[syslinux] MBR ## SYSLINUX ## Linux (before first partition)

[H. Peter Anvin]

Larry Riedel wrote:
> On a boot drive on a PC, I would like to boot Linux
> by having it at the beginning of the disk, right
> after the MBR and SYSLINUX, _before_ the first
> partition, and _not_ in a filesystem.  Essentially I
> want something like booting a floppy with a kernel
> built using "make fdimage", but with a hard disk
> instead of a floppy disk.  The first partition would
> probably start at the second cylinder; for a drive
> with 255*63*512 bytes/cyl, that should be enough
> room for a kernel and a little initrd/initramfs.
> 
> Can I do this easily using SYSLINUX, and if so, is
> it something fairly straightforward to setup (does
> not require much deviation from typical usage)?

You'd have to massively hack it, so no, it's not easy; you'd be better 
off writing the code from scratch probably.

You're not explaining why you want to do this, there might be an easier 
way to accomplish what you want to do.

	-hpa