Syslinux - Jun 2020 - Boot Loop in efi

Hi all,

I did my first steps on syslinux 6.03 with EFI...
I prepared the disk with GPT, EFI system partition and formatted it FAT32.
I added the files to EFI/BOOT including the syslinux libraries and syslinux.cfg

The system starts booting, loads kernel and initrd (I see the loading output on
the screen), but then the system resets and the loop restarts (infinitely).

I took the same syslinux.cfg, linux and initrd as for the BIOS boot.

Am I missing something? It does not look as if the kernel actually starts (no
output after the load-lines).

One thing that I'm confused of - maybe this is related?
I can only get the 64 bit efi files running, but my kernel is 32 bit. No way
getting the 32 bit efi files to start, even when trying it over the UEFI shell,
it complains that the file is not in the right format.

Best regards,

Erik

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 11:36 AM Erik Rull via Syslinux <
syslinux at syslinux.org> wrote:
> ...
>
> The system starts booting, loads kernel and initrd (I see the loading
> output on
> the screen), but then the system resets and the loop restarts (infinitely).
>
> I took the same syslinux.cfg, linux and initrd as for the BIOS boot.
>
> Am I missing something? It does not look as if the kernel actually starts
> (no
> output after the load-lines).
>
> One thing that I'm confused of - maybe this is related?
> I can only get the 64 bit efi files running, but my kernel is 32 bit. No
> way
> getting the 32 bit efi files to start, even when trying it over the UEFI
> shell,
> it complains that the file is not in the right format.
>
...

Did you find the following troubleshooting page?:

https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Common_Problems

In particular, there is a section at the end that looks similar to your
problem.

I'm not familiar with the problem. You might try some variations on the
command you are using to load the kernel (e.g. try using "linuxefi"
instead
of the "linux" or "kernel" command).

Thanks for the hints - I have NOT CONFIG_EFI enabled - do I need this actually?
I do not know which variables I need to boot... The kernel APPEND parameters are
sufficient for me...
And the relocatable config is set already.

.. I enabled the EFI kernel config parts - no change... the console prints:

Booting System...
Loading linux... ok
Loading iramfs.gz...ok

[then reboot]

My syslinux.cfg is pretty simple:
DEFAULT linux
LABEL linux
  SAY Booting System...
  KERNEL linux
  APPEND initrd=iramfs.gz apic=debug lapic acpi=ht consoleblank=0 vga=1
TIMEOUT 1

I didn't find any documentation on the syslinux page for
"linuxefi" command -
where is this documented?

Or is there a "default" syslinux.cfg for efi that I could use as a
template?

I also moved the iramfs.gz to the separate INITRD command - still no change.

Any further hints? How can I debug this?
I also change the vga=1 to vga=0 - without and effect...

Best regards,

Erik



Gregory Bartholomew wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 11:36 AM Erik Rull via Syslinux <syslinux at
syslinux.org
> <mailto:syslinux at syslinux.org>> wrote:
> 
>     ...
> 
> ?
> 
>     The system starts booting, loads kernel and initrd (I see the loading
output on
>     the screen), but then the system resets and the loop restarts
(infinitely).
> 
>     I took the same syslinux.cfg, linux and initrd as for the BIOS boot.
> 
>     Am I missing something? It does not look as if the kernel actually
starts (no
>     output after the load-lines).
> 
>     One thing that I'm confused of - maybe this is related?
>     I can only get the 64 bit efi files running, but my kernel is 32 bit.
No way
>     getting the 32 bit efi files to start, even when trying it over the
UEFI shell,
>     it complains that the file is not in the right format.
> 
> ?
> ...
> 
> Did you find the following troubleshooting page?:
> 
> https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Common_Problems
> 
> In particular, there is a section at the end that looks similar to your
problem.
> 
> I'm not familiar with the problem. You might try some variations on the
command
> you are using to load the kernel (e.g. try using "linuxefi"
instead of the
> "linux" or "kernel" command).?