Customizing the 6.8 PXE Menu - Complete Guide to Altering Border, Text, Text/Menu Locations, and Color

This guide will take you through all the steps required to change the Deployment Server 6.8 PXE Menu to exactly how you want it.

(Deployment Server 6.8.206)

Introduction

The article Changing PXE Menu Color shows you how to install a Hex Editor and use it to modify the color of your PXE Menu. After you have gone through that document and are comfortable with it, you can follow this document to change the Menu Border, Text, and Text locations.

You can modify the following components of the PXE Menu:
(See Figure 1 for a visual layout)
(X = Horizontal Position, Y = Vertical Position)

	Component	Default Value [Hex]	Hex Offset
1	Color
	Background Color	Blue [10]	2258
	Foreground Color	White [0F]	368D
2	Border
	Border Top Left	[DA]	23FD
	Border Top Right	[BF]	343D
	Border Upper Middle Left	[C3]	2284
	Border Upper Middle Right	[B4]	2295
	Border Lower Middle Left	[C3]	22BB
	Border Lower Middle Right	[B4]	22D5
	Border Bottom Left	[C0]	24FC
	Border Bottom Right	[D9]	2540
	Border Left Bar	[B3]	2465
	Border Right Bar	[B3]	24B3
	Border Top Bars	[C4]	2409
	Border Bottom Bars	[C4]	252B
3	Message 1
	Message 1 Text	'Altiris, Inc.'	528C - 5298
	Message 1 X	[20]	22DC
	Message 1 Y	[01]	22E3
4	Message 2
	Message 2 Text	'***>>- PXE BOOT MENU -<<***'	529A - 52B4
	Message 2 X	[19]	22F1
	Message 2 Y	[02]	22F8
5	Server Name
	Server Name X	[27]	2347
	Server Name Y	[03]	2353
6	Message 3
	Message 3 Text Part 1	'Build: '	52B6 - 52BC
	Message 3 Text Part 2	'306'	5498 - 549A
	Message 3 X	[01]	2389
	Message 3 Y	[18]	2387
7	Prompt
	Prompt X	**Unknown**	**Unknown**
	Prompt Y	[16]	2126
8	Message 4
	Message 4 Text	'Prompt Wait Time: '[00]	5278 - 528A
	Message 4 X	[02]	2182
	Message 4 Y	[18]	2180
10	Message 5	Used as Tab, see Appendix A - 09
	Message 5 Text	8 spaces	549C - 54A3
9	Count Down
	Count Down L Bracket	' (' [20], [28]	21E5, 21EA
	Count Down R Bracket	') ' [29], [20]	21F5, 21FA
	Count Down X	[14]	2190
	Count Down Y	[18]	2196
10	Message 6	Intended to clear Prompt
	Message 6 Text	**Unknown**	**Unknown**
	Message 6 X	**Unknown**	**Unknown**
	Message 6 Y	[16]	1C08
10	Message 7	Intended to clear Message 4
	Message 7 Text	Jump to the beginning of the current line, Message 5 9 times and 7 spaces, then jump to the beginning of the current line. [0D 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 09 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 0D]	54AE - 54BF
	Message 7 X	Same as Count Down X
	Message 7 Y	Same as Count Down Y
11	Menu
	Menu X	[05]	1D39
	Menu Y	[05]	1C32
	Menu L Bracket	( [28]	519E
	Menu R Bracket	) [29]	51A0
12	Select
	Select Text	'Select: '[00]	520C - 5214
	Select X	[14], [1C], [14], [14], [1C]	1E62, 1EBC, 1F39, 1F47, 20AF
	Select Y	[18], [18], [18], [18], [18]	1E60, 1EBA, 1F37, 1F45, 20AD

Figure 1: Layout of PXE Menu Components

Click to view.

Color

1. Go to Hex offset 2258
   1. In the Edit Menu, choose Goto.
   2. Type 2258 and hit Enter.
      
2. Find the background color you want in the following list.
   
3. Replace the value in offset 2258 with the value of the background color you want.
4. Go to Hex offset 368D
5. Find the foreground color you want in the following list.
   
6. Replace the value in offset 368D with the value of the foreground color you want.

Border

Choose the characters you want to use for the elements of the border. The most common characters you will use are provided in this section. See Appendix A for a complete list of the Special Characters supported.

1. Go to Hex offset 23FD.
2. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Top Left Corner.
   
3. Go to Hex offset 243D
4. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Top Right Corner.
   
5. Go to Hex offset 2284
6. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Upper Left Join.
   
7. Go to Hex offset 2295
8. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Upper Right Join.
   
9. Go to Hex offset 22BB
10. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Lower Left Join.
11. Go to Hex offset 22D5
12. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Lower Right Join.
13. Go to Hex offset 24FC
14. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Bottom Left Corner.
    
15. Go to Hex offset 2540
16. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Bottom Right Corner.
    
17. Go to Hex offset 2465
18. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Left Bar.
19. 
20. Go to Hex offset 24B3
21. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Right Bar.
22. Go to Hex offset 2409
23. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Top Bars.
24. 
25. Go to Hex offset 252B
26. Enter the Hex value of the character you want to use for the Bottom Bars.

Messages

For each message you want to modify, do the following:

1. Go to the Hex offset for the Message Text (see the table in the Introduction)
2. In the right-hand pane of your Hex Editor, you should see the text. Replace it with any message you want up to the number of characters in the original text. If your new message is fewer characters than the original text, fill in the rest of the spaces with hex value 00.
3. Go to the Hex offset(s) for the Message X value.
4. Determine the Hex equivalent of the horizontal position (0-79) of the location you want for the Message.
   a. Open Windows Calculator
   b. Select View>Scientific
   c. Type the value of the position you want
   d. Select the Hex radio button, this will show you the hex equivalent to that number.
5. Enter the Hex equivalent of the horizontal position.
6. Go to the Hex offset(s) for the Message Y value.
7. Determine the Hex equivalent of the vertical position (0-23) of the location you want for the Message.

Appendix A: ASCII - Hex Tables

Special Commands

Special Characters

Click to view.