Syslinux - Aug 2018 - Unable to get syslinux.efi to work, grub2 boots tho

Hi,

I am trying to get a UEFI bootable USB. And I am unable to make it 
working. I have two x86_64 systems and both of them 'hangs' when I 
choose to boot UEFI from USB.

I've created fat32 formated partition with ef00 type. I placed EFI/BOOT 
there with content of efi64/ distribution, I've created syslinux.cfg and 
renamed syslinux.efi to BOOTX64.EFI.

However, it does just hangs.

I then replaced BOOTX64.EFI with the copy of grubx64.efi and I got a 
working GRUB2 shell, so I suppose the problem is within syslinux.

I tried sys-boot/syslinux-6.03 and sys-boot/syslinux-6.04_pre1 with no luck.

any hints how to get syslinux on UEFI working?

-- Piotr.

On 2018-08-02 18:25, KARBOWSKI Piotr wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to get a UEFI bootable USB. And I am unable to make it 
> working. I have two x86_64 systems and both of them 'hangs' when I 
> choose to boot UEFI from USB.
> 
> I've created fat32 formated partition with ef00 type. I placed EFI/BOOT
> there with content of efi64/ distribution, I've created syslinux.cfg
and
> renamed syslinux.efi to BOOTX64.EFI.
> 
> However, it does just hangs.
> 
> I then replaced BOOTX64.EFI with the copy of grubx64.efi and I got a 
> working GRUB2 shell, so I suppose the problem is within syslinux.
> 
> I tried sys-boot/syslinux-6.03 and sys-boot/syslinux-6.04_pre1 with no 
> luck.
> 
> any hints how to get syslinux on UEFI working?
Update. I did downloaded latest binaries of Syslinux, and they do work, 
I got a working menu.c32 output with it. I am unsure how can I debug why 
binaries built on my Gentoo does not work. Any idea?

-- Piotr.

> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to get a UEFI bootable USB. And I am unable to make it 
> working. I have two x86_64 systems and both of them 'hangs' when I 
> choose to boot UEFI from USB.
> 
> I've created fat32 formated partition with ef00 type. I placed EFI/BOOT
> there with content of efi64/ distribution, I've created syslinux.cfg
and
> renamed syslinux.efi to BOOTX64.EFI.
> 
> However, it does just hangs.
> 
> I then replaced BOOTX64.EFI with the copy of grubx64.efi and I got a 
> working GRUB2 shell, so I suppose the problem is within syslinux.
> 
> I tried sys-boot/syslinux-6.03 and sys-boot/syslinux-6.04_pre1 with no
luck.
> 
> any hints how to get syslinux on UEFI working?
> 
 
I guess you are in Gentoo.

Even if you are not using Debian, you could:

1_ Download the syslinux-related binary packages from the Debian 
"experimental" (_not_ to be confused with "unstable")
repository
(currently, "6.04~git20171011.af7e95c3+dfsg1-3") and take:

* from the "syslinux-efi" package: 
usr\lib\SYSLINUX.EFI\efi64\syslinux.efi

* from the "syslinux-common" package: 
usr\lib\syslinux\modules\efi64\ldlinux.e64


2.1_ Copy the new syslinux.efi to the "ESP" of your USB device, under 
its "EFI/BOOT/" directory, naming it as "BOOTX64.EFI".

2.2_ Copy the new ldlinux.e64 to the same directory.

3_ In the "ESP" of your USB device, rename any-and-all files named as 
"syslinux.cfg" to something else; there should be no file with such 
name in the "ESP" of your USB device.

When booting your USB now, syslinux.efi should not find the 
configuration file, so you should end with the boot prompt on screen, 
with some kind of information message (because no cfg was found).

FWIW, there have been some reports (in Debian's community) of some 
hardware successfully booting with the current "experimental"
binaries;
the same hardware fails to boot with the current "stable" binaries.
So,
progress :).

HTH,
Ady.

On Thu, 2018-08-02 at 23:55 +0200, KARBOWSKI Piotr via Syslinux
wrote:
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the
content is safe.
> 
> 
> On 2018-08-02 18:25, KARBOWSKI Piotr wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I am trying to get a UEFI bootable USB. And I am unable to make it
> > working. I have two x86_64 systems and both of them 'hangs'
when I
> > choose to boot UEFI from USB.
> > 
> > I've created fat32 formated partition with ef00 type. I placed
EFI/BOOT
> > there with content of efi64/ distribution, I've created
syslinux.cfg and
> > renamed syslinux.efi to BOOTX64.EFI.
> > 
> > However, it does just hangs.
> > 
> > I then replaced BOOTX64.EFI with the copy of grubx64.efi and I got a
> > working GRUB2 shell, so I suppose the problem is within syslinux.
> > 
> > I tried sys-boot/syslinux-6.03 and sys-boot/syslinux-6.04_pre1 with no
> > luck.
> > 
> > any hints how to get syslinux on UEFI working?
> 
> Update. I did downloaded latest binaries of Syslinux, and they do work,
> I got a working menu.c32 output with it. I am unsure how can I debug why
> binaries built on my Gentoo does not work. Any idea?
Something odd with new gcc and old code? The syslinux code is very old, you
could try
my ebuild: https://bugs.gentoo.org/637054

This also build against the installed gnu-efi too.

    Jocke

Hi,

On 2018-08-03 00:09, Ady Ady via Syslinux wrote:
> I guess you are in Gentoo.
> 
> Even if you are not using Debian, you could:
> 
> 1_ Download the syslinux-related binary packages from the Debian
> "experimental" (_not_ to be confused with "unstable")
repository
> (currently, "6.04~git20171011.af7e95c3+dfsg1-3") and take:
> 
> * from the "syslinux-efi" package:
> usr\lib\SYSLINUX.EFI\efi64\syslinux.efi
> 
> * from the "syslinux-common" package:
> usr\lib\syslinux\modules\efi64\ldlinux.e64
> 
> 
> 2.1_ Copy the new syslinux.efi to the "ESP" of your USB device,
under
> its "EFI/BOOT/" directory, naming it as "BOOTX64.EFI".
> 
> 2.2_ Copy the new ldlinux.e64 to the same directory.
> 
> 3_ In the "ESP" of your USB device, rename any-and-all files
named as
> "syslinux.cfg" to something else; there should be no file with
such
> name in the "ESP" of your USB device.
> 
> When booting your USB now, syslinux.efi should not find the
> configuration file, so you should end with the boot prompt on screen,
> with some kind of information message (because no cfg was found).
> 
> FWIW, there have been some reports (in Debian's community) of some
> hardware successfully booting with the current "experimental"
binaries;
> the same hardware fails to boot with the current "stable"
binaries. So,
> progress :).
I actually were able to boot binary syslinux.efi from official tarball, 
so there's something during build time that makes it not working. I run 
gcc 7.3.0.

-- Piotr.