Bug#943845: syslinux-common: error messages with grml boot stick

[Lukas Schwaighofer <lukas@schwaighofer.name>]

On Wed, 30 Oct 2019 22:41:48 +0100
Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de> wrote:

> On 2019-10-30 21:03 +0100, Lukas Schwaighofer wrote:
> > I'm suspecting that there is somehow a mismatch between the version
> > of syslinux/extlinux used while installing (i.e. running `extlinux
> > -i`) and the c32 files installed on the medium.  
> 
> Indeed, this was the case.  While the version of syslinux installed in
> the boot sector was the one from Debian, the support files in the
> boot/syslinux directory came from the grml iso.  After replacing them
> with the files from /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/ everything was
> fine.
> 
> > Can you check whether the c32 files installed on the medium
> > (probably in /boot/syslinux or /boot/extlinux) match the one
> > from /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios on the host system? If they do
> > match, can you re-run the syslinux installation from the host system
> > and then try again?  
> 
> They do not match, but I have a question: how would I get those files
> onto the boot medium with syslinux commands?  The naive command
> "syslinux -d boot/syslinux /dev/sdc1" (or whatever device instead of
> /dev/sdc1) does not do that, yet grml2usb apparently relies on it.

Unfortunately syslinux does not offer any "installer" to do that (nor
does the Debian package).  The admittedly poorly documented installation
procedure is more or less to run the installer and copy any modules you
need yourself to the correct folder.

`syslinux -d boot/syslinux /dev/sdc1` does not install any c32 modules.
This means any c32 modules present on your medium were copied by
grml2usb.  I don't know the details of how grml2usb installs syslinux,
but they need to make sure whatever is installed to the volume boot
record (`syslinux` or `extlinux` command) is consistent with the c32
modules.  Either both must come from the host system or both from the
installed medium.

Regards
Lukas