[syslinux] Unable to figure out extlinux

[Dyks, Axel (XL)]

H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Dyks, Axel (XL) wrote:
>> Peter wrote:
>>>> Which steps did you perform to actually _install_ the bootloader?
>>>> By the way, the CLFS book explains how to use grub and not
>>>> how to use syslinux/extlinux.
>>>>
>>> The problem with lilo and grub is that they expect to be used in an
>>> environment that isn't cross compiled, and the drives tend not to
>>> change. In this case, I'm building the flash card out on a laptop and
>>> then moving it to the platform.
>> Both grub as well as syslinux/extlinux can be installed on drives/media
>> that are _temporarily_ attached to your "build system".
>> As long as the target system's CPU "understands" the (x86) instructions
>> of the boot loader everything should work as expected.
> 
> Except that grub and lilo expect disk numbers to stay constant.  That's
> a totally bogus assumption.
Don't know much about lilo, but I think that the mapping between (BIOS)
drive numbers and the disks as seen by the OS can be manually changed  
when installing grub.

  http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Device-map

... and I feel like remembering that this is exactly what I had
to do when I installed grub and "gentoo-embedded" on my USB
memory stick for the first time

... though I must admit that meanwhile syslinux/extlinux has become
my favorite boot loader at least for external boot media.

:-) Axel