[syslinux] installing extlinux on a fresh system. Why does it fail ?

[Ady]

> Hi All,
> 
> I am trying to install extlinux on a fresh system.
> 
> Here are my steps :
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> A) Create an ext2 partition. I did the following steps :
> 
> 1) boot from CD
> 2) Activate GParted
> 3) Create Partition table on the "fresh disk" (/dev/sda).
> 4) Create 1 ext2 partition (and mark its flag as "boot").
> 
 
Have you actually formatted the created partition as ext2?

I mean, maybe you just have marked the partition as "ext2" in the 
partition ID field, without actually formatting the partition.

Before creating a directory (or a file), the partition should be 
formatted.
 

> B)mkdir /mnt/Ext2_partition
> C) mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/Ext2_partition
> D) mkdir /mnt/Ext2_partition/extlinux
> E) extlinux --directory /mnt/Ext2_partition/extlinux --install /dev/sda1
> Step E fails (as if the command line is incorrect).  I get the same output
> as if I typed "extlinux" without arguments.
> 
> What's wrong ?
> 
 
The EXTLINUX installer (since version 4.xx) operates on mounted 
filesystems. The "--directory" option is for the SYSLINUX installer, 
which operates on devices.
 
> I also tried
>  E) extlinux --install /dev/sda1 -->  fail  ""
>  E) extlinux --install /mnt/Ext2_partition/extlinux
>       The output was the following two lines :
>           /mnt/Ext2_partition/extlinux is device /dev/sda1
>           extlinux : cannot open device /dev/sda1
> 
> 
> What's wrong ?
 
Your last extlinux command "should" work an a mounted fs, if the 
partition was actually formatted with a supported fs and the 
directory was already created.

Regards,
Ady.