[syslinux] Advice/directions to users of Syslinux

Thomas Schmitt scdbackup at gmx.net
Wed Jan 22 13:34:13 PST 2014


Hi,

me:
> > But MiB alignment does not match 255x63 cylinders. (Or at least
> > only in very large steps. They share no prime factors except
> > the block size.)
 
Ady:
> It doesn't matter. My test.img for Ronald had Nx255x63 geometry, and 
> STARTing LBA of 2048.

Yeah. It has end CHS 89,69,35.
But it lacks the other ingredient of the mess: a CHS driven filesystem.

The hope with 64x32 and 255x63 is to make CHS addressing
more likely to happen correctly.


> So, IMHO, I don't see a Windows-user looking for mkdiskimage, but I 
> could be wrong.

If the MS-Windows tools guide the user properly, then there
will be no need for mkdiskimage.

But a DOS line with mkdiskimage is by far easier to document
than a GUI session. Further it would follow the tradition
of syslinux.exe examples in the main wiki.


> And, not every fail in SYSLINUX is related to inadequate 
> partitioning.

I will graft this statement into Bad_Heritage_on_MS_DOS_disk.


> I would suggest not using the work "disk". It is frequently 
> misinterpreted, specially when used near "MS-DOS". We are talking 
> about "partition tables".

I am unhappy with "disk" too.
But that change would have a much wider scope in the text.

"Disk" is the term used by the starting point of the partitioning
endeavor in SYSLINUX#Creating_a_Bootable_Disk
 "In order to create a bootable disk using SYSLINUX,
  prepare a normal MS-DOS formatted disk."


> It works on GPT too.

This is hopefully a feature, not a problem. :o)


> Don't worry. The wiki is there to be improved.

My change shall already start as improvement.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas



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