/config/release/3rdparty/syslinux/doc/syslinux.txt

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  1. The Syslinux Project
  2. A suite of bootloaders for Linux
  3. Copyright 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin and contributors
  4. This program is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
  5. License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. There is no
  6. warranty, neither expressed nor implied, to the function of this
  7. program. Please see the included file COPYING for details.
  8. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  9. Syslinux now has a home page at http://syslinux.zytor.com/
  10. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  11. The Syslinux suite contains the following boot loaders
  12. ("derivatives"), for their respective boot media:
  13. SYSLINUX - MS-DOS/Windows FAT filesystem
  14. PXELINUX - PXE network booting
  15. ISOLINUX - ISO9660 CD-ROM
  16. EXTLINUX - Linux ext2/ext3 filesystem
  17. For historical reasons, some of the sections in this document applies
  18. to the FAT loader (SYSLINUX) only; see pxelinux.txt, isolinux.txt and
  19. extlinux.txt for what differs in these versions. The all-caps term
  20. "SYSLINUX" generally refers to the FAT loader, whereas "Syslinux"
  21. refers to the project as a whole.
  22. Help with cleaning up the docs would be greatly appreciated.
  23. ++++ Options ++++
  24. These are the options common to all versions of Syslinux:
  25. -s Safe, slow, stupid; uses simpler code that boots better
  26. -f Force installing
  27. -r Raid mode. If boot fails, tell the BIOS to boot the next
  28. device in the boot sequence (usually the next hard disk)
  29. instead of stopping with an error message.
  30. This is useful for RAID-1 booting.
  31. These are only in the Windows version:
  32. -m Mbr; install a bootable MBR sector to the beginning of the
  33. drive.
  34. -a Active; marks the partition used active (=bootable)
  35. ++++ CREATING A BOOTABLE LINUX FLOPPY +++
  36. In order to create a bootable Linux floppy using SYSLINUX, prepare a
  37. normal MS-DOS formatted floppy. Copy one or more Linux kernel files to
  38. it, then execute the DOS command:
  39. syslinux [-sfrma][-d directory] a: [bootsecfile]
  40. (or whichever drive letter is appropriate; the [] meaning optional.)
  41. Use "syslinux.com" (in the dos subdirectory of the distribution) for
  42. plain DOS (MS-DOS, DR-DOS, PC-DOS, FreeDOS...) or Win9x/ME.
  43. Use "syslinux.exe" (in the win32 subdirectory of the distribution) for
  44. WinNT/2000/XP.
  45. Under Linux, execute the command:
  46. syslinux [-sfr][-d directory][-o offset] /dev/fd0
  47. (or, again, whichever device is the correct one.)
  48. This will alter the boot sector on the disk and copy a file named
  49. LDLINUX.SYS into its root directory (or a subdirectory, if the -d
  50. option is specified.)
  51. The -s option, if given, will install a "safe, slow and stupid"
  52. version of SYSLINUX. This version may work on some very buggy BIOSes
  53. on which SYSLINUX would otherwise fail. If you find a machine on
  54. which the -s option is required to make it boot reliably, please send
  55. as much info about your machine as you can, and include the failure
  56. mode.
  57. The -o option is used with a disk image file and specifies the byte
  58. offset of the filesystem image in the file.
  59. For the DOS and Windows installers, the -m and -a options can be used
  60. on hard drives to write a Master Boot Record (MBR), and to mark the
  61. specific partition active.
  62. If the Shift or Alt keys are held down during boot, or the Caps or Scroll
  63. locks are set, Syslinux will display a LILO-style "boot:" prompt. The
  64. user can then type a kernel file name followed by any kernel parameters.
  65. The Syslinux loader does not need to know about the kernel file in
  66. advance; all that is required is that it is a file located in the root
  67. directory on the disk.
  68. There are two versions of the Linux installer; one in the "mtools"
  69. directory which requires no special privilege (other than write
  70. permission to the device where you are installing) but requires the
  71. mtools program suite to be available, and one in the "unix" directory
  72. which requires root privilege.
  73. ++++ CONFIGURATION FILE ++++
  74. All options here apply to PXELINUX, ISOLINUX and EXTLINUX as well as
  75. SYSLINUX unless otherwise noted. See the respective .txt files.
  76. All the configurable defaults in SYSLINUX can be changed by putting a
  77. file called "syslinux.cfg" in the root directory of the boot disk.
