Graphical bootloader /w mouse support

[Tyler Aviss]

On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 8:47 AM, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 10:15 PM, Stewart C. Russell <scruss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> On 11-11-02 14:41 , Lennart Sorensen wrote:
>>>
>>> Could it be made to use a mouse?  Perhaps, but whyever would you want to?
>>> The keyboard is a much faster and more accurate selection device.
>>
>> Bit ableist there, eh, Lennart?
>
> Hmm.  More likely the converse.
>
> It takes rather more physical dexterity to control the position a
> mouse than it does to manipulate a switch.
>
> Even the severely disabled retain control over the soft palette, which
> can be used to control a switch.  They'd be hard pressed to get a
> mouse to move.
>
> And the coding to recognize signals from the plethora of mice out
> there (have you looked at the page of different hardware options for
> xorg lately?) is rather larger than is needed for recognizing keyboard
> control.  I'd not be surprised if adding mouse support would multiply
> the size of the code base for a bootloader, dwarfing the other code.
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For staged bootloaders such as GRUB, this probably wouldn't be too big
a deal as required common module(s) could be kept /boot/grub or
whatever. Certainly one would *not* want to try loading code into the
MBR for that sort of thing.

Mainly, it was for the benefit of relatives that I've installed a
dual-boot configuration for. When you start getting into a lot of
OS's/kernels, a mouse might actually be a bit handy
While looking this up, I did notice the "burg" project (a grub addon?)
http://linux-software-news-tutorials.blogspot.com/2010/06/burgbeautify-your-bootloader.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVeVjb1aO68

Being able to click an icon and/or the select the appropriate kernel,
etc might actually be quite nice with a bootloader like this. The
clicking about with the keyboard seems a bit clunky in some cases.
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