[syslinux] booting from usb

[Kent Robotti]

>Hai ,
>I am Prasanth .Newly subscribed to mailing list.I am in search for a boot
>loader which could boot linux form Usb flash memory. i am in process of
>building a new USB linux distribution .
>Can anybody give help.
>Things I need to know.
>Could syslinux could recognize a usb flash drive and filesystem inside that
>?
>If yes is how ?

You could use extlinux from the syslinux package.

This assumes you want to use the USB drive like a hard drive.

You use 'fdisk' to create a Linux partition on it, then
put a ext2 filesystem on it.

This assumes your USB drive is on /dev/sda.

# fdisk /dev/sda  "Create Linux partition!"
# mke2fs -m0 /dev/sda1

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/linux

Create a Linux system in /mnt/linux.

/mnt/linux/bin/
           boot/kernel
	   dev/
           etc/fstab  "/dev/sda1 / ext2 defaults 1 1"
	   sbin/
           proc/
	   tmp/
	   usr/
	   etc...

Create a /etc/linux/extlinux.conf file.

DEFAULT linux
PROMPT 1
#DISPLAY boot.txt

LABEL linux
KERNEL /boot/kernel
APPEND vga=normal rootdelay=6 root=/dev/sda1 ro

LABEL linux2
KERNEL /boot/kernel
APPEND vga=normal ro

# extlinux /mnt/linux	   
	   
Whether it boots or not depends on your BIOS.

My BIOS won't recognize my USB drive unless it has a FAT
signature of some kind.

You don't have to create a Linux system in /mnt/linux to test it,
just skip that part until you know extlinux boots.