[syslinux] PXELINUX [BIOS] 6.02 - Upgrade to 6.02 from 4.07 introduces local boot regression

Gene Cumm gene.cumm at gmail.com
Mon Dec 9 18:16:58 PST 2013


On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 8:05 PM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Cory Fair <cory.fair at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello All, this is my first post so I'll try to be as verbose as possible.
>>
>> We have a PXE deployment server serving mostly fujitsu RX300 rack mount
>> servers with Intel 82575EB Gigabit Ethernet Controllers onboard. I recently
>> upgraded from version 4.07 to version 6.02 and, without making any edits to
>> my default menu, immediately noticed a regression. I use vesamenu.c32 to
>> present a menu to the user which starts with something like this:
>>
>> default vesamenu.c32
>>     prompt 0
>>
>>     menu title Host Provisioning Tool
>>     menu INCLUDE pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf
>>     MENU AUTOBOOT Starting Local System in # seconds
>>     MENU BACKGROUND splash.jpg
>>
>>     label bootlocal
>>       menu label ^Boot This Host
>>       menu default
>>       localboot 0
>>       timeout 80
>
> Reflowing for clarity of scope:
>
> default vesamenu.c32
> prompt 0
> timeout 80
>
> menu title Host Provisioning Tool
> menu INCLUDE pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf
> MENU AUTOBOOT Starting Local System in # seconds
> MENU BACKGROUND splash.jpg
>
> label bootlocal
>     menu label ^Boot This Host
>     menu default
>     localboot 0
>
>
>
> Where's pxelinux.cfg/graphics.conf?
>
>> Prior to upgrading to pxelinux 6.02 If you did nothing for 8 seconds the
>> system would boot from the local disk. Now the system will hang after the
>> timeout. The only visual difference I can discern is that when the system
>> properly boots I see a message briefly indicating the PXE boot rom had
>> exited properly. Now with version 6.02 It hangs just before that.
>>
>> Another datapoint, I reverted back to version 6.01 and the problem seems to
>> be resolved.
>> Final datapoint, if you hit "enter" instead of waiting for the timeout
>> (using version 6.02) it will boot properly
>
> Rather curious.  What if you dropped the timeout to 0.8-2.0 seconds or
> even 0.2 seconds?  I believe I've seen some quirky behavior in other
> PXE stacks where they act up after about 3 seconds.  It's as if
> they've sometimes arbitrarily decided that the PXE services won't live
> longer (since you should have a real kernel).
>
>> My basic question is what is right place to report this issue to the
>> project?
>
> I'd say the list is an excellent place to start.  If it's not a
> duplicate report of an existing bug at http://bugzilla.syslinux.com
> nor already resolved by any of the patches that aren't pulled into the
> code base, then it will likely need to be filed there
>
> --
> -Gene

See also http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_Compatibility#LOCALBOOT

-- 
-Gene


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