[syslinux] Advice/directions to users of Syslinux

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Dean Graff wrote:
> Also, I am trying to use the syntax:
>
> mkdiskimage -z -F -4 binary.img 1000
>
> To get that zip drive geometry for my images and increase the
> portable ness of their boot ability. Will this work, to make the zip
> drive geometry and then dd or cat this to the 'mass storage device' ?

The copy program should not care what is in the image file.

Anyway: The difference between "-z" and "-z -4" is just the partition
slot that is used to mark a partition starting at LBA 32.
With -4, the first three partition slots in the MBR are zero,
and number 4 contains the partition info.
Without -4, it's the last 3 slots which are zero.
The code of mkdiskimage would also obey the undocumented
options -2 and -3.

I understand that the advise for ZIP-style partitioning is
for old BIOSes which at USB only expect ZIP-drives.
  http://www.syslinux.org/doc/usbkey.txt

As always, you will have to test with all machines in reach.


I meanwhile learned that mkdiskimage option -o tells you
what offset to use with mount and syslinux:

  offset=$(mkdiskimage -z -F -4 -o binary.img 1000)
  mount -o loop,offset="$offset" binary.img /mnt
  ...
  syslinux --offset "$offset" binary.img

So even if it changes its habits with partition start,
this sketch will still work.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas