On 11/03/2015 17:09, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
But more important, which keys are and are not available depends on the client, not on the server. So for VNC all keys work but on at least a viewer F8 is inconvenient because it brings up a menu (thankfully one item in the menu is "Send F8"); for the serial console on a Unix machine F12 is okay but F11 might bring the terminal full screen; on older Mac OS X machine F9-F12 were intercepted by the OS, but on newer OS X releases function keys are basically gone for good. A configuration that always works might be broken by the addition of a new client.
The above makes sense. The F12 key comes from Bochs bios. Given the difficulties in using F-keys (on QEMU as well as on real machines) I wonder if we should just change the SeaBIOS default to ESC?
I don't like changing the default message to "Press ESC+@ or F12 for boot menu." as I think the description becomes confusing when multiple options are given. So, ESC+@ could be a hidden feature, but admittedly that's not a great option. Otherwise the technical parts of the patch looks okay to me.
I have no problem with changing the key; the problem I have with ESC is that I'm going to add F12 for network boot, and then I would like ESC+@ to trigger network boot. ESC for the boot menu would clash. With my full patches, the default message would be like this:
Press ESC+6 or F6 for boot menu. Press ESC+@ or F12 for network boot.
Hmm... what about just adding quotes like this:
Press "ESC+6" or "F6" for boot menu. Press "ESC+@" or "F12" for network boot.
or like this:
Press <F6>, or <ESC><6>, for boot menu. Press <F12>, or <ESC><@>, for network boot.
Paolo