[arch-releng] Nicer boot menu entry on Macs
Hi guys, This might be an edge case, so feel free to reject the idea. Currently when entering the boot menu on a Mac to install Arch, the correct entry to select has a generic usb harddrive logo and the label "Windows". I don't find this hugely helpful. If we install the attached icon as '.VolumeIcon.icns' on the EFI System Partition on the install media we get a nice Arch logo rather than the generic one. Changing the label from "Windows" to "Arch Linux Install" (or something like that), is left for future work. I'll look into that if unless there are objections to the icon. Cheers, Tom
Am 28.02.2013 12:21, schrieb Tom Gundersen:
Hi guys,
This might be an edge case, so feel free to reject the idea.
Currently when entering the boot menu on a Mac to install Arch, the correct entry to select has a generic usb harddrive logo and the label "Windows". I don't find this hugely helpful.
If we install the attached icon as '.VolumeIcon.icns' on the EFI System Partition on the install media we get a nice Arch logo rather than the generic one.
Changing the label from "Windows" to "Arch Linux Install" (or something like that), is left for future work. I'll look into that if unless there are objections to the icon.
Is this Apple specific or defined in the UEFI standard? If it is specific to one hardware vendor I am -1 on this. Greetings, Pierre -- Pierre Schmitz, https://pierre-schmitz.com
On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
Is this Apple specific or defined in the UEFI standard? If it is specific to one hardware vendor I am -1 on this.
I assume it is Apple specific. I could not confirm this, but the file format is an Apple one. I only have this one EFI machine, so can't test on others. Could anyone else have a look at how the user experience is like on some some other vonder's hardware? I still think having the Arch installer labelled "Windows" is highly suboptimal, even if it is only for one (pretty major) vendor. Any other suggestions how to improve the situation? Cheers, Tom
Am 28.02.2013 12:30, schrieb Tom Gundersen:
I still think having the Arch installer labelled "Windows" is highly suboptimal, even if it is only for one (pretty major) vendor. Any other suggestions how to improve the situation?
Are you sure this isn't just a firmware bug? Did you test other isos like Fedora etc? I don't think we set the "Windows" label here. -- Pierre Schmitz, https://pierre-schmitz.com
On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
Am 28.02.2013 12:30, schrieb Tom Gundersen:
I still think having the Arch installer labelled "Windows" is highly suboptimal, even if it is only for one (pretty major) vendor. Any other suggestions how to improve the situation?
Are you sure this isn't just a firmware bug? Did you test other isos like Fedora etc? I don't think we set the "Windows" label here.
My guess has been that this is what Mac's display if they don't have a clue. Fedora has support for showing their own logo (in the same way as what I propose) as well as a proper label [0]. I don't know if they actually use that on their live media or not though. I could check. Anyway, the fix is a mac specific one. [0]: <http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/mactel-boot/mactel-boot.spec>
On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 5:41 AM, Tom Gundersen <teg@jklm.no> wrote:
On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
Am 28.02.2013 12:30, schrieb Tom Gundersen:
I still think having the Arch installer labelled "Windows" is highly suboptimal, even if it is only for one (pretty major) vendor. Any other suggestions how to improve the situation?
Are you sure this isn't just a firmware bug? Did you test other isos like Fedora etc? I don't think we set the "Windows" label here.
My guess has been that this is what Mac's display if they don't have a clue.
Fedora has support for showing their own logo (in the same way as what I propose) as well as a proper label [0]. I don't know if they actually use that on their live media or not though. I could check. Anyway, the fix is a mac specific one.
[0]: <http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/mactel-boot/mactel-boot.spec>
I have no problem doing something like this to make our installer a bit more user-friendly, so +1 from me. Pierre- can you clarify your objection? We're not sacrificing portability or losing a single thing on other systems by doing this from the way Tom described it, so what is the drawback? -Dan
participants (3)
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Dan McGee
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Pierre Schmitz
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Tom Gundersen