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

[Ady]

> 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?
> 
 
As Gene mentioned, I would suggest not recompiling, but using the 
official binary files already included in the official packages. It 
is easier to reproduce reported behaviors and can help reduce the 
chances of additional interactions.

Regarding your pxelinux.cfg/default, please try commenting out (#) 
any non-relevant line for these tests. In particular, the lines that 
point to some (possibly nonexistent) file (splash.jpg, 
graphics.conf).

I would suggest, for testing purposes, the following simplified 
pxelinux.cfg/default:
# *** 
DEFAULT local
TIMEOUT 20
LABEL local
LOCALBOOT 0
# *** 

I would recommend for each and every other line (except the above 4 
directives) in the default configuration file to be commented out for 
these tests. Optionally, you might want to test whether adding either 
'PROMPT 1' or 'PROMPT 0' to the above 4 directives changes the 
resulting behavior for your hardware.

Regarding the patches mentioned before, they are already tested so to 
solve problems seen in the official Syslinux 6.02. The reason I 
suggested using the package from Arch Linux is because there is no 
new official upstream pre-release that includes them, but they are 
already in Arch Linux.

The Syslinux packages from Arch Linux already contain binary files 
too (so, no recompiling). The tar.xz archives can be downloaded from:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?q=syslinux
Select the relevant architecture (i686 or x86_64), and then on the 
right-side of the screen, under "Package Actions" you will see 
"Download From Mirror". The archives also contain the corresponding 
C32 modules.

Since you mentioned that your original configuration file works with 
Syslinux 6.01, I would suggest also testing (always using the 
simplified configuration file) with Syslinux 6.02-pre14, to compare 
the result. It can be downloaded from:
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/Testing/6.02/

TIA,
Ady.