[syslinux] chainboot from grub to syslinux in logical partition

[Jeff Sadowski]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Jeff Sadowski <jeff.sadowski at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 4:48 AM, Ferenc Wagner <wferi at niif.hu> wrote:
>> Cynthia Flynn <1cynthia2flynn3 at telus.net> writes:
>>
>>> My thinking is that this would be possible if I could get syslinux
>>> or some other utility to write a proper volume boot record to the
>>> logical partition's boot sector without altering the thumb drive's
>>> master boot record.
>>
>> This is exactly what the syslinux installer does under Linux.  Are you
>> sure it's different under Windows?  (Warning: I never used syslinux
>> under Windows.  I havn't been using Windows for several years.  I've
>> never used syslinux to boot from a logical partition.)
>>
>>> I think that when syslinux installs are done that ldlinux.bss and
>>> ldlinux.sys are patched according to drive/partition-specific
>>> attributes and ldlinux.bss is then written to the boot sector,
>>> right?
>>
>> Yes, as far as I know.
>>
>
> He has to have meant no here or yes to "ldlinux.bss and ldlinux.sys
> are patched according to drive/partition-specific attributes" and no
> to writing ldlinux.bss written to the boot sector because it doesn't
> follow what he said as above and below and syslinux doesn't touch the
> MBR unless you explicitly tell it to in the windows version as far as
> I have always understood. In fact in the MBR, after you install
> syslinux to a partition you have to set that partition as active. If
> you had grub or lilo you had to either chain load syslinux or install
> mbr.bin to the MBR that is what the flag does in windows if you use
> it.
>
>>> But, in Windows XP it is not normally possible for syslinux.exe to
>>> even see anything but the first partition on a thumb drive.
>>
>
> This is a windows limitation you can not as far as I know mount them
> as their own drive letters in windows.
> If it has a drive letter you can use syslinux on it. I'll experiment
> more with windows and the disk management in it to try and find a way
> around this but it seems like a windows limitation. I'll try vista
> when I get a chance also.
>

http://www.lancelhoff.com/make-windows-see-any-usb-flash-drive-as-local-disk/
here is how to get the second partition to be seen by windows xp then
you can use syslinux on it as normal.

>> Not even with administrator privileges?
>>
>>> Moreover, syslinux.exe would overwrite my MBR. And is it even
>>> capable of writing a VBR to a logical partition anyway?
>>
>> From http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX:
>>
>>  These are only in the Windows version:
>>    -m  Mbr; install a bootable MBR sector to the beginning of the drive.
>>
>> So just don't use this option...
>> --
>> Regards,
>> Feri.
>>
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>>
>