Syslinux - Oct 2011 - PXELINUX LOCALBOOT 0 hang on Dell Optiplex 990

I have been using PXELINUX, with "LOCALBOOT 0" when wanting to boot
from disk, for many years. Now on new Dell Optiplex 990 machines,
PXE boot with "LOCALBOOT 0" hangs after message

Booting from local disk...

without the expected "Exiting PXE" message. I tried "LOCALBOOT
-1" and
some other values also, none seemed to work. I tested SYSLINUX 4.04.

Workaround seems to be as per
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/forums/forum/730844/topic/4560984
using:
  kernel chain.c32
  append hd0
instead of LOCALBOOT 0 in the config file.

Please let me know if you would want me to test something. (Please give
detailed instructions, I am not very familiar with SYSLINUX.)

Thanks, Paul

Paul Szabo   psz at maths.usyd.edu.au   http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/
School of Mathematics and Statistics   University of Sydney    Australia

On Oct 27, 2011 5:45 AM, <paul.szabo at sydney.edu.au>
wrote:
> I have been using PXELINUX, with "LOCALBOOT 0" when wanting to
boot
> from disk, for many years. Now on new Dell Optiplex 990 machines,
> PXE boot with "LOCALBOOT 0" hangs after message
>
> Booting from local disk...
>
> without the expected "Exiting PXE" message. I tried
"LOCALBOOT -1" and
> some other values also, none seemed to work. I tested SYSLINUX 4.04.
>
> Workaround seems to be as per
>
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/forums/forum/730844/topic/4560984
> using:
>  kernel chain.c32
>  append hd0
> instead of LOCALBOOT 0 in the config file.
>
> Please let me know if you would want me to test something. (Please give
> detailed instructions, I am not very familiar with SYSLINUX.)
>
> Thanks, Paul
>
> Paul Szabo   psz at maths.usyd.edu.au   http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/
> School of Mathematics and Statistics   University of Sydney    Australia
This is not surprising considering the existing list of known malfunctioning
Dell systems.  Thanks for the report.

Hpa, I have access to several of these if there's any test/data collection
(aside from latest betas), let me know.

--Gene

At 15:54:49.01 on 27-OCT-2011 in message
<CAD0RxenTb_tF-TTOUsGv0WHrMoxY7YrGCUf91gubBdVCDuhx-A at mail.gmail.com>,
Gene
Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 07:07, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com>
wrote:
>> On Oct 27, 2011 5:45 AM, <paul.szabo at sydney.edu.au> wrote:
>>> I have been using PXELINUX, with "LOCALBOOT 0" when
wanting to boot
>>> from disk, for many years. Now on new Dell Optiplex 990 machines,
>>> PXE boot with "LOCALBOOT 0" hangs after message
>>>
>>> Booting from local disk...
>>>
>>> without the expected "Exiting PXE" message. I tried
"LOCALBOOT -1" and
>>> some other values also, none seemed to work. I tested SYSLINUX
4.04.
>>>
>>> Workaround seems to be as per
>>>
>>>
>http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/forums/forum/730844/topic/4560984
>>> using:
>>>  kernel chain.c32
>>>  append hd0
>>> instead of LOCALBOOT 0 in the config file.
>>>
>>> Please let me know if you would want me to test something. (Please
give
>>> detailed instructions, I am not very familiar with SYSLINUX.)
>>>
>>> Thanks, Paul
>>>
>>> Paul Szabo   psz at maths.usyd.edu.au  
http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/
>>> School of Mathematics and Statistics   University of Sydney   
Australia
>>
>> This is not surprising considering the existing list of known
>malfunctioning
>> Dell systems.  Thanks for the report.
>>
>> Hpa, I have access to several of these if there's any test/data
collection
>> (aside from latest betas), let me know.
>>
>> --Gene
>
>Also, be warned that some Dell systems love to put the USB drive as BIOS
>drive 0x80.
	OK, I'll bite.  Why would this be a problem?
>
>-- 
>-Gene
Regards,
Mike