[syslinux] Still fighting localboot on EFI - looping

Gene Cumm
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 01:47:49 -0000

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Alan Sparks via Syslinux
<syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
> I'm still trying fruitlessly to get some sort of local disk boot from
> syslinux EFI to work... using the 6.03 modules.  Tried various
> combinations of configurations on Gene's test binaries.
>
> For reference this is on different models of HP Proliant Gen-9 systems
> with UEFI.   Firmware as up to date as it comes.   The UEFI boot order
> has the hard drives and OS ESPs before the PXE interfaces (the default).
>   A boot-from-cold loads the OS no problem.

So PXE is the last option?  Are you manually selecting PXE from this
NIC or is the server automatically selecting this?

> Here's what I've tried so far:
>
> * chain.c32 - doesn't work, as expected... just throws a 0D General
> Protection Exception.

chain.c32 is useless since it's currently just BIOS.  No need to test.

> * "localboot 0" and "localboot -1" - If I perform a
"one time boot from
> PXE", the system starts PXE and loads syslinux.efi OK, and via
menu.c32
> displays my menu and starts a countdown.   If it expires or I choose the
> "localboot" option, the menu simply restarts (loops, appears to
reload),
> displays the same menu and restarts the count.   Never moves on,
doesn't
> appear to go back and rerun the boot sequence or find the hard drive.
> The TFTP server logs show it reloading the pxelinux.cfg file each time.
>
> Has anyone any advice on how to make localboot work on EFI, any tricks?
>  Is there any other alternatives?  Any debugging I can do on this end to
> help?  Thanks in advance.

Did you try inserting another boot selection after PXE, even if it's a
repeat like CD?  My current theory is it's either a bug in Syslinux
calling back incorrectly or it's the firmware not using the data right
and looping.



On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 4:46 PM, Alan Sparks via Syslinux
<syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
> On 10/26/2015 2:31 PM, Geert Stappers wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 02:03:08PM -0600, Alan Sparks via Syslinux
wrote:
>>> On 10/26/2015 1:46 PM, Geert Stappers via Syslinux wrote:
>>>> On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 12:09:40PM -0600, Alan Sparks via
Syslinux wrote:
>
>>> What localboot module?  What mix?   My understanding was
"localboot" is
>>> a built-in command - e.g. "localboot -1" in a menu.c32
configuration as
>>> I mentioned.   There's no apparent fetch attempt for a
localboot module.
>>
>> You could be right at that.
>> Yes, it means I would be wrong about localboot being an external
module.
>>
>> In the directory with syslinux source tree where I did `make`
>>
>>  $ find . -name localboot.c32
>>  ./efi64/com32/samples/localboot.c32
>>  ./efi32/com32/samples/localboot.c32
>>  ./bios/com32/samples/localboot.c32
>>
>> Thing I'm try to say: there are localboot.c32 modules being build.
>>
>
> I do see those.   I did not have those installed, and were no requests

localboot.c32 should call the same Syslinux system call that the
LOCALBOOT directive does.  localboot.c32 merely provides a CLI method
to access the same thing a special configuration directive provides.

--
-Gene