[Mageia-dev] Syslinux integration roadmap

Thu Oct 6 20:18:30 CEST 2011

Hi fellows,
+
+I should have started by writting this email, but later is better that 
+never.
+I'd like to share  with you the work I started on syslinux : I 
+registered myself of maintainer of it.
+
+Under Mandriva, we were running Syslinux 3.8x with the following 
+configuration
+- gfxboot patch (unsupported upstream as very intrusive)
+- isohybrid patch from pterjan
+- a remplacement of the built-in pnglib
+- a packaging with 3 versions of isolinux to load a different 
+configuration file regarding the processor capabilities (x86/x64)
+
+I did upgrade to 4.04 for
+- using the gfxboot com32 module which is now upsteam
+- using a single version of isolinux
+- simplifying the integration of upstream releases into mga
+- an up to date version of HDT
+
+Gfxboot module requested an update of the gfxboot tools & theme. This 
+work is already done and works properly.
+
+The pnglib patch management is under discussions in another thread.
+
+The isohybrid patch have to be reworked as isohybrid is now named 
+isohybrid.pl, a C version of isohybrid now exists also. Rework of this 
+patch should be quite easy to do once we'll have understood all the 
+tricks inside ;) That's shouldn't be a big deal though.
+
+My plan for using a single version of isolinux is the following :
+Using syslinux's capability to load various kernel & configuration files 
+regarding some hw capabilites (the cpu in this case). I'm ending a 
+prototype that will simulate the loading of different entries regarding 
+the cpu arch. This will greatly simplify the management of the boot 
+procedure and especially for the dual arch isos.
+
+I'm also working for having some specific entries for the virtualized 
+world like kvm or virtualbox (cf bug 44).
+
+4.04 is also now providing a new package called extlinux which provides 
+extlinux & the mbr file needed to make a very powerful bootloader for 
+ext* & btrfs filesystems (more to come).
+
+Switching to this new scheme will ease updates by using upstream's 
+version of syslinux.
+This will also require working on BCD to integrate this new 
+configuration files. That shouldn't be hard neither.
+
+I'm part of the upstream project, so if some more features/ideas are 
+coming, I'll be more than happy to help you.
+
+Cheers,
+Erwan
+