[syslinux] Recommend verification - starting with version 6.0.4-pre1

Gene Cumm
Sun, 23 Jul 2017 16:16:10 -0000

On Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 11:16 AM,  <mikezb at softhome.net>
wrote:
> Gene Cumm:
> ______________________________________________________________________
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 9:30 AM,  <mikezb at softhome.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Gene Cumm:

>>>> Please use reply all.  OP is a non-subscriber.
>>>>
______________________________________________________________________
>>>> Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 3:26 AM, mikezb (via Syslinux <syslinux
at zytor.com>)
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I recommend someone verify that tar.gz and tar.xz files (
at
>>>>> https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ )
unpack without
>>>>> errors.
>>>>> (I assume use of compression is in hope of saving download
bandwidth)
>>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
______________________________________________________________________
>>>> What do you mean?  Is there a particular one that you observe
an issue
>>>> with?
>>>> --
>>>> -Gene
>>>
>>>
>>>
________________________________________________________________________
>>> Yes.
>>> I wanted to try out a less-well-known Linux distribution ISO, and
used a
>>> handy script to partition-and-format a storage device, unpack it,
and
>>> make
>>> it bootable - but the script was set up for syslinux version 6.0.3,
and
>>> this
>>> ISO apparently required version 6.0.4-pre1 instead.
>>> (I don't know whether it would have been compatible)
>>> I tried a more flexible script, but it had trouble unpacking
>>> syslinux-6.04-pre1.tar.xz for application; on inspection of the
log, I
>>> found
>>> incomplete unpacking - at least 1 file (named advconst?) was
compressed
>>> to
>>> zero-length.
>>> I suspect this was an error - the zip file worked.
>>> (It may be the only such occurrence; I haven't checked other
files.)
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________________
>> No issue in the tarball.  Please check your extractor/file system.
>> lrwxrwxrwx hpa/hpa           0 2016-03-02 00:06
>> syslinux-6.04-pre1/libinstaller/advconst.h ->
>> ../com32/include/syslinux/advconst.h
>> It's a symlink.  Some extractors might mess up.  Extracting onto a
file
>> system that has no concept of a symlink like say FAT will also have
issues.
>> --
>> -Gene
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Ah.
> Considering the ISO was compatible with FAT32, that's disappointing.
> I somehow had the notion syslinux was meant to be compatible with FAT, as
in
> "The Syslinux Project covers lightweight bootloaders for MS-DOS FAT
> filesystems (SYSLINUX), ?".
> Not the same as in the zip file, thankfully.
> ?
> Anyway, thanks!

The boot loader _itself_ is compatible.  This is merely a single
header file in the source portion of the archive file and unnecessary
for normal use.  If I recall correctly, tar can store symlinks while
zip can not and must duplicate the file to store it.

--
-Gene