[syslinux] syslinux can't read the configuration file on USB

[Gert Hulselmans]

Noam Meltzer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have the following weird problem with syslinux, and I was hoping
> that some1 on this list might be able to help:
>
> I am using syslinux 3.86 on CentOS-5.4 64bit.
> I'm creating a custom installation image for my distribution
> (customized centos). I first create a file with the image, and later
> on I write it to a USB disk. This procedure have been working quite
> good for a very long time.
>
> Recently I made some changes to my distro (added more files under one
> of the subdirectories), and started getting the following error
> messages when the PC boots with the USB disk:
> ---
> Unknown keyword in configuration file: <<<garbage>>>
> Unknown keyword in configuration file: <<<garbage>>>
> Unknown keyword in configuration file: <<<garbage>>>
> No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
> boot:
> ---
>
> Naturallly, since there's no configuration, the syslinux is an unusable
> state.
>
> I discovered that if during the creation of the image, I don't add one
> of the rpm_dirX sub directories, the problem disappears. (any of them,
> it doesn't matter)
>
> The size of the USB image is exactly 2GB and the contents of the
> filesystem is approximately 1.6GB.
>
> The file system looks something like this:
>
> /ISOs/custom.iso
> /Builds/version/RPMs/rpm_dir1/{many rpms here}
> /Builds/version/RPMs/rpm_dir2/{many rpms here}
> /Builds/version/RPMs/rpm_dir3/{many rpms here}
> /custom.msg
> /initrd.img
> /ldlinux.sys         (got here after running syslinux)
> /syslinux.cfg
> /vmlinuz
>
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
> Best regards,
> Noam Meltzer
>
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>
Can you try syslinux-4.00-pre45:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/Testing/

In Syslinux 4.xx, filesystems are implemented in C instead of assembler.
So Syslinux 4.xx may work.

- Gert Hulselmans