Syslinux - Nov 2013 - Sysinux 6 will not boot ISOs on BIOS (i.e. pre-UEFI) systems

On 11/21/2013 02:50 AM, Carl Duff wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> It is impossible to boot Linux-based ISOs that use Syslinux 6.02 via
> CD or DVD on older - non-UEFI - systems. Any attempt to do so will
> result in the following error message: ISOLINUX 6.02 ETCDisolinux:
> Disk error 01, AX = 4279, drive FE
>
Error 01 is unsupported operation, 42xx is read, so something is really
really wonky as the machine you are on is reporting that the read
command doesn't exist.  Most likely it is something that is being
misinterpreted as an error indication, but *what* is the big question.

The very early code that emits this message is *identical* between
Syslinux 4 and Syslinux 6.  The biggest difference is the size of
isolinux.bin, so it is possible that that might be the source of the
problem.

	-hpa

> The very early code that emits this message is *identical* between
> Syslinux 4 and Syslinux 6.  The biggest difference is the size of
> isolinux.bin, so it is possible that that might be the source of the
> problem.
> 
> 	-hpa
 
I wonder if isolinux.bin should be limited to max. 16 sectors (of 
2KiB each), as that's the default limit in mkisofs "-G 
<generic_boot_image>" option.

If that happens to be the case, perhaps there is some additional 
option so to reserve more sectors for the boot image?

Is there any method to reduce the size of isolinux.bin?

Regards,
Ady.

On 11/24/2013 09:56 AM, Ady wrote:
>> The very early code that emits this message is *identical* between
>> Syslinux 4 and Syslinux 6.  The biggest difference is the size of
>> isolinux.bin, so it is possible that that might be the source of the
>> problem.
>>
>> 	-hpa
>   
> I wonder if isolinux.bin should be limited to max. 16 sectors (of
> 2KiB each), as that's the default limit in mkisofs "-G
> <generic_boot_image>" option.
>
> If that happens to be the case, perhaps there is some additional
> option so to reserve more sectors for the boot image?
>
> Is there any method to reduce the size of isolinux.bin?
>
> Regards,
> Ady.
Hi there,

these are the cmds I'm using now, which are working with syslinux4 just 
fine:

     xorriso -as mkisofs ${_qflag} \
             -iso-level 3 -rock -joliet \
             -max-iso9660-filenames -omit-period \
             -omit-version-number \
             -relaxed-filenames -allow-lowercase \
             -volid "${LABEL}" \
             -appid "${APPLICATION}" \
             -publisher "${PUBLISHER}" \
             -preparer "prepared by mkmiso" \
             -eltorito-boot isolinux/isolinux.bin \
             -eltorito-catalog isolinux/boot.cat \
             -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
             -isohybrid-mbr "${work_dir}/iso/isolinux/isohdpfx.bin" \
             ${_iso_efi_boot_args} \
             -output "${imgname}" \
             "${work_dir}/iso/"
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On 11/24/2013 12:56 AM, Ady wrote:
>> The very early code that emits this message is *identical* between
>> Syslinux 4 and Syslinux 6.  The biggest difference is the size of
>> isolinux.bin, so it is possible that that might be the source of the
>> problem.
>>
>> 	-hpa
>  
> I wonder if isolinux.bin should be limited to max. 16 sectors (of 
> 2KiB each), as that's the default limit in mkisofs "-G 
> <generic_boot_image>" option.
> 
> If that happens to be the case, perhaps there is some additional 
> option so to reserve more sectors for the boot image?
> 
> Is there any method to reduce the size of isolinux.bin?
> 
No, that is irrelevant.  isolinux actually only relies on the firmware
loading 2K, because, well, some firmware is that dumb.

I am suspecting that the difference is that the new isolinux.bin crosses
the 64K threshold (as it is larger than ~32K) whereas the old one did
not; this might have exposed a latent bug.

	-hpa