Syslinux doesn't correctly interpret kernel="/foo/bar" command

lumix · 06-18-2008, 12:16 AM

I've seen other references to this problem, but no solution. When, for example, I type either

Code:

/casper/vmlinuz

or

Code:

kernel=/casper/vmlinuz

It complains that it can't find "/casper/.vml".

I've figured out that it is interpreting this as one long file name, and not a path to a file (i.e. called "vmlinuz"), and furthermore it is limited to 8 character file names. I believe this is why it foolishly inserts a period after the eighth character, and cuts of the entire string after the 3rd extension char.

Any idea why it's doing this? It isn't that syslinux will always do this, because some methods for creating iso-to-usb live-boot images will successfully use "/casper/vmlinuz", without the above problem.

lumix · 06-18-2008, 11:41 AM

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I guess what I'm saying is, bump?

alan_ri · 06-18-2008, 01:24 PM

I guess that you have to name your kernel differently,so that kernel image extension will have maximum three characters and those characters must not be already reserved characters,for example .bs which is Boot sector and it's reserved for SYSLINUX only,meaning that you can use this extension for ISOLINUX but it want work with SYSLINUX,that's way the methods you were talking about were successful.
It's known that

Quote:

there isn't a standard extension used for Linux kernels, and that none of the commonly loaded data formats (except perhaps COM32) have reliable magic numbers.

so it's reccomended that

Quote:

If you want to name your kernel images something that will avoid confusion, use the extension .zi (zImage/bzImage).

.
Also,one thing to have in mind is

Quote:

When using SYSLINUX or ISOLINUX, make sure that the real name of kernels and other files are the ones you actually specify.

lumix · 06-19-2008, 08:24 AM

I'm still confused as to why sometimes

Code:

/casper/vmlinuz

is perfectly acceptable to syslinux, but other times syslinux tries to read this fullpath as an 8.3 filename.

For example, when I used "unetbootin" (a downloadable iso-to-usb utility), this worked--but only when unetbootin was run from windows. run from linux I ran into the 8.3 file name issue again.

alan_ri · 06-19-2008, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lumix

For example, when I used "unetbootin" (a downloadable iso-to-usb utility), this worked--but only when unetbootin was run from windows. run from linux I ran into the 8.3 file name issue again.

That is what I was trying to explain in my first post here.