[syslinux] Stumped by extlinux After OS Upgrade

[John.Florian at dart.biz]

> From: Ferenc Wagner <wferi at niif.hu>

> > extlinux doesn't understand file systems like, say grub, does it?
> 
> Extlinux and Grub both have various "stages".  The difference is that
> the second stage of Extlinux, which understands the filesystem, itself
> resides in the boot filesystem, while it resides in the slack area for
> Grub.  This is why you can break Extlinux with filesystem operations, by
> messing with its second stage.  However, starting with the config file
> everything is read by the filesystem code, so they are safe to play with
> (doing so does not require bootloader interaction, like LILO does).

Thanks for that excellent detail.  Just to make sure I fully understand 
this, you're saying that the 2nd stage is responsible for finding, reading 
and interpreting the config file, right?  Further, the first stage expects 
to find the second stage in the boot file system, but the first stage 
doesn't understand ext file systems.  Only the 2nd stage understands ext 
file systems.

How does the first stage actually find the 2nd stage?
--
John Florian