[syslinux] Trouble with Ubuntu 15.10 / syslinux 6.03

[Hadmut Danisch]

Hi,

I'm looking for a hint about what has changed in syslinux 6.03.

Some years ago I had written a script that configures a bootable USB
pen drive with syslinux and some boot images, which still worked well
under Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and previous versions, but does not work
anymore under Ubuntu 15.10 with syslinux 6.03.

I've boiled this down to a test-script that isolates the problem:


-------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash

device=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SMI_Corporation_CnMemory_00040127008368-0:0
device=`realpath $device`
echo "Device $device"

if [[ ! -b $device ]] ; then
  echo 1>&2 "Device $device missing"
  exit 1
fi

parted -s $device rm 1 || :
parted -s $device rm 2 || :
parted -s $device rm 3 || :
parted -s $device rm 4 || :

parted -s $device mkpart primary fat32 0MB 4000MB
parted -s $device set 1 boot on

blockdev --rereadpt $device

sleep 2

dd if=/usr/lib/SYSLINUX/mbr.bin of=$device

mkdosfs ${device}1

syslinux --install ${device}1

kvm -drive file=${device},format=raw


-------------------------------------------------------------------


That script works under 14.04 LTS and creates a running pendrive
(i.e. syslinux boot process reaches the point where it complains about
the missing config file as expected, the test script does not install
a config file)), while on 15.10 with syslinux 6.03 it creates
a USB device that can't boot, it just brings the lines

SYSLINUX 6.03 EDD 20150813 Copyright...
Boot error



What has changed between syslinux 6.03 and the older version in Ubuntu
14.04, that causes this different behaviour?


regards
Hadmut