[syslinux] USB key: CBIOS line printed, nothing else

[H. Peter Anvin]

Gustavo Guillermo Pérez wrote:
> El Martes, 5 de Septiembre de 2006 18:33, Josh Lehan escribió:
>> * There's a problem with SYSLINUX finding its configuration file,
>> though.  There's supposed to be many possible choices, "linux" and
>> "knoppix" among them, and a nice VGA startup splash screen as well.
>>
>> Typing in "linux" at this command prompt did not work.  Neither did
>> "knoppix".
>>
>> I'm guessing this is a problem of SYSLINUX not finding its configuration
>> file, and falling back to default behaviour.
> Wrong, I use to boot with extlinux or syslinux, and always got a proper boot 
> prompt with a working cmdline, may be you do not make a configuration file, 
> and may be you are coping the isolinux.cfg file from cdrom, that is not the 
> same. Working on almost every usb stick, and usb-storage bridges....
> 

If you don't get a configuration file it defaults to loading a file 
named "linux", so that's indeed what's happening.

Now, the fact that it gets that far (it has loaded the entire 
ldlinux.sys) and then doesn't get the configuration file is a bit odd. 
One thing that might be worth watching for is to make sure VFAT hasn't 
mangled any of your filenames (mount your disk with "-t msdos" to verify 
that).  Another option would be to try "syslinux -s", or try using 
EXTLINUX (on ext2fs).

As for CBIOS versus EBIOS; SYSLINUX will use EBIOS if it's available, 
since EBIOS doesn't have the cylinder 1024 limitation.

	-hpa