[syslinux] Interaction with Windows bootloader

[David Henderson]

Good afternoon all!  I have a project I'm working on that requires
Linux to be installed either to its own partition, or to the partition
of a host OS (Windows or Linux).  One way works, the other way does
not...


Use Case 1:
In this scenario, Linux is installed to its *own* partition as is
syslinux (syslinux -i /path/to/syslinux/files).  Afterwards, I 'dd'
the first 512bytes of that partition as the .bss file to chainload
from the host OS bootloader.  This method works for all tested host
OS's including Windows.


Use Case 2:
In this scenario, Linux is installed to the *same* partition as the
host OS.  If the host OS is Linux, I just add the option of booting
our software to the existing bootloader - everything works fine in
this situation.  If the host OS is Windows, I have problems...

If possible, I would like to have syslinux generate the .bss data as a
file instead of writing to the partition.  This will retain the
existing Windows bootloader while allowing me to chain load the file
generated.  Looking at the online documentation, there is an optional
value for the 'bootsecfile', but I can't get it to work.  I have
tried:

syslinux[64].exe -i "/path/to/syslinux/file" c: bootsecfile.bss
syslinux[64].exe -i "/path/to/syslinux/file" c:\bootsecfile.bss
syslinux[64].exe -i "/" c: bootsecfile.bss
syslinux[64].exe -i "/" c:\bootsecfile.bss
syslinux[64].exe -i c: bootsecfile.bss
syslinux[64].exe -i c:\bootsecfile.bss

I either get an error "Not a removable drive (use -f to override)", or
a returned listing of all the switches that can be passed to the
executable.

With none of those attempts working, I tried to just install syslinux
to the partition so I could generate the .bss file using the first
512bytes of the Windows partition, but I can't get syslinux to
install.  I've tried:

syslinux[64].exe -i "/path/to/syslinux/file" c:
syslinux[64].exe -i "/" c:
syslinux[64].exe -i c:

The results are the same as the prior attempts.  It appears that I
can't even install syslinux on a Windows partition.  Any help would be
appreciated!  Also, this is on a Windows 7 OS (but will also need to
work with modern versions including Windows 10).

Thanks,
Dave