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ziotix

Member

Registered: 2016-07-26

Posts: 14

Error chainloading Windows from Syslinux

Hello,

I can't get my windows 10 install to boot from syslinux using chain.c32 module, has no issue booting arch though. W10 and arch installs are using GPT based partitions as I'm booting with UEFI. In every attempt below, selecting the Windows boot entry result in error:

No MBR magic. WARNING: Treating disk as raw

Here is output for " lsblk". W10 is on partitions 1-4, see labels below. Arch on 5-7.

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   450M  0 part
├─sda2   8:2    0   100M  0 part /boot
├─sda3   8:3    0    16M  0 part
├─sda4   8:4    0  96.6G  0 part
├─sda5   8:5    0   6.1G  0 part /
├─sda6   8:6    0   6.1G  0 part /home
└─sda7   8:7    0   2.6G  0 part [SWAP]

Here is output for "blkid":

/dev/sda1: LABEL="Recovery" UUID="14762450762434C0" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="1ba2056d-601e-4f17-a4b8-f82857dc1866"
/dev/sda2: UUID="7E24-A0BF" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="2a9f1e59-db13-4de0-9584-caaad1eb7a24"
/dev/sda3: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="01522cba-7f55-4352-86ae-b60c01e6c130"
/dev/sda4: UUID="0A78258078256C1F" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="9a96d6d4-38f9-48e7-85c6-d16aaed30ad3"
/dev/sda5: UUID="29a8dc1b-a4d7-49b5-a29c-705d97b8287c" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="48a89dbb-8aa7-4879-8077-b47fe375663a"
/dev/sda6: UUID="f7b57e76-c8f1-43ee-96b3-68048c0b0535" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="0a88dcd1-4ca6-43f1-9a73-1f6a6f02b4ce"
/dev/sda7: UUID="f946df11-9915-4855-91f8-130e26eea21d" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="ddbb8bde-e577-4f83-935d-28fbc6b9e994"

Relevant part of my /boot/efi/syslinux/syslinux.cfg file:

 LABEL windows
         MENU LABEL Windows
         COM32 chain.c32
         APPEND hd0 4

I've read some people recommending the  W10 system partition in the config others say to use the  reserved partition, I tried every single one (hd0 1-4). It never booted. Then I read in the wiki that if you use GPT, you can use system labels in the config so I tried:

LABEL Microsoft_reserved_partition
MENU LABEL Windows
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND label=Microsoft_reserved_partition ntldr=/bootmgr

and

LABEL Basic_data_partition
MENU LABEL Windows
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND label=Basic_data_partition ntldr=/bootmgr

Nothing worked error same as listed above, any advice on what I might be doing wrong? FWIW I already have fastboot/secureboot disabled. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by ziotix (2016-07-26 09:39:55)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,071

Re: Error chainloading Windows from Syslinux

You can't chainload another UEFI application: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/sy … I_Syslinux

Last edited by V1del (2016-07-26 10:21:46)

ziotix

Member

Registered: 2016-07-26

Posts: 14

Re: Error chainloading Windows from Syslinux

You can't chainload another uefi application: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/sy … I_Syslinux

Thanks for the reply. Shoot, that is unfortunate. Given this sort of setup, what do you recommend? Systemd-boot? It seems to be geared more to UEFI.

I can't really find any good docs on going from Syslinux to systemd-boot safely on a running system. Would I delete "vmlinuz-linux" and "syslinux" from /boot partition  as well as "syslinux" in /boot/efi? Then follow wiki on systemd-boot and hope I don't lock myself out?

Thanks again for any help, appreciate it.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: Error chainloading Windows from Syslinux

rEFInd works well for me.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,071

Re: Error chainloading Windows from Syslinux

I personally often just use the firmware loader (F12 during POST on my motherboard) to switch, but yeah I've made good experiences with systemd-boot. You shouldn't delete vmlinuz-linux since that is the kernel image used to boot, technically you don't even have to remove syslinux until you are certain systemd-boot works. That's one of the good things of UEFI that you can have multiple coexisting binaries.

ziotix

Member

Registered: 2016-07-26

Posts: 14

Re: Error chainloading Windows from Syslinux

rEFInd works well for me.

Thanks, I'll try this one in the future.

I personally often just use the firmware loader (F12 during POST on my motherboard) to switch, but yeah I've made good experiences with systemd-boot. You shouldn't delete vmlinuz-linux since that is the kernel image used to boot, technically you don't even have to remove syslinux until you are certain systemd-boot works. That's one of the good things of UEFI that you can have multiple coexisting binaries.

Thanks again, systemd-boot works nicely and I was able to remove syslinux afterward with efibootmgr. F12 is an option but sometimes having a menu is easier then the button mashing game.

As a side question, when I run efibootmgr I see a boot entry for ubuntu like : Boot0001 ubuntu     VenHw(random string of alphanumeric)

I've installed lubuntu(with grub) on this machine before but on a different drive that I'm not longer using so I'm confused as to why it's still appearing. Am I to understand that when I did this lubuntu install, it edited my motherboard uefi base firmware? I thought I was just editing a entries file saved in the boot partition. I take it, it's safe to remove as well?

Thanks again

Last edited by ziotix (2016-07-26 21:56:16)