[syslinux] uefi and bios bootable optical media

[Geert Stappers]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 12:57:32PM +0100, Jur van der Burg via Syslinux wrote:
> We have been using syslinux (V4.05) in our product for years without a problem.
> Since we encounter more and more systems that do a UEFI boot by default
> we want to support that too. So I've been using syslinux V6.03 to create
> usb sticks and harddisks to allow both bios and uefi boot which works fine.
> 
> The problem I run into now is that it is not possible to create a
> dvd that is capable of booting in both ways. That is, I can create a
> dvd, select a bootfile from efi but the boot itself fails. On vmware
> the virtual machine powers off:
> 
> 5-02-17T11:35:21.009Z| vcpu-0| I120: Guest: About to do EFI boot: \efi\boot\bootx64.efi
> 5-02-17T11:35:21.011Z| vcpu-0| I120: Msg_Post: Error
> 5-02-17T11:35:21.011Z| vcpu-0| I120: [msg.efi.exception] The firmware encountered an unexpected exception. The virtual machine cannot boot.
> 
> If I specify another bootfile like shellx64.efi it will start, so
> the process of creating the dvd and starting images is fine, the
> issue is pure with syslinux. Bios boot from that dvd is fine fwiw.
> 
> Then I found this:
> 
>    http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2014-November/022780.html
> 
> >For Syslinux (BIOS and EFI) in the .iso file:
> >_ the user might assume that the system can boot from optical media
> >not only in BIOS mode but also in UEFI mode (sadly, the latter is
> >currently untrue);
> 
> That looks to be my problem.
> 
> >Realistically, less and less users are using optical media,
> >especially on newer computers (which are of course UEFI systems).
> >This means that investing resources in Syslinux development with the
> >specific goal of achieving bootable optical media in UEFI mode is
> >less "productive" than investing resources to achieve other
> >improvements / features. I'm not saying it won't happen - possibly by
> >adding some other, more-important features, then booting optical
> >media in UEFI mode might be also achievable.
> 
> Well, physical media are used less and less, I agree with that part.
> On the other hand, a lot of installations on servers are done with
> virtual media booting from a virtual dvd via an iso file, so it's
> still used a lot.
> 
> So what can I do about this? Switch to grub? I really hate that
> but if there's no alternative I may have to do that.
> 
> Or I may try to fix the issue myself. So is there anyone out there
> that already knows a bit about this, and what the area is with the
> pain? Or even if there's already been done some work to get it
> to work?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jur van der Burg.

Hello Jur,

This posting is to get more attention to your posting.
It contains no new information.

There are several projects that do use Syslinux on bootable optical media.
I myself have no information how much duplicate work is done there.
My gut feeling says that it is a good thing to get those effort
on a central place such as Syslinux.

So I hope this thread evolves into a fruitfull discussion.


Groeten
Geert Stappers
Who likes Syslinux for pxelinux ( networkbooting )
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