[syslinux] Dell problems with PXELINUX 3.62

Lindgren Daniel daniel.lindgren at tullverket.se
Thu Mar 4 22:44:42 PST 2010


> I tried PXELINUX from Syslinux 3.61 and it failed in the same 
> way.  I then tried the PXELINUX from Syslinux 3.36 as your 
> organization has been using _along_with_ MEMDISK 3.36 and it 
> failed in exactly the same way.
> 
> Could you kindly confirm that you have _any_ PXELINUX and/or 
> MEMDISK versions that work with this image?  Perhaps there is 
> a complication outside of the Syslinux Suite?  A BIOS upgrade?

Interesting stuff. Yes, I can boot the supplied image on a GX280 with
BIOS A08, if I use pxelinux.0 3.62-pre6 or older with any version of
MEMDISK (currently using 3.85). I can also boot the image on 16 other
models with any PXELINUX version (that I've tested).

This is the spec for my test machine, taken from the BIOS setup:

Dell OptiPlex GX280
BIOS Version A08 (03/03/06)
Intel Pentium 4 2.80 GHz
2 GB RAM (4x512 MB)
80 GB SATA HDD

BIOS settings are factory default, except:
- Onboard Devices -> Integrated NIC is "On w/PXE"
- POST Behavior -> Fast Boot is Off.

Perhaps HPA is on the right track, there could be different revisions of
"GX280" which behave differently even with identical BIOS versions. Or
maybe it has something to to with the total amount of RAM, my machine is
on the DOS 2 GB limit, I'll try reducing RAM and see if it matters.

I've attached a screen shot of meminfo.c32 from my machine with BIOS
A08, with 2 GB RAM installed.

Cheers,
Daniel

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