[syslinux] Boot Error GPT partition

[KESHAV P.R.]

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 18:12, Miller, Shao <shao.miller at yrdsb.edu.on.ca> wrote:
> Good day again Keshav,
>
> It might be the case that Syslinx is indeed installed to your /dev/sda8,
> since Syslinux itself contains the string "Boot error".  That would
> cause me to think that one of the following is true:
>
> 1. Your BIOS doesn't support EDD (it is C/H/S only).
> 2. The checksum for the loaded ldlinux.sys fails.
> 3. The "magic" signature in the loaded ldlinux.sys fails.
>
> So I would guess that ldlinux.sys was physically moved at some point
> (it's starting sector needs to be hard-coded by the Syslinux
> installation process into the partition's boot sector, and the file
> needs to be contiguous), or the installation process is not recording
> its starting sector properly.
>

It seems extlinux installer of 4.04-preX does not correctly encode the
location of ldlinux.sys into the partition bootsector. I moved back to
4.03-stable and reinstalled extlinux.

sudo extlinux --install /boot/syslinux   -> 4.04-pre4
sudo extlinux --update /boot/syslinux  -> 4.03-stable

leads to the "Boot error" (but both report the partition correctly)

but "extlinux --install" from 4.03 solved the problem (--update does
not work)". That means the post-4.03 syslinux/extlinux installer do
not encode the bootsector and ldlinux.sys properly. I have switched
back to extlinux, but grub2 did not give me any of there errors as it
uses a separate bios boot partition and does not use partition boot
sectors, thus no problem of shifting of ldlinux.sys within the
partition.

Thanks and Regards.

- Keshav