Syslinux - Oct 2014 - ivy bridge and custom font

On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com>
wrote:
>
>> On Oct 10, 2014 4:00 AM, "Ady" <ady-sf at hotmail.com>
wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > > Hello,
>> > >
>> > > I've encountered a strange problem with loading a font
file.
>> > > The environment:
>> > > motherboard GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3, processor i7-3770, onboard
graphics,
>> > > extlinux 5.01.
>> > >
>> > > After loading any font I get a mess on a screen. The only
rule I could
>> > > discover is that: characters with odd code are not displayed
at all,
>> > > and for characters with even code there is taken a bitmap
from position
>> > >   ord(character) / 2.
>> > >
>> > > However, there is neither problem with the builtin font nor
console
>> fonts
>> > > loaded undre system control (Linux).
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Could you help me to fix the problem?
>> > >
>> > > P.O.
>> > >
>> >
>> > This one is tricky.
>> >
>> > There are revisions of such mainboard with BIOS firmware, and
others
>> > with UEFI firmware. Updating to the "latest" firmware is
frequently
>> > suggested, but in this case the procedure might not be
>> > straightforward, nor the selection of which version of firmware is
>> > the most appropriate. Add beta version(s) of firmware updates...
>> >
>> > Booting in UEFI mode could also have some screen-resolution issues
>> > that might affect what you see on screen.
>> >
>> > Anyway, I would suggest either testing with Syslinux (extlinux)
4.xx
>> > or with 6.03. Forget about 5.xx.
>> >
>> > Please remember that official distribution archives for version
6.xx
>> > include the binary files under respective "bios/",
"efi32/" and
>> > "efi64/" directories.
>>
>> The better question is do these fonts work at all with Syslinux 5.01,
is it
>> an interaction with this system or perhaps a regression in 5.01?
>>
>> Did you try these same fonts with Syslinux 5.01 on another system?
>>
>> Did you try these fonts on this system with Syslinux
4.04/4.05/4.07/3.86?
>>
>> On another system?
>>
>> --Gene
>
> FWIW, 5.00 introduced a regression regarding the .psf font loader,
> which was later fixed in 5.10+ (so 5.01 still has this problem).
>
> Considering that 6.03 has so many improvements over 5.xx, IMHO using
> 5.xx is not worth the time (unless there is some specific test in
> mind).
>
> These are the reasons for me to suggest the font test in 4.xx and/or
> 6.03, skipping altogether the test in 5.xx.
Thanks.  I didn't recall the regression.

-- 
-Gene

Thank you for pointing the direction. Indeed, ver. 6.03 works correctly.

BTW, this project gets very complicated. I spent a lot of time guessing
which files I would need. I hoped that reading Makefile would help me but I it
did not.  Maybe you could add a target for copying final results to a
destination.
(Target 'installer' do sth else ... /slackware 14.1/)


Best regards 
P.O.

> 
> Thank you for pointing the direction. Indeed, ver. 6.03 works correctly.
> 
> BTW, this project gets very complicated. I spent a lot of time guessing
> which files I would need. I hoped that reading Makefile would help me but I
it
> did not.  Maybe you could add a target for copying final results to a
> destination.
> (Target 'installer' do sth else ... /slackware 14.1/)
 
Syslinux recommends using official binaries, included in the archives 
already, under respective "bios", "efi32" and
"efi64" subdirectories.
This information is posted in several places, including the Syslinux 
wiki and official documents (sadly, the Syslinux Mailing List is 
still being mostly ignored by web search engines).

The rest is up to the package maintainers in each distro (I am _not_ 
recommending for Slackware to update to Syslinux 6.xx).

FWIW:
 www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Library_modules 
 www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Download#Download_from_Kernel.org 
 www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems#Official_Binaries 
 www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems#Multi-Arch 
 www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems 

Regards,
Ady.