[syslinux] how to create bootable FreeDOS HDD or USB flash drive?

[Martin T]

Gene,

thanks! Looks like this was the problem. I recreated raw 10MB file
with dd(1) and readded partitions to partition table with fdisk.
Results are following:

root at debian64:~# fdisk -lu 10MB
You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.

Disk 10MB: 0 MB, 0 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4fe96db2

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
 10MB1   *          63    10442249     5221093+   6  FAT16
root at debian64:~#


All the other steps were exactly identical as in my first post. Now
I'm able to boot from the "10MB" image file and syslinux bootloader is
executed, but syslinux looks for configuration file:

http://i.imgur.com/Lvzki.png

While I know how to create a syslinux.cfg for Linux, I have no idea
how should this look like for such FreeDOS setup. Files in the "10MB1"
partition root are following:

root at debian64:~# ls /media/10MBfiledir/
atiflash.exe  CHOICE.EXE   DEVLOAD.COM	ELTORITO.SYS  FDCONFIG.SYS
fdisk.ini	 HD5870.rom  KERNEL.SYS   MDISKCHK.COM	SHSUCDX.COM
UIDE.SYS	 USB2	       XMSSIZE.COM
AUTOEXEC.BAT  COMMAND.COM  EDIT.EXE	FDAPM.COM     FDISK.EXE
GETARGS.COM  jemmex.exe  ldlinux.sys  SHSUCDHD.EXE	TDSK.EXE
UPDATE.BAT  vmsmount.exe
root at debian64:~#

Should one add syslinux.cfg to the root of the "10MB1"? How should the
configuration file look like for DOS? Or is it possible to boot DOS
using syslinux?



regards,
martin


2012/6/26, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com>:
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 7:44 PM, Martin T <m4rtntns at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2) Created partition table to MBR using fdisk. Results are following:
>>
>> root at debian64:~# fdisk -lu 10MB
>> You must set cylinders.
>> You can do this from the extra functions menu.
>>
>> Disk 10MB: 0 MB, 0 bytes
>> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
>> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> Disk identifier: 0x3009589f
>>
>> Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
>>  10MB1   *           1     1606499      803249+   6  FAT16
>> root at debian64:~#
>
> Odd, this says a partition starts at sector 1.  Normally it'd be 63.
>
>> 3) Mounted this 10MB file with 32256 offset:
>>
>> root at debian64:~# echo 63*512 | bc -l
>> 32256
>> root at debian64:~# losetup --offset 32256 /dev/loop1 10MB
>> root at debian64:~#
>
> Misaligned.  Sector 1 is not sector 63.
>
> --
> -Gene
>
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