[syslinux] syslinux/isolinux 6.2 "Error: Couldn't read the first disk sector"

Tue Oct 29 00:21:09 PDT 2013

On 29 October 2013 11:39, Steven Shiau <steven at nchc.org.tw> wrote:

> My bad, I meant version 6.02, not 6.2
>
> Steven.
>
> On 10/29/2013 11:28 AM, Steven Shiau wrote:
> > After switching to version 6.2, I am having a problem to use chain.c32
> > to boot a local disk.
> > My settings:
> > ======================
> > label local
> >   MENU LABEL Local operating system in hard drive
> >   kernel chain.c32
> >   append hd0
> > ======================
> > It gave me "Error: Couldn't read the first disk sector"
> >
> > If I change the settings as
> > ======================
> > label local
> >   MENU LABEL Local operating system in hard drive
> >   localboot 0
> > ======================
> > After the boot menu, it showed:
> > "Booting from local disk..."
> > Then I got the error message:
> > "Boot failed: press a key to retry"
> >
> > I am sure the hard drive could boot since if I remove the live CD it can
> > successfully boot into my Linux box.
> > The live CD I created was put here:
> >
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-testing/0.16.2-9/gparted-live-0.16.2-9-i686-pae.iso/download
> >
> > I have tested this on VMWare WS 10 and real machine, like Acer Aspire
> > One. All have the same issue.
> > BTW, I have no problem when the live CD was using syslinux/isolinux
> > 5.10, i.e.
> >
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-testing/0.16.2-6/gparted-live-0.16.2-6-i686-pae.iso/download
> >
> >
> > Is this a bug or something new about config which I do not know?
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Steven.
>

This seems to have been fixed by 2 commits after 6.02 tag
http://git.zytor.com/?p=syslinux/syslinux.git;a=commit;h=4ac63b5ac412d54462e292daf65a309775bc0448
 and
http://git.zytor.com/?p=syslinux/syslinux.git;a=commit;h=4c3c85630e83ed4522444c707abea6bc3db8a40b
.
For some reason
https://git.kernel.org/cgit/boot/syslinux/syslinux.git/log/?h=firmware is
not updated to match
http://git.zytor.com/?p=syslinux/syslinux.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/firmware
 .

With Best Regards,

Keshav