[syslinux] Bug#604245: Debian bug#604245: Syslinux fails (does not receive key presses on Sony vaio Z12C5E)

[Gene Cumm]

On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 02:49, Gyorgy Jeney <nog.lkml at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 23 November 2010 23:52, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 14:48, Gyorgy Jeney <nog.lkml at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> But then I noticed that I wasn't following the (debian) instructions
>>> properly and I was writing the image to /dev/sde, instead of
>>> /dev/sde1.  As soon as a partition was created, an appropriate MBR
>>> installed, the image in question worked on the Sony.
>>>
>>> Is such partition-less configurations supported?
>>
>> Floppies do it all the time but they also make the file system across
>> the entire device and not just a partition.
>>
>> Strange, I would have expected an error from the installer about no file system.
>
> Do you mind my asking, what installer?  The thing that installs
> syslinux on the USB key?  I guess that didn't complain because during
> testing I did:

Yes, extlinux/extlinux, linux/syslinux, mtools/syslinux,
dos/syslinux.com, win32/syslinux.exe, and win64/syslinux64.exe should
be all of the SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX installers (relative to the
distribution root).

> mkdosfs -I /dev/sde
> ./linux/syslinux /dev/sde
>
> I guess that means there was a filesystem there.

Yep, and as a result, there are no partitions.  This would cause it to
not complain.  My bad.

-- 
-Gene