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

[Rich Mahn]

Dean Graff <graff97 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Could i get an example to make a binary hard disk image with `mkdiskimage',
> populate it and install syslinux please? Preferably with a single FAT
> partition.
> 

Thomas Schmitt <scdbackup at gmx.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Rich Mahn wrote:
> >  mkdiskimage -4 -z -F /dev/sdX
> 
> Added to my emerging article. Thanks.
> 
> 
> > This has worked flawlessly with various USB thumb drives from 256 MiB to
> > 32 GiB
> 
> Cylinder size 64x32 is fully consistent only up to 1 GiB.
> What start LBA, block count, end CHS do you get with larger ones ?
> 

With a 32 GiB drive on /dev/sdf, here's what I do:

   # <syslinux_dir>/bios/utils/mkdiskimage -4 -z -F /dev/sdf
   # <syslinux_dir>/bios/linux/syslinux /dev/sdf4
   # fdisk -l /dev/sdf

   Disk /dev/sdf: 32.1 GB, 32057065472 bytes
   64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 30572 cylinders, total 62611456 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: 0x571aaf5a

      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/sdf4   *          32    62611455    31305712    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

now to put in some programs
   # mkdir m
   # mount /dev/sdf4 m
   # mkdir -p m/syslinux
   # find <syslinux_dir>/bios -name '*.c32' -o -name '*.com' -exec cp '{}' m/syslinux ';'
   # cp <syslinux_dir>/bios/memdisk/memdisk m/syslinux

need a config file
   # cat > m/syslinux.cfg <<!
UI      vesamenu.c32
PROMPT  0
LABEL   hello
    COM32      hello.c32
!

   # umount m
   # rmdir m

Use this as a basis to add whatever else you need.

Of course you probably will have /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc for your thumb
drive.  I've got a lot of disks on this particular system.