Arch Linux

I am unsure whether the problem is related to this upstream bug, but attempting to install syslinux 6.02-8 on a btrfs-formatted legacy dos/MBR partition fails: only the syslinux copyright line appears with a blinking cursor, but no keyboard control. No boot: prompt or menu ever loads.

Note: I attempted the same with syslinux 4.07-1 and it also fails the same way.

Note: I am in contact with the syslinux devs about the issue mentioned in my previous post and I will provide updates here if we come to a conclusion/resolution.

Still no news from the syslinux dev who was going to look into this. I tried to contact him again, wait and see.

Does this work http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Syslinux_6.02_notes#Corrupt_BTRFS_superblock ?

IMHO, there ought to be a warning when installing the buggy update, seeing as a reboot with the new version on a BTRFS root will make boot impossible (I speak from recent experience). The extreme alternative would be to move it to testing and not let the current version get to regular repos at all, but since BTRFS itself is as experimental as it is, that may be too extreme.
An alternate conclusion is that you should read the changelog for every package if you run something as crazy as BTRFS, before installing, but is that reasonable to expect?

Please try testing/syslinux-6.03pre9-1 pkg.

syslinux-6.03pre9-1 made me impossible to boot my system, only a black screen with this line " EDD Load error - Boot error ".
Tried syslinux-install_update unsuccessful.

Reverted to stable version, syslinux boot fine.
I use syslinux on btrfs partition.

Confirm it. I hit the same "EDD Load error - Boot error" on my machine (syslinux & btrfs) today.

Just to clarify, I use [testing] repos and thus syslinux version is 6.03-pre1. I swear that I had no problems until today and previous syslinux (6.02) worked fine for me.

Also the bug subject ways syslinux corrupts btrfs filesystem while comment from 'nyyu' says that simple syslinux downgrade fixes the issue and no filesystem is corrupted. Is bug subject misleading? I haven't try to fix my machine yet.

I was able to restore my system by chrooting to it and downgrading syslinux back to 6.02.

So in my case upgrading to testing syslinux version (6.03) bricks the system, it does not allow to boot the kernel. Note that it does not corrupt btrfs superblock, at least dmesg does not complain about it.

@ALL: Can you try testing/syslinux-6.03pre11-2 pkg?

No, this version does not help me. I see that 6.03pre11-2 has EFI related modification, but my machine has BIOS.

I just sent a message about my syslinux+btrfs problem to syslinux maillist. http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2014-May/022081.html

Hopefully we'll find a solution for it. If you have anything to share please send more information to the syslinux maillist.

Commits http://git.zytor.com/?p=syslinux/syslinux.git;a=commit;h=37eef6403a44cd7de97ce997cf899c0824792ce4 and http://git.zytor.com/?p=syslinux/syslinux.git;a=commit;h=93f89ce6697adffcb3b40d758445ff9adf18b6d4 seem to fix the issue.

After discussing this issue with syslinux developers it was found that ldlinux.sys file is too big. Syslinux cannot load this file from btrfs if it is bigger than 64K. I disabled debug code in syslinux package and the size is 60K now. I pushed 6.03pre11-3 to [testing] and finally able to boot using 6.03.

Thanks Keshav, the upstream changes that remove 64K limit look promising.

@ALL: Can you guys confirm whether testing/syslinux-6.03pre12-3 fixes the issue?

I confirm that [testing] syslinux works fine for me now.