Hi all,
I've tried and retried to make some USB sticks bootable. I started by
making one partition, labeling it FAT16, copying a kernel, an initrd and
a very simple syslinux.cfg file. I ran syslinux /dev/sda1 on it.
Didn't boot. I tried placing on it the mbr.bin file ('cat mbr.bin >
/dev/sda') but still no boot. Then I tried various combinations of
these two. Labeling the partition Linux. Running dd on the mbr. ans
some other things.
Still no boot.
Then I disconnected the hard drive, booted with an old MS-DOS floppy
disk, ran fdisk on the stick(s), rebooted, ran 'format /s c:' and voila
! The sticks were bootable. I then re-installed the hard drive, copied
kernel, initrd, and syslinux.cfg, ran syslinux and the sticks are
booting linux juts fine.
Now, what I'd like to know, apart from what I could be doing wrong, is
that, why on Earth in 2005 one must boot an old MS-DOS floppy in order
to do something that all linux system gurus in the world did not figure
?
But then again, I may be doing something wrong. Please advise !
Al