Welcome!
Forum users

Current releases
--MX-23 release info here
--Migration information to MX-23 here
--antiX-23.1 (Arditi del Popolo) release info here

Important information
--If in starting your system it boots to an unwanted Desktop, right click desktop, then select leave and logout. At the
login screen there is a session chooser at the top of the screen.

News
-- MX Linux on social media: here
-- New Forum Features, Marking Solved and Referencing a User: here

Antix Power Button Live USB [SOLVED]

Message
Author
User avatar
BitJam
Developer
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:36 pm

Re: Antix Power Button Live USB [SOLVED]

#11 Post by BitJam »

bffarmer wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:35 pm please say grub menu in the grub menu screen.
Good idea. But then we should probably say Syslinux on the Syslinux menu. Maybe if the 'e' for edit instructions came back there would be less need to say it is Grub.
I would also like to have the "use e to edit menu item" back into grub the way it is in Debian and other distros.
It was there. Honest. I don't know why it disappeared.
I know your method looks pretty but its nice to have some standardization.
I'm not sure I know what you are referring to. "My" method would be to always have the Press 'e' instructions on the screen, at least in the main menu. I can't save the parameters if the users can't add them. Even without the saving bit, I think it is essential that users know how to add boot parameters in the live system. I don't think displaying "e for edit" is standard but I do think it is a good idea.
The function keys would be nice to have back in, just in case I only wanted to change one things.
I agree but no one has volunteered to add this feature to grub2. The problem is that the function keys were implemented with a system called gfxboot which is tied heavily into BIOS calls. Those calls went away in UEFI so all bootloaders that support UEFI have dropped gfxboot and hence the handy function key menus and other gfxboot niceties. For each boot loader that does this, someone usually says they are going to port gfxboot over but once they see the enormity of the job, they drop it.
If you must use the text menus, It would be nice to actually see what the defaults are.
That already happens. What I don't show are the "default defaults", that is, what the system defaults to if nothing is selected. If you think about it, that would be very hard or impossible to do correctly since there is no way to know what is on the system so early in the boot process. If a menu is going to change something that was already set with a boot parameter then we let you know. I'm very pleased with this feature.

Despite the obstacles that keep getting thrown into our path, we keep trying to make things as easy as possible for the users. With persistence, live-remaster, and snapshot we've tried to make it very easy for people to make their own custom live systems or "respins". But this means the early initrd really does not know what the default defaults are. IMO it is better to say nothing than to say something we don't know is right and we know will often be wrong.
Also, I would either take grub menu editing out of the control center OR make it work for all cases.
Good point! Unless it does something useful on the live system I think that entry should not appear in the CC when running live. I (or someone else) will try to get this done for the next release.

Thank you for all of this useful feedback! Some of the things you want, we want too but can't be done now. We will try to make the changes that we can do.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool."

-- Richard Feynman

bffarmer
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:02 am

Re: Antix Power Button Live USB [SOLVED]

#12 Post by bffarmer »

Thanks for reading my feedback and giving well thought out responses :)
That already happens. What I don't show are the "default defaults", that is, what the system defaults to if nothing is selected. If you think about it, that would be very hard or impossible to do correctly since there is no way to know what is on the system so early in the boot process. If a menu is going to change something that was already set with a boot parameter then we let you know. I'm very pleased with this feature.
Yeah, I only noticed this after I posted as a lot of my choices are "default defaults". :)

User avatar
BitJam
Developer
Posts: 2283
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:36 pm

Re: Antix Power Button Live USB [SOLVED]

#13 Post by BitJam »

bffarmer wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 4:36 pm Thanks for reading my feedback and giving well thought out responses :)
Thank you for your well thought out feedback. Such feedback is extremely valuable to us. Solid gold :number1: . It is hard for me to go back in time and get the eyes of a new user.
Yeah, I only noticed this after I posted as a lot of my choices are "default defaults". :)
I'm still thinking about this. Maybe there would be a way to show the default defaults only in our released iso files but then turn them off for snapshots and remasters. IDK. I think this is only an issue for the language and timezone. Were there problems of this sort with any other menus? I tried to design it so you could just press <Enter> to get through the menus. There should also be an option to boot without the menus in the grub menu.

One difficulty is there are subtle differences between accepting the default default language and selecting English (US). For example if you saved the system (using persistence, remaster, or snapshot) with a different timezone then selecting the English (US) will change the timezone to EST.

Perhaps for the Language and the Timezone I could say "the default is usually XXXX" when nothing has been previously selected. Would this address your problem? Would you like to see something like that on other text menus?

For the options menu I could also say what the usual defaults are.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool."

-- Richard Feynman

bffarmer
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:02 am

Re: Antix Power Button Live USB [SOLVED]

#14 Post by bffarmer »

I'm still thinking about this. Maybe there would be a way to show the default defaults only in our released iso files but then turn them off for snapshots and remasters. IDK. I think this is only an issue for the language and timezone. Were there problems of this sort with any other menus? I tried to design it so you could just press <Enter> to get through the menus. There should also be an option to boot without the menus in the grub menu.
blank default defaults for me were.
Language
Console width
Timezone
font size
select desktop.

the rest had values for me.

-----------------------------------------------------

in grub.cfg I commented out the lines......

Code: Select all

#set theme=/boot/grub/theme/theme.txt
#export theme
To get my good old fashioned grub menu just the way I like it.
It was there. Honest. I don't know why it disappeared.
Interestingly enough, according to the theme, the line that is supposed to show the text.

Code: Select all

# Show informational messages below the boot menu
# --using individual labels instead of a vbox

 + label {
     left  = 30%
     top   = 75% 
     width = 70%
     text  = "Press 'e' to edit entry, 'P' to poweroff, 'R' to reboot."
     color = "#fafafa"
     align = "left"
     font  = "DejaVu Sans Bold 14"
 }
I have no clue why it doesn't show up in the grub menu itself. Something is obviously broken if grub doesn't read the theme properly.
Making it so it doesn't read the theme at all was the only fix that worked for me.
I actually prefer the non-graphical grub. It is what I'm used to.

Post Reply

Return to “antiX”