[syslinux] After USB boot problems on Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G

Ady
Mon, 20 Jan 2014 11:35:49 -0000

> Hi,
>
> Ronald F. Guilmette:
> > > Doesn't the Syslinux project provide (hopefully strong)
specific
> > > reccomendations, [...]
>
> hpa:
> > We try (see our wiki),
>
> The general wiki
>   http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX#Creating_a_Bootable_Disk
> says
>  "In order to create a bootable disk using SYSLINUX, prepare a normal
>   MS-DOS formatted disk."
> which would not have helped me to avoid Ronald's problem.
> I would have considered any existing FAT as "normal".
>
> Maybe one should add a link to a new section
>   "Possible pitfalls of MS-DOS disk partitioning and formatting"
> in
>   http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems
>
> It would give an overview or links about "partitioning",
"filesystem",
> "FAT", "LBA", and "Cylinder/Head/Sector".
> Then it would advise Ady's layout of LBA driven FAT32 with
> conservative partitioning.
>
>
> I would volunteer as half-educated author of such a section,
> but possibly i am already too much spoiled by detail knowledge.
> Does anybody know comprehensive existing user documentation about
> the topic, to which the wiki could link ?
> (Wikipedia is too detailed and scattered to be of help during a
>  computer crisis. See
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table
> )
>
>
> Maybe one should also swap the positions of the links on the
> left edge of the general wiki:
>   "Help"
>   http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Help:Contents
> and
>   "Common Problems"
>   http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/Common_Problems
> because most users would seek help with boot problems, rather
> than help with editing the wiki.
>
>
> Have a nice day :)
>
> Thomas

In a certain way, the problem is never-ending.

For instance, the (U)EFI standard is about a decade (or more) in the
making, and it is not stable / consistent enough yet. Another one:
for years the whole "booting with USB drives" was, from the point of
view of the final user, almost an "art" of trial an error between CHS
geometry, USB-HDD, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP,... A USB drive would work in one
BIOS version, and after a BIOS update it would not; or it would work
in one system but not in the other.

By the time we finally have a more-or-less "commonly-used"
"well-known" "most-frequently-working" quasi de-facto
so-called
"standard values", we start again, this time with UEFI.

The whole "booting business" is bigger than one specific bootloader.
Saying that there are more than just a couple of articles about
booting would be laughable. There are entire websites and forums
dedicated just to booting.

IMHO, there is more-than-enough to do about The Syslinux Project
itself, including improving documentation for versions 4.xx and 6.xx.

Distros and other similar "live" projects are constantly trying to
improve bootability, as much as their resources allow, because they
want their users to be able to use their software.

Regarding contacting / improving other projects mentioned in this
email thread, there is already work in progress, at least about part
of them. I should say this is an ongoing effort, almost always.

BTW, in retrospect, the issues in this whole email thread were less
related to formatting a filesystem, and more about using adequate
_matching_ values between BIOS, partition table and VBR.

Regards,
Ady.