[ipxe-devel] Timed delays in wimboot

[Earl Chew]

Michael,

In my configuration, I notice that the output from wimboot flashes past
so fast on the screen that I have no opportunity to read it. The
"pause" option is available, but that effectively stops the boot
process until key is pressed.

What I'd like to propose is behaviour more like what is available in
other boot loaders:

  * Delay with a configurable count down
  * When the count reaches zero, continue the boot process
  * If a key is pressed before the count reaches zero, pause
    until another key press allows the boot to proceed

Perhaps pausedelay=N would be a good way to modify the behaviour of
pause as a means to introduce this feature.

When configured like this, the boot proceeds with a small delay most of
the time, but can be frozen for inspection if required.

I would also like to suggest similar behaviour for "Press a key
to reboot" (die.c). I think in many scenarios, automatically retrying
the boot is the best thing to do, and waiting around for human
intervention before retrying is not required:

  * Delay with a configurable count down
  * When the count reaches zero, initiate the reboot
  * If a key is pressed before the count reaches zero, pause
    until another key press initiates the reboot

Perhaps rebootdelay=N would be a good way to introduce this feature.

Would you be open to some patches for the above ?

Earl