[syslinux] Advice/directions to users of Syslinux

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

me:
> > What term to use instead of "disk" ?

Ronald F. Guilmette wrote in a different thread were my mispost
lured him:

> "mass storage device"
>
> It is the only term which encompasses everything that is of interest
> here, including not just rotating magnetic media, but also flash...
> both USB and sATA... and also rotating *optical* media,  rewritable
> or otherwise.

The rotating optical media (CD, DVD, BD) are not "disks"
suitable for SYSLINUX or EXTLINUX, but rather need ISOLINUX.
PC-BIOS boots them via El Torito boot records, not via MBR.
(That's why the ISO 9660 images with MBR are called "hybrids".)

On the other hand "disk" shall include regular files (disk images).
mkdiskimage seems to be originally intended more for image files
than for real devices. Its help text says "file" not "disk".
Virtual machines will accept image files as emulated disks.

Further, the term is too voluminous, given the fact that "disk"
occurs dozens of times in the wiki.


Currently my best idea for this problem is to have an
article in the wiki, that explains what "disk" shall mean.
Then we could link to it the first occurence of "disk"
in each of the other articles.


But first, i need to complete my article about "normal
MS-DOS disks".
  http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/User:Scdbackup#New_Common_Problems_Bad_Heritage_on_MS_DOS_disk

To my own perception it is now only missing some mkdiskimage
example for "NT/2K/XP" resp. "DOS", matching the installation
instructions in
  http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX#Creating_a_Bootable_Disk


Did anybody on this list ever run mkdiskimage on a real
storage device attached to a Microsoft system ?

I guess from
  syslinux.exe --mbr --active --directory /boot/syslinux/ --install z:
that possibly
  mkdiskimage -F z: 0 255 63
is worth a try.
But i am really not educated with Microsoft device models.

If no examples pop up, then i will cover Microsoft systems by
a mkdiskimage run on an image file and the prescription to
copy it onto stick with their "favorite disk copy program".
Whatever that could be ...


Have a nice day :)

Thomas