[syslinux] Trying to boot a SSD of 500GB

[Ady]

> Hi,
> 
> I have a custom linux system that runs off a FAT32 usb flash disk.  I
> use syslinux to make it bootable and load the kernel.
> 
> I'm trying to boot now from a SSD SATA disk (500GB) but it's not
> working and I can't figure out why. BIOS show that no bootable disk
> were found.
> 
> What I already tried (linux fdisk):
> 
> 1- Creating a new DOS partition table on the SSD, a FAT32 (type b),
> and formating with mkfs.vfat -F32 and then calling syslinux /dev/sda1
> -> No boot
> 
> 2- Creating the FAT32 directly on /dev/sda and calling syslinux -f
> /dev/sda1 -> No boot too
> 
> 3- Creating a smaller FAT32 partition (16GB) -> Did not work too
> 
> The only way I could get it to work was cloning a working usb flash
> (4GB) to the ssd, like this:
> 
> dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda
> 
> 
> I'm using syslinux 4.05 (from Ubuntu 14.04 repository).
> 
> fdisk -l /dev/sda :
> 
> Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
> 232 heads, 62 sectors/track, 67906 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x499f6446
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1   *        2048    62916607    31457280    b  W95 FAT32
> 
> OBS: I tried to change the default 255/63 heads/sectors to 232/62 to
> make those multiples of the sector size.
> 
> 
> 
> Anyone have any idea of what I am doing wrong?
> 
> Thanks
 
 
_ Have you dd'ed mbr.bin to the SSD?
 http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Mbr 

_ Is the partition marked as "bootable" (aka "active" flag) in fdisk?

_ Have you tried using the "-i" parameter when executing the syslinux 
command to install SYSLINUX?
 http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Install 

Regards,
Ady.
 
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