[syslinux] Syslinux 5.00 - Doesn't boot my system / Not passing the kernel options to the kernel?

[Shao Miller]

On 1/3/2013 20:27, Igor Sverkos wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I encounter a problem with Syslinux 5.00 I cannot really describe. So I
> created two small videos:
>
> Booting with Syslinux 5.00 (1.3 MB):
> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6g8cdf2t9v48c6/boot-syslinux5-fail.mp4>
>
>
> How I fixed the problem by downgrading to Syslinux 4.06 and how booting
> should look like (6.5 MB):
> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt7cpgfm0qvqtba/boot-syslinux5-how-i-fixed-it.mp4>
>
>
> System configuration:
> =====================
> The system has two disks. Partitioned like:
>
> testVM ~ # gdisk -l /dev/sda
> GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5
>
> Partition table scan:
>    MBR: protective
>    BSD: not present
>    APM: not present
>    GPT: present
>
> Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
> Disk /dev/sda: 41943040 sectors, 20.0 GiB
> Logical sector size: 512 bytes
> Disk identifier (GUID): 63DE1BD4-4135-4108-8197-B1DADD2DE462
> Partition table holds up to 128 entries
> First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 41943006
> Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
> Total free space is 2014 sectors (1007.0 KiB)
>
> Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
>     1            2048          264191   128.0 MiB   FD00  Boot
>     2          264192        41943006   19.9 GiB    FD00  Bank
>
>
> The partitions are part of a mdraid setup:
>
> testVM ~ # cat /proc/mdstat
> Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
> md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
>        20838311 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
>
> md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
>        131060 blocks super 1.0 [2/2] [UU]
>
>
> sda1/sdb1 = /dev/md0 -> /boot (ext4)
> sda2/sdb2 = /dev/md1 -> Luks encrypted LVM2 container with / and other
> volumes
>
>
> This is how I installed Syslinux 5.00:
> 1) mkdir /boot/syslinux
>
> 2) extlinux --install --raid /boot/syslinux
>
> 3) cd /boot/syslinux && cp -i /usr/share/syslinux/*.c32 .
> (I didn't overwrite "ldlinux.c32", which was created by extlinux
> --install...)
>
> 4) My /boot/syslinux/extlinux.conf looks like
>
> # This configuration file was generated automatically by gen-extlinuxconf.
>
> TIMEOUT 60
> UI menu.c32
>
> MENU TITLE Boot Menu
> MENU COLOR title        1;37;40
> MENU COLOR border       30;40
> MENU COLOR unsel        37;40
>
> LABEL kernel1_bzImage-latest
>          MENU LABEL Gentoo Linux Latest
>          LINUX /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-3.7.1
>          INITRD /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-3.7.1
>          APPEND domdadm dolvm video=1024x768
> crypt_root=UUID=6edcbea7-bb2c-4e22-9839-9f682f6fd51f
> real_root=UUID=06e2ba17-c88a-4d13-bfa0-2dd0845ede6c
> root=UUID=06e2ba17-c88a-4d13-bfa0-2dd0845ede6c rootfs=ext4
>
>
> I tested a lot of things, but I don't really know what the problem with
> Syslinux 5.00 is. Seems like it has problems with the RAID. I think
> Syslinux 5.00 don't pass the kernel options to the kernel... that's why
> the initramfs's init script doesn't assemble the RAID, don't prompt to
> enter the passphrase... like you can see in the second video.
>
>
> BTW: Syslinux 5.00 still cannot boot from mdraid metadata 1.2.
>

I see a difference between the two videos.  In the broken one:

   cpuidle: using governor ladder

In the working one:

   cpuidle: using governor menu

It doesn't seem to be getting past this difference.  If it was a problem 
with the command-line not being passed, I would expect the broken case 
to give a useful message about it with a kernel panic.

Maybe this is useful:

 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1597863/what-are-ladder-governors-and-menu-governors

If there is a race condition involved, then the problem might appear to 
be related to Syslinux, but mightn't actually be directly caused it.

- Shao Miller