[syslinux] SYSLINUX 3.10-pre20 menu.32 hang in SIS900 bootrom

Alexander Heinz mailsanmich at gmx.li
Tue Aug 23 06:14:37 PDT 2005


> For the new version, 3.10-pre20, I encountered a problem now, my client 
> machine uses sis900 chip, and it still can not run simple menu with 
> pxelinux in this version (3.10-pre20).
> It's same situation as I encountered when I used syslinux 3.07, 3.08 and 
> 3.09.

What is the last version of syslinux that works for you (if there is one)?

I own a client with the SIS900 chip and I can confirm the problem with 
3.10pre20 (I have never used this PC for network booting and that is why 
I have never tested older versions).

My client:
motherboard: unknown brand.
cpu: Duron 1GHz
AMIBIOS Version 1.21.06
SIS900: Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build082)

I am pretty sure that the PXE Rom is broken. Using a 3Com NIC (MBA 4.30) 
in the same PC works without problems.

> For 3.10-pre20, I compiled in Fedora Core 1, and gcc is "gcc (GCC) 3.3.2 
> 20031022 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.2-1)".

Please use the pre-compiled versions that come with the syslinux package.

However there *IS* a workaround (=chain loading etherboot):
- go to rom-o-matic.org/5.4.0
- choose the right "NIC/ROM type:" (sis900:sis900 for my PC)
- ROM output format: PXE bootstrap loader format ROM Image (.zpxe)
- select "get rom"
- save the file (eb-5.4.0-sis900.zpxe) and copy it to your tftproot

now update your dhcpd.conf (assuming all your SIS900 Clients have the 
MAC vendor prefix 00:07:95);

   if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 3) = "PXE" {
       if substring (hardware, 1, 3) = 00:07:95 {
           filename "/tftpboot/eb-5.4.0-sis900.zpxe";
       }
   }

Cheers
Alex




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