[syslinux] Problem booting from CF/SD cards and USB Flashdrives using syslinux

[c.lee111 at gmail.com]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> c.lee111 at gmail.com wrote:
> > I've run into a rather odd problem. It seems that I can format and make 
> > bootable CF/SD cards and USB Flashdrives under Windows 98SE and MS-DOS 
> > 6.22 that will boot to a A: prompt on my system.
> > 
> > 
> > But when I try making the same CF/SD cards and USB Flashdrives bootable 
> > under linux using syslinux I get nothing, not even a error message. It's
> > like the syslinux bootloader doesn't even exist on the CF/SD cards and 
> > USB Flashdrives.
> > 
> > I've looked at the CF/SD cards and USB Flashdrives using Gparted and it 
> > says the cards using syslinux are bootable, so that's not the problem.
> > 
> > I'm pretty sure the CF/SD cards and USB Flashdrives aren't being 
> > formated as USB-ZIP under Win98se and MS-DOS 6.22, so why can I create
> > bootable CF/SD cards and USB Flashdrives under Win98se and MS-DOS 6.22, 
> > but not under Linux using syslinux?
> 
> They're probably triggering different bugs.  In particular Win98SE and 
> MS-DOS may not be using EBIOS, whereas syslinux might be trying to and 
> getting a hard lockup.
> 
> The first thing to try is to install syslinux with the -s option.  I 
> need to add an option to force CBIOS, too.
> 

I've managed to get my CF/SD usb flash drives to boot using syslinux at 
last. 

What I did was the following:

******************************************************************************

[root at localhost clee2]# /usr/share/syslinux/mkdiskimage -z /dev/sdg 0 64 32
[root at localhost clee2]# syslinux /dev/sdg1
[root at localhost clee2]# /sbin/fdisk /dev/sdg

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdg: 524 MB, 524286976 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 499 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdg1   *           1         499      510960    6  FAT16
   
Command (m for help): q

*************************************************************************

[clee2 at localhost ~]$ mc

[clee2 at localhost mystuff]$ su
Password: 
[root at localhost mystuff]# /usr/share/syslinux/mkdiskimage -z /dev/sdg 0 64 32
[root at localhost mystuff]# syslinux /dev/sdg1
[root at localhost mystuff]# /sbin/fdisk /dev/sdg

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdg: 1025 MB, 1025482752 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 977 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdg1   *           1         977     1000432    6  FAT16

Command (m for help): q


After I did the above and rebooted the computer, I got the following 
syslinux message/prompt for the CF/SD/Flashdrives I couldn't get to boot
before with syslinux....

Syslinux 3.51 2007-06-10 CBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2007 H. Peter Anvin
could not find kernel image: linux
boot: