| Message ID | 20170711051908.19301-1-sam@mendozajonas.com |
|---|---|
| State | Rejected |
| Headers | show |
Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> writes: > When connecting to IPMI or serial consoles quite often the user must hit > a key or exit and restart petitboot-nc to cause it to appear. This > occurs when the user connects after petitboot-nc has drawn the current > screen. This can be a little confusing to users, especially in text > screens where keys such as 'Enter' won't have an affect. > To add some user friendliness create a timer callback that every five > seconds re-draws the current screen automatically. After having done the math on how slow I've seen some IPMI SoL implementations, I think this should end up being fine, and even still usable on effectively 9600bps with the worst case scenario of drawing. Acked-by: Stewart Smith <stewart@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
On Wed, 2017-07-12 at 09:29 +1000, Stewart Smith wrote: > Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> writes: > > When connecting to IPMI or serial consoles quite often the user must hit > > a key or exit and restart petitboot-nc to cause it to appear. This > > occurs when the user connects after petitboot-nc has drawn the current > > screen. This can be a little confusing to users, especially in text > > screens where keys such as 'Enter' won't have an affect. > > To add some user friendliness create a timer callback that every five > > seconds re-draws the current screen automatically. > > After having done the math on how slow I've seen some IPMI SoL > implementations, I think this should end up being fine, and even still > usable on effectively 9600bps with the worst case scenario of drawing. > I was wondering the same thing, I figured Sam knew what he was doing, now that both Sam AND Stewart have come to a consensus, I'm not even needed here. Good day! > Acked-by: Stewart Smith <stewart@linux.vnet.ibm.com> >
On Wed, 2017-07-12 at 11:05 +1000, Cyril Bur wrote: > On Wed, 2017-07-12 at 09:29 +1000, Stewart Smith wrote: > > Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> writes: > > > When connecting to IPMI or serial consoles quite often the user must hit > > > a key or exit and restart petitboot-nc to cause it to appear. This > > > occurs when the user connects after petitboot-nc has drawn the current > > > screen. This can be a little confusing to users, especially in text > > > screens where keys such as 'Enter' won't have an affect. > > > To add some user friendliness create a timer callback that every five > > > seconds re-draws the current screen automatically. > > > > After having done the math on how slow I've seen some IPMI SoL > > implementations, I think this should end up being fine, and even still > > usable on effectively 9600bps with the worst case scenario of drawing. > > > > I was wondering the same thing, I figured Sam knew what he was doing, > now that both Sam AND Stewart have come to a consensus, I'm not even > needed here. > > Good day! So I found out in testing this breaks the user experience in a hilarious way - I may do a v2 on some UI refactoring I have going on in the background, which will be neater and should avoid this issue. > > > Acked-by: Stewart Smith <stewart@linux.vnet.ibm.com> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Petitboot mailing list > Petitboot@lists.ozlabs.org > https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo/petitboot
Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> writes: > On Wed, 2017-07-12 at 11:05 +1000, Cyril Bur wrote: >> On Wed, 2017-07-12 at 09:29 +1000, Stewart Smith wrote: >> > Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> writes: >> > > When connecting to IPMI or serial consoles quite often the user must hit >> > > a key or exit and restart petitboot-nc to cause it to appear. This >> > > occurs when the user connects after petitboot-nc has drawn the current >> > > screen. This can be a little confusing to users, especially in text >> > > screens where keys such as 'Enter' won't have an affect. >> > > To add some user friendliness create a timer callback that every five >> > > seconds re-draws the current screen automatically. >> > >> > After having done the math on how slow I've seen some IPMI SoL >> > implementations, I think this should end up being fine, and even still >> > usable on effectively 9600bps with the worst case scenario of drawing. >> > >> >> I was wondering the same thing, I figured Sam knew what he was doing, >> now that both Sam AND Stewart have come to a consensus, I'm not even >> needed here. >> >> Good day! > > So I found out in testing this breaks the user experience in a hilarious > way - I may do a v2 on some UI refactoring I have going on in the > background, which will be neater and should avoid this issue. What are you doing *testing* things? There's your problem :)
Hi Sam, > So I found out in testing this breaks the user experience in a hilarious > way - I may do a v2 on some UI refactoring I have going on in the > background, which will be neater and should avoid this issue. One other option would be to: - only start the interactive UI when input is received - before that, we just print the petitboot logs (possibly without ncurses), and possibly a 'hit any key' message The advantage of this is that the ncurses startup doesn't happen until there is an actual terminal connected, which can be queried for its capabilities & size. Cheers, Jeremy
On Wed, 2017-07-19 at 09:49 +0800, Jeremy Kerr wrote: > Hi Sam, > > > So I found out in testing this breaks the user experience in a hilarious > > way - I may do a v2 on some UI refactoring I have going on in the > > background, which will be neater and should avoid this issue. > > One other option would be to: > > - only start the interactive UI when input is received > - before that, we just print the petitboot logs (possibly without > ncurses), and possibly a 'hit any key' message > > The advantage of this is that the ncurses startup doesn't happen until > there is an actual terminal connected, which can be queried for its > capabilities & size. That's a good idea (especially for something like a 'datacenter' mode discussed elsewhere). On the other hand we still have a problem of users disconnecting and reconnecting, eg. someone leaves a machine in Petitboot, someone else connects and the screen is blank. I suspect V2 will be a combination of both ideas :) Cheers, Sam
Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> writes: > On Wed, 2017-07-19 at 09:49 +0800, Jeremy Kerr wrote: >> Hi Sam, >> >> > So I found out in testing this breaks the user experience in a hilarious >> > way - I may do a v2 on some UI refactoring I have going on in the >> > background, which will be neater and should avoid this issue. >> >> One other option would be to: >> >> - only start the interactive UI when input is received >> - before that, we just print the petitboot logs (possibly without >> ncurses), and possibly a 'hit any key' message >> >> The advantage of this is that the ncurses startup doesn't happen until >> there is an actual terminal connected, which can be queried for its >> capabilities & size. > > That's a good idea (especially for something like a 'datacenter' mode > discussed elsewhere). On the other hand we still have a problem of users > disconnecting and reconnecting, eg. someone leaves a machine in > Petitboot, someone else connects and the screen is blank. > I suspect V2 will be a combination of both ideas :) Just don't break my test scripts :)
diff --git a/ui/ncurses/nc-cui.c b/ui/ncurses/nc-cui.c index fbc02b9..6332585 100644 --- a/ui/ncurses/nc-cui.c +++ b/ui/ncurses/nc-cui.c @@ -499,6 +499,25 @@ static int cui_process_js(void *arg) return 0; } +/* + * Refresh the current screen. This helps in cases where the user connects to a + * serial interface after the screen has already been drawn. + * Five seconds is a nice compromise between not having the user wait too long + * and over-stressing certain OEM's terrible IPMI implementations. + */ +static int cui_refresh_timeout(void *arg) +{ + struct cui *cui = cui_from_arg(arg); + + nc_scr_unpost(cui->current); + nc_scr_post(cui->current); + redrawwin(cui->current->main_ncw); + + waiter_register_timeout(cui->waitset, 5000, cui_refresh_timeout, cui); + + return 0; +} + /** * cui_handle_resize - Handle the term resize. */ @@ -1104,6 +1123,8 @@ retry_start: waiter_register_io(cui->waitset, STDIN_FILENO, WAIT_IN, cui_process_key, cui); + waiter_register_timeout(cui->waitset, 5000, cui_refresh_timeout, cui); + if (js_map) { cui->pjs = pjs_init(cui, js_map);
When connecting to IPMI or serial consoles quite often the user must hit a key or exit and restart petitboot-nc to cause it to appear. This occurs when the user connects after petitboot-nc has drawn the current screen. This can be a little confusing to users, especially in text screens where keys such as 'Enter' won't have an affect. To add some user friendliness create a timer callback that every five seconds re-draws the current screen automatically. Signed-off-by: Samuel Mendoza-Jonas <sam@mendozajonas.com> --- ui/ncurses/nc-cui.c | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)