[syslinux] After USB boot problems on Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Ady wrote:
> The whole "booting business" is bigger than one specific bootloader. 

Too many participants at too many interfaces.


> IMHO, there is more-than-enough to do about The Syslinux Project 
> itself

Nevertheless i believe that the SYSLINUX wiki could be more
tangible about what is a "normal" MS-DOS formatted disk.
At least for those who seek help for their troubles.

I still have the factory-set contents of my three USB sticks.

Maybe you can tell which of them would be a pitfall for Ronald's
board:
--------------------------------------------------------------

2 GB Intenso:
Partition type  0x06  (Wikipedia: FAT 16, CHS or LBA)
Start LBA       32 = CHS    0    1   1
End   LBA  3915775 = CHS  956  128  32
The latter has no integer solution pairs for H/C and S/H. 
(Neither have neighboring LBAs.)
Partition content according to command "file":
  x86 boot sector, Microsoft Windows 98 Bootloader IO.SYS+MSDOS.SYS,
  code offset 0x3c, OEM-ID "MSWIN4.1", sectors/cluster 64, root entries 512,
  Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/FAT 239, heads 128, hidden sectors 32,
  sectors 3915744 (volumes > 32 MB) , serial number [...], unlabeled,
  FAT (16 bit)

--------------------------------------------------------------

4 GB Sandisk with U3 CD-ROM emulation:
Partition type  0x0b  (Wikipedia: FAT32, CHS or LBA)
Start LBA       38 = CHS    0   0   39
End   LBA  7839719 = CHS  487 254   63
Integer solution pair at:  H/C= 255  S/H= 63
Partition content according to command "file":
  x86 boot sector
  (There are several sectors which end by the MBR signature 0x55 0xaa.
   If i cut off the first 38 * 512 bytes then Linux mount recognizes
   it as "vfat".)

--------------------------------------------------------------

8 GB Corsair:
Partition type  0x0b  (Wikipedia: FAT32, CHS or LBA)
Start LBA       63 = CHS    0   1   1
End   LBA 15794175 = CHS  982 254  63
The latter has no integer solution pairs for H/C and S/H. 
Partition content according to command "file":
  x86 boot sector, code offset 0x58, OEM-ID "MSDOS5.0", sectors/cluster 8,
  reserved sectors 36, Media descriptor 0xf8, heads 255, hidden sectors 63,
  sectors 15794113 (volumes > 32 MB) , FAT (32 bit), sectors/FAT 15394,
  serial number [...], unlabeled

--------------------------------------------------------------

The two partitionings without integer (H/C,S/H) cause complaints
by fdisk about differing "physical/logical endings".
The CHS values which i read by hex editor match those of "phys".
No idea from where fdisk gets the "logical" ones.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas