SYSLINUX
- A bootloader for Linux using MS-DOS floppies
+ A suite of bootloaders for Linux
- Copyright (C) 1994-2003 H. Peter Anvin
+ Copyright (C) 1994-2004 H. Peter Anvin
This program is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. There is no
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-SYSLINUX is a boot loader for the Linux operating system which
-operates off an MS-DOS/Windows FAT filesystem. It is intended to
-simplify first-time installation of Linux, and for creation of rescue-
-and other special-purpose boot disks.
+The SYSLINUX suite contains the following boot loaders
+("derivatives"), for their respective boot media:
-SYSLINUX can be used, when properly set up, completely eliminate the
-need for distribution of raw diskette images for boot floppies. A
-SYSLINUX floppy can be manipulated using standard MS-DOS (or any other
-OS that can access an MS-DOS filesystem) tools once it has been
-created.
+ SYSLINUX - MS-DOS/Windows FAT filesystem
+ PXELINUX - PXE network booting
+ ISOLINUX - ISO9660 CD-ROM
+ EXTLINUX - Linux ext2/ext3 filesystem
+For historical reasons, some of the sections in this document applies
+to the FAT loader only; see pxelinux.doc, isolinux.doc and
+extlinux.doc for what differs in these versions.
- ++++ WHAT SYSLINUX IS NOT ++++
-
-SYSLINUX is probably not suitable as a general purpose boot loader.
-It can only boot Linux from a FAT filesystem, and not, for example,
-ext2. Since a native Linux implementation will typically use ext2,
-another boot loader (e.g. LILO) is probably more suitable. In a
-system which actually contains DOS or Windows, LOADLIN may be simpler
-to use.
-
-However, SYSLINUX has shown itself to be quite useful in a number of
-special-purpose applications.
+Help with cleaning up the docs would be greatly appreciated.
++++ CREATING A BOOTABLE LINUX FLOPPY +++
(or whichever drive letter is appropriate; the [] meaning -s is optional)
-If you're running in a Win95/98/ME DOS box, you should execute the
-command "lock a:" first. If you're running in a WinNT/2K DOS box, you
-will probably get a dialog box about not getting exclusive access and
-with Abort/Retry/Ignore buttons; people have reported that selecting
-"Ignore" makes the command complete correctly.
+Use "syslinux.com" (in the dos subdirectory of the distribution) for
+plain DOS (MS-DOS, DR-DOS, PC-DOS, FreeDOS...) or Win9x/ME.
+
+Use "syslinux.exe" (in the win32 subdirectory of the distribution) for
+WinNT/2000/XP.
Under Linux, execute the command:
advance; all that is required is that it is a file located in the root
directory on the disk.
+There are two versions of the Linux installer; one in the "mtools"
+directory which requires no special privilege (other than write
+permission to the device where you are installing) but requires the
+mtools program suite to be available, and one in the "unix" directory
+which requires root privilege.
+
++++ CONFIGURATION FILE ++++
the following items (case is insensitive for keywords; upper case is used
here to indicate that a word should be typed verbatim):
-All options here applies to PXELINUX as well as SYSLINUX unless
-otherwise noted. See pxelinux.doc for additional information on
-PXELINUX.
+All options here applies to PXELINUX, ISOLINUX and EXTLINUX as well as
+SYSLINUX unless otherwise noted. See the respective .doc files.
# comment
A comment line. The whitespace after the hash mark is mandatory.
version of SYSLINUX, but may break in a future one.
- ++++ LARGE KERNELS AND INITIAL RAMDISK SUPPORT ++++
-
-This version of SYSLINUX supports large kernels (bzImage format),
-eliminating the 500K size limit of the zImage kernel format. bzImage
-format kernels are detected automatically and handled transparently to
-the user.
-
-This version of SYSLINUX also supports a boot-time-loaded ramdisk
-(initrd). An initrd is loaded from a DOS file if the option
-"initrd=filename" (where filename is the filename of the initrd image;
-the file must be located in the root directory on the boot floppy) is
-present on the processed command line (after APPEND's have been added,
-etc.). If several initrd options are present, the last one has
-precedence; this permits user-entered options to override a config
-file APPEND. Specifying "initrd=" without a filename inhibits initrd
-loading. The file specified by the initrd= option will typically be a
-gzipped filesystem image.
-
-NOTE: One of the main advantages with SYSLINUX is that it makes it
-very easy to support users with new or unexpected configurations,
-especially in a distribution setting. If initrd is used to
-extensively modularize the distribution kernel, it is strongly
-recommended that a simple way of adding drivers to the boot floppy be
-provided. The suggested manner is to let the initrd system mount the
-boot floppy and look for additional drivers in a predetermined
-location.
-
-To bzImage and recent zImage kernels, SYSLINUX 1.30 and higher will
-identify using the ID byte 0x31. PXELINUX identifies using the ID
-byte 0x32, and ISOLINUX 0x33. The ID range 0x34-0x3f is reserved for
-future versions or derivatives of SYSLINUX.
-
-
++++ DISPLAY FILE FORMAT ++++
DISPLAY and function-key help files are text files in either DOS or UNIX
++++ NOVICE PROTECTION ++++
-SYSLINUX will attempt to detect if the user is trying to boot on a 286
-or lower class machine, or a machine with less than 608K of low ("DOS")
-RAM (which means the Linux boot sequence cannot complete). If so, a
+SYSLINUX will attempt to detect booting on a machine with too little
+memory, which means the Linux boot sequence cannot complete. If so, a
message is displayed and the boot sequence aborted. Holding down the
Ctrl key while booting disables this feature.
-The compile time and date of a specific SYSLINUX version can be obtained
-by the DOS command "type ldlinux.sys". This is also used as the
-signature for the LDLINUX.SYS file, which must match the boot sector.
-
-Any file that SYSLINUX uses can be marked hidden, system or readonly if
-so is convenient; SYSLINUX ignores all file attributes. The SYSLINUX
-installed automatically sets the readonly attribute on LDLINUX.SYS.
+Any file that SYSLINUX uses can be marked hidden, system or readonly
+if so is convenient; SYSLINUX ignores all file attributes. The
+SYSLINUX installed automatically sets the readonly/hidden/system
+attributes on LDLINUX.SYS.
++++ NOTES ON BOOTABLE CD-ROMS ++++
A CD-ROM is so much faster than a floppy that the -s option shouldn't
matter from a speed perspective.
-Of course, you may want to use ISOLINUX instead. See isolinux.doc.
+Of course, you probably want to use ISOLINUX instead. See isolinux.doc.
++++ BOOTING FROM A FAT FILESYSTEM PARTITION ON A HARD DISK ++++
-SYSLINUX can boot from a FAT12 or FAT16 filesystem partition on a hard
-disk (FAT32, introduced in Windows 95 OSR-2, is not supported,
-however.) The installation procedure is identical to the procedure
-for installing it on a floppy, and should work under either DOS or
-Linux. To boot from a partition, SYSLINUX needs to be launched from a
-Master Boot Record or another boot loader, just like DOS itself would.
+SYSLINUX can boot from a FAT filesystem partition on a hard disk
+(including FAT32). The installation procedure is identical to the
+procedure for installing it on a floppy, and should work under either
+DOS or Linux. To boot from a partition, SYSLINUX needs to be launched
+from a Master Boot Record or another boot loader, just like DOS itself
+would.
Under DOS, you can install a standard simple MBR on the primary hard
disk by running the command:
Then use the FDISK command to mark the appropriate partition active.
A simple MBR, roughly on par with the one installed by DOS (but
-unencumbered), is included in the SYSLINUX distribution
-
-
- ++++ KNOWN BUGS ++++
+unencumbered), is included in the SYSLINUX distribution. To install
+it under Linux, simply type:
-SYSLINUX is unsafe to use on any filesystem that extends past cylinder
-1024. This is a fundamental limitation of the standard BIOS API. The
-"extended" BIOS API can *sometimes* be used to work around it, but
-there simply is not enough space in the SYSLINUX boot sector to
-support both APIs.
+ cat mbr.bin > /dev/XXX
-SYSLINUX will not work (and will refuse to install) on filesystems
-with a cluster size of more than 16K (typically means a filesystem of
-more than 1 GB.)
+... where /dev/XXX is the device you wish to install it on.
++++ HARDWARE INFORMATION +++
projects / platform / upstream / syslinux.git / commitdiff