[syslinux] Version 3.35 problems with Broadcom BCM5780 chipset

[Constantin Charissis]

Ole Holm Nielsen a écrit :
> Ole H. Nielsen wrote:
>   
>> But when I use those very same SYSLINUX menus on an AMD Opteron server
>> (IBM x326m), it is capable of loading up vesamenu.c32 and menu.c32
>> and displaying a list of menu items.  But as soon as I select any item
>> whatsoever in the menu list, the server locks up and must be power cycled.
>>     
>
> and H. Peter Anvin replied:
>   
>> Please try out the 3.32-pre* and 3.35-pre* prepatches (or, if you're 
>> familiar with git, get the git repository and do a git-bisect.)  The 
>> smaller a changeset I can get this down to the more likely I am at 
>> actually resolving anything.
>>     
>
> I have tried 9 different version of SYSLINUX up to 3.35 (3.36-pre5 and
> 3.40-pre4 won't build with "make").  I built the code and copied these files
> to /tftpboot for each test: pxelinux.0 memdisk/memdisk com32/modules/*.c32.
>
> I have some puzzling observations with the 3.20-3.35 versions of menu.c32:
> 1) On one server all these versions of the menus always work correctly.
> 2) On a second server with *identical* hardware and firmware versions the
>     SYSLINUX menus behave like this:
>     3.20: OK, OK, Fail
>     3.30: Fail
>     3.31: Fail
>     3.32-pre8: Fail
>     3.35-pre1: OK
>     3.35-pre4: OK
>     3.35-pre5: OK
>     3.35: Fail, Fail, OK
>     When the menus fail, the server locks up when a menu item is pressed.
>     If a menu item has a password, I can type in the password, and then
>     the server locks up.
>
> It really bugs me that two 100% identical servers (from a Linux xompute
> cluster) consistently behave differently with the SYSLINUX menu system.
> There seems to be an element of randomness in the second server regarding
> whether the menus work or not.  I have no idea how this may come about.
>
> FYI: The IBM x326m dual-Opteron servers have BCM5780 Gigabit Ethernet
> firmware 3.24, and the latest IBM BIOS 1.32.  The keyboard is a USB
> keyboard (no PS/2 connectors on this server), and another USB keyboard
> gave the same result.
>
>   
Hi,

I'm using the advanced menu system and I have also been able to 
reproduce such behaviour on all recent Xeon Woodcrest motherboards from 
Tyan (i5000* chipset) and some recent Opteron 2XXX from Tyan (not all 
but don't remember which one exactly atm).

I 'm not sure if this is related with the Gigabit chipset as I have some 
crashes with Intel network chipset too.

The hardware I have at the moment :

Tyan motherboard S5380
Network Chipset : Intel gigabit (don't have the exact chipset number 
currently because the server is doing some heavy tests)
Intel Boot Agent GE 1.2.36
PXE 2.1 Build 085 (WfM 2.0), RPL V1.28

I have only tested it with the advanced menu system, And have fallen 
back to basic pxelinux boot + welcome and F1 F2 messages for the moment.
I'll try it when I find some time with the vesamenu or textmenu, but I 
think I made a test with them one time also and got the system freeze.

With different version of syslinux (last tests were made with 3.31 and 
3.40-pre3 which have different source code structure for the advanced 
menu items) :

1/ The advanced menu loads fine.
2/ When I go to the next option in the menu by pressing DOWN arrow, the 
cursor goes down in the menu and then the system freezes and 
CTRL-ALT-DEL does not work.

The exact same com32 binary works well on older motherboards from Tyan.

I have access to a lot of new hardware at work, but not always for a 
very long time, so please ask if I can do some tests to help.

I'll add more detailed information in my report later.

Best regards,

-- 
Constantin Charissis
DATASWIFT