[syslinux] USB boot problems on Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G

Ady
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 12:38:10 -0000

>
> You will be happy to know that your test image _does_ appear to boot OK
> on my GA-M55Plus-S3G, from either/both of my test sticks (4GB & 8GB).
>
> Whatever magic you did, it seems to have worked.  (Please _don't_ go
> into too much technical detail, but... in layman's terms... what did
> you do?)
>
> Here is what I got after booting from the 8GB Patriot:
>
>     SYSLINUX 6.03 EDD 6.03-pre1 ...
>     Hello, world, from 0x0037C210! malloc return 0x0037d850
>     boot:
>
> and then the cursor just sat blinking, in the second column following
> the "boot:"
>
> I assume this indicates success, yes?
>

OK then, we are making progress.

I would like to ask you to keep the current BIOS settings without
changes, at least for now. Whichever the current settings are, you
are having more successful results than before.

 ***

Regarding your question about what I did with the test.img (which
might be of interest to others), I just took your own reports and
avoided the potential problems as much as I could.

By using "altmbr.bin" (included in Syslinux), we don't have to
care
about the "active" flag (I am avoiding the technical details about
how to use it). There is no partition flagged as "active".

I also "forced" a FAT32 LBA filesystem, although normally a partition
of 700MB would not require such conditions. The potential influence
of a "not-nice" (in the eyes of this BIOS) CHS set of values might,
perhaps, be *slightly* reduced by using the LBA code. I used FAT32
(instead of other filesystem) because of your previous reports, and
because it would be a match when using partitions bigger than my
700MB test.

I also forced the *same* "most-standard" CHS values, Nx255x63, on
both, the MBR and the VBR of the FAT32 partition.

I left no space for any other partitions by ending the first-and-only
partition at the very end of the image.

I used a partition starting offset of 2048 sectors and I took care
that the partition table in the MBR and the VBR would use correct
matching values.

I also installed SYSLINUX in the adequate directory, where Clonezilla
*should* be installing it (Clonezilla Live 2.2.1-22 is not choosing
the best location for 'ldlinux.sys').

I used 700MB so you could, potentially, be able to at least copy to
that partition some additional files for further testings.


 ***

Now, to move forward with Clonezilla in your USB drive, we need to
proceed with some steps that are not as simple as dd'ing an image.

After dd'ing my test.img to the USB drive, you would have one FAT32
partition of about 700MB. So:

1_ Expand the content of the Clonezilla Live zip archive in some
temporal directory.
2_ Move *almost* all the resulting expanded content from the temporal
directory to the FAT32 partition in the USB drive; with the
*exception* of the following directories (and their contents, of
course):
2a_ './isolinux/'
2b_ './syslinux/'

Note that my test.img already contains a './syslinux/' directory with
some files in it.

3_ Move (part of) the content of Clonezilla's temporal './syslinux/'
directory to the equivalent './syslinux/' directory located in the
FAT32 partition in the USB drive, with two *caveats*:

3a_ If the filename already exists in the destination directory,
*keep it*, do *NOT* replace it with the one from Clonezilla. This is
specially important for './syslinux/ldlinux.sys'.

3b_ The only file from Clonezilla's temporal directory that indeed
should replace the one already placed in the USB drive is
'./syslinux/syslinux.cfg'.

The result should be a "mix" of Clonezilla files and the boot code
already in place in my test.img.

I hope I was clear enough in the above instructions, as it would be
relatively easy to confuse which files should be copied and
overwritten and which files shall not. If something is not clear,
just ask.

Then boot the USB drive (using F12 during POST as before). I would
expect at least the initial Clonezilla boot menu to show up.

According to your feedback, we'll take the next step.

Regards,
Ady.