Bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.

[c9ghtst]

Bootiso fails to run on Fedora 27 system with syslinux packages installed.

[root@fedora27 ~]# ~user/bin/bootiso /local/win10/Win10_1803_English_x64.iso
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux/’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
Exiting...

[root@fedora27 ~]# rpm -qa | grep syslinux
syslinux-6.04-0.7.fc27.x86_64
syslinux-extlinux-6.04-0.7.fc27.x86_64
syslinux-nonlinux-6.04-0.7.fc27.noarch
syslinux-extlinux-nonlinux-6.04-0.7.fc27.noarch

Script checks the presence of folder /usr/lib/syslinux/bios and file mbr.bin in bios sub-folder. Folder /usr/lib/syslinux doesn't exist in the file system. Package syslinux-nonlinux-6.04-0.7.fc27.noarch has *.c32 and *.bin files installed in /usr/shares/syslinux/
As a workaround folder /usr/lib/syslinux/bios can be created manually and synced with /usr/shares/syslinux/

[root@fedora27 ~]# rpm -ql syslinux-nonlinux
/usr/share/syslinux/altmbr.bin
/usr/share/syslinux/altmbr_c.bin
/usr/share/syslinux/altmbr_f.bin
/usr/share/syslinux/cat.c32
/usr/share/syslinux/chain.c32
/usr/share/syslinux/cmd.c32
...
[root@fedora27 ~]# find / -type f -name "mbr.bin"
/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin
[root@fedora27 ~]# mkdir -p /usr/lib/syslinux/bios
[root@fedora27 ~]# rsync -av /usr/share/syslinux/ /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/
[root@fedora27 ~]# ~user/bin/bootiso /local/win10/Win10_1803_English_x64.iso
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
bootiso: UEFI boot check validated. Your USB will work with UEFI boot.
bootiso: Partition label automatically set to 'CCCOMA_X64F'.
You can explicitly set label with '-L, --label' option.
bootiso: Listing drives available in your system:
NAME MODEL VENDOR SIZE TRAN HOTPLUG SERIAL
sdf USB Flash 7.6G usb 1
bootiso: Autoselecting 'sdf' (only USB device candidate)
bootiso: The selected device '/dev/sdf' is connected through USB.
bootiso: Created ISO mount point at '/mnt/iso.0TL'.
bootiso: About to wipe out the content of device '/dev/sdf'.
Are you sure you want to proceed? (y/n)>y
bootiso: Erasing contents of '/dev/sdf'
...
bootiso: Created USB device mount point at '/mnt/usb.1Wb'
bootiso: Copying files from ISO to USB device with 'rsync'
bootiso: Synchronizing writes on device '/dev/sdf'
bootiso: Took 870 seconds to perform [install-auto] action.
bootiso: ISO succesfully unmounted (/mnt/iso.0TL).
bootiso: USB device partition succesfully unmounted.
bootiso: USB device succesfully ejected.
You can safely remove it!

[jsamr]

@c9ghtst Thanks for the report. I'll publish a minor patch to circumvent the issue later this week.

[jsamr]

@c9ghtst With v3.2.0, you can export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT environment variable to /usr/share/syslinux, which should fix the issue. Would be nice to confirm :-)

[Ninj0r]

I can confirm that setting SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT does not work with v3.2.2

echo $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT
/usr/share/syslinux

./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
         Exiting...

However doing:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/syslinux/bios
sudo rsync -av /usr/share/syslinux/ /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/

found in the original post did work and solve the issue.

[jsamr]

@Ninj0r Thanks for the feedback ; I'll take a look at it tomorrow.

[jsamr]

@Ninj0r I have trouble finding an explanation to your outcome.

I added those lines after L124:

echo "$syslinuxLibRoot"
exit 0

And did

Are you absolutely certain the env variable is exported ? Can you try with an inline env set?

[Ninj0r]

I removed the files at /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/ and tried it again after a reboot:

[Utils]$ uname -r
4.20.6-100.fc28.x86_64
[Utils]$ echo $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT

[Utils]$ 

So that variable isn't set; then:

[Utils]$ export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT=/usr/share/syslinux
[Utils]$ echo $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT
/usr/share/syslinux
[Utils]$ 

Which should mean the variable is set.

[Utils]$ ./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
         Exiting...
[Utils]$

Echoing inline:

[Utils]$ echo $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT; ./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso
/usr/share/syslinux
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
         Exiting...
[Utils]$ 

So according to echo it should be set. Setting inline:

[Utils]$ export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT=/usr/share/syslinux; ./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
         Exiting...
[Utils]$ 

After modifying L124:

[Utils]$ ./bootiso 
/usr/share/syslinux

So it seems that $syslinuxLibRoot is getting the set value...! Very bizarre.

Looking a little closer:

L62 typeset syslinuxLibRoot=${SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT:-'/usr/lib/syslinux'}
...
L1599   foundSyslinuxBiosFolder=$(find "$syslinuxLibRoot" -type d -path '*/bios' -print -quit)
L1600   foundSyslinuxMbrBinary=$(findFileFromPatterns "$syslinuxLibRoot" 'bios/mbr.bin' 'mbr.bin')

It's probably unable to find the files it needs and reverting to the default path.

