Re: syslinux progress & reviews

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

Lukas Schwaighofer wrote:
> * added patches from upstream to fix:
>   - boot problems for pre-2005 BIOS computers, see #857597 [1]

Applause.

I wonder whether the new binary isohdpfx.bin is byte-identical to the
tested MBR with the fix:
   http://www.ludd.ltu.se/~ams/tmp/isohdpfx.bin.170324

Else we'd need to find a tester with an old PC, which does not boot
with some Debian i386 or amd64 installation ISO from USB stick but
rather says:
  isolinux.bin missing or corrupt
It would suffice to copy the new isohdpfx.bin to the first 432 bytes
of the USB stick with the failing ISO and to check whether it then
boots up to the first menu.


Another question is whether the repaired MBR should be offered for
separate download and whether repairing of older ISOs should be
advertised in
  https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/
as sketched in
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=857597#90


> My plan now is to test a few boot scenarios with this package myself

If it fails to boot via EFI from CD-ROM, that's normal. It cannot break
out of the EFI System Partition into the CD-ROM device of the ISO 9660
filesystem.

debian-cd uses GRUB as EFI boot equipment. The only known production ISO
which boots on EFI by SYSLINUX is Knoppix 8. It's trick is to have a
complete GNU/Linux in the EFI System Partition. So there is enough brain
when it comes to exploring the CD-ROM device.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas