[syslinux] Syslinux & usb booting

Lauri Kasanen curaga at operamail.com
Sun Nov 25 06:07:22 PST 2007


Hey Tomas

I thought about that too, but the syslinux docs clearly say I'd have to use the -m (mbr) switch in Windows to have it install the mbr, which I didn't (I used only -sf)

So, could it be syslinux does that without telling? Undocumented behavior ain't good..

> I had similar problem in the past.
> When set up in Windoz, the Flash Key was bootable.
> When in Linux, nothing.
> 
> My problem was solved by 'cat mbr.bin > /dev/sda'
> Simply said, if you write the bootloader (syslinux) to /dev/sda1
> in Linux, it doesn't do anything unless you put a generic MBR code
> to the MBR area of your device. Because MBR is read and executed
> first, and then the MBR code looks for partitions and bootloader in sda1.
> 
> Syslinux in windows will write the MBR, but syslinux in Linux won't.
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Tomas M
> 
> 
> Lauri Kasanen wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > It looks to me there's some issues in the Linux implementation of 
> > syslinux (root ver, I don't have mtools).
> >
> > When I used "syslinux -sf /dev/sda1", the stick was not bootable, 
> > it showed a black screen when booted, with a ";" appearing when I 
> > pressed a button.
> >
> > The partition was marked active & bootable. And it was the only 
> > partition, and primary.
> >
> > Then I did the same thing on XP, aka "syslinux -sf f:". And 
> > whatdoyouknow, it booted fine.
> >
> > After using syslinux on linux "file -s /dev/sda" showed the same 
> > than right after formatting. But after using syslinux on Windoze 
> > it showed only "x86 boot sector", without all the mkdosfs id's.
> >
> > So, why doesn't the linux version work properly?
> >
> > Lauri

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