Syslinux - Dec 2013 - How to use syslinux(isolinux, etc.) for EFI?

Hi,

 When we meet UEFI or EFI firmware, lots of linux os release use
GRUB bootloader. But I wanna use isolinux to boot the installation
environment and also the linux os installed. Some question puzzled me. Now,
I look for your help:

 1. I didn't found information about how to use
syslinux(isolinux,etc.) in uefi. I wanna know that are there some
differences of the isolinux configuration between legacy bios ande efi and
what are they?

 2. Why lots of linux os release use grub but not isolinux
for efi?

 3. Is the syslinux.efi an embeded bootload for EBC environment
or an new reallize of isolinux?

 4. I can use booif command line option
'IPAPPEND 2' in the pxe configure file 'default' for legacy bios
just like:
ksdevice=BOOTIF IPAPPEND 2

 but it doesn't work for efi mode.

 Thanks a
lot.

 -- 

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

?? 
????????
????????
??????????????9?????20?
???010-51659955?7013
???18612253344
???kun.he at cs2c.com.cn

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 9:22 PM, ?? <kun.he at cs2c.com.cn>
wrote:
>  When we meet UEFI or EFI firmware, lots of linux os release use
> GRUB bootloader. But I wanna use isolinux to boot the installation
> environment and also the linux os installed. Some question puzzled me. Now,
> I look for your help:
>
>  1. I didn't found information about how to use
> syslinux(isolinux,etc.) in uefi. I wanna know that are there some
> differences of the isolinux configuration between legacy bios ande efi and
> what are they?
To my knowledge, you can't boot syslinux.efi from ISO at this time.
I've tried to no avail (and this should be a bug in the bugzilla).

Regarding the configuration files, there are no differences.
>  2. Why lots of linux os release use grub but not isolinux
> for efi?
>
>  3. Is the syslinux.efi an embeded bootload for EBC environment
> or an new reallize of isolinux?
There is only syslinux.efi for EFI.  You just need to used the proper
architecture (EFI32 in efi32/ or EFI64 in efi64/)
>  4. I can use booif command line option
> 'IPAPPEND 2' in the pxe configure file 'default' for legacy
bios just like:
> ksdevice=BOOTIF IPAPPEND 2
>
>  but it doesn't work for efi mode.
Could you show the entire LABEL (or your entire config)?  This is
working for me.

-- 
-Gene

On 12/13/2013 02:20 PM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Dec 13, 2013 4:55 PM, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com
> <mailto:hpa at zytor.com>> wrote:
>>
>> On 12/12/2013 04:21 AM, Gene Cumm wrote:
>> > On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 9:22 PM, ?? <kun.he at cs2c.com.cn
> <mailto:kun.he at cs2c.com.cn>> wrote:
>> >>  When we meet UEFI or EFI firmware, lots of linux os release
use
>> >> GRUB bootloader. But I wanna use isolinux to boot the
installation
>> >> environment and also the linux os installed. Some question
puzzled
> me. Now,
>> >> I look for your help:
>> >>
>> >>  1. I didn't found information about how to use
>> >> syslinux(isolinux,etc.) in uefi. I wanna know that are there
some
>> >> differences of the isolinux configuration between legacy bios
ande
> efi and
>> >> what are they?
>> >
>> > To my knowledge, you can't boot syslinux.efi from ISO at this
time.
>> > I've tried to no avail (and this should be a bug in the
bugzilla).
>> >
>>
>> Hum... it *should* work, at least with the proper ISO mastering
options.
>>  We might need to figure out the proper recipe, though.
> 
> I expected so too until I tried numerous recipes to no avail. Primarily
> I experimented with swapping grub efi for syslinux.efi.
> 
There are two variations I know of -- a FAT filesystem as part of the
ISO, and using the EFI executable with the appropriate El Torito flags.
 I might want to ask Matt Garrett what he has used in the past.

