[syslinux] Adding a "boot from local hard disk" option to syslinux menu, booted from USB

[H. Peter Anvin]

Dyks, Axel (XL) wrote:
> H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> Dyks, Axel (XL) wrote:
>>> Well, though it's not "syslinux" you could try the "grub" booloader
>>> which has a "map" command that allows to "swap" BIOS drives.
>>>
>>> Would be interesting to know whether "grub" is able to "see" the
>>> laptop drive when booting from your USB disk and swap the laptop
>>> drive back into first position ...
>>>
>> If it's not exported, no swapping in the world will help it.
> 
> Yes, but I thought, it would be worse a try.
> Actually, I don't know how much BIOS interaction has been coded into grub (< 2.0).
> Personally I prefer "syslinux" over "grub", but it's the "Load OS from other than the boot disk"
> features of "grub" that often make we switch.
> 
> I'm possibly talking non-sense, because newer versions of syslinux will surely be capable
> of doing exactly what I need ...
> 

Well, disk swapping is one thing that syslinux currently doesn't do.  It 
*can* load from another disk than a boot disk (e.g. "chain.c32 hd1 1" to 
boot from the first partition on the second disk), but some operating 
systems do need extra help.  I haven't gotten that request all that 
often, so I was under the impression it was a relatively low demand and 
prioritized accordingly.

	-hpa