  78. Starting with version 3.35, the configuration file can also be in
  79. either the /boot/syslinux or /syslinux directories (searched in that
  80. order.) If that is the case, then all filenames are assumed to be
  81. relative to that same directory, unless preceded with a slash or
  82. backslash.
  83. The configuration file is a text file in either UNIX or DOS format,
  84. containing one or more of the following items, each on its own line with
  85. optional leading whitespace. Case is insensitive for keywords; upper
  86. case is used here to indicate that a word should be typed verbatim.
  87. #comment
  88. A comment line.
  89. INCLUDE filename
  90. Inserts the contents of another file at this point in the
  91. configuration file. Files can currently be nested up to 16
  92. levels deep, but it is not guaranteed that more than 8 levels
  93. will be supported in the future.
  94. DEFAULT kernel options...
  95. Sets the default command line. If Syslinux boots automatically,
  96. it will act just as if the entries after DEFAULT had been typed
  97. in at the "boot:" prompt.
  98. If no configuration file is present, or no DEFAULT entry is
  99. present in the config file, an error message is displayed and
  100. the boot: prompt is shown.
  101. UI module options...
  102. Selects a specific user interface module (typically menu.c32
  103. or vesamenu.c32). The command-line interface treats this as a
  104. directive that overrides the DEFAULT and PROMPT directives.
  105. APPEND options...
  106. Add one or more options to the kernel command line. These are
  107. added both for automatic and manual boots. The options are
  108. added at the very beginning of the kernel command line,
  109. usually permitting explicitly entered kernel options to override
  110. them. This is the equivalent of the LILO "append" option.
  111. IPAPPEND flag_val [PXELINUX only]
  112. The IPAPPEND option is available only on PXELINUX. The
  113. flag_val is an OR of the following options:
  114. 1: indicates that an option of the following format
  115. should be generated and added to the kernel command line:
  116. ip=<client-ip>:<boot-server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>
  117. ... based on the input from the DHCP/BOOTP or PXE boot server.
  118. NOTE: The use of this option is no substitute for running a
  119. DHCP client in the booted system. Without regular renewals,
  120. the lease acquired by the PXE BIOS will expire, making the
  121. IP address available for reuse by the DHCP server.
  122. 2: indicates that an option of the following format
  123. should be generated and added to the kernel command line:
  124. BOOTIF=<hardware-address-of-boot-interface>
  125. ... in dash-separated hexadecimal with leading hardware type
  126. (same as for the configuration file; see pxelinux.txt.)
  127. This allows an initrd program to determine from which
  128. interface the system booted.
  129. 4: indicates that an option of the following format
  130. should be generated and added to the kernel command line:
  131. SYSUUID=<system uuid>
  132. ... in lower case hexadecimal in the format normally used for
  133. UUIDs (same as for the configuration file; see pxelinux.txt.)
  134. LABEL label
  135. KERNEL image
  136. APPEND options...
  137. IPAPPEND flag_val [PXELINUX only]
  138. Indicates that if "label" is entered as the kernel to boot,
  139. Syslinux should instead boot "image", and the specified APPEND
  140. and IPAPPEND options should be used instead of the ones
  141. specified in the global section of the file (before the first
  142. LABEL command.) The default for "image" is the same as
  143. "label", and if no APPEND is given the default is to use the
  144. global entry (if any).
  145. Starting with version 3.62, the number of LABEL statements is
  146. virtually unlimited.
  147. Note that LILO uses the syntax:
  148. image = mykernel
  149. label = mylabel
  150. append = "myoptions"
  151. ... whereas Syslinux uses the syntax:
  152. label mylabel
  153. kernel mykernel
  154. append myoptions
  155. Note: The "kernel" doesn't have to be a Linux kernel; it can
  156. be a boot sector or a COMBOOT file (see below.)
  157. Since version 3.32 label names are no longer mangled into DOS
  158. format (for SYSLINUX.)
  159. The following commands are available after a LABEL statement:
  160. LINUX image - Linux kernel image (default)
  161. BOOT image - Bootstrap program (.bs, .bin)
  162. BSS image - BSS image (.bss)
  163. PXE image - PXE Network Bootstrap Program (.0)
  164. FDIMAGE image - Floppy disk image (.img)
  165. COMBOOT image - COMBOOT program (.com, .cbt)
  166. COM32 image - COM32 program (.c32)
  167. CONFIG image - New configuration file
  168. Using one of these keywords instead of KERNEL forces the
  169. filetype, regardless of the filename.
