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

[c.lee111 at gmail.com]

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007, Rui Santos 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?
> >   
> Could be a BIOS issue. My BIOS (ASUS) always assumes that any device
> under 512MB is a USB Floppy and above it assumes is a USB HDD. For a USB
> PEN/CF/SD under those 512MB to be detected as a USB HDD, there is an
> option ( BIOS ) that forces it to behave like one.
> 

I don't know about this. As you can see this CF card formatted under 
Windows 98se is a 1 gig card......


 Volume in drive A is 1-GIG      
 Volume Serial Number is 1EEA-2658
 Directory of A:\

COMMAND  COM        93,890  04-23-99 10:22p
1-GIG    TXT             0  07-31-07 11:21p
         2 file(s)         93,890 bytes
         0 dir(s)   1,024,770,048 bytes free

And Linux Fdisk seems to see it as a dos-partitioned hardrive rather 
than a (super) floppy.


Disk /dev/sdb: 1025 MB, 1025482752 bytes
62 heads, 15 sectors/track, 2153 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 930 * 512 = 476160 bytes

     Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/sdb1   *         1      2154   1001447+   6  FAT16
   

> Also, have you tried to issue syslinux with -ma options ?
> 
> Hope it helps,
> Rui Santos

Not yet, but I've give it try when I have some free time avalible...

Chris