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Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improvement)

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:11 am
by Explorer09
I believe this UI improvement is trivial to make. Just add the following lines to the end of the "<ubcd>/pmagic/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg" file, and you can see the "Return to UBCD" entry in the PMagic boot menu.

Code: Select all

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL return_ubcd
MENU LABEL ^.. Return to Ultimate Boot CD Menu
CONFIG /ubcd/menus/syslinux/main.cfg

Re: Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improveme

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:04 am
by ady
The suggested addition would mean "unnecessary" editing the original pmagic's syslinux.cfg.

Possible alternative workarounds:

A_ Customize it with the following code at the end of
<ubcd-extracted>/pmagic/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
:

Code: Select all

MENU SEPARATOR

LABEL return_ubcd
MENU LABEL ^.. Return to Ultimate Boot CD Menu
CONFIG /ubcd/menus/syslinux/main.cfg /boot/syslinux/
Note the final second path, "
/boot/syslinux/
", which is necessary for "main.cfg" to work as expected.


B_ Without the need for customization, from pmagic's boot menu press <ESC> twice (one for the timer) so to show the "boot:" prompt. Then type in:

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/boot/syslinux/config.c32 /ubcd/menus/syslinux/main.cfg /boot/syslinux/
and press <ENTER>.

C_ Without the need for customization, reboot so to show the initial UBCD again.

Re: Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improveme

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:43 pm
by Explorer09
My intention is to save those few seconds rebooting the computer.

And thank you for your minor correction:

Code: Select all

CONFIG /ubcd/menus/syslinux/main.cfg /boot/syslinux/

Re: Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improveme

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 5:34 pm
by Explorer09
Because Ady is making a pm2ubcd script these days, I can convert this feature into a sed command that can be put into the script.

The code below is for Ady.

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#!/bin/sed
$ s|$|\n\nMENU SEPARATOR\n\nLABEL return_ubcd\nMENU LABEL ^.. Return to Ultimate Boot CD Menu\nCONFIG /ubcd/menus/syslinux/main.cfg /boot/syslinux/|

Re: Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improveme

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 9:57 pm
by ady
@Explorer,

I think it's a reasonable method to add the functionality to return back to UBCD's menu.

Regarding the code... The initial menu in PMagic uses numbers, starting from "^1. ", and the "^.." might suggest some menu relation (as already used in UBCD and in PMagic). Since this entry would be the only visual customization in PMagic's menu, I would use "
0. Return to
..." so to differentiate it from the standard entries in PMagic.

Besides the code itself, Victor tends to leave the original tools, including their boot methods (and boot menu) "as-is" except for the minimal editions that are absolutely necessary for their inclusion in UBCD. So I have 2 concerns regarding the addition of this "sed" code.

1. By adding this entry to PMagic's boot menu; are we opening the door to endless discussions about whether to modify something else (in PMagic's menu or anywhere else)? I always welcome suggestions, ideas, discussions and more (and I sometimes post some of my own). I just hope they can be kept relevant for generic users and under the scope of UBCD.

2. Does Victor agree with this approach? If not, the "sed" code could be added but commented out by default.

It should be noted that in some variants of PMagic, to be able to see this additional menu entry, the user would need to scroll down the menu (or press "END"), because the default (max) menu rows are already being displayed.

I'd like to hear from Victor, specially regarding question #2, since I'm planing to post the first public beta of the pm2ubcd script(s) some time this week.

Re: Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improveme

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:00 pm
by Victor Chew
I'd like to hear from Victor, specially regarding question #2, since I'm planing to post the first public beta of the pm2ubcd script(s) some time this week.
If you want my personal opinion, I would prefer NOT to modify PM's menu. Under normal use, why would people want to toggle between PM and UBCD's menus endlessly? If not, wouldn't a Ctrl-Alt-Del function be just as easy?

Re: Add a "Return to UBCD" in PMagic boot menu (UI improveme

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 pm
by ady
OK, then I'll add the suggested sed code to the script but commented out by default.