot-theme-ubuntu
Section: utils
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Colin Watson <cjwatson@ubuntu.com>
-Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7.0.0), gfxboot (>= 3.3.28)
+Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7.0.0), gfxboot (>= 4.1.19)
Standards-Version: 3.6.2
Vcs-Bzr: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/gfxboot-theme-ubuntu/mainline
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