[syslinux] syslinux fails to make a bootable USB stick in Slackware64-14.1 installer

[Didier Spaier]

On 16/04/2014 23:46, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 04/16/2014 02:15 PM, Didier Spaier wrote:
>> Running "syslinux -s /dev/dsb" during installation of Slackware64-14.1
>> (to make a bootable USB stick)  fails like this:
>>
>> Error converting to codepage 850 Invalid argument
>> Cannot initialize 'S:'
>> Bad target s:/ldlinux.sys
>> syslinux: failed to create ldlinux.sys
>>
>> But running the same command in the installed system succeeds.
>>
>> In both cases we are using syslinux-4.0.6 (same syslinux binary in the
>> initrd and in the installed system, checked with md5sum).
>>
>> *But* the same command succeeds in the installer of Slackware-14.0
>> (syslinux 4.0.5).
>>
>> I didn't find a clue with strace (output appended).
>>
>> What should I do to investigate further, or where should I look at?
>>
>
> This message comes from mtools, so it is probably a difference in the
> version of mtools that is the problem.

Confirmed, thanks Hans.

Since mtools-4.0.0 a codepage is used that defaults to 850

I added "default_codepage=437" to /etc/mtools.conf and now I get:

Error converting to codepage 437 Invalid argument

So I assume that we need to ship iconv in the initrd.

I'll check tomorrow and report the results.

Didier