Syslinux - Feb 2003 - Problem using syslinux with hard drive partition

I have been succesful in using syslinux to boot from a hard drive, by dd'ing
a Linux (LRP) image onto the drive and then running syslinux (i.e. dd 
if=the_image of=/dev/hda followed by a syslinux /dev/hda), however I'm
having
problems getting it to work from a partition on the hardrive. I'm trying to 
use syslinux on a small 100MB FAT16 partition (same commands as before, just 
replacing /dev/hda with /dev/hda1), but on boot I get the error: "Error 
booting operating system". The hard drive is a 40GB drive with hda1 being,
as
mentioned before, a 100MB FAT16	 partition, and the rest includes a couple of 
ext2 partitions. If possible, I would like to find a method to boot from a 
partition while still being able to dd new images onto the partition. Any 
info/help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Spiro Philopoulos wrote:
> I have been succesful in using syslinux to boot from a hard drive, by
dd'ing
> a Linux (LRP) image onto the drive and then running syslinux (i.e. dd 
> if=the_image of=/dev/hda followed by a syslinux /dev/hda), however I'm
having
> problems getting it to work from a partition on the hardrive. I'm
trying to
> use syslinux on a small 100MB FAT16 partition (same commands as before,
just
> replacing /dev/hda with /dev/hda1), but on boot I get the error:
"Error
> booting operating system". The hard drive is a 40GB drive with hda1
being, as
> mentioned before, a 100MB FAT16	 partition, and the rest includes a couple
of
> ext2 partitions. If possible, I would like to find a method to boot from a 
> partition while still being able to dd new images onto the partition. Any 
> info/help would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks.
You need an MBR on the hard disk, and the appropriate partition set active.

	-hpa