BIOS-in-Terminal
Supported BIOS/UEFI Types
The BIOS-to-Text engine is specifically optimized for rendering text-based pre-OS interfaces and terminal installers.
This document defines the compatibility boundaries, outlining supported environments and current architectural limitations regarding graphical interfaces.
Supported Pre-OS Environments
The optical recognition engine reliably parses and streams the following standard text-based interfaces directly into the SSH terminal:
- Legacy BIOS & Text UEFI: Standard blue, gray, or black configuration screens from vendors such as AMI, Award, and Phoenix.
- Bootloaders & Recovery Shells: OS selection menus (e.g., GRUB, Syslinux) and text-based rescue terminal environments.
- Console OS Installers: Bare-metal installation interfaces lacking a GUI, including Debian and Ubuntu Server (Subiquity).
- Hardware POST Alerts: Checksum errors, RAID controller initialization warnings, and critical boot interruptions (e.g., "Press F1 to continue").
Architectural Limitations
Graphical Installers & OS Environments: If a bootable installer transitions into a full graphical user interface (GUI) featuring a mouse cursor and high-resolution icons, the BIOS-to-Text engine will pause processing. For these scenarios, utilize the standard UVC video stream via the desktop or mobile client.
Complex UEFI GUI Shells: Modern high-definition UEFI interfaces incorporating heavy 3D graphics, animations, and cursor-driven menus fall outside the target operational scope of the text engine.
Character Recognition Boundaries: The current iteration of the optical parsing algorithm guarantees deterministic recognition strictly for Latin characters and standard ASCII glyphs.
Development and Support
The glyph database and optical recognition algorithms are continuously expanded through firmware updates.
If you encounter rendering artifacts, need to report a bug, or want to request support for a specific unrecognized BIOS vendor, utilize the community channels below.