[Bug 1691218] Re: PXELINUX always selects default option

[Alexander Achenbach]

Same problem here, using pxelinux 6.03 as of 16.04.

I initially thought that it failed at an earlier PXE stage, as it alway
booted to the local hard disk (exiting PXE), but that was only due to a
'default harddisk' within the configuration:

--------------------------------
default harddisk
timeout 300
prompt 1

label harddisk
  localboot 0

label netboot
  kernel ...
  ...
--------------------------------

Booting into 'netboot' worked well if specified as 'default netboot', but again,
it would always select that default, regardless of prompt input.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to syslinux in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1691218

Title:
  PXELINUX always selects default option

Status in syslinux package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I have a DHCP/TFTP server that's used for network installations.  When
  I tried to switch it to use the version of PXELINUX supplied with
  Ubuntu 16.04 (3:6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1), I found that whatever I typed at
  the PXELINUX command-line, PXELINUX would boot the default image.
  Replacing the Ubuntu PXELINUX binaries with the official upstream
  binaries caused the problem to go away.

  More specifically, I installed /usr/lib/PXELINUX/pxelinux.0 and
  /usr/lib/syslinux/modules/bios/ldlinux.c32 into my /tftpboot
  directory.  To avoid breaking the existing PXELINUX 4.03 installation,
  I installed pxelinux.0 as "test.0" and configured my DHCP server to
  provide that as a filename to my test server.  I put the following
  configuration file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/AC1CD020 (the correct
  name for the IP address of my server):

  DEFAULT mongoose
  PROMPT 1

  LABEL mongoose
          KERNEL mongoose

  LABEL kitten
          KERNEL kitten

  When I boot my test server, pressing [TAB] twice at the PXELINUX
  prompt lists both "mongoose" and "kitten" as available images, but
  whatever I type, PXELINUX says "Loading mongoose... failed: No such
  file or directory" (see attached screenshot), indicating that PXELINUX
  was trying to load "mongoose" every time.  When I replace test.0 and
  ldlinux.c32 with pxelinux.0 and ldlinux.c32 from the official PXELINUX
  6.03 release, I get the behaviour I expect, namely that the error
  message mentions the name of the image I selected.

  While my test involves images that don't exist, I get the same
  behaviour for more normal configuration files that load actual
  kernels.  I also get the same behaviour from two different PXE
  implementations (VMware and a Sun Fire X4150).

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: pxelinux 3:6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-77.98-generic 4.4.59
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-77-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.5
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Tue May 16 18:37:49 2017
  Dependencies: syslinux-common 3:6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1
  JournalErrors:
   Error: command ['journalctl', '-b', '--priority=warning', '--lines=1000'] failed with exit code 1: Hint: You are currently not seeing messages from other users and the system.
         Users in the 'systemd-journal' group can see all messages. Pass -q to
         turn off this notice.
   No journal files were opened due to insufficient permissions.
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: syslinux
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2017-05-11 (5 days ago)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/syslinux/+bug/1691218/+subscriptions