  170. CONFIG means restart the boot loader using a different
  171. configuration file.
  172. APPEND -
  173. Append nothing. APPEND with a single hyphen as argument in a
  174. LABEL section can be used to override a global APPEND.
  175. LOCALBOOT type [ISOLINUX, PXELINUX]
  176. On PXELINUX, specifying "LOCALBOOT 0" instead of a "KERNEL"
  177. option means invoking this particular label will cause a local
  178. disk boot instead of booting a kernel.
  179. The argument 0 means perform a normal boot. The argument 4
  180. will perform a local boot with the Universal Network Driver
  181. Interface (UNDI) driver still resident in memory. Finally,
  182. the argument 5 will perform a local boot with the entire PXE
  183. stack, including the UNDI driver, still resident in memory.
  184. All other values are undefined. If you don't know what the
  185. UNDI or PXE stacks are, don't worry -- you don't want them,
  186. just specify 0.
  187. On ISOLINUX, the "type" specifies the local drive number to
  188. boot from; 0x00 is the primary floppy drive and 0x80 is the
  189. primary hard drive. The special value -1 causes ISOLINUX to
  190. report failure to the BIOS, which, on recent BIOSes, should
  191. mean that the next boot device in the boot sequence should be
  192. activated.
  193. INITRD initrd_file
  194. Starting with version 3.71, an initrd can be specified in a
  195. separate statement (INITRD) instead of as part of the APPEND
  196. statement; this functionally appends "initrd=initrd_file" to
  197. the kernel command line.
  198. It supports multiple filenames separated by commas.
  199. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can be composed of
  200. multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
  201. Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a
  202. 4K page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.
  203. IMPLICIT flag_val
  204. If flag_val is 0, do not load a kernel image unless it has been
  205. explicitly named in a LABEL statement. The default is 1.
  206. ALLOWOPTIONS flag_val
  207. If flag_val is 0, the user is not allowed to specify any
  208. arguments on the kernel command line. The only options
  209. recognized are those specified in an APPEND statement. The
  210. default is 1.
  211. TIMEOUT timeout
  212. Indicates how long to wait at the boot: prompt until booting
  213. automatically, in units of 1/10 s. The timeout is cancelled as
  214. soon as the user types anything on the keyboard, the assumption
  215. being that the user will complete the command line already
  216. begun. A timeout of zero will disable the timeout completely,
  217. this is also the default.
  218. TOTALTIMEOUT timeout
  219. Indicates how long to wait until booting automatically, in
  220. units of 1/10 s. This timeout is *not* cancelled by user
  221. input, and can thus be used to deal with serial port glitches
  222. or "the user walked away" type situations. A timeout of zero
  223. will disable the timeout completely, this is also the default.
  224. Both TIMEOUT and TOTALTIMEOUT can be used together, for
  225. example:
  226. # Wait 5 seconds unless the user types something, but
  227. # always boot after 15 minutes.
  228. TIMEOUT 50
  229. TOTALTIMEOUT 9000
  230. ONTIMEOUT kernel options...
  231. Sets the command line invoked on a timeout. Normally this is
  232. the same thing as invoked by "DEFAULT". If this is specified,
  233. then "DEFAULT" is used only if the user presses <Enter> to
  234. boot.
  235. ONERROR kernel options...
  236. If a kernel image is not found (either due to it not existing,
  237. or because IMPLICIT is set), run the specified command. The
  238. faulty command line is appended to the specified options, so
  239. if the ONERROR directive reads as:
  240. ONERROR xyzzy plugh
  241. ... and the command line as entered by the user is:
  242. foo bar baz
  243. ... Syslinux will execute the following as if entered by the
  244. user:
  245. xyzzy plugh foo bar baz
  246. SERIAL port [[baudrate] flowcontrol]
  247. Enables a serial port to act as the console. "port" is a
  248. number (0 = /dev/ttyS0 = COM1, etc.) or an I/O port address
  249. (e.g. 0x3F8); if "baudrate" is omitted, the baud rate defaults
  250. to 9600 bps. The serial parameters are hardcoded to be 8
  251. bits, no parity, 1 stop bit.
  252. "flowcontrol" is a combination of the following bits:
  253. 0x001 - Assert DTR
  254. 0x002 - Assert RTS
  255. 0x008 - Enable interrupts
  256. 0x010 - Wait for CTS assertion
  257. 0x020 - Wait for DSR assertion
  258. 0x040 - Wait for RI assertion
  259. 0x080 - Wait for DCD assertion
  260. 0x100 - Ignore input unless CTS asserted
  261. 0x200 - Ignore input unless DSR asserted
  262. 0x400 - Ignore input unless RI asserted
  263. 0x800 - Ignore input unless DCD asserted
  264. All other bits are reserved.
  265. Typical values are:
  266. 0 - No flow control (default)
  267. 0x303 - Null modem cable detect
  268. 0x013 - RTS/CTS flow control
  269. 0x813 - RTS/CTS flow control, modem input
  270. 0x023 - DTR/DSR flow control
  271. 0x083 - DTR/DCD flow control
  272. For the SERIAL directive to be guaranteed to work properly, it
  273. should be the first directive in the configuration file.
  274. NOTE: "port" values from 0 to 3 means the first four serial
  275. ports detected by the BIOS. They may or may not correspond to
  276. the legacy port values 0x3F8, 0x2F8, 0x3E8, 0x2E8.
  277. Enabling interrupts (setting the 0x008 bit) may give better
  278. responsiveness without setting the NOHALT option, but could
  279. potentially cause problems with buggy BIOSes.
  280. NOHALT flag_val
  281. If flag_val is 1, don't halt the processor while idle.
  282. Halting the processor while idle significantly reduces the
  283. power consumption, but can cause poor responsiveness to the
  284. serial console, especially when using scripts to drive the
  285. serial console, as opposed to human interaction.
  286. CONSOLE flag_val
  287. If flag_val is 0, disable output to the normal video console.
  288. If flag_val is 1, enable output to the video console (this is
  289. the default.)
  290. Some BIOSes try to forward this to the serial console and
  291. sometimes make a total mess thereof, so this option lets you
  292. disable the video console on these systems.
  293. FONT filename
  294. Load a font in .psf format before displaying any output
  295. (except the copyright line, which is output as ldlinux.sys
  296. itself is loaded.) Syslinux only loads the font onto the
  297. video card; if the .psf file contains a Unicode table it is
  298. ignored. This only works on EGA and VGA cards; hopefully it
  299. should do nothing on others.
  300. KBDMAP keymap
  301. Install a simple keyboard map. The keyboard remapper used is
  302. *very* simplistic (it simply remaps the keycodes received from
  303. the BIOS, which means that only the key combinations relevant
  304. in the default layout -- usually U.S. English -- can be
  305. mapped) but should at least help people with AZERTY keyboard
  306. layout and the locations of = and , (two special characters
  307. used heavily on the Linux kernel command line.)
  308. The included program keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution
  309. can be used to create such keymaps. The file keytab-lilo.txt
  310. contains the documentation for this program.
  311. DISPLAY filename
  312. Displays the indicated file on the screen at boot time (before
  313. the boot: prompt, if displayed). Please see the section below
  314. on DISPLAY files.
  315. NOTE: If the file is missing, this option is simply ignored.
  316. SAY message
  317. Prints the message on the screen.
  318. PROMPT flag_val
  319. If flag_val is 0, display the boot: prompt only if the Shift or Alt
  320. key is pressed, or Caps Lock or Scroll lock is set (this is the
  321. default). If flag_val is 1, always display the boot: prompt.
  322. NOESCAPE flag_val
  323. If flag_val is set to 1, ignore the Shift/Alt/Caps Lock/Scroll
  324. Lock escapes. Use this (together with PROMPT 0) to force the
  325. default boot alternative.
  326. NOCOMPLETE flag_val
  327. If flag_val is set to 1, the Tab key does not display labels
  328. at the boot: prompt.
  329. F1 filename
  330. F2 filename
  331. ...etc...
  332. F9 filename
  333. F10 filename
  334. F11 filename
  335. F12 filename
  336. Displays the indicated file on the screen when a function key is
  337. pressed at the boot: prompt. This can be used to implement
  338. pre-boot online help (presumably for the kernel command line
  339. options.) Please see the section below on DISPLAY files.
  340. When using the serial console, press <Ctrl-F><digit> to get to
  341. the help screens, e.g. <Ctrl-F><2> to get to the F2 screen.
  342. For F10-F12, hit <Ctrl-F><A>, <Ctrl-F>B, <Ctrl-F>C. For
  343. compatibility with earlier versions, F10 can also be entered as
  344. <Ctrl-F>0.
  345. Blank lines are ignored.
  346. Note that the configuration file is not completely decoded. Syntax
  347. different from the one described above may still work correctly in this
  348. version of Syslinux, but may break in a future one.
  349. ++++ DISPLAY FILE FORMAT ++++
  350. DISPLAY and function-key help files are text files in either DOS or UNIX
  351. format (with or without <CR>). In addition, the following special codes
  352. are interpreted:
  353. <FF> <FF> = <Ctrl-L> = ASCII 12
  354. Clear the screen, home the cursor. Note that the screen is
  355. filled with the current display color.
  356. <SI><bg><fg> <SI> = <Ctrl-O> = ASCII 15
  357. Set the display colors to the specified background and
  358. foreground colors, where <bg> and <fg> are hex digits,
  359. corresponding to the standard PC display attributes:
  360. 0 = black 8 = dark grey
  361. 1 = dark blue 9 = bright blue
  362. 2 = dark green a = bright green
  363. 3 = dark cyan b = bright cyan
  364. 4 = dark red c = bright red
  365. 5 = dark purple d = bright purple
  366. 6 = brown e = yellow
  367. 7 = light grey f = white
  368. Picking a bright color (8-f) for the background results in the
  369. corresponding dark color (0-7), with the foreground flashing.
  370. Colors are not visible over the serial console.
  371. <CAN>filename<newline> <CAN> = <Ctrl-X> = ASCII 24
  372. If a VGA display is present, enter graphics mode and display
  373. the graphic included in the specified file. The file format
  374. is an ad hoc format called LSS16; the included Perl program
  375. "ppmtolss16" can be used to produce these images. This Perl
  376. program also includes the file format specification.
  377. The image is displayed in 640x480 16-color mode. Once in
  378. graphics mode, the display attributes (set by <SI> code
  379. sequences) work slightly differently: the background color is
  380. ignored, and the foreground colors are the 16 colors specified
  381. in the image file. For that reason, ppmtolss16 allows you to
  382. specify that certain colors should be assigned to specific
  383. color indicies.
  384. Color indicies 0 and 7, in particular, should be chosen with
  385. care: 0 is the background color, and 7 is the color used for
  386. the text printed by Syslinux itself.
  387. <EM> <EM> = <Ctrl-Y> = ASCII 25
  388. If we are currently in graphics mode, return to text mode.
  389. <DLE>..<ETB> <Ctrl-P>..<Ctrl-W> = ASCII 16-23
  390. These codes can be used to select which modes to print a
  391. certain part of the message file in. Each of these control
  392. characters select a specific set of modes (text screen,
  393. graphics screen, serial port) for which the output is actually
  394. displayed:
  395. Character Text Graph Serial
  396. ------------------------------------------------------
  397. <DLE> = <Ctrl-P> = ASCII 16 No No No
  398. <DC1> = <Ctrl-Q> = ASCII 17 Yes No No
  399. <DC2> = <Ctrl-R> = ASCII 18 No Yes No
  400. <DC3> = <Ctrl-S> = ASCII 19 Yes Yes No
  401. <DC4> = <Ctrl-T> = ASCII 20 No No Yes
  402. <NAK> = <Ctrl-U> = ASCII 21 Yes No Yes
  403. <SYN> = <Ctrl-V> = ASCII 22 No Yes Yes
  404. <ETB> = <Ctrl-W> = ASCII 23 Yes Yes Yes
  405. For example:
  406. <DC1>Text mode<DC2>Graphics mode<DC4>Serial port<ETB>
  407. ... will actually print out which mode the console is in!
  408. <SUB> <SUB> = <Ctrl-Z> = ASCII 26
  409. End of file (DOS convention).
  410. <BEL> <BEL> = <Ctrl-G> = ASCII 7
  411. Beep the speaker.
  412. ++++ COMMAND LINE KEYSTROKES ++++
  413. The command line prompt supports the following keystrokes:
  414. <Enter> boot specified command line
  415. <BackSpace> erase one character
  416. <Ctrl-U> erase the whole line
  417. <Ctrl-V> display the current Syslinux version
  418. <Ctrl-W> erase one word
  419. <Ctrl-X> force text mode
  420. <Tab> list matching labels
  421. <F1>..<F12> help screens (if configured)
  422. <Ctrl-F><digit> equivalent to F1..F10
  423. <Ctrl-C> interrupt boot in progress
  424. <Esc> interrupt boot in progress
  425. <Ctrl-N> display network information (PXELINUX only)
  426. ++++ COMBOOT IMAGES AND OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS ++++
  427. This version of Syslinux supports chain loading of other operating
  428. systems (such as MS-DOS and its derivatives, including Windows 95/98),
  429. as well as COMBOOT-style standalone executables (a subset of DOS .COM
  430. files; see separate section below.)
  431. Chain loading requires the boot sector of the foreign operating system
  432. to be stored in a file in the root directory of the filesystem.
  433. Because neither Linux kernels, boot sector images, nor COMBOOT files
  434. have reliable magic numbers, Syslinux will look at the file extension.
  435. The following extensions are recognized (case insensitive):
  436. none or other Linux kernel image
  437. .0 PXE bootstrap program (NBP) [PXELINUX only]
  438. .bin "CD boot sector" [ISOLINUX only]
  439. .bs Boot sector [SYSLINUX only]
  440. .bss Boot sector, DOS superblock will be patched in [SYSLINUX only]
  441. .c32 COM32 image (32-bit COMBOOT)
  442. .cbt COMBOOT image (not runnable from DOS)
  443. .com COMBOOT image (runnable from DOS)
  444. .img Disk image [ISOLINUX only]
  445. For filenames given on the command line, Syslinux will search for the
  446. file by adding extensions in the order listed above if the plain
  447. filename is not found. Filenames in KERNEL statements must be fully
  448. qualified.
  449. If this is specified with one of the keywords LINUX, BOOT, BSS,
  450. FDIMAGE, COMBOOT, COM32, or CONFIG instead of KERNEL, the filetype is
  451. considered to be the one specified regardless of the filename.
  452. ++++ BOOTING DOS (OR OTHER SIMILAR OPERATING SYSTEMS) ++++
  453. This section applies to SYSLINUX only, not to PXELINUX or ISOLINUX.
  454. See isolinux.txt for an equivalent procedure for ISOLINUX.
  455. This is the recommended procedure for creating a SYSLINUX disk that
  456. can boot either DOS or Linux. This example assumes the drive is A: in
  457. DOS and /dev/fd0 in Linux; for other drives, substitute the
  458. appropriate drive designator.
  459. ---- Linux procedure ----
  460. 1. Make a DOS bootable disk. This can be done either by specifying
  461. the /s option when formatting the disk in DOS, or by running the
  462. DOS command SYS (this can be done under DOSEMU if DOSEMU has
  463. direct device access to the relevant drive):
  464. format a: /s
  465. or
  466. sys a:
  467. 2. Boot Linux. Copy the DOS boot sector from the disk into a file:
  468. dd if=/dev/fd0 of=dos.bss bs=512 count=1
  469. 3. Run SYSLINUX on the disk:
  470. syslinux /dev/fd0
  471. 4. Mount the disk and copy the DOS boot sector file to it. The file
  472. *must* have extension .bss:
  473. mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt
  474. cp dos.bss /mnt
  475. 5. Copy the Linux kernel image(s), initrd(s), etc to the disk, and
  476. create/edit syslinux.cfg and help files if desired:
  477. cp vmlinux /mnt
  478. cp initrd.gz /mnt
  479. 6. Unmount the disk (if applicable.)
  480. umount /mnt
  481. ---- DOS/Windows procedure ----
  482. To make this installation in DOS only, you need the utility copybs.com
  483. (included with Syslinux) as well as the syslinux.com installer. If
  484. you are on an WinNT-based system (WinNT, Win2k, WinXP or later), use
  485. syslinux.exe instead.
  486. 1. Make a DOS bootable disk. This can be done either by specifying
  487. the /s option when formatting the disk in DOS, or by running the
  488. DOS command SYS:
  489. format a: /s
  490. or
  491. sys a:
  492. 2. Copy the DOS boot sector from the disk into a file. The file
  493. *must* have extension .bss:
  494. copybs a: a:dos.bss
  495. 3. Run SYSLINUX on the disk:
  496. syslinux a:
  497. 4. Copy the Linux kernel image(s), initrd(s), etc to the disk, and
  498. create/edit syslinux.cfg and help files if desired:
  499. copy vmlinux a:
  500. copy initrd.gz a:
  501. ++++ COMBOOT EXECUTABLES ++++
  502. Syslinux supports simple standalone programs, using a file format
  503. similar to DOS ".com" files. A 32-bit version, called COM32, is also
  504. provided. A simple API provides access to a limited set of filesystem
  505. and console functions.
  506. See the file comboot.txt for more information on COMBOOT and COM32
  507. programs.
  508. ++++ NOVICE PROTECTION ++++
  509. Syslinux will attempt to detect booting on a machine with too little
  510. memory, which means the Linux boot sequence cannot complete. If so, a
  511. message is displayed and the boot sequence aborted. Holding down the
  512. Ctrl key while booting disables this feature.
  513. Any file that SYSLINUX uses can be marked hidden, system or readonly
  514. if so is convenient; SYSLINUX ignores all file attributes. The
  515. SYSLINUX installed automatically sets the readonly/hidden/system
  516. attributes on LDLINUX.SYS.
  517. ++++ NOTES ON BOOTABLE CD-ROMS ++++
  518. SYSLINUX can be used to create bootdisk images for El
  519. Torito-compatible bootable CD-ROMs. However, it appears that many
  520. BIOSes are very buggy when it comes to booting CD-ROMs. Some users
  521. have reported that the following steps are helpful in making a CD-ROM
  522. that is bootable on the largest possible number of machines:
  523. a) Use the -s (safe, slow and stupid) option to SYSLINUX;
  524. b) Put the boot image as close to the beginning of the
  525. ISO 9660 filesystem as possible.
  526. A CD-ROM is so much faster than a floppy that the -s option shouldn't
  527. matter from a speed perspective.
  528. Of course, you probably want to use ISOLINUX instead. See isolinux.txt.
  529. ++++ BOOTING FROM A FAT FILESYSTEM PARTITION ON A HARD DISK ++++
  530. SYSLINUX can boot from a FAT filesystem partition on a hard disk
  531. (including FAT32). The installation procedure is identical to the
  532. procedure for installing it on a floppy, and should work under either
  533. DOS or Linux. To boot from a partition, SYSLINUX needs to be launched
  534. from a Master Boot Record or another boot loader, just like DOS itself
  535. would.
  536. Under DOS, you can install a standard simple MBR on the primary hard
  537. disk by running the command:
  538. FDISK /MBR
  539. Then use the FDISK command to mark the appropriate partition active.
  540. A simple MBR, roughly on par with the one installed by DOS (but
  541. unencumbered), is included in the SYSLINUX distribution. To install
  542. it under Linux, simply type:
  543. cat mbr.bin > /dev/XXX
  544. ... where /dev/XXX is the device you wish to install it on.
  545. Under DOS or Win32, you can install the SYSLINUX MBR with the -m
  546. option to the SYSLINUX installer, and use the -a option to mark the
  547. current partition active:
  548. syslinux -ma c:
  549. Note that this will also install SYSLINUX on the specified partition.
  550. ++++ HARDWARE INFORMATION +++
  551. I have started to maintain a web page of hardware with known
  552. problems. There are, unfortunately, lots of broken hardware out
  553. there; especially early PXE stacks (for PXELINUX) have lots of
  554. problems.
  555. A list of problems, and workarounds (if known), is maintained at:
  556. http://syslinux.zytor.com/hardware.php
  557. ++++ BOOT LOADER IDS USED ++++
  558. The Linux boot protocol supports a "boot loader ID", a single byte
  559. where the upper nybble specifies a boot loader family (3 = Syslinux)
  560. and the lower nybble is version or, in the case of Syslinux, media:
  561. 0x31 (49) = SYSLINUX
  562. 0x32 (50) = PXELINUX
  563. 0x33 (51) = ISOLINUX
  564. 0x34 (52) = EXTLINUX
  565. In recent versions of Linux, this ID is available as
  566. /proc/sys/kernel/bootloader_type.
  567. ++++ BUG REPORTS ++++
  568. I would appreciate hearing of any problems you have with Syslinux. I
  569. would also like to hear from you if you have successfully used Syslinux,
  570. *especially* if you are using it for a distribution.
  571. If you are reporting problems, please include all possible information
  572. about your system and your BIOS; the vast majority of all problems
  573. reported turn out to be BIOS or hardware bugs, and I need as much
  574. information as possible in order to diagnose the problems.
  575. There is a mailing list for discussion among Syslinux users and for
  576. announcements of new and test versions. To join, or to browse the
  577. archive, go to:
  578. http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
  579. Please DO NOT send HTML messages or attachments to the mailing list
  580. (including multipart/alternative or similar.) All such messages will
  581. be bounced.