UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

train_wreck · 2015-05-26 05:06:27

Somewhat of a weird one. I have successfully gotten a UEFI Arch system booting, using the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … FI_Systems and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … _Interface wiki articles. Speficially, I used "efibootmgr" to install an boot entry on the system, with the "Syslinux" label showing up as a boot option in the motherboard's BIOS/UEFI setup utility. The system boots fine, displays the blue Syslinux menu, and starts the system.

Except if there is no keyboard plugged into the system. In this case, the motherboard startup output displays, and immediately goes to a black screen, indefinitely. Once I plug in a keyboard (USB), the Syslinux menu immediately appears, and the system loads. But a keyboard is REQUIRED to be plugged in. I have disabled the BIOS option to "Wait for F1 on errors", and I have no problem booting MBR/BIOS-based OSes. I initially felt that the issue was with Syslinux, and specifically that maybe the menu needs a keyboard present, but I tried disabling the menu and using just the "boot :" prompt, and the same problem exists. A black screen, until a keyboard is plugged in, after which "boot :" immediately appears.

The system is a file server in a highly cramped closet at my house, and if I can I'd rather not dedicate a keyboard plugged into it all the time. Is there any way around this? If I could completely and totally disable the Syslinux menu and boot directly to Arch, I'd prefer that, but I'm not finding an immediate way to do that. I know I could potentially have the motherboard load the UEFI partition directly without a boot manager, but the wiki article says that that could cause problems....

/boot/EFI/syslinux/syslinux.cfg:

# Config file for Syslinux -
# /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
#
# Comboot modules:
#   * menu.c32 - provides a text menu
#   * vesamenu.c32 - provides a graphical menu
#   * chain.c32 - chainload MBRs, partition boot sectors, Windows bootloaders
#   * hdt.c32 - hardware detection tool
#   * reboot.c32 - reboots the system
#
# To Use: Copy the respective files from /usr/lib/syslinux to /boot/syslinux.
# If /usr and /boot are on the same file system, symlink the files instead
# of copying them.
#
# If you do not use a menu, a 'boot:' prompt will be shown and the system
# will boot automatically after 5 seconds.
#
# Please review the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Syslinux
# The wiki provides further configuration examples

DEFAULT arch
PROMPT 1       # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt
TIMEOUT 1
TOTALTIMEOUT 1
# You can create syslinux keymaps with the keytab-lilo tool
#KBDMAP de.ktl

# Menu Configuration
# Either menu.c32 or vesamenu32.c32 must be copied to /boot/syslinux
#UI menu.c32
#UI vesamenu.c32

# Refer to http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/menu
#MENU TITLE Arch Linux
#MENU BACKGROUND splash.png
#MENU COLOR border       30;44   #40ffffff #a0000000 std
#MENU COLOR title        1;36;44 #9033ccff #a0000000 std
#MENU COLOR sel          7;37;40 #e0ffffff #20ffffff all
#MENU COLOR unsel        37;44   #50ffffff #a0000000 std
#MENU COLOR help         37;40   #c0ffffff #a0000000 std
#MENU COLOR timeout_msg  37;40   #80ffffff #00000000 std
#MENU COLOR timeout      1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
#MENU COLOR msg07        37;40   #90ffffff #a0000000 std
#MENU COLOR tabmsg       31;40   #30ffffff #00000000 std

# boot sections follow
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

LABEL arch
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux
    LINUX /vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/sda2 rw
    INITRD /initramfs-linux.img

LABEL archfallback
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
    LINUX vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=/dev/sda2 rw
    INITRD initramfs-linux-fallback.img

LABEL hdt
        MENU LABEL HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)
        COM32 hdt.c32

LABEL reboot
        MENU LABEL Reboot
        COM32 reboot.c32

LABEL poweroff
        MENU LABEL Poweroff
        COM32 poweroff.c32

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-05-26 12:14:13

train_wreck wrote:

I know I could potentially have the motherboard load the UEFI partition directly without a boot manager, but the wiki article says that that could cause problems....

To which problems are you referring?

I have used the pure EFISTUB booting method in the past and I only switched to gummiboot 'cos it makes it easier to modify the boot options.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gummiboot

I don't use syslinux so I can't help you with that, sorry.

ewaller · 2015-05-26 14:01:31

It sounds like your EFI firmware is requiring the keyboard. Is there any possibility there is a setting to allow it to continue to boot after a POST error?

You could use the brute force method. Buy an Arduino that does not use a FTDI USB to Serial chip, but rather one that has a USB interface in the Atmel processor itself (Like the Arduino Leonardo). Grab on of the demo programs that comes with their free IDE that emulates a keyboard. Leave that machine device plugged into your system.

Alad · 2015-05-26 14:04:30

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/44923

ewaller · 2015-05-26 14:07:28

ewaller wrote:

It sounds like your EFI firmware is requiring the keyboard.

Alad wrote:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/44923

... or not

train_wreck · 2015-05-26 18:18:37

Alad wrote:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/44923

So this bug references a very similar problem, but with "gummiboot". Could the same problem be affecting syslinux?

train_wreck · 2015-05-26 18:26:36

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

To which problems are you referring?

At the top of the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFISTUB article:

that article wrote:

Warning: A bug has been noticed where booting EFISTUB can fail depending on kernel version and motherboard model. See FS#33745 and [1] for more information.

And both of those links contain MANY people's reports of problems.... that said, most are from ~2013....

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-05-26 18:30:28

That just says the booting fails and refers to an ancient kernel version (3.7).

Why don't you just try it and see if it works for you?

train_wreck · 2015-05-26 18:33:36

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Why don't you just try it and see if it works for you?

I might. I just started slagging through learning about UEFI & Arch-booting last night, and I'd previously been using syslinux to boot MBR-based systems, so I figured I would stick with what I know. But I will try EFISTUB if this keyboard thing can't get worked out.

train_wreck · 2015-06-13 03:11:09

A final update on this.... I switched to using the "EFISTUB" method of booting directly, and the problem has disappeared; a keyboard is NOT required to be present now when booting. It appears that the problem may lie with syslinux.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-05-26 05:06:27

UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#2 2015-05-26 12:14:13

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#3 2015-05-26 14:01:31

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#4 2015-05-26 14:04:30

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#5 2015-05-26 14:07:28

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#6 2015-05-26 18:18:37

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#7 2015-05-26 18:26:36

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#8 2015-05-26 18:30:28

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#9 2015-05-26 18:33:36

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

#10 2015-06-13 03:11:09

Re: UEFI & syslinux - system will not boot without keyboard plugged in

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