Incompatible with HP DV6 notebook BIOS

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?

Make FAT32 grub4dos USB pen (various USB flash drives tried).
Add menu.lst for a linux ISO.
Test with QEMU - works OK. Works on an eeePC. 
If boot from HP Pavillion DV6, it hangs on after boot command.
Hangs on another DV6 6154EA. Bios Rev. F.1B (latest), Product QC368PA#ABG
This happens with several different ISOs tested, e.g. Xiaopan  - all hang!

e.g. type in these commands in console (or from menu.lst)
uuid (bd)
call set UUID=%^?%
map /Xiaopan0.4.4.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz quiet tinycore iso=UUID=%UUID%/Xiaopan0.4.4.iso waitusb=5
initrd /boot/core.gz
boot
(hangs here)


Syslinux has no problems on the DV6 and can boot any ISO. The problem seems to 
be between grub4dos and the DV6.

Also if booting HBCD from an ISO, it Blue screens on the DV6 (but OK on QEMU or 
other systems).

Again OK via syslinux.

This a report from a user - I do not own a DV6 and so cannot reproduce the 
issue.

This seems to be a compatibility problem between grub4dos and DV6 BIOS.

Any ideas?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by Steve6375 on 4 Feb 2014 at 11:41

[GoogleCodeExporter]

>>> Syslinux has no problems on the DV6 and can boot any ISO

But how? Do you mean "with memdisk"? Note that a grub4dos way that is 
equivalent to memdisk must be by using "map" WITH --mem. 

>>> map /Xiaopan0.4.4.iso (0xff)

If I am not mistaken, syslinux has not yet an equivalent way for direct mapping.

If you succeeded using memdisk, try the equivalent way of "map --mem".

You cannot simply compare "non-mem map" with memdisk.

Original comment by [email protected] on 8 Feb 2014 at 2:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Booting xiaopan using Unetbootin works on all systems (including the DV6)
Booting xiaopan using grldr works on all systems except DV6.
I don't have an HP DV6 and so cannot test myself, so I have to rely on user 
report.

Original comment by Steve6375 on 8 Feb 2014 at 3:01

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sounds like one more case of "BIOS attack". If we lack deeply technical 
description, we would not appear to have any chance to solve it.

I am afraid you might have to tell the case of "map --mem", as one of the steps 
towards the final solution(with success, hopefully).

Original comment by [email protected] on 9 Feb 2014 at 1:09

[GoogleCodeExporter]

as reported by user
using --mem to load the iso file into memory - it gets stuck on the --mem 
command at about 56 out of 96.

Original comment by Steve6375 on 10 Feb 2014 at 10:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What about the CPU? Is it AMD or Intel?

From the report, it sounds like a buggy CPU with a buggy BIOS.

Similar issue was encountered several years ago, and happens from time to time, 
or say, occasionally. Last year an AMD machine was reported to have this issue. 
See reports and discussion here in Chinese:

http://bbs.wuyou.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=311435&page=5#pid2815556

Yes, we have fished out a way(or a workaround). Insert a line of "pause 
--wait=S" just before the "hanging-up" line, and the problem could be avoided. 
Try various values of S, e.g., from 0 to 30, until you gain a "success" that it 
will almost never hang up.

Original comment by [email protected] on 11 Feb 2014 at 10:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

No more news from user - suggest close this as sounds like a buggy BIOS?

Original comment by Steve6375 on 29 Aug 2014 at 10:39