[syslinux] binaries in syslinux-4.02.tar.bz2

Alex Zeffertt alex.zeffertt at eu.citrix.com
Thu Sep 23 02:52:37 PDT 2010


On 22/09/10 18:25, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 10:55, Alex Zeffertt
> <alex.zeffertt at eu.citrix.com>  wrote:
>> Hi list,
>>
>> I've noticed that there are a number of binaries in syslinux-4.02.tar.bz2,
>> which seems a bit odd.  Even stranger is that I get different syslinux
>
> This is to aid most users.  There are a lot of complex build
> requirements that are eliminated by having the full binaries included.
>   It also helps knowing exactly byte by byte what the end binaries (not
> the installers) are looking like to ensure that a compiler bug doesn't
> cause different behavior.
>
> http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems#Official_Binaries

Hi Gene - thanks for your reply.

I think most users would install an RPM or a deb if they wanted binaries from a 
trusted source.  The source tarball on the other hand is used by packagers who 
really need to know that they can rebuild all the binaries from source, so that 
they can fix issues found by end users.

>
>> behaviour depending on whether I rebuild these or use the ones from the
>> tarball.
>
> This commonly indicates your build environment is different and
> probably has issues.
>

I am building in a fresh CentOS 5.5 chroot.  The only difference is that I have 
removed the CentOS nasm package and installed nasm-2.09.01-1 instead.

>> To use the ones from the tarball I:
>>
>>   $ make clean
>>   $ make installer
>>   $ make install-all
>
> This does not reuse all of the binaries.  It rebuilds the installers.
> Try just "make install-all" first rather than all three.
>


Thanks, that works - my host now boots!  However, I don't have that warm fuzzy 
feeling that you get when you've actually built the code that works.  More 
seriously, if any of my users encounter a problem I don't know that I'll be able 
to fix it.

It should be possible to rebuild an opensource package from source.  If there 
are build dependencies then these can always be specified in 
syslinux-4.02/syslinux.spec, and/or probed for in the Makefile.

>> ... whereas to rebuild everything from source I:
>>
>>   $ make spotless
>>   $ make all
>>   $ make installer
>>   $ make install-all
>>
>> If I reuse the binaries from the tarball I get the following output after
>> control is passed to my MBR:
>>
>>
>>   SYSLINUX 4.02 2010-07-21  Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
>>   boot:
>>   Booting...
>>   ERR: Not a Multiboot bootloader!
>
> Look at your config file.  Try adding "PROMPT 1" and "TIMEOUT 0" as an
> extra diagnostic step.
>
> Also, could you give more information here?  What's the media you've
> installed SYSLINUX on, including file system?  What system are you
> using to see this error?
>
>> ... whereas if I rebuild everything from source I get no output at all.
>
>> From this, I'd guess something is wrong with your build environment.
>

I've got these options.  My config file contains the following:

   serial 0 115200
   default xe-serial
   prompt 1
   timeout 50

   label xe-serial
     kernel mboot.c32
     append /boot/xen.gz com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga dom0_mem=752M 
lowmem_emergency_pool=1M crashkernel=64M at 32M --- /boot/vmlinuz-2.6-xen 
root=LABEL=root-nprlhirs ro console=tty0 xencons=hvc console=hvc0 --- 
/boot/initrd-2.6-xen.img

Although I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with this since it works fine as 
long as I don't rebuild *any* binaries from the tarball.

Regards,

Alex

>> I tried looking for the error message "Not a Multiboot bootloader" in the
>> syslinux source but I couldn't find it anywhere, which made me wonder if it
>> comes from one of those binaries.
>>
>> Does anybody know why the source tarball contains binaries?  I feel I need
>> to understand this before I can start debugging my boot failure.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Alex
>




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