[syslinux] "isolinux.bin missing or corrupt" when booting USB flash drive in old PC

[Ady Ady]

> Hi,
> 
> funny or enlightening observation:
> 
> With my qemu-system-i386 it would work if the detected Heads/Cylinder and
> Sectors/Head factors would change positions !
> 
> The effective read operation seems to use H/C = 32 , S/H = 63.
> The correct LBA would be addressed by     H/C = 63 , S/H = 32.
> 
 
The original MBR included in debian-8.7.1-i386-xfce-CD-1.iso was 
delivered with the following values (use a monospace font):

 Boot  System ID   :   First    :    Last    : Relative : Number of:
 Flag              :Cyl Head Sec:Cyl Head Sec:  Sector  :  Sectors :
 80h 00h           :   0   0  1 : 646  63 32 :         0:   1325056:
 00h EFh ??        :1023 254 63 :1023 254 63 :      8524:       608:
 00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:
 00h 00h           :   0   0  0 :   0   0  0 :         0:         0:

If a specific BIOS' CHS/LBA translations cannot cope with the above, it 
is no surprise that we get some mess, somewhere.

Regards,
Ady.