[syslinux] PXELINUX LOCALBOOT 0 hang on Dell Optiplex 990

[Gene Cumm]

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 07:07, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 27, 2011 5:45 AM, <paul.szabo at sydney.edu.au> wrote:
>> I have been using PXELINUX, with "LOCALBOOT 0" when wanting to boot
>> from disk, for many years. Now on new Dell Optiplex 990 machines,
>> PXE boot with "LOCALBOOT 0" hangs after message
>>
>> Booting from local disk...
>>
>> without the expected "Exiting PXE" message. I tried "LOCALBOOT -1" and
>> some other values also, none seemed to work. I tested SYSLINUX 4.04.
>>
>> Workaround seems to be as per
>>
>>
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/forums/forum/730844/topic/4560984
>> using:
>>  kernel chain.c32
>>  append hd0
>> instead of LOCALBOOT 0 in the config file.
>>
>> Please let me know if you would want me to test something. (Please give
>> detailed instructions, I am not very familiar with SYSLINUX.)
>>
>> Thanks, Paul
>>
>> Paul Szabo   psz at maths.usyd.edu.au   http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/
>> School of Mathematics and Statistics   University of Sydney    Australia
>
> This is not surprising considering the existing list of known
malfunctioning
> Dell systems.  Thanks for the report.
>
> Hpa, I have access to several of these if there's any test/data collection
> (aside from latest betas), let me know.
>
> --Gene

Also, be warned that some Dell systems love to put the USB drive as BIOS
drive 0x80.

-- 
-Gene