Non Booting PCLinuxOS liveCD

[gseaman]

It looks as if mylivecd will have to be updated if we go to a newer syslinux. gfxboot.c32 replaces gfxboot.com in syslinux 4.00.
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Syslinux_4_Changelog#Changes_in_4.00

Galen

[gseaman]

I'll try syslinux 3.9x, or the last one before 4.0 and see if we can solve the bug and not introduce an unneeded fix.

Galen

[Old-Polack]

I'll try syslinux 3.9x, or the last one before 4.0 and see if we can solve the bug and not introduce an unneeded fix.

Galen

No offense, but syslinux says the problem wasn't fixed until 4.02. Assuming that to be true, as they should know, what will 3.9x accomplish?

Just tried the latest 32 bit MiniMe that pinoc posted today, and the same error message comes up. Manually typing the boot instructions boots the CD, but the isolinux boot loader simply can't find the /isolinux/isolinux.cfg file on its own. I'm guessing the problem occurs because of code changes brought about with the UEFI/BIOS. The CD disks boot on machines with the older BIOS, but none of my previously booting earlier CDs will boot on either of the UEFI/BIOS machines. All present the same error message...

No DEFAULT or UI Configuration Found
Boot:

[gseaman]

Ok, I'll let Neal know there is no point to submitting 3.86 for testing. I'm sorry that I'm not able to help. I've got some experience with packaging, but I'm not a coder and I'm not versed in all of the details of syslinux, mylivecd, or UEFI. If someone has a fix or a patch to make a version that works for everything, I'll gladly package it.

Galen

[Archie]

Can we shoot the guinea pigs now? 

Then you and I can play in the wing and be like those idjits on T6's animated GIF posts.   

Sorry. I am in quite a good mood today. I'm not sorry for that.

[Just17]

OP ......  have you tried booting those same ISOs from a LiveUSB device?

I did an install in June on a UEFI using PC, of the then current 64 bit PCLOS.
The 32 bit ISOs also booted in that machine.

[Old-Polack]

OP ......  have you tried booting those same ISOs from a LiveUSB device?

I did an install in June on a UEFI using PC, of the then current 64 bit PCLOS.
The 32 bit ISOs also booted in that machine.

Yes. The iso images work in VBox, and when a liveUSB is created from the image, it boots as expected in both UEFI machines. It is only the burned CDs that do not boot. Both optical drives were new when the machines were built, the oldest being from last November 24, the newest purchased in late June of this year. I highly doubt a similar mechanical problem with two separate new optical drives, purchased roughly seven months apart, in two different machines. I've burned various types of disks, audio, movie, data, and live installation disks, both CD and DVD with both units, and both will boot Windows installation disks as expected, (Win2K and WinXP) but isolinux disks have so far failed, except when the boot instructions are manually typed.

I've only checked with PCLinuxOS disks, so far, but I will d/l a few from other distros to see if they work any better.

[Archie]

Just thinking out loud here ...

If you can boot the same ISO from USB sticks but not on CD, isn't there a possibility that the way the ISO was written on the CD might have caused it not to boot, especially when you tried to boot it on a couple of machines on their CD drive? K3B? or whichever app you were using?

[Just17]

OP ....  one other thing to try .....  convert a PCLOS ISO to Hybrid and 'burn' it to a partition or whole disk of a USB device.
That will then use the same isolinux booting, so might help to determine if it is indeed isolinux that is the cause or maybe something about the configuration of the booting that is now not acceptable to UEFI.

In other words maybe it is as simple as a change to the isolinux.cfg that is needed?

Yeah, I know .....  always looking for the simple answer 

First thing I would try is to drop the following boot option

Code: [Select]

root=/dev/rd/3
(yes I realise you typed that in manually with the rest)

[Old-Polack]

OP ....  one other thing to try .....  convert a PCLOS ISO to Hybrid and 'burn' it to a partition or whole disk of a USB device.
That will then use the same isolinux booting, so might help to determine if it is indeed isolinux that is the cause or maybe something about the configuration of the booting that is now not acceptable to UEFI.

In other words maybe it is as simple as a change to the isolinux.cfg that is needed?

