Hyperion Entertainment Message Boards

Hello every one.

I'm pleased to announce the latest update for the X1Boot Manager. The result of many months of work. This brings with it a host of new features, some bug fixes and lots of other little changes.


Highlights include:

• A new setup menu: A new main menu for "Menu Setup" has been added for even easier setup of menus. This now includes the "Install Menu" option and two new options to "Import System" and "Import Volumes". These options can more easily import the current system into the menu or a selection of volumes. All you need to do is give it a name and it can do the rest!
• Active or inactive menus: Menu entries can now be set to active or inactive. A useful feature for cleaning up the boot menu. This allows you to keep in a vault menu entries you didn't want to delete but also didn't want clogging up the menu. In cases such as using for a template.
• Informative listings: Menu and kernel lists are now more informative. Menu lists now display kernel and release version while kernels lists now displays size, release and more.
• New settings: There are now five new settings. These set a menu to launch on load, a file location for file dialogs, output verbosity for Loader, mount type for menu importing and default boot options for menu entries.
• A new loader: The boot loader has been also updated this time. The output is simplified and colours changed which didn't translate well on screen. In addition it also includes a progress bar as it unpacks files as well as being able to set output verbosity to full, quick or quiet.

* New features

• XZ compressed kernel archives now supported.
• Saveable files location for file dialogs.
• Menu can be chosen to launch into after loading editor.
• Default boot options can be set for new menu entries.
• Menu entries can be set to active or inactive to hide in boot menu.
• Menu list now displays kernel and release version for items.
• Kernel list now displays size, release and if modules are installed on
  current system.
• Progress bar can now has Cancel button to cancel all further operations.
• Main menus now have "Back" button to clearly mark going back a menu level.
• Menu editor now has new option "Rebuild Menu" to rebuild menu list from
  menu stored on boot volume.
• New main menu "Menu Setup" for importing volumes into menu.
• New option "Import System" to import boot menu for current system.
• New option "Import Volumes" to import boot menu from system volumes list.
• Install Menu will now offer to create ramdisk if no ramdisk file selected.
• Loader now features optional progress bar.
• Loader output can be set to full, quick or quiet.

* Bug fixes

• Fixed another issue where Default kernel could be blanked out.
• Fixed issue where password check could fail due to incorrect order of SSL
  command parameters.
• Fixed issue where duplicated archives were rejected.
• Fixed issue where vmlinux archives were also rejected.
• Fixed issue where missing menu file failed to rebuild menu on load.

* Other changes

• Now allows three password attempts before giving up.
• Now uses kernel key storage facility to privately store credentials.
• Option to "View Menu" in Menu editor will filter out inactive items.
• Option to "Copy Entry" in Menu editor will now open Entry editor.
• Option to "Add Entry" in Menu editor will now use default kernel instead
  of direct kernel when Default is selected as kernel.
• Option to "Edit Entry" in Menu editor now shows current settings.
• Selecting a menu entry from "View Menu" will now open Entry editor.
• Kernel list now caches info displayed in table.
• Saving menu will now backup existing menu list.
• Main menu option "Install Menu" moved into new "Menu Setup" menu.
• Main menu option "Install Menu" can now generate ramdisk if needed.
• Images installed are now date stamped to source image date.
• Now runs depmod after installing modules to generate any map files needed.
• Installing kernel archive will update ramdisk to match if present.
• Updated documentation to match current version.
• Changed package Architecture to all so both ppc32 and ppc64 are supported.
• Relaxed installer confirming boot volume on package update.
• Removed garish colour scheme in loader and simplified output.

Tiny tutorial:
Here's just a tiny tutorial with updated instruction guides for using the new Menu Setup options and explaining the new settings.

Menu Setup: Menu setup and importing volumes. This will bring up the menu setup options. From here you can install menu, import system or import volumes.

• Install Menu: Install boot menu for current system. This will quickly install a boot menu to get you started for the current system. You will be asked for a menu entry name, defaulting to Linux release name. Then you will be asked to choose an X1000 Kernel Binary, which can be a vmlinux or zImage. Finally, your root mount will be checked to see if requires a ramdisk, and if it does it will also ask you to choose an X1000 Kernel Ramdisk. If you need one created then it will offer to create it if you make no file selection. Provided everything passes verification the kernel image and ramdisk image if needed will then be installed to the X1Boot volume and a menu entry added. This will now be ready to boot from.
• Import System: Import boot menu from current system. This will easily import the current system into the menu provided a matching kernel is already installed. You will be asked for a menu entry name, defaulting to Linux release name. This will now import the system into the menu using running kernel and set boot options to current command line. Your root mount will be checked to see if requires a ramdisk, and if a ramdisk is needed it will be created on the fly. The Edit Entry editor will now open to make any final adjustments.
• Import Volumes: Import boot menu from system volumes. This will easily import a selection of system volumes into the menu. You will first need to give root access to scan system devices. You will then be asked to chose what kernel to use in the new menu entries. Your system will scanned for existing Linux volumes and a volume list will be presented with each entry displaying device, label, size, filesystem and UUID. From here you can select what volumes to import and will be asked an entry name for each, defaulting to partition label, if any. This will import the volumes into the menu one by one and set boot options accordingly based on the Mounter and Boot option settings. If a ramdisk is needed it will be created on the fly. The Edit Entry editor will now open to make any final adjustments to the imported entries.

Edit Settings: Edit kernel installation settings. This will bring up the full settings editor. From here you can set compression format, compression level, ramdisk activation, default kernel, duplicate files, launch menu, file location, loader output, mounter type and default boot options.

• Launch: Launch into menu immediately after loading. Will optionally set a main menu to immediately launch into when the X1Boot Manager is opened. Default is standard Main Menu.
• Location: Current file location to install from. Will set a file location to install from in file dialogs. Location will be relative to home user folder if location is under home folder, so current home folder is portable across systems. Default is "*".
• Loader: Boot loader output verbosity. Options are Full, Quick or Quiet. Full will print banner, files loading with progress bar and binary type launching; Quick will only print files loading; and Quiet will leave screen blank until kernel launches. If any error occurs it will be printed to screen regardless of setting. Default is Full.
• Mounter: Root mount device type. This sets the preferred root mount type to use when importing system volumes with the Import Volumes option from Menu Setup. Options are Device, Label or UUID. Label or UUID will activate ramdisk on imported menu entries. If Label or UUID is missing when importing volumes it will fall back to Device. Default is Device.
• Boot: Set default boot options on command line. This will set default boot options when adding new menu entries. It affects the Add Entry and Import Volumes options. In the later case it will be prepended to boot command line. Default is "console=tty0".

Download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TKn3b4 ... sp=sharing

Wow Great! Screenshots please.

xeno74 wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 8:03 pm Wow Great! Screenshots please.

Thanks! I don't believe it, I forgot the screen shots! Well here's some I took earlier!

Main Menu:


View Images:


Loader:

Looks like Christmas has come earlier than July in the last shot.

Menu Setup:


Import Volumes:


Edit Settings: