3 A suite of bootloaders for Linux
5 Copyright 1994-2011 H. Peter Anvin and contributors
7 This program is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
8 License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. There is no
9 warranty, neither expressed nor implied, to the function of this
10 program. Please see the included file COPYING for details.
12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Syslinux now has a home page at http://syslinux.zytor.com/
16 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
18 The Syslinux suite contains the following boot loaders
19 ("derivatives"), for their respective boot media:
21 SYSLINUX - MS-DOS/Windows FAT filesystem
22 PXELINUX - PXE network booting
23 ISOLINUX - ISO9660 CD-ROM
24 EXTLINUX - Linux ext2/ext3 filesystem
26 For historical reasons, some of the sections in this document applies
27 to the FAT loader (SYSLINUX) only; see pxelinux.txt, isolinux.txt and
28 extlinux.txt for what differs in these versions. The all-caps term
29 "SYSLINUX" generally refers to the FAT loader, whereas "Syslinux"
30 refers to the project as a whole.
32 Help with cleaning up the docs would be greatly appreciated.
37 These are the options common to all versions of Syslinux:
39 -s Safe, slow, stupid; uses simpler code that boots better
41 -r Raid mode. If boot fails, tell the BIOS to boot the next
42 device in the boot sequence (usually the next hard disk)
43 instead of stopping with an error message.
44 This is useful for RAID-1 booting.
46 These are only in the Windows version:
48 -m Mbr; install a bootable MBR sector to the beginning of the
50 -a Active; marks the partition used active (=bootable)
53 ++++ CREATING A BOOTABLE LINUX FLOPPY +++
55 In order to create a bootable Linux floppy using SYSLINUX, prepare a
56 normal MS-DOS formatted floppy. Copy one or more Linux kernel files to
57 it, then execute the DOS command:
59 syslinux [-sfrma][-d directory] a: [bootsecfile]
61 (or whichever drive letter is appropriate; the [] meaning optional.)
63 Use "syslinux.com" (in the dos subdirectory of the distribution) for
64 plain DOS (MS-DOS, DR-DOS, PC-DOS, FreeDOS...) or Win9x/ME.
66 Use "syslinux.exe" (in the win32 subdirectory of the distribution) for
69 Under Linux, execute the command:
71 syslinux [-sfr][-d directory][-o offset] /dev/fd0
73 (or, again, whichever device is the correct one.)
75 This will alter the boot sector on the disk and copy a file named
76 LDLINUX.SYS into its root directory (or a subdirectory, if the -d
79 The -s option, if given, will install a "safe, slow and stupid"
80 version of SYSLINUX. This version may work on some very buggy BIOSes
81 on which SYSLINUX would otherwise fail. If you find a machine on
82 which the -s option is required to make it boot reliably, please send
83 as much info about your machine as you can, and include the failure
86 The -o option is used with a disk image file and specifies the byte
87 offset of the filesystem image in the file.
89 For the DOS and Windows installers, the -m and -a options can be used
90 on hard drives to write a Master Boot Record (MBR), and to mark the
91 specific partition active.
93 If the Shift or Alt keys are held down during boot, or the Caps or Scroll
94 locks are set, Syslinux will display a LILO-style "boot:" prompt. The
95 user can then type a kernel file name followed by any kernel parameters.
96 The Syslinux loader does not need to know about the kernel file in
97 advance; all that is required is that it is a file located in the root
98 directory on the disk.
100 There are two versions of the Linux installer; one in the "mtools"
101 directory which requires no special privilege (other than write
102 permission to the device where you are installing) but requires the
103 mtools program suite to be available, and one in the "linux" directory
104 which requires root privilege.
107 ++++ CONFIGURATION FILE ++++
109 All options here apply to PXELINUX, ISOLINUX and EXTLINUX as well as
110 SYSLINUX unless otherwise noted. See the respective .txt files.
112 All the configurable defaults in SYSLINUX can be changed by putting a
113 file called "syslinux.cfg" in the root directory of the boot disk.
115 Starting with version 3.35, the configuration file can also be in
116 either the /boot/syslinux or /syslinux directories (searched in that
117 order.) If that is the case, then all filenames are assumed to be
118 relative to that same directory, unless preceded with a slash or
121 The configuration file is a text file in either UNIX or DOS format,
122 containing one or more of the following items, each on its own line with
123 optional leading whitespace. Case is insensitive for keywords; upper
124 case is used here to indicate that a word should be typed verbatim.
130 Inserts the contents of another file at this point in the
131 configuration file. Files can currently be nested up to 16
132 levels deep, but it is not guaranteed that more than 8 levels
133 will be supported in the future.
135 DEFAULT kernel options...
136 Sets the default command line. If Syslinux boots automatically,
137 it will act just as if the entries after DEFAULT had been typed
138 in at the "boot:" prompt.
140 If no configuration file is present, or no DEFAULT entry is
141 present in the config file, an error message is displayed and
142 the boot: prompt is shown.
145 Selects a specific user interface module (typically menu.c32
146 or vesamenu.c32). The command-line interface treats this as a
147 directive that overrides the DEFAULT and PROMPT directives.
150 Add one or more options to the kernel command line. These are
151 added both for automatic and manual boots. The options are
152 added at the very beginning of the kernel command line,
153 usually permitting explicitly entered kernel options to override
154 them. This is the equivalent of the LILO "append" option.
159 The SYSAPPEND option was introduced in Syslinux 5.10; it is an
160 enhancement of a previous option IPAPPEND which was only
161 available on PXELINUX. bitmask is interpreted as decimal format
162 unless prefixed with "0x" for hexadecimal or "0" (zero) for
165 1: indicates that an option of the following format
166 should be generated and added to the kernel command line:
168 ip=<client-ip>:<boot-server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>
170 ... based on the input from the DHCP/BOOTP or PXE boot server.
172 NOTE: The use of this option is no substitute for running a
173 DHCP client in the booted system. Without regular renewals,
174 the lease acquired by the PXE BIOS will expire, making the
175 IP address available for reuse by the DHCP server.
177 This option is empty for non-PXELINUX.
179 2: indicates that an option of the following format
180 should be generated and added to the kernel command line:
182 BOOTIF=<hardware-address-of-boot-interface>
184 ... in dash-separated hexadecimal with leading hardware type
185 (same as for the configuration file; see pxelinux.txt.)
187 This allows an initrd program to determine from which
188 interface the system booted.
190 This option is empty for non-PXELINUX.
192 4: indicates that an option of the following format
193 should be generated and added to the kernel command line:
195 SYSUUID=<system uuid>
197 ... in lower case hexadecimal in the format normally used for
198 UUIDs (same as for the configuration file; see pxelinux.txt.)
199 This may not be available if no valid UUID is found on the
202 8: indicate the CPU family and certain particularly
203 significant CPU feature bits:
205 CPU=<family><features>
207 The <family> is a single digit from 3 (i386) to 6 (i686 or
208 higher.) The following CPU feature are currently reported;
209 additional flags may be added in the future:
211 P Physical Address Extension (PAE)
212 V Intel Virtualization Technology (VT/VMX)
213 T Intel Trusted Exection Technology (TXT/SMX)
214 X Execution Disable (XD/NX)
216 S AMD SMX virtualization
218 This was added in 5.10.
220 The following strings are derived from DMI/SMBIOS information
221 if available; these are all new in version 5.10:
223 Bit String Significance
224 -------------------------------------------------------------
225 0x00010 SYSVENDOR= System vendor name
226 0x00020 SYSPRODUCT= System product name
227 0x00040 SYSVERSION= System version
228 0x00080 SYSSERIAL= System serial number
229 0x00100 SYSSKU= System SKU
230 0x00200 SYSFAMILY= System family
231 0x00400 MBVENDOR= Motherboard vendor name
232 0x00800 MBPRODUCT= Motherboard product name
233 0x01000 MBVERSION= Motherboard version
234 0x02000 MBSERIAL= Motherboard serial number
235 0x04000 MBASSET= Motherboard asset tag
236 0x08000 BIOSVENDOR= BIOS vendor name
237 0x10000 BIOSVERSION= BIOS version
238 0x20000 SYSFF= System form factor
240 If these strings contain whitespace they are replaced with
243 The system form factor value is a number defined in the SMBIOS
244 specification, available at http://www.dmtf.org/. As of
245 version 2.7.1 of the specification, the following values are
251 4 Low profile desktop
264 17 Main server chassis
267 20 Bus expansion chassis
268 21 Peripheral chassis
272 25 Multi-system chassis
278 0x40000: Append a file system UUID string. For EXT2/3/4, this is the typical file system UUID. For FAT12/16/32, this is the 32-bit file system serial number (ie DA1A-0B2E).
283 SENDCOOKIES bitmask [PXELINUX only]
285 When downloading files over http, the SYSAPPEND strings are
286 prepended with _Syslinux_ and sent to the server as cookies.
287 The cookies are URL-encoded; whitespace is *not* replaced with
290 This command limits the cookies send; 0 means no cookies. The
291 default is -1, meaning send all cookies.
293 This option is "sticky" and is not automatically reset when
294 loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG command.
299 SYSAPPEND flag_val [5.10+]
300 IPAPPEND flag_val [5.10+ or PXELINUX only]
301 Indicates that if "label" is entered as the kernel to boot,
302 Syslinux should instead boot "image", and the specified APPEND
303 and SYSAPPEND options should be used instead of the ones
304 specified in the global section of the file (before the first
305 LABEL command.) The default for "image" is the same as
306 "label", and if no APPEND is given the default is to use the
307 global entry (if any).
309 Starting with version 3.62, the number of LABEL statements is
312 Note that LILO uses the syntax:
317 ... whereas Syslinux uses the syntax:
322 Note: The "kernel" doesn't have to be a Linux kernel; it can
323 be a boot sector (see below.)
325 Since version 3.32 label names are no longer mangled into DOS
326 format (for SYSLINUX.)
328 The following commands are available after a LABEL statement:
330 LINUX image - Linux kernel image (default)
331 BOOT image - Bootstrap program (.bs, .bin)
332 BSS image - BSS image (.bss)
333 PXE image - PXE Network Bootstrap Program (.0)
334 FDIMAGE image - Floppy disk image (.img)
335 COM32 image - COM32 program (.c32)
336 CONFIG image - New configuration file
337 Using one of these keywords instead of KERNEL forces the
338 filetype, regardless of the filename.
340 CONFIG means restart the boot loader using a different
341 configuration file. The configuration file is read, the
342 working directory is changed (if specified via an APPEND), then
343 the configuration file is parsed.
346 Append nothing. APPEND with a single hyphen as argument in a
347 LABEL section can be used to override a global APPEND.
350 Attempt a different local boot method. The special value -1
351 causes the boot loader to report failure to the BIOS, which, on
352 recent BIOSes, should mean that the next boot device in the
353 boot sequence should be activated. Values other than those
354 documented may produce undesired results.
356 On PXELINUX, "type" 0 means perform a normal boot. "type" 4
357 will perform a local boot with the Universal Network Driver
358 Interface (UNDI) driver still resident in memory. Finally,
359 "type" 5 will perform a local boot with the entire PXE
360 stack, including the UNDI driver, still resident in memory.
361 All other values are undefined. If you don't know what the
362 UNDI or PXE stacks are, don't worry -- you don't want them,
365 On ISOLINUX, the "type" specifies the local drive number to
366 boot from; 0x00 is the primary floppy drive and 0x80 is the
370 Starting with version 3.71, an initrd can be specified in a
371 separate statement (INITRD) instead of as part of the APPEND
372 statement; this functionally appends "initrd=initrd_file" to
373 the kernel command line.
375 It supports multiple filenames separated by commas.
376 This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can be composed of
377 multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
378 Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a
379 4K page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.
382 If flag_val is 0, do not load a kernel image unless it has been
383 explicitly named in a LABEL statement. The default is 1.
385 ALLOWOPTIONS flag_val
386 If flag_val is 0, the user is not allowed to specify any
387 arguments on the kernel command line. The only options
388 recognized are those specified in an APPEND statement. The
392 Indicates how long to wait at the boot: prompt until booting
393 automatically, in units of 1/10 s. The timeout is cancelled as
394 soon as the user types anything on the keyboard, the assumption
395 being that the user will complete the command line already
396 begun. A timeout of zero will disable the timeout completely,
397 this is also the default.
400 Indicates how long to wait until booting automatically, in
401 units of 1/10 s. This timeout is *not* cancelled by user
402 input, and can thus be used to deal with serial port glitches
403 or "the user walked away" type situations. A timeout of zero
404 will disable the timeout completely, this is also the default.
406 Both TIMEOUT and TOTALTIMEOUT can be used together, for
409 # Wait 5 seconds unless the user types something, but
410 # always boot after 15 minutes.
414 ONTIMEOUT kernel options...
415 Sets the command line invoked on a timeout. Normally this is
416 the same thing as invoked by "DEFAULT". If this is specified,
417 then "DEFAULT" is used only if the user presses <Enter> to
420 ONERROR kernel options...
421 If a kernel image is not found (either due to it not existing,
422 or because IMPLICIT is set), run the specified command. The
423 faulty command line is appended to the specified options, so
424 if the ONERROR directive reads as:
428 ... and the command line as entered by the user is:
432 ... Syslinux will execute the following as if entered by the
435 xyzzy plugh foo bar baz
437 SERIAL port [baudrate [flowcontrol]]
438 Enables a serial port to act as the console. "port" is a
439 number (0 = /dev/ttyS0 = COM1, etc.) or an I/O port address
440 (e.g. 0x3F8); if "baudrate" is omitted, the baud rate defaults
441 to 9600 bps. The serial parameters are hardcoded to be 8
442 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit.
444 "flowcontrol" is a combination of the following bits:
447 0x008 - Enable interrupts
448 0x010 - Wait for CTS assertion
449 0x020 - Wait for DSR assertion
450 0x040 - Wait for RI assertion
451 0x080 - Wait for DCD assertion
452 0x100 - Ignore input unless CTS asserted
453 0x200 - Ignore input unless DSR asserted
454 0x400 - Ignore input unless RI asserted
455 0x800 - Ignore input unless DCD asserted
457 All other bits are reserved.
461 0 - No flow control (default)
462 0x303 - Null modem cable detect
463 0x013 - RTS/CTS flow control
464 0x813 - RTS/CTS flow control, modem input
465 0x023 - DTR/DSR flow control
466 0x083 - DTR/DCD flow control
468 For the SERIAL directive to be guaranteed to work properly, it
469 should be the first directive in the configuration file.
471 NOTE: "port" values from 0 to 3 means the first four serial
472 ports detected by the BIOS. They may or may not correspond to
473 the legacy port values 0x3F8, 0x2F8, 0x3E8, 0x2E8.
475 Enabling interrupts (setting the 0x008 bit) may give better
476 responsiveness without setting the NOHALT option, but could
477 potentially cause problems with buggy BIOSes.
479 This option is "sticky" and is not automatically reset when
480 loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG command.
483 If flag_val is 1, don't halt the processor while idle.
484 Halting the processor while idle significantly reduces the
485 power consumption, but can cause poor responsiveness to the
486 serial console, especially when using scripts to drive the
487 serial console, as opposed to human interaction.
490 If flag_val is 0, disable output to the normal video console.
491 If flag_val is 1, enable output to the video console (this is
494 Some BIOSes try to forward this to the serial console and
495 sometimes make a total mess thereof, so this option lets you
496 disable the video console on these systems.
499 Load a font in .psf format before displaying any output
500 (except the copyright line, which is output as ldlinux.sys
501 itself is loaded.) Syslinux only loads the font onto the
502 video card; if the .psf file contains a Unicode table it is
503 ignored. This only works on EGA and VGA cards; hopefully it
504 should do nothing on others.
507 Install a simple keyboard map. The keyboard remapper used is
508 *very* simplistic (it simply remaps the keycodes received from
509 the BIOS, which means that only the key combinations relevant
510 in the default layout -- usually U.S. English -- can be
511 mapped) but should at least help people with AZERTY keyboard
512 layout and the locations of = and , (two special characters
513 used heavily on the Linux kernel command line.)
515 The included program keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution
516 can be used to create such keymaps. The file keytab-lilo.txt
517 contains the documentation for this program.
520 Displays the indicated file on the screen at boot time (before
521 the boot: prompt, if displayed). Please see the section below
524 NOTE: If the file is missing, this option is simply ignored.
527 Prints the message on the screen.
530 If flag_val is 0, display the boot: prompt only if the Shift or Alt
531 key is pressed, or Caps Lock or Scroll lock is set (this is the
532 default). If flag_val is 1, always display the boot: prompt.
535 If flag_val is set to 1, ignore the Shift/Alt/Caps Lock/Scroll
536 Lock escapes. Use this (together with PROMPT 0) to force the
537 default boot alternative.
540 If flag_val is set to 1, the Tab key does not display labels
550 Displays the indicated file on the screen when a function key is
551 pressed at the boot: prompt. This can be used to implement
552 pre-boot online help (presumably for the kernel command line
553 options.) Please see the section below on DISPLAY files.
555 When using the serial console, press <Ctrl-F><digit> to get to
556 the help screens, e.g. <Ctrl-F><2> to get to the F2 screen.
557 For F10-F12, hit <Ctrl-F><A>, <Ctrl-F>B, <Ctrl-F>C. For
558 compatibility with earlier versions, F10 can also be entered as
562 Specify a colon-separated (':') list of directories to search
563 when attempting to load modules. This directive is useful for
564 specifying the directories containing the lib*.c32 library
565 files as other modules may be dependent on these files, but
566 may not reside in the same directory. The list of directories
567 is searched in order. Please see the section below on PATH
570 Blank lines are ignored.
572 Note that the configuration file is not completely decoded. Syntax
573 different from the one described above may still work correctly in this
574 version of Syslinux, but may break in a future one.
577 ++++ DISPLAY FILE FORMAT ++++
579 DISPLAY and function-key help files are text files in either DOS or UNIX
580 format (with or without <CR>). In addition, the following special codes
583 <FF> <FF> = <Ctrl-L> = ASCII 12
584 Clear the screen, home the cursor. Note that the screen is
585 filled with the current display color.
587 <SI><bg><fg> <SI> = <Ctrl-O> = ASCII 15
588 Set the display colors to the specified background and
589 foreground colors, where <bg> and <fg> are hex digits,
590 corresponding to the standard PC display attributes:
592 0 = black 8 = dark grey
593 1 = dark blue 9 = bright blue
594 2 = dark green a = bright green
595 3 = dark cyan b = bright cyan
596 4 = dark red c = bright red
597 5 = dark purple d = bright purple
599 7 = light grey f = white
601 Picking a bright color (8-f) for the background results in the
602 corresponding dark color (0-7), with the foreground flashing.
604 Colors are not visible over the serial console.
606 <CAN>filename<newline> <CAN> = <Ctrl-X> = ASCII 24
607 If a VGA display is present, enter graphics mode and display
608 the graphic included in the specified file. The file format
609 is an ad hoc format called LSS16; the included Perl program
610 "ppmtolss16" can be used to produce these images. This Perl
611 program also includes the file format specification.
613 The image is displayed in 640x480 16-color mode. Once in
614 graphics mode, the display attributes (set by <SI> code
615 sequences) work slightly differently: the background color is
616 ignored, and the foreground colors are the 16 colors specified
617 in the image file. For that reason, ppmtolss16 allows you to
618 specify that certain colors should be assigned to specific
621 Color indicies 0 and 7, in particular, should be chosen with
622 care: 0 is the background color, and 7 is the color used for
623 the text printed by Syslinux itself.
625 <EM> <EM> = <Ctrl-Y> = ASCII 25
626 If we are currently in graphics mode, return to text mode.
628 <DLE>..<ETB> <Ctrl-P>..<Ctrl-W> = ASCII 16-23
629 These codes can be used to select which modes to print a
630 certain part of the message file in. Each of these control
631 characters select a specific set of modes (text screen,
632 graphics screen, serial port) for which the output is actually
635 Character Text Graph Serial
636 ------------------------------------------------------
637 <DLE> = <Ctrl-P> = ASCII 16 No No No
638 <DC1> = <Ctrl-Q> = ASCII 17 Yes No No
639 <DC2> = <Ctrl-R> = ASCII 18 No Yes No
640 <DC3> = <Ctrl-S> = ASCII 19 Yes Yes No
641 <DC4> = <Ctrl-T> = ASCII 20 No No Yes
642 <NAK> = <Ctrl-U> = ASCII 21 Yes No Yes
643 <SYN> = <Ctrl-V> = ASCII 22 No Yes Yes
644 <ETB> = <Ctrl-W> = ASCII 23 Yes Yes Yes
648 <DC1>Text mode<DC2>Graphics mode<DC4>Serial port<ETB>
650 ... will actually print out which mode the console is in!
652 <SUB> <SUB> = <Ctrl-Z> = ASCII 26
653 End of file (DOS convention).
655 <BEL> <BEL> = <Ctrl-G> = ASCII 7
659 ++++ COMMAND LINE KEYSTROKES ++++
661 The command line prompt supports the following keystrokes:
663 <Enter> boot specified command line
664 <BackSpace> erase one character
665 <Ctrl-U> erase the whole line
666 <Ctrl-V> display the current Syslinux version
667 <Ctrl-W> erase one word
668 <Ctrl-X> force text mode
669 <Tab> list matching labels
670 <F1>..<F12> help screens (if configured)
671 <Ctrl-F><digit> equivalent to F1..F10
672 <Ctrl-C> interrupt boot in progress
673 <Esc> interrupt boot in progress
674 <Ctrl-N> display network information (PXELINUX only)
677 ++++ OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS ++++
679 This version of Syslinux supports chain loading of other operating
680 systems (such as MS-DOS and its derivatives, including Windows 95/98).
682 Chain loading requires the boot sector of the foreign operating system
683 to be stored in a file in the root directory of the filesystem.
684 Because neither Linux kernels, nor boot sector images have reliable
685 magic numbers, Syslinux will look at the file extension.
686 The following extensions are recognized (case insensitive):
688 none or other Linux kernel image
689 .0 PXE bootstrap program (NBP) [PXELINUX only]
690 .bin "CD boot sector" [ISOLINUX only]
691 .bs Boot sector [SYSLINUX only]
692 .bss Boot sector, DOS superblock will be patched in [SYSLINUX only]
693 .c32 COM32 image (32-bit ELF)
694 .img Disk image [ISOLINUX only]
696 For filenames given on the command line, Syslinux will search for the
697 file by adding extensions in the order listed above if the plain
698 filename is not found. Filenames in KERNEL statements must be fully
701 If this is specified with one of the keywords LINUX, BOOT, BSS,
702 FDIMAGE, COM32, or CONFIG instead of KERNEL, the filetype is
703 considered to be the one specified regardless of the filename.
706 ++++ BOOTING DOS (OR OTHER SIMILAR OPERATING SYSTEMS) ++++
708 This section applies to SYSLINUX only, not to PXELINUX or ISOLINUX.
709 See isolinux.txt for an equivalent procedure for ISOLINUX.
711 This is the recommended procedure for creating a SYSLINUX disk that
712 can boot either DOS or Linux. This example assumes the drive is A: in
713 DOS and /dev/fd0 in Linux; for other drives, substitute the
714 appropriate drive designator.
716 ---- Linux procedure ----
718 1. Make a DOS bootable disk. This can be done either by specifying
719 the /s option when formatting the disk in DOS, or by running the
720 DOS command SYS (this can be done under DOSEMU if DOSEMU has
721 direct device access to the relevant drive):
727 2. Boot Linux. Copy the DOS boot sector from the disk into a file:
729 dd if=/dev/fd0 of=dos.bss bs=512 count=1
731 3. Run SYSLINUX on the disk:
735 4. Mount the disk and copy the DOS boot sector file to it. The file
736 *must* have extension .bss:
738 mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt
741 5. Copy the Linux kernel image(s), initrd(s), etc to the disk, and
742 create/edit syslinux.cfg and help files if desired:
747 6. Unmount the disk (if applicable.)
751 ---- DOS/Windows procedure ----
753 To make this installation in DOS only, you need the utility copybs.com
754 (included with Syslinux) as well as the syslinux.com installer. If
755 you are on an WinNT-based system (WinNT, Win2k, WinXP or later), use
756 syslinux.exe instead.
758 1. Make a DOS bootable disk. This can be done either by specifying
759 the /s option when formatting the disk in DOS, or by running the
766 2. Copy the DOS boot sector from the disk into a file. The file
767 *must* have extension .bss:
771 3. Run SYSLINUX on the disk:
775 4. Copy the Linux kernel image(s), initrd(s), etc to the disk, and
776 create/edit syslinux.cfg and help files if desired:
782 ++++ NOVICE PROTECTION ++++
784 Syslinux will attempt to detect booting on a machine with too little
785 memory, which means the Linux boot sequence cannot complete. If so, a
786 message is displayed and the boot sequence aborted. Holding down the
787 Ctrl key while booting disables this feature.
789 Any file that SYSLINUX uses can be marked hidden, system or readonly
790 if so is convenient; SYSLINUX ignores all file attributes. The
791 SYSLINUX installed automatically sets the readonly/hidden/system
792 attributes on LDLINUX.SYS.
