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

[Cory Fair]

Gene, Ady thanks for your suggestions.

>> What if you dropped the timeout to 0.8-2.0 seconds or even 0.2 seconds?

I tried setting the delay to 2 seconds and 0.2 with no change in behavior.

>> First, please be sure you are using all C32 modules from the exact same
Syslinux version, including ldlinux.c32 and all lib*.c32 library modules,
all located somewhere under the "./bios/" directory path of Syslinux 6.02.

I went ahead and re-copied the "./bios/" 6.02 files (compiled from source
from kernel.org). Just for sanity's sake. Below is the current list of my
tftpboot dir.

vmshe-dhcp ---> /tftpboot/linux
$ ls -l
total 588
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root 123300 Dec 10 10:39 ldlinux.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root 187700 Dec 10 10:39 libcom32.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  26468 Dec 10 10:40 libutil.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root   4856 Dec 10 10:40 linux.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  19817 Sep 25 10:29 linux.jpg
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root   1240 Dec 10 10:58 localboot.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  10200 Dec 10 10:40 mboot.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  26140 Dec 10 10:41 memdisk
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  29148 Dec 10 10:41 menu.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  42817 Dec 10 10:42 pxelinux.0
drwxrwxrwx.  2 root root   4096 Dec  9 14:20 pxelinux.cfg
drwxrwxrwx  74 root root   8192 Dec  6 09:31 pxe_repo
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  48732 May 15  2012 splash.jpg
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  29668 Dec 10 10:43 vesamenu.c32
-rwxrwxrwx   1 root root  11708 Dec  4 16:23 wimboot

Behavior still persists.

>> Instead of 'LOCALBOOT 0', have you tried the localboot.c32 module?

Tried this out as follows:

UI vesamenu.c32
DEFAULT bootlocal
    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
      KERNEL localboot.c32
      timeout 80

and I see the following output and a hang after timeout:

"Booting from local disk...
E46EB:0000"

>> After the official release of Syslinux 6.02, there were some patches.

:-) being in QA, as a profession, my general experience is to only apply
patches when they are known to fix issues you are looking for. I'm willing
to give it a shot though just as a datapoint. Is there a link directly to
the archlinux syslinux files or do I need to install archlinux to get the
files out?

Regards,

Cory




On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 2:36 AM, Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> > 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
> >
> > 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
> >
> > My basic question is what is right place to report this issue to the
> > project?
>
> I would say that this mailing list is a good starting point to report
> the issue :).
>
> Although there seems to be some kind of regression, I'd like to
> suggest some potential workarounds, at least for testing purposes.
>
> First, please be sure you are using all C32 modules from the exact
> same Syslinux version, including ldlinux.c32 and all lib*.c32 library
> modules, all located somewhere under the "./bios/" directory path of
> Syslinux 6.02.
>
> Regarding Syslinux 6.02; is that from kernel.org or from other
> source? Are you using built-in official upstream binary files, or are
> you rebuilding them from source?
>
> After the official release of Syslinux 6.02, there were some patches.
> I would suggest trying the current Syslinux package from Arch Linux,
> which includes some of those recent patches already. The patches were
> not specifically related to LOCALBOOT, but I'd think it's worth a
> test anyway.
>
> Instead of 'LOCALBOOT 0', have you tried the localboot.c32 module?
>
> I would also suggest testing a slight change in your default
> configuration file. Instead of:
>  default vesamenu.c32
> I would suggest using:
>  UI vesamenu.c32
>  DEFAULT bootlocal
>  # where 'bootlocal' is your LABEL for 'LOCALBOOT'.
>
> Reporting the results for each potential workaround might help narrow
> down the problem.
>
> TIA,
> Ady.
>
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