[syslinux] Can USBstikA boot USBstkB ?!

[Didier Spaier]

Hi,

Le 13/06/2017 à 00:51, eas lab via Syslinux a écrit :
> Yes this is the SAME question, that I can't get an answer from a month ago!
> 
> I have the files, from a USBstik [now stolen] which I previously could
> edit at boot time, to boot any of my IDE or SATA partitions.
> 
> Now, with a laptop, I want to boot the same IDE or SATA via a USB-adaptor
> to IDE/SATA. And also I want to boot a Toshiba 500GB USB disk.
> 
> The obvious question is: why [if] the old system could boot any IDE/SATA
> partition, it can not boot a second USBdevice. The laptop is running 64b.
> This is what the good old 32bit USBstik's files look like:------------
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     708 Oct 20  2015 message.txt
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     906 Oct 20  2015 sylinux.cfg
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    1138 Oct 20  2015 syslinux.cfg
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  123172 Oct 20  2015 vesamenu.c32
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4940304 Oct 20  2015 vmlinuz
> ------- message.txt file reads:-----------------------
> Welcome to the Slackware Linux custom USB boot stick!
> 
> By default, this stick boots a root Linux partition on /dev/sda3 when
> you hit ENTER.  If you'd like to boot some other partition, use a
> command like this on the prompt below:
> 
>     mount root=/dev/hda15 ro vga=791.
> 
> Where "/dev/sda1" is the partition you want to boot, and "ro" specifies
> that the partition should be initially mounted as read-only.  If you
> wish to mount the partition read-write, use "rw" instead.  To set the
> video console mode, use the vga= parameter (press F1 to see a table).
> You may also add any other kernel parameters you might need depending
> on your hardware, and which drivers are included in your kernel.
> ------------------------   end of file: message.txt -----------------
> 
> I suspect that <up-calls> eg. like old INT13, can't be made to access
> additional USBports, like they could be to FIXED-LOCATION disk
> partitions, eg. /dev/hdb5 ??

I don't think that syslinux be in concern here. If I understand well
Slackware is installed on a hard disk partition that you want to access
through the USB-adaptor to IDE/SATA.

To mount /, the initramfs needs to know the partition's name reported
by lsblk, that you'd give as a kernel parameter in the command line, as
said by message.txt.

But that also needs a kernel driver to handle the USB adapter.

To find out, you could:
_ boot a Slackware installation media
_ as soon as you get a prompt type the (fake) login "root"
_ then use the available command to identify the / partition
  of the installed Slackware.
  For instance type this command:
    lsblk -o model,name,size,filesystem

If you think you have identified the partition, you can check
its content mounting it as /mnt, then looking into /mnt.
Then reboot, boot off the custom boot stick and indicate this partition's
name after root= in the command line.

But if the partition is not in lsblk's output, I'm afraid that you are
out of luck, unless the support for the USB adapter be provided somehow
as an additional module in the initramfs, that you would need to rebuild.

Didier
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