1Menuconfig gives the Linux kernel configuration a long needed face 2lift. Featuring text based color menus and dialogs, it does not 3require X Windows (however, you need ncurses in order to use it). 4With this utility you can easily select a kernel option to modify 5without sifting through 100 other options. 6 7Overview 8-------- 9Some kernel features may be built directly into the kernel. 10Some may be made into loadable runtime modules. Some features 11may be completely removed altogether. There are also certain 12kernel parameters which are not really features, but must be 13entered in as decimal or hexadecimal numbers or possibly text. 14 15Menu items beginning with [*], <M> or [ ] represent features 16configured to be built in, modularized or removed respectively. 17Pointed brackets <> represent module capable features. 18 more... 19 20To change any of these features, highlight it with the cursor 21keys and press <Y> to build it in, <M> to make it a module or 22<N> to removed it. You may also press the <Space Bar> to cycle 23through the available options (ie. Y->N->M->Y). 24 25Items beginning with numbers or other text within parenthesis can 26be changed by highlighting the item and pressing <Enter>. Then 27enter the new parameter into the dialog box that pops up. 28 29 30Some additional keyboard hints: 31 32Menus 33---------- 34o Use the Up/Down arrow keys (cursor keys) to highlight the item 35 you wish to change or submenu wish to select and press <Enter>. 36 Submenus are designated by "--->". 37 38 Shortcut: Press the option's highlighted letter (hotkey). 39 Pressing a hotkey more than once will sequence 40 through all visible items which use that hotkey. 41 42 You may also use the <PAGE UP> and <PAGE DOWN> keys to scroll 43 unseen options into view. 44 45o To exit a menu use the cursor keys to highlight the <Exit> button 46 and press <ENTER>. 47 48 Shortcut: Press <ESC><ESC> or <E> or <X> if there is no hotkey 49 using those letters. You may press a single <ESC>, but 50 there is a delayed response which you may find annoying. 51 52 Also, the <TAB> and cursor keys will cycle between <Select>, 53 <Exit> and <Help> 54 55o To get help with an item, use the cursor keys to highlight <Help> 56 and Press <ENTER>. 57 58 Shortcut: Press <H> or <?>. 59 60 61Radiolists (Choice lists) 62----------- 63o Use the cursor keys to select the option you wish to set and press 64 <S> or the <SPACE BAR>. 65 66 Shortcut: Press the first letter of the option you wish to set then 67 press <S> or <SPACE BAR>. 68 69o To see available help for the item, use the cursor keys to highlight 70 <Help> and Press <ENTER>. 71 72 Shortcut: Press <H> or <?>. 73 74 Also, the <TAB> and cursor keys will cycle between <Select> and 75 <Help> 76 77 78Data Entry 79----------- 80o Enter the requested information and press <ENTER> 81 If you are entering hexadecimal values, it is not necessary to 82 add the '0x' prefix to the entry. 83 84o For help, use the <TAB> or cursor keys to highlight the help option 85 and press <ENTER>. You can try <TAB><H> as well. 86 87 88Text Box (Help Window) 89-------- 90o Use the cursor keys to scroll up/down/left/right. The VI editor 91 keys h,j,k,l function here as do <SPACE BAR> and <B> for those 92 who are familiar with less and lynx. 93 94o Press <E>, <X>, <Enter> or <Esc><Esc> to exit. 95 96 97Final Acceptance 98---------------- 99With the exception of the old style sound configuration, 100YOUR CHANGES ARE NOT FINAL. You will be given a last chance to 101confirm them prior to exiting Menuconfig. 102 103If Menuconfig quits with an error while saving your configuration, 104you may look in the file /usr/src/linux/.menuconfig.log for 105information which may help you determine the cause. 106 107Alternate Configuration Files 108----------------------------- 109Menuconfig supports the use of alternate configuration files for 110those who, for various reasons, find it necessary to switch 111between different kernel configurations. 112 113At the end of the main menu you will find two options. One is 114for saving the current configuration to a file of your choosing. 115The other option is for loading a previously saved alternate 116configuration. 117 118Even if you don't use alternate configuration files, but you 119find during a Menuconfig session that you have completely messed 120up your settings, you may use the "Load Alternate..." option to 121restore your previously saved settings from ".config" without 122restarting Menuconfig. 123 124Other information 125----------------- 126The windowing utility, lxdialog, will only be rebuilt if your kernel 127source tree is fresh, or changes are patched into it via a kernel 128patch or you do 'make mrproper'. If changes to lxdialog are patched 129in, most likely the rebuild time will be short. You may force a 130complete rebuild of lxdialog by changing to its directory and doing 131'make clean all' 132 133If you use Menuconfig in an XTERM window make sure you have your 134$TERM variable set to point to a xterm definition which supports color. 135Otherwise, Menuconfig will look rather bad. Menuconfig will not 136display correctly in a RXVT window because rxvt displays only one 137intensity of color, bright. 138 139Menuconfig will display larger menus on screens or xterms which are 140set to display more than the standard 25 row by 80 column geometry. 141In order for this to work, the "stty size" command must be able to 142display the screen's current row and column geometry. I STRONGLY 143RECOMMEND that you make sure you do NOT have the shell variables 144LINES and COLUMNS exported into your environment. Some distributions 145export those variables via /etc/profile. Some ncurses programs can 146become confused when those variables (LINES & COLUMNS) don't reflect 147the true screen size. 148 149 150NOTICE: lxdialog requires the ncurses libraries to compile. If you 151 don't already have ncurses you really should get it. 152 153 The makefile for lxdialog attempts to find your ncurses 154 header file. Although it should find the header for older 155 versions of ncurses, it is probably a good idea to get the 156 latest ncurses anyway. 157 158 If you have upgraded your ncurses libraries, MAKE SURE you 159 remove the old ncurses header files. If you don't you 160 will most certainly get a segmentation fault. 161 162WARNING: It is not recommended that you change any defines in 163 lxdialog's header files. If you have a grayscale display and 164 are brave, you may tinker with color.h to tune the colors to 165 your preference. 166 167COMPATIBILITY ISSUE: 168 There have been some compatibility problems reported with 169 older versions of bash and sed. I am trying to work these 170 out but it is preferable that you upgrade those utilities. 171 172 173******** IMPORTANT, OPTIONAL ALTERNATE PERSONALITY AVAILABLE ******** 174******** ******** 175If you prefer to have all of the kernel options listed in a single 176menu, rather than the default multimenu hierarchy, run the menuconfig 177with MENUCONFIG_MODE environment variable set to single_menu. Example: 178 179make menuconfig MENUCONFIG_MODE=single_menu 180 181<Enter> will then unroll the appropriate category, or enfold it if it 182is already unrolled. 183 184Note that this mode can eventually be a little more CPU expensive 185(especially with a larger number of unrolled categories) than the 186default mode. 187********************************************************************* 188 189 190Propaganda 191---------- 192The windowing support utility (lxdialog) is a VERY modified version of 193the dialog utility by Savio Lam <lam836@cs.cuhk.hk>. Although lxdialog 194is significantly different from dialog, I have left Savio's copyrights 195intact. Please DO NOT contact Savio with questions about lxdialog. 196He will not be able to assist. 197 198William Roadcap was the original author of Menuconfig. 199Michael Elizabeth Chastain <mec@shout.net> is the current maintainer. 200 201<END OF FILE> 202