795 ++++ NOTES ON BOOTABLE CD-ROMS ++++
797 SYSLINUX can be used to create bootdisk images for El
798 Torito-compatible bootable CD-ROMs. However, it appears that many
799 BIOSes are very buggy when it comes to booting CD-ROMs. Some users
800 have reported that the following steps are helpful in making a CD-ROM
801 that is bootable on the largest possible number of machines:
803 a) Use the -s (safe, slow and stupid) option to SYSLINUX;
804 b) Put the boot image as close to the beginning of the
805 ISO 9660 filesystem as possible.
807 A CD-ROM is so much faster than a floppy that the -s option shouldn't
808 matter from a speed perspective.
810 Of course, you probably want to use ISOLINUX instead. See isolinux.txt.
813 ++++ BOOTING FROM A FAT FILESYSTEM PARTITION ON A HARD DISK ++++
815 SYSLINUX can boot from a FAT filesystem partition on a hard disk
816 (including FAT32). The installation procedure is identical to the
817 procedure for installing it on a floppy, and should work under either
818 DOS or Linux. To boot from a partition, SYSLINUX needs to be launched
819 from a Master Boot Record or another boot loader, just like DOS itself
822 Under DOS, you can install a standard simple MBR on the primary hard
823 disk by running the command:
827 Then use the FDISK command to mark the appropriate partition active.
829 A simple MBR, roughly on par with the one installed by DOS (but
830 unencumbered), is included in the SYSLINUX distribution. To install
831 it under Linux, simply type:
833 cat mbr.bin > /dev/XXX
835 ... where /dev/XXX is the device you wish to install it on.
837 Under DOS or Win32, you can install the SYSLINUX MBR with the -m
838 option to the SYSLINUX installer, and use the -a option to mark the
839 current partition active:
843 Note that this will also install SYSLINUX on the specified partition.
846 ++++ HARDWARE INFORMATION +++
848 I have started to maintain a web page of hardware with known
849 problems. There are, unfortunately, lots of broken hardware out
850 there; especially early PXE stacks (for PXELINUX) have lots of
853 A list of problems, and workarounds (if known), is maintained at:
855 http://syslinux.zytor.com/hardware.php
858 ++++ BOOT LOADER IDS USED ++++
860 The Linux boot protocol supports a "boot loader ID", a single byte
861 where the upper nybble specifies a boot loader family (3 = Syslinux)
862 and the lower nybble is version or, in the case of Syslinux, media:
869 In recent versions of Linux, this ID is available as
870 /proc/sys/kernel/bootloader_type.
875 The current working directory is *always* searched first, before PATH,
876 when attempting to open a filename. The current working directory is
877 not affected when specifying a file with an absolute path. For
878 example, given the following file system layout,
887 assuming that the current working directory is /boot/foo, and assuming
888 that libls.c32 is a dependency of ls.c32, executing /boot/bin/ls.c32
889 will cause /boot/foo/libls.c32 to be loaded, not /boot/bin/libls.c32,
890 even if /boot/bin is specified in the PATH directive of a config file.
892 The reason that things work this way is that typically a user will
893 install all library files in the Syslinux installation directory, as
894 specified with the --directory installer option. This method allows
895 the user to omit the PATH directive from their config file and still
896 have things work correctly.
899 ++++ BUG REPORTS ++++
901 I would appreciate hearing of any problems you have with Syslinux. I
902 would also like to hear from you if you have successfully used Syslinux,
903 *especially* if you are using it for a distribution.
905 If you are reporting problems, please include all possible information
906 about your system and your BIOS; the vast majority of all problems
907 reported turn out to be BIOS or hardware bugs, and I need as much
908 information as possible in order to diagnose the problems.
910 There is a mailing list for discussion among Syslinux users and for
911 announcements of new and test versions. To join, or to browse the
914 http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
916 Please DO NOT send HTML messages or attachments to the mailing list
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