[solved: PEBKAC] syslinux woes: "Missing operating system"

Question

In light of http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 23211.html I decided to try syslinux, but couldn't get it to work. I think I followed the wiki (i.e. the /boot partition is marked active etc.) but still got  "Missing operating system" error and had to use a liveCD.
If anyone is using syslinux for their