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lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

[Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

Just upgraded my system, noticed pacman log says:

Syslinux BIOS update successful.
syslinux 6.02-3 -> 6.02-4

Now the system will not boot as BIOS cannot find the device. Any ideas?

Last edited by lagagnon (2013-11-06 18:11:05)

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Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

Have you tried chrooting or the drive is somehow not visible at all?

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

I can get into the system using a GRUB super boot CD so I know this is not a hard drive fault but quite possibly syslinux: from th wiki:

Note: Syslinux (as of version 6.02, in both BIOS and UEFI) cannot access files from partitions other than its own (unlike GRUB). This feature (called multi-fs) is yet to be implemented upstream. If you want to help with the multi-fs feature, contact upstream.

Then this:

http://bugzilla.syslinux.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33

But maybe I am on the wrong track?

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Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,069

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

we need more info, do you get to the syslinux menu ?

If not, check if the partition you have /boot on is marked bootable .

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

Here is output from "fdisk -l"

Disk /dev/sda: 232.9 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device    Boot     Start       End    Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1             63  29302559  14651248+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       29302560  33206354   1951897+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 *     33206355  35166284    979965  83 Linux
/dev/sda4       35166285 488392064 226612890   5 Extended
/dev/sda5       35166348 488392064 226612858+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda3 is /boot and /dev/sda1 is /

Here is my /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg file:

http://bpaste.net/show/147306/

Any help appreciated.

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Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

Solved issue. Ran:

# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

I would have thought with such a major bust from a new version of syslinux that there would have at least been a pacman install warning message, which there isn't.

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Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

Solved issue. Ran:

# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

I would have thought with such a major bust from a new version of syslinux that there would have at least been a pacman install warning message, which there isn't.

The install file does mention something about it. I don't know if this applies to you:

~ >  grep syslinux-install_update /var/abs/core/syslinux/syslinux.install
  echo "==>   # /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m"
  /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -s
      echo "If you used syslinux-install_update to install syslinux:"
      echo "==>   # /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m"

Last edited by skottish (2013-11-06 18:23:24)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] BIOS no longer finds boot device after syslinux upgrade

Run 'pacscripts syslinux'. On my system it says

post_upgrade() {
  # auto-update syslinux if /boot/syslinux/SYSLINUX_AUTOUPDATE exists
  /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -s
  # update to 5.01 message
  if [ "$(vercmp $2 5.01)" -lt 0 ]; then
      echo "If you used syslinux-install_update to install syslinux:"
      echo "==> If you want to use syslinux with menu and all modules please rerun" 
      echo "==>   # /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m"
      echo ""
      echo "If you manually installed syslinux:"
      echo "==> Please copy or symlink all .c32 modules to your /boot/syslinux directory."
      echo "==> If (/ and /boot on seperate fs):"
      echo "==>   # cp /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux"
      echo "==> If (/ and /boot on same fs):"
      echo "==>   # ln -s /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux"
  fi
}

'# /usr/bin/syslinux-install_update -i -a -m' is mentioned there.