[syslinux] Hiding partitions at boot time

[Ady Ady]

> Hi,
> 
> My problem is I have a particular system which has Linux (LFS) and 
> Windows XP on one drive and Windows 10 on a second drive.
> I use extlinux to boot my systems and all three systems boot as 
> expected, however in use I have found unsatisfactory interactions 
> between the Windows XP and the Windows 10 systems.
> 
> My question is:
> 
> Is it possible on booting one of the Windows systems to hide completely 
> the other Windows systems partitions, I have experimented with the 
> chain.c32 "hide" commands but I have failed to find a satisfactory solution.
> 
> Attached is the text from my extlinux.conf file and the output from 
> fdisk -l. for reference.
> 
> The version of syslinux I am using is 6.03.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Stuart
> 
> 
> 

When using 'hide' in chain.c32 you are effectively changing the 'ID' 
partition type.

In the output of:
 fdisk -l
the 'Id' column would show, for example, "17" instead of "07" in other 
primary partitions.

I haven't tested what happens with primary partitions located on other 
connected HDDs when using this parameter. I would _guess_ that only 
primary partitions within the same HDD are affected, while partitions 
within other HDDs aren't (?).

The 'hide' parameter in chain.c32 is supposed to help in booting 
certain OSes. Generally speaking, if you want to completely hide the 
presence of some partition(s) once the OS has already booted (i.e. 
maintain some other partitions hidden also within the normal operation 
of the already-booted OS), you would need to search for solutions 
relevant for such OS.

Regards,
Ady.