Yeah, I know .....  always looking for the simple answer  

First thing I would try is to drop the following boot option

Code: [Select]

root=/dev/rd/3
(yes I realise you typed that in manually with the rest)

I tried, without the root=/dev/rd/3, and got instant failure when the item being booted is the burned disk. From a USB stick one can use the UUID= or the LABEL= of the partition, but the burned disk wants root=/dev/rd/3

I'm assuming that it is something in the configuration of the booting that is wrong for these machines, and would guess that it is mylivecd that is supplying that configuration. I would also guess that the configuration that worked in the past with legacy BIOS does not work with UEFI/BIOS, and it was the introduction of UEFI/BIOS that necessitated the rewriting of syslinux.

While some changes to isolinux.cfg are almost a certainty, the first thing isolinux needs is the ability to find that configuration file, and the error shows that is precisely what it is unable to do.

[Old-Polack]

Just thinking out loud here ...

If you can boot the same ISO from USB sticks but not on CD, isn't there a possibility that the way the ISO was written on the CD might have caused it not to boot, especially when you tried to boot it on a couple of machines on their CD drive? K3B? or whichever app you were using?

I answered this once, but the reply disappeared.

It is, of course, how the image is written to disk that causes the problem. The disks are written using K3B, from images checked with md5sum, and the burned images have the exact same md5sum, indicating a bit perfect burn. The problem is that K3B can only burn the disk as the image is encoded. I'm able to boot Win2K and WinXP disks in these machines, but all of my PCLinuxOS burned disks, using syslinux/isolinux 3.85, that will boot on any machine with a legacy BIOS, refuse to boot on either of the two machines with UEFI/BIOS. All show the exact same error...

ISOLINUX 3.85 2010-02-20 ETCD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found.
Boot:

This also includes one version of UBCD that I have, that also shows the above error. However, UBCD 4.1.1 and  UBCD 5.1.1 do boot without issue, and I just burned an openSUSE 12.1 liveCD that also boots without issue. In other words, K3B can only burn the image as it's encoded, and the UEFI/BIOS has no problem booting burned disks from properly encoded images, so the problem we have is getting the mylivecd generated images to be properly encoded for use with burned disks on UEFI/BIOS machines.

Considering that UEFI/BIOS seems to be what all new MBs will be using for the foreseeable future, I would say this is a fairly high priority problem.

[Just17]

If you get a chance to try a Hybrid version of a PCLOS ISO on a USB stick or partition, I would be interested to hear the result.

I would expect it to fail in the same manner as the LiveCD based on your test so far.

[Old-Polack]

If you get a chance to try a Hybrid version of a PCLOS ISO on a USB stick or partition, I would be interested to hear the result.

I would expect it to fail in the same manner as the LiveCD based on your test so far.

Unfortunately I have only one USB stick, and it's currently filled with data I need to transfer to someone else's machine, so that could take a while.

[Just17]

If you get a chance to try a Hybrid version of a PCLOS ISO on a USB stick or partition, I would be interested to hear the result.

I would expect it to fail in the same manner as the LiveCD based on your test so far.

Unfortunately I have only one USB stick, and it's currently filled with data I need to transfer to someone else's machine, so that could take a while.

understood 

[Old-Polack]

If you get a chance to try a Hybrid version of a PCLOS ISO on a USB stick or partition, I would be interested to hear the result.

I would expect it to fail in the same manner as the LiveCD based on your test so far.

Unfortunately I have only one USB stick, and it's currently filled with data I need to transfer to someone else's machine, so that could take a while.

understood 

You'll like this next bit.

Created an isohybrid version of pinoc's latest MiniMe and used dd to write the image to the USB stick. On reboot, it did not fail with the expected error message, but rather offered the normal boot menu options. Selecting the no splash 2nd menu item, all goes as normal until it reaches the searching for loop image stage. First it checks /dev/sr0, then /dev/sda1 through /dev/sda11, and /dev/sdb1 through /dev/sdb5, then gives a final [OK] and drops to a limited shell after announcing it could not find the image.

The problem with this is that there are 17 partitions on /dev/sdb, followed by 9 partitions on /dev/sdc, and finally by /dev/sdd on which the hybrid image is actually burned. The image search ended prematurely, and did so at exactly the same place on five successive attempts.

I next burned the hybrid image to disk, thinking the hybrid additions would allow the normal boot menu to appear, but on reboot got the old familiar;

ISOLINUX 3.85 2010-02-20 ETCD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found.
Boot:

Went back into BIOS and set the USB HDD as first boot device, and the optical drive as the second boot device, left the burned disk in the tray and reinserted the USB stick drive. The end result is that the USB stick image brings up the boot menu, all goes as normal until searching for the loop image, which it now finds on /dev/sr0, (the burned disk, and first item searched) and a normal boot to a live session is achieved.