[Bug 1883040] Re: groovy daily won't boot anymore on some older BIOS boxes

[Chris Guiver]

For ~exact dating on when this issue occurs - look at my Lubuntu daily
testing...

Lubuntu daily boots on hp8200 (the same thumb-drive that I mentioned
failing earlier as it no longer boots on hp dc7700 which is a box I very
regularly re-wipe with QA-test installs).   Of late I've favored the
d755 that still boots (it has an issue with calamares.) but my
iso.qa.ubuntu.com logs should I'd hope show when this issue first
appeared by scanning my lubuntu testing.

(PS: if you have a job I can use to copy text from my searches, I'd love
it - forum question hasn't got any answers on how to... I'm not a python
coder)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1883040

Title:
  groovy daily won't boot anymore on some older BIOS boxes

Status in syslinux package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  ** Synopsis

  I haven't been able to get ISOs to boot on [some] older BIOS based
  boxes since late Sunday (7-June). Examples are Ubuntu, Ubuntu-Studio,
  Kubuntu, Xubuntu and since then Lubuntu too.

  NOTE:  This `ubuntu-bug` report was filed on the only box (I'd noted
  at the time) that booted, and didn't have an issue, so details of box
  are NOT the problem.

  On boxes that have the issue boot stops at

  "unable to find medium container a live file system
  Attempt interactive netboot from a URL?"

  (no squashfs check on plymouth type display is seen)

  ** Addendum - It's not impacting all BIOS boxes either
  FAILED to boot are
  - hp dc7700 (c2d-e6320, 5gb, nvidia quadro nvs 290)
  - dell [optiplex] 755 (c2d-e6850, 5gb, amd/ati radeon rv516/x1300/x1550)

  But boxes that boot are
  + dell [optiplex] 745 (c2d-6600, 6gb, amd/ati radeon rv516/x1300/x1550)
  + dell [optiplex] 755 (c2d-e8300, 8gb, amd/ati radeon rv610/radeon hd2400 pro/xt)
  + dell [optiplex] 780 (c2q-q9400, 4gb, amd/ati cedar radeon hd 5000/6000/7350/8350)
  + hp dc7900 (c2d-e8400, 4gb, intel 4 series integrated i915)
  + hp 8200 elite sff (i5-2400, 8gb, nvidia quadro 600)
  + lenovo thinkpad sl510 (c2d-t6570, 2gb ram, i915)
  + motion computing j3400 (c2d-u9400, 4gb, intel mobile 4 series)

  It APPEARS the boxes that boot are newer; OR issue only impacts a
  small subset of BIOS boxes.  I had a fail & pass with two d755s
  (identical boxes but different motherboards; worked on one without PS2
  mouse/keyboard ports)

  ** Background (timing)

  On Sunday Morning 7-June I zsync'd the lubuntu daily & wrote to media
  to continue testing of our updated LXQt (0.15.0) without issue (AEST
  or my local Melbourne time)

  That night I grabbed ubuntu-studio, ubuntu, xubuntu, kubuntu (& tried
  to grab ubuntu-mate but it's not available yet) and was unable to get
  these to boot  I may not have tried all or in many combinations - just
  gave them all up as problematic.  I also deleted all entries I'd
  started on iso.qa.ubuntu.com (assuming bad media).  Note I would have
  used the failed boxes as they're on the same desk as my primary box.

  Last night (Wednesday 10 June) I grabbed all again, wrote to media
  again, and tried booting & failed.  ISO was tried on four different
  thumb-drives, using two boxes to write the media. It failed to boot on
  multiple tried boxes (HP, DELL.. all BIOS).  Also the Lubuntu was
  updated (zsync) & written and it won't boot either anymore.

  Most hardware I test on is old/BIOS boxes.  Just now I re-tried a
  thumb-drive on this newer UEFI and it boots here - ie. issue appears
  to impact only BIOS boxes (c2d, c2q etc)

  Note: I also have loads of issues with thumb-drive (worn out maybe?)
  which is why I deleted my iso.qa.ubu entries, and didn't raise this
  till today.  3 thumb-drives were purchased this year, 2 have never
  given me issues.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
  Package: syslinux 3:6.04~git20190206.bf6db5b4+dfsg1-2
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-26.30-generic 5.4.30
  Uname: Linux 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu38
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
  CasperVersion: 1.449
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Thu Jun 11 03:31:57 2020
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Alpha amd64 (20200609)
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm-256color
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: syslinux
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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