Arch Linux

KairiTech

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2011-06-04

Posts: 275

[Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

Synopsis: Remove /boot for the syslunux.cfg.

Here's my working efibootmgr command:

efibootmgr --create --write-signature --gpt --disk /dev/sdf --part 1 --label "testing" --loader "\EFI\testing\vmlinuz-linux.efi" --unicode "initrd=\EFI\testing\initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/mapper/vg_test-lv_root cryptdevice=/dev/md11:vg_test init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd pcie_aspm=force quiet loglevel=0"

...and here's my failed attempt to duplicate it in syslinux:

LABEL testing
       MENU LABEL testing
       LINUX /boot/EFI/testing/vmlinuz-linux.efi
       APPEND root=/dev/mapper/vg_test-lv_root cryptdevice=/dev/md11:vg_test init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd pcie_aspm=force quiet loglevel=0 root=/dev/mapper/vg_test-lv_root rw init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd 
       INITRD /boot/EFI/testing/initramfs-linux.img

It's no great surprise to me that the menu entry doesn't do anything but the error message flashes off the screen too quickly for me to see what's happening.

What do I need to change in syslinux.cfg to duplicate my UEFI boot?

Last edited by KairiTech (2014-04-03 23:29:33)

the.ridikulus.rat

Member

From: Indiana, USA

Registered: 2011-10-04

Posts: 765

Re: [Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

Here's my working efibootmgr command:

efibootmgr --create --write-signature --gpt --disk /dev/sdf --part 1 --label "testing" --loader "\EFI\testing\vmlinuz-linux.efi" --unicode "initrd=\EFI\testing\initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/mapper/vg_test-lv_root cryptdevice=/dev/md11:vg_test init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd pcie_aspm=force quiet loglevel=0"

...and here's my failed attempt to duplicate it in syslinux:

LABEL testing
       MENU LABEL testing
       LINUX /boot/EFI/testing/vmlinuz-linux.efi
       APPEND root=/dev/mapper/vg_test-lv_root cryptdevice=/dev/md11:vg_test init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd pcie_aspm=force quiet loglevel=0 root=/dev/mapper/vg_test-lv_root rw init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd 
       INITRD /boot/EFI/testing/initramfs-linux.img

Remove "/boot" from LINUX and INITRD lines. Syslinux during runtime (in firmware env) does not care about what is the EFISYS mountpoint in the booted system.

Last edited by the.ridikulus.rat (2014-04-03 03:00:26)

---

AUR | GitHub | Gitorious | Bitbucket

Lenovo Thinkpad E430

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

To add to what the.ridikulus.rat posted above, only grub and rEFInd (with the help of a filesystem driver) can read from a partition other than the ESP.  So gummiboot, syslinux-efi, and elilo all have to have the kernel on the same ESP as the bootloader/boot manager.  Thus, with those three it does not matter where the ESP mounts (ie. /boot in your case), but rather where the file lives relative to the root of the ESP.

KairiTech

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2011-06-04

Posts: 275

Re: [Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

Perfect! Removing /boot from the syslinux.cfg worked.

So tell me again why I shouldn't totally abandon UEFI in favour of syslinux? I'm just being rhetorical so I'll mark this as solved.

Kingd

Member

Registered: 2014-04-04

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

Have you ever tried gummiboot instead of syslinux? I have a uefi system, too and tried several bootloaders and in my opinion the best one for uefi based systems is gummiboot.

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

Have you ever tried gummiboot instead of syslinux? I have a uefi system, too and tried several bootloaders and in my opinion the best one for uefi based systems is gummiboot.

KairiTech is pretty familiar with the ways of UEFI judging by his(?) posts on these boards.  I have a feeling that the setup of syslinux-efi is to keep a backup in case the old EFISTUB bug decides to randomly bite.

KairiTech

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2011-06-04

Posts: 275

Re: [Solved] UEFI with syslinux reduncy

I have a feeling that the setup of syslinux-efi is to keep a backup in case the old EFISTUB bug decides to randomly bite.

Very astute but nope! It's not sylinux-efi, just plain old syslinux. My ESP is on a USB device and my root is on an SSD RAID so that's another reason I thought to use syslinux. Now that I know how stable syslinux is I'm beginning to altogether rethink UEFI.

I like that fact that syslinux ‘travels’ with the device unlike UEFI that stays with the mobo (maybe). UEFI drops off if I start the computer without the USB but I have a script for that. syslinux becomes available again by just reinserting the USB.

Last edited by KairiTech (2014-04-04 20:43:26)