[syslinux] Conditional kernel selection based on CPUID/DMI info

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

--On Tuesday, January 29, 2008 06:30:52 PM -0800 "H. Peter Anvin" 
<hpa at zytor.com> wrote:

> Jeffrey Hutzelman wrote:
>>
>> Yes, that's the one.  Note that while the issue was introduced in A11
>> and  Dell said the issue _would be_ fixed in A12, no such version was
>> ever  released.  We're a little behind, but not much -- the problem
>> occurs with  3.53, and as I mentioned, also with the memdisk in that
>> version.  At some  point I'll try something newer, but that requires
>> forward-porting a patch I  have yet to send you, and I haven't found the
>> time to look at it.
>>
>
> The implication was, though, that downgrading to A10 should work as
> well.  Don't know what other issues that would introduce, though.

Right, and that's exactly what we do -- the script I feed to bioschk.cbt 
checks for this particular BIOS, and if you have it, offers to boot a BIOS 
updater that will downgrade you to A10.  Otherwise it runs menu.c32 as 
usual.

> It would be nice to figure out a workaround, but it's almost impossible
> without access to a specimen.

I agree.  I have such a box I can use for testing, but no easy way to 
provide remote access to its console.  And while I can spend some of my own 
time on the issue, I doubt my employer will be interested in shipping you 
the box. :-)

-- Jeff