SysLinux

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SysLinux is a multiboot compatible bootloader that can be installed on a FAT formatted Floppy Disk, The project has three sister projects, ISOLinux, EXTLinux, and PXELinux for El Torito CD's, ext file systems, and Intel's Preboot Execution Enviroment, respectively.

Installation

Installing SYSLinux will install a bootloader to the disk, and will copy a file LDLINUX.SYS on the root directory.

Windows

Syntax:

 syslinux.exe [-sfmar] [-d directory] <drive>: [bootsecfile]

Installation on a Floppy Disk:

syslinux.exe a:

Installation on a HD / Flash Drive

Where the drive letter is Z:

syslinux.exe -m -a -d /boot/syslinux z:

DOS

Same as windows version, but with .com instead of .exe

Linux

Syntax:

syslinux [-sfr] [-d directory] [-o offset] <Device/Image>

Example

syslinux /dev/fd0

The -o option can be used with a disk image file and specifies the byte offset of the filesystem image in the file.

Configuration

SysLinux uses a configuration file called syslinux.cfg. It searches for the file in the following places in order:

  • /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
  • /syslinux/syslinux.cfg
  • /syslinux.cfg

The configuration file is common to all variants, and uses the following format:

DEFAULT Name
LABEL Name
   SAY Now Booting Your kernel
   KERNEL /kernel.bin
   APPEND initrd=file.tar

Individual Commands:

DEFAULT

The default kernel to load, has to be one of the labels

LABEL

The human readable name of the kernel to boot, this is used in menus.

SAY

Write to the screen when the kernel is loading

KERNEL

The Location of the kernel to load to

APPEND

Additional options on boot, some are ro, initrd, and rootfs

Please note that all files are relative to the config file's path unless preceded by a slash

See Also

Articles

External Links