If there's anything else I can do to help please let me know.

[jsamr]

@Ninj0r Thank you very much for this detailed report.
I'll try to reproduce in a VM later this week and investigate further.

[mutluerol]

i am using gentoo and tested for gentoo its working 👍

[soullivaneuh]

Same issue under void-linux, the env set does not work, have to do:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/syslinux/bios
sudo rsync -av /usr/lib/syslinux/efi64 /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/

And then it works. The env var is ignored.

[jadkik]

I got the same error and solved part of it by running the script with sudo -E. It seems at some point the script runs itself using sudo and the environment variables are lost in the process. The issue is still there but the error messages are different:

With sudo -E:

$ sudo -E ./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_Edu_1803_English_x64.iso 
potato /usr/share/syslinux
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
         Exiting...

Without sudo -E:

$ ./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_Edu_1803_English_x64.iso 
potato /usr/share/syslinux
potato /usr/lib/syslinux
bootiso: Found non-hybrid ISO; inspecting ISO for boot capabilities...
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
find: ‘/usr/lib/syslinux’: No such file or directory
bootiso: Could not find a SYSLINUX bios folder containing c32 bios module files on this system.
         Exiting...

Then I tried making a symlink (ln -sv /usr/share/syslinux ./syslinux/bios) and it didn't pick it up because internally in the find command it's looking for a directory.

This is what ended up working for me:

mkdir -p syslinux/bios/
rsync -av /usr/share/syslinux/ syslinux/bios/
export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT="`pwd`/syslinux"
sudo --preserve-env=SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT ./bootiso ~/Downloads/Win10_Edu_1803_English_x64.iso

[jsamr]

@jadkik Thanks a lot for pointing the sudo -E and lost environment workaround. I'll work on this soon.

[jsamr]

Should be fixed in v3.3.0, let me know!

[jadkik]

I just tried it with export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT=/usr/share/syslinux and it still fails, but for another reason. It's because of the directory structure in /usr/share/syslinux is different (there is no bios directory).

Here's the structure that is found on Fedora 29:

$ export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT=/usr/share/syslinux
$ find $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT -type d
/usr/share/syslinux
/usr/share/syslinux/efi64
/usr/share/syslinux/dosutil
/usr/share/syslinux/diag
/usr/share/syslinux/com32
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/syslinux
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/linux
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/sys
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/sys/i386
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/sys/x86_64
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/gplinclude
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/gplinclude/zzjson
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/gplinclude/acpi
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/gplinclude/disk
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/gplinclude/dmi
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/gplinclude/vpd
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/netinet
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/bitsize32
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/bitsize
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/hw
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/klibc
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/klibc/i386
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/klibc/x86_64
/usr/share/syslinux/com32/include/bitsize64

And the one that actually works:

$ export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT=`pwd`/syslinux
$ find $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT -type d
./syslinux/
./syslinux/bios
./syslinux/bios/efi64
./syslinux/bios/dosutil
./syslinux/bios/diag
./syslinux/bios/com32
./syslinux/bios/com32/include
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/hw
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/bitsize32
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/netinet
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/syslinux
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/linux
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/sys
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/sys/x86_64
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/sys/i386
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/bitsize
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/klibc
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/klibc/x86_64
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/klibc/i386
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/gplinclude
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/gplinclude/vpd
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/gplinclude/disk
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/gplinclude/acpi
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/gplinclude/zzjson
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/gplinclude/dmi
./syslinux/bios/com32/include/bitsize64

I guess you could mention in the README the rsync commands to get the correct files in the structure you expect, or maybe look for the files in either $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT/bios/ or $SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT/.

[jsamr]

@jadkik Have you tried with export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT=/usr/share/syslinux/bios ?

[jadkik]

There is no such directory by default. That's my setup:

$ rpm -qa | grep syslinux
syslinux-extlinux-nonlinux-6.04-0.8.fc28.noarch
syslinux-6.04-0.8.fc28.x86_64
syslinux-tftpboot-6.04-0.8.fc28.noarch
syslinux-extlinux-6.04-0.8.fc28.x86_64
syslinux-perl-6.04-0.8.fc28.x86_64
syslinux-efi64-6.04-0.8.fc28.x86_64
syslinux-nonlinux-6.04-0.8.fc28.noarch
syslinux-devel-6.04-0.8.fc28.x86_64
$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME=Fedora
VERSION="29 (Twenty Nine)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=29
(...)

[Civil]

Same on Gentoo with syslinux-6.04.

It seems that it would be great if bootiso will automatically check /usr/share/syslinux and, for example, check for bios directory and if it's not there - for one of the files it expects and based on results it'll set corresponding variables.

Otherwise workaround is to do something like:

mkdir -p ~/syslinux/bios
cp -a /usr/share/syslinux/* ~/syslinux/bios/
export SYSLINUX_LIB_ROOT="~/syslinux"
bootiso PATH_TO_ISO
rm -rf ~/syslinux