[syslinux] PXELINUX LOCALBOOT 0 hang on Dell Optiplex 990

[Gene Cumm]

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 16:48, Michael T. Davis
<DAVISM at ecr6.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
>
> At 15:54:49.01 on 27-OCT-2011 in message
> <CAD0RxenTb_tF-TTOUsGv0WHrMoxY7YrGCUf91gubBdVCDuhx-A at mail.gmail.com>, Gene
> Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>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.
>
>        OK, I'll bite.  Why would this be a problem?
>
>>
>>--
>>-Gene
>
> Regards,
> Mike

Easy.  'chain.c32 hd0' boots the USB drive not your hard drive and
might just stop everything there depending on the contents of the
drive.

-- 
-Gene