On Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 03:06:43PM -0700, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 02:16:56PM -0700, Gregory Nowak via Dng wrote:
> > Got it. I tried options 5-7 so far with both down arrow, as well by
> > pressing number enter, and software speech comes up on all as
> > expected. I haven't yet had the chance to try option 8, or to try
> > doing a full install.
>
> I've tried options 5-8, and a full install with mate and xfce on
> VirtualBox, and a full install with mate on physical hardware. All
> works as expected, including braille display support.

Great, many thanks for that.

> > This change will need to be documented in either
> > a README file, or in the Daedalus release notes. Here's the text I
> > propose:
> >
> > The boot menu for the devuan Daedalus installer has changed from
> > previous versions. The new menu consists of eight choices, which can
> > be accessed by pressing down arrow, or by typing the number of the
> > desired option, and pressing enter on a system with legacy BIOS.
>
> I haven't been able to test how this works under UEFI in
> VirtualBox. Either the ISO doesn't boot under VirtualBox's UEFI
> implementation, or the procedure described above works differently in
> some way under UEFI than it does under legacy BIOS. If the above
> description works the same way under UEFI, then the text above could
> be appended to say "system with legacy BIOS and UEFI." If this works in
> a different way under UEFI, then someone with a UEFI system will need
> to describe the steps to get options 5-8 going on a UEFI system.

For me using Qemu with ovmf's TianoCore UEFI code, I cannot get it to
boot the ISO either as CDROM or as SD card removable, but it boots
with the ISO presented as SATA harddisk, or an NVME harddisk or
"usb-storage" USB stick, if the ISO file is made writable. (It seem
the UEFI boot includes writing an EFIVARS file on the EFI boot
partition, and fails by that unless the ISO is writable).

Those are the only different hardware setups I've trialled.

Possibly the UEFI code of virtualbox have the same issues.

It would be good if someone who have a proven CDROM boot on their UEFI
hardware could check the behaviour of the rc4 ISO.

Thanks, Greg. The rc5 (or maybe final) build will include the attached
BOOTHELP.txt file, which is a rendering of the text-only help texts of
the boot menu.

regards,

Ralph.
======================================================================

F1     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    HELP PAGES

      F1  - This page, the help index.
      F2  - Prerequisites for installing Devuan.
      F3  - Boot methods in this Devuan daedalus installer.
      F4  - About rescue mode.
      F5  - Special boot parameters, overview.
      F6  -   Special boot parameters for special machines.
      F7  -   Special boot parameters for selected disk controllers.
      F8  -   Special boot parameters for the install system.
      F9  - How to get help.
      F10 - Copyright and warranties.

    ENTER - Return to the menu.

               Your journey to init freedom has begun!

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F2     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    PREREQUISITES

    * This Devuan daedalus installer requires 800 MiB of RAM.

    * The system must also have free disk space for the installation;
      + 2.0 GiB is possible without Desktop Environment (DE)
      + 8.0 GiB to have Xfce, Mate, Cinnamon and Gnome be installed together
      + 20.0 GiB is a comfortable size, catering for the future
      + 0.5 GiB for EFI boot partition (aka ESP), if needed
      + to support hibernation swap should be as large as RAM

    * Note that all Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer ISO variants (netinstall,
      server and desktop) use available network device to install from
      Devuan daedalus mirrors when possible. All variants install the same
      fully functional base system also without network. The variants then
      differ by their included off-line package pool.

    * Thank you for choosing Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5.

    * For more information, see the installation guide and other
      documentation at the Devuan web site: https://www.devuan.org

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F3     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    BOOT METHODS

    1 Install - the default and easy installation mode.
    2   Expert install - tediously considering all choices.
    3   Rescue mode - run rescue shell with the installer kernel.
    4   Automated install - hands-off mode installation.

    5 Install with speech synthesis - easy install with screen reading.
    6   Expert speech install - tediously considering all choices.
    7   Rescue speech mode - run rescue shell with the installer kernel.
    8   Automated speech install - hands-off mode installation.

    H Help - about the installer; same as F1.

    * Use the number or up/down keys to highlight the desired option,
      and push ENTER to select it, or TAB to edit the boot parameters and
      then commit with ENTER or abort the editing with ESCAPE.

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F4     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    RESCUE MODE

    * The Rescue mode option starts the installer but instead of
      installing anything the installer will offer to run a command
      shell, either within a chosen target filesystem or within the
      installer itself,

    * The setup procedure steps through a series of dialogs,
      and thereafter it offers to run a rescue shell command line in
      that virtual terminal 1 (vt1). The installer is a minimal
      Devuan daedalus system that includes a small number of
      utility commands for "rescuing" a broken system.

    * The installer also offers vt2 and vt3 for installer command
      shells while vt4 is dedicated for the /var/log/syslog progress
      log. You shift focus between these virtual terminals with
      Alt-F1, Alt-F2, Alt-F3 and Alt-F4 as usual.

    * Note that you may trigger reboot and power-off from the command
      line by the following commands:
      for reboot:     # echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger
      for power-off:  # echo o > /proc/sysrq-trigger

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F5     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    SPECIAL BOOT PARAMETERS - OVERVIEW

    * A system with special or unusual hardware may need additional
      boot parameters in order to be usable by the installer, or in
      some cases even for the installer to start.

    * The following pages include a number of examples of different
      such boot parameters:

        F6 - boot parameters for special machines
        F7 - boot parameters for various disk controllers
        F8 - boot parameters understood by the install system

    * Refer to the kernel documentation for details about boot parameters.

    * Note that if the installer requires additional boot parameters then
      most likely the installed system will require the same boot
      parameters. For "grub" boot you would add these to /etc/default/grub.

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F6     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    SPECIAL BOOT PARAMETERS - VARIOUS HARDWARE

    * You can use the following boot parameters at the boot prompt.
      Remember to use the 0x prefix for hexadecimal numbers (e.g., 0x300).

      HARDWARE                             PARAMETER TO SPECIFY
      IBM PS/1 or ValuePoint (IDE disk)     hd=cylinders,heads,sectors
      some IBM ThinkPads                    floppy.floppy=thinkpad
      protect I/O port regions              reserve=iobase,extent[,...]
      laptops with screen display problems  vga=771
      use first serial port at 9600 baud    console=ttyS0,9600n8
      force use of generic IDE driver       all_generic_ide=1
      disable buggy APIC interrupt routing  noapic nolapic
      (partly) disable ACPI                 acpi=noirq
                                            acpi=off
      disable USB                           nousb
      poll for interrupts                   irqpoll

    * Example: vga=771 noapic nolapic

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F7     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    SPECIAL BOOT PARAMETERS - VARIOUS DISK DRIVES

    * You can use the following boot parameters at the boot prompt.

      HARDWARE                             PARAMETER TO SPECIFY
      Adaptec 151x, 152x    - aha152x.aha152x=iobase[,irq[,id[,reconnect]]]
      Adaptec 1542          - aha1542.aha1542=iobase[,bon,boff[,dmaspeed]]
      Adaptec 274x, 284x    - aic7xxx.aic7xxx=no_reset
      BusLogic SCSI Hosts   - BusLogic.BusLogic=iobase
      Certain DELL machines - aic7xxx.aic7xxx=no_probe

    * The list is incomplete; refer further to the kernel documentation.

    * Example: aic7xxx.aic7xxx=no_probe

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F8     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    SPECIAL BOOT PARAMETERS - INSTALLATION SYSTEM

    * You can use the following boot parameters at the boot prompt.

      RESULT                               PARAMETER TO SPECIFY
      Disable framebuffer                  vga=normal fb=false
      Don't start PCMCIA                   hw-detect/start_pcmcia=false
      Force static network config          netcfg/disable_dhcp=true
      Set keyboard map                     bootkbd=es

    * Accessibility options (not available for all images):

      RESULT                               PARAMETER TO SPECIFY
      Use high contrast theme              theme=dark
      Use Braille tty                      brltty=driver,device,texttable
      Use Speakup                          speakup.synth=driver

    * Example: vga=normal fb=false

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F9     Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    GETTING HELP

    * Don't despair! If you need help to install Devuan daedalus the
      Devuan team is ready to help you!

    * We are especially interested in hearing about installation problems,
      because in general they don't happen to only one person.

    * We may have already heard about your particular problem and can
      dispense a quick fix, or we would like to hear about it and work
      through it with you, allowing the next user who comes up with
      the same problem benefit from your experience!

    * See the Installation Guide and documentation at the Devuan web site
      for more information. You may also go to the dev1galaxy forum, or
      ask for help on irc: libera.chat #devuan.

                https://www.devuan.org  (web site)
                https://dev1galaxy.org  (forum)
                https://libera.chat     (#devuan channel)

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.
======================================================================
F10    Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5 installer built on 20230712

    COPYRIGHT AND WARRANTIES

    * Devuan GNU/Linux is Copyright (C) 2015-2023 Dyne.org Foundation.

    * The Devuan GNU/Linux system is freely redistributable.

    * After installation, the exact distribution terms for each
      package are described in the corresponding file
      /usr/share/doc/packagename/copyright.

    * Devuan GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to
      the extent permitted by applicable law.

    * Thank you for choosing Devuan daedalus 5.0.0-rc5.

               Your journey to init freedom has begun!

    Press F1 to F10 for more help or ENTER to return to the menu.