Arch Linux

Are you sure 4.05-6 can't boot? it appears to be working for me, and it was reported the 4.05-5 didn't boot but was supposed to have been fixed
http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2012-August/023361.html

with 4.05-6 i get the following message:

SYSLINUX 4.05 EDD 0x5023f982 Copyright (C) 1994-2011 H. Peter Anvin et al

with no prompt - just a blinking cursor. input like "help" doesn't appear on screen and has no effects.
it didn't boot any further .. going back to 4.05-4 solved it for me.

I'm totally sure it can't boot. I tried 4 times. It starts an infinite loop unless I stop my computer or I start with a live-CD.

syslinux doesn't like our compiler. We should overhaul the PKGBUILD to use the "make installer" target so the low-level bootloader files are not rebuilt (this is what upstream recommends). I didn't do this before, as this has a weird effect in the 'install' target.

Can you try the 4.05-7 package from https://dev.archlinux.org/~thomas/syslinux/? This should definitely boot, otherwise I am clueless.

Just to be sure, do I have to execute

# syslinux-install_update -iam

After installing the package ? I think not.

After upgrading, no. It will print the message "Syslinux upgrade complete." if autoupgrade is enabled.

Ok, it is exactly what it prints. Thank you for your answer!
More on how it is works tomorrow.

So good new: after two tests everything is fine! I think
it's on the right way! But if it's ok for you, I would like
to test it another few days. The problem is the following: first
I can only test if the computer wasn't use for a couple of hours.
On reboot it works. Second I have change my hard disk this week and
at the beginning there was no problem with syslinux 4.05-6. And
suddenly I also had the problem. Ok, it's possible it worked some times
because I started the computer with the installation cd and after
a reboot there is no problem like we know.
Just to mention it: my hard disk is a ssd. I don't know if there is
a connection between the problem and the hard disk.
In a few days I leave a comment saying everything is fine! (I hope so ;-)).

I'm pushing this package to testing now.

I'm currently using syslinux 4.05-7 under archlinux x86_64 and I have the exact same problem described in this post : my laptop often enter inside an indefinite rebooting loop, showing "Machine Check Error" instead of the boot menu. To stop the loop, I have to shutdown the laptop manually and restart it. The problem seems to happen more often when I don't use the computer for a long time.

Thanks for reading, sincerely, aniwey.

I didn't write a comment because this task had been closed. But I can
say for me this issue has been resolved. Just to say the changes have had
an effect for some users.

Hello, I have no news but I wanted to say that I'm open to anything to test if you can't reproduce the bug yourself and it would help debugging.

Please take it upstream.

I'm not even sure if this is a software, hardware of firmware problem.

I am hoping we'll get a major syslinux update soon, so we can reevaluate all problems with that. 4.05 lacks tons of important fixes.

4.06 is in testing, and it has many fixes. Please test.

Done, I'm under 4.06 now. I will post here if I've got anything new.

Status with 4.06?

I had no bug yet, but since they happen quite randomly, I can't tell if they disappeared or not.

Closing please ask for reopen when still an issue.