[syslinux] menu broken if default 'append' option specified

[Sebastian Herbszt]

Michael Tokarev wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> This is my first post here. ;)
> 
> I noticed that if the default 'append' option is
> specified in the config file, menu and vesamenu
> wont boot the system.  Instead of offering a menu,
> the screen goes blank; after hitting any key on the
> keyboard, empty menu frame gets displayed with no
> boot entry list inside.
> 
> It gets fixed by removing default 'append' entry
> (the one before any 'label').
> 
> Default syslinux (without menu) works correctly with
> this configuration.
> 
> Maybe this is the reason for
> http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2009-June/012680.html --
> "[syslinux] pxelinux.bin (3.80) hanging at the beginning
> of menu.c32 TFTP transfer" but might be unrelated.
> 
> Tested with syslinux-3.82 tarball.  It's my first
> expirence with syslinux :)

I assume your config looks somewhat like this:

UI menu.c32
APPEND foo
LABEL mylabel
COM32 hello.c32

Due to the APPEND line "foo" gets passed to "menu.c32" and the menu
system tries to parse it as the config file [1]. A similar problem was reported
with the "ONERROR" keyword [2].

You can use "UI menu.c32 ~" to make it parse the config file as a workaround.

[1] http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2009-May/012507.html
[2] http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2009-June/012747.html

- Sebastian