[syslinux] Trouble with Ubuntu 15.10 / syslinux 6.03

[Ady]

> 
> What has changed between syslinux 6.03 and the older version in Ubuntu
> 14.04, that causes this different behaviour?
> 
> 
> regards
> Hadmut
 
 
The problem with the Syslinux-related packages in Ubuntu 15.10, as 
suggested already about a month ago in this same Syslinux Mailing List 
(among other places), is basically that someone decided to build the 
packages with gcc v.5+, but did not care to test them:

[quote]
syslinux (3:6.03+dfsg-8ubuntu2) wily; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/0001-SYSAPPEND-Fix-space-stripping.patch: backport 
fix to space stripping in sysappend functions. (LP: #1484571)
  * debian/control: revert the previous change to build with GCC 4.9, 
and get back to GCC 5.

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden>  Thu, 13 Aug 2015 
14:43:15 -0400
[/quote]

The key phrase from the above changelog is "back to GCC 5".

Considering that currently there are no active maintainers for these 
packages in Ubuntu (nor in Debian), that was a "risky" move. At least a 
minimal test would had been appropriate, but it was never performed, 
while leaving numerous reports unanswered for several months (and still 
today).

What Fedora did for F23:
_ Patch0003: fix-alignment-change-gcc-5.patch
_ Patch0004: dont-guess-section-alignment.patch

Please note that the terms "Patch0003" and "Patch0004" are relevant 
for Fedora, not for every distro.

A solution for Ubuntu 15.10+ would be to go back to compiling these 
packages with gcc v.4.9, as they used to be in v.15.04 (as the current 
Debian Sid packages are). Updating the packages in Ubuntu so to use the 
current Debian Sid's Syslinux-related packages might probably be the 
easier method.

Alternatively, Ubuntu could replicate what Fedora did for F23, picking 
relevant commits from the upstream Syslinux git repository.

Regards,
Ady.
 
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