	-hpa

On 12/12/2013 04:21 AM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 9:22 PM, ?? <kun.he at cs2c.com.cn> wrote:
>>  When we meet UEFI or EFI firmware, lots of linux os release use
>> GRUB bootloader. But I wanna use isolinux to boot the installation
>> environment and also the linux os installed. Some question puzzled me.
Now,
>> I look for your help:
>>
>>  1. I didn't found information about how to use
>> syslinux(isolinux,etc.) in uefi. I wanna know that are there some
>> differences of the isolinux configuration between legacy bios ande efi
and
>> what are they?
> 
> To my knowledge, you can't boot syslinux.efi from ISO at this time.
> I've tried to no avail (and this should be a bug in the bugzilla).
> 
Hum... it *should* work, at least with the proper ISO mastering options.
 We might need to figure out the proper recipe, though.

	-hpa

On Dec 13, 2013 6:46 PM, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com>
wrote:
>
> On 12/13/2013 02:20 PM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> > On Dec 13, 2013 4:55 PM, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at
zytor.com
> > <mailto:hpa at zytor.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 12/12/2013 04:21 AM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> >> > On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 9:22 PM, ?? <kun.he at cs2c.com.cn
> > <mailto:kun.he at cs2c.com.cn>> wrote:
> >> >>  When we meet UEFI or EFI firmware, lots of linux os
release use
> >> >> GRUB bootloader. But I wanna use isolinux to boot the
installation
> >> >> environment and also the linux os installed. Some
question puzzled
> > me. Now,
> >> >> I look for your help:
> >> >>
> >> >>  1. I didn't found information about how to use
> >> >> syslinux(isolinux,etc.) in uefi. I wanna know that are
there some
> >> >> differences of the isolinux configuration between legacy
bios ande
> > efi and
> >> >> what are they?
> >> >
> >> > To my knowledge, you can't boot syslinux.efi from ISO at
this time.
> >> > I've tried to no avail (and this should be a bug in the
bugzilla).
> >> >
> >>
> >> Hum... it *should* work, at least with the proper ISO mastering
options.
> >>  We might need to figure out the proper recipe, though.
> >
> > I expected so too until I tried numerous recipes to no avail.
Primarily
> > I experimented with swapping grub efi for syslinux.efi.
> >
>
> There are two variations I know of -- a FAT filesystem as part of the
> ISO, and using the EFI executable with the appropriate El Torito flags.
>  I might want to ask Matt Garrett what he has used in the past.
To be specific, I had a FAT load crashing and couldn't find the
"magic" to
get a direct load bootable on my VM.

--Gene

Hi,
> There are two variations I know of -- a FAT filesystem as part of the
> ISO, and using the EFI executable with the appropriate El Torito flags.
Currently i only know of FAT images which get pointed to by
El Torito, MBR partition, GPT partition.
>  I might want to ask Matt Garrett what he has used in the past.
When i studied his Fedora Live CD setup of may 2012, it was
a FAT image (/isolinux/efiboot.img).

This image seems not to stem from ISOLINUX:
  # mount -o loop Fedora-LiveCD.iso /mnt
  # mount -o loop /mnt/isolinux/efiboot.img /mnt1
  # find /mnt1
  /mnt1
  /mnt1/efi
  /mnt1/efi/boot
  /mnt1/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
  /mnt1/efi/boot/grub.conf
  /mnt1/efi/boot/splash.xpm.gz
  /mnt1/efi/boot/BOOTX64.conf
  #

See also http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/11285.html

The ISO image has a few quirks which obviously stem from isohybrid.c:

- Apple partition map entries bear the block count for blocks of 512 bytes
  whereas Apple Block0 announces blocks of 2048 bytes.
- The end_lba in the first GPT entry should be 1 less
  than the count of 512 byte blocks of the ISO image.
- The GPT partition name in Fedora-LiveCD.iso is 8 bit instead of UTF-16LE
  and result of faulty memory operation on a text constant:
  "ISOHybrid ISO ISOHybrid Appl"
- The GPT backup partition array is stored 17 KiB before the end of
  MBR partition 1 resp. the image file.
  Wikipedia suggests "LBA -33" counted from end.
  The backup GPT header is 512 blocks too early, too.

I once reported them here, but did not watch whether they
got fixed meanwhile.



debian-7.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso has FAT image
  /boot/grub/efi.img
with
  efi
  efi/boot
  efi/boot/bootx64.efi

This one was produced by xorriso without using isohybrid.c.
So its quirks are to blame on me. (Please report if you find 
them.)


Have a nice day :)

Thomas