1Menuconfig gives the Linux kernel configuration a long needed face 2lift. Featuring text based color menus and dialogs, it does not 3require X Windows. With this utility you can easily select a kernel 4option to modify without sifting through 100 other options. 5 6Overview 7-------- 8Some kernel features may be built directly into the kernel. 9Some may be made into loadable runtime modules. Some features 10may be completely removed altogether. There are also certain 11kernel parameters which are not really features, but must be 12entered in as decimal or hexadecimal numbers or possibly text. 13 14Menu items beginning with [*], <M> or [ ] represent features 15configured to be built in, modularized or removed respectively. 16Pointed brackets <> represent module capable features. 17 more... 18 19To change any of these features, highlight it with the cursor 20keys and press <Y> to build it in, <M> to make it a module or 21<N> to removed it. You may also press the <Space Bar> to cycle 22through the available options (ie. Y->N->M->Y). 23 24Items beginning with numbers or other text within parenthesis can 25be changed by highlighting the item and pressing <Enter>. Then 26enter the new parameter into the dialog box that pops up. 27 28 29Some additional keyboard hints: 30 31Menus 32---------- 33o Use the Up/Down arrow keys (cursor keys) to highlight the item 34 you wish to change or submenu wish to select and press <Enter>. 35 Submenus are designated by "--->". 36 37 Shortcut: Press the option's highlighted letter (hotkey). 38 Pressing a hotkey more than once will sequence 39 through all visible items which use that hotkey. 40 41 You may also use the <PAGE UP> and <PAGE DOWN> keys to scroll 42 unseen options into view. 43 44o To exit a menu use the cursor keys to highlight the <Exit> button 45 and press <ENTER>. 46 47 Shortcut: Press <ESC><ESC> or <E> or <X> if there is no hotkey 48 using those letters. You may press a single <ESC>, but 49 there is a delayed response which you may find annoying. 50 51 Also, the <TAB> and cursor keys will cycle between <Select>, 52 <Exit> and <Help> 53 54o To get help with an item, use the cursor keys to highlight <Help> 55 and Press <ENTER>. 56 57 Shortcut: Press <H> or <?>. 58 59 60Radiolists (Choice lists) 61----------- 62o Use the cursor keys to select the option you wish to set and press 63 <S> or the <SPACE BAR>. 64 65 Shortcut: Press the first letter of the option you wish to set then 66 press <S> or <SPACE BAR>. 67 68o To see available help for the item, use the cursor keys to highlight 69 <Help> and Press <ENTER>. 70 71 Shortcut: Press <H> or <?>. 72 73 Also, the <TAB> and cursor keys will cycle between <Select> and 74 <Help> 75 76 77Data Entry 78----------- 79o Enter the requested information and press <ENTER> 80 If you are entering hexadecimal values, it is not necessary to 81 add the '0x' prefix to the entry. 82 83o For help, use the <TAB> or cursor keys to highlight the help option 84 and press <ENTER>. You can try <TAB><H> as well. 85 86 87Text Box (Help Window) 88-------- 89o Use the cursor keys to scroll up/down/left/right. The VI editor 90 keys h,j,k,l function here as do <SPACE BAR> and <B> for those 91 who are familiar with less and lynx. 92 93o Press <E>, <X>, <Enter> or <Esc><Esc> to exit. 94 95 96Final Acceptance 97---------------- 98With the exception of the old style sound configuration, 99YOUR CHANGES ARE NOT FINAL. You will be given a last chance to 100confirm them prior to exiting Menuconfig. 101 102If Menuconfig quits with an error while saving your configuration, 103you may look in the file /usr/src/linux/.menuconfig.log for 104information which may help you determine the cause. 105 106Alternate Configuration Files 107----------------------------- 108Menuconfig supports the use of alternate configuration files for 109those who, for various reasons, find it necessary to switch 110between different kernel configurations. 111 112At the end of the main menu you will find two options. One is 113for saving the current configuration to a file of your choosing. 114The other option is for loading a previously saved alternate 115configuration. 116 117Even if you don't use alternate configuration files, but you 118find during a Menuconfig session that you have completely messed 119up your settings, you may use the "Load Alternate..." option to 120restore your previously saved settings from ".config" without 121restarting Menuconfig. 122 123Other information 124----------------- 125The windowing utility, lxdialog, will only be rebuilt if your kernel 126source tree is fresh, or changes are patched into it via a kernel 127patch or you do 'make mrproper'. If changes to lxdialog are patched 128in, most likely the rebuild time will be short. You may force a 129complete rebuild of lxdialog by changing to it's directory and doing 130'make clean all' 131 132If you use Menuconfig in an XTERM window make sure you have your 133$TERM variable set to point to a xterm definition which supports color. 134Otherwise, Menuconfig will look rather bad. Menuconfig will not 135display correctly in a RXVT window because rxvt displays only one 136intensity of color, bright. 137 138Menuconfig will display larger menus on screens or xterms which are 139set to display more than the standard 25 row by 80 column geometry. 140In order for this to work, the "stty size" command must be able to 141display the screen's current row and column geometry. I STRONGLY 142RECOMMEND that you make sure you do NOT have the shell variables 143LINES and COLUMNS exported into your environment. Some distributions 144export those variables via /etc/profile. Some ncurses programs can 145become confused when those variables (LINES & COLUMNS) don't reflect 146the true screen size. 147 148 149NOTICE: lxdialog requires the ncurses libraries to compile. If you 150 don't already have ncurses you really should get it. 151 152 The makefile for lxdialog attempts to find your ncurses 153 header file. Although it should find the header for older 154 versions of ncurses, it is probably a good idea to get the 155 latest ncurses anyway. 156 157 If you have upgraded your ncurses libraries, MAKE SURE you 158 remove the old ncurses header files. If you don't you 159 will most certainly get a segmentation fault. 160 161WARNING: It is not recommended that you change any defines in 162 lxdialog's header files. If you have a grayscale display and 163 are brave, you may tinker with color.h to tune the colors to 164 your preference. 165 166COMPATIBILITY ISSUE: 167 There have been some compatibility problems reported with 168 older versions of bash and sed. I am trying to work these 169 out but it is preferable that you upgrade those utilities. 170 171 172******** IMPORTANT, OPTIONAL ALTERNATE PERSONALITY AVAILABLE ******** 173******** ******** 174If you prefer to have all of the kernel options listed in a single 175menu, rather than the default multimenu hierarchy, you may edit the 176Menuconfig script and change the line "single_menu_mode=" to 177"single_menu_mode=TRUE". 178 179This mode is not recommended unless you have a fairly fast machine. 180********************************************************************* 181 182 183Propaganda 184---------- 185The windowing support utility (lxdialog) is a VERY modified version of 186the dialog utility by Savio Lam <lam836@cs.cuhk.hk>. Although lxdialog 187is significantly different from dialog, I have left Savio's copyrights 188intact. Please DO NOT contact Savio with questions about lxdialog. 189He will not be able to assist. 190 191William Roadcap was the original author of Menuconfig. 192Michael Elizabeth Chastain <mec@shout.net> is the current maintainer. 193 194<END OF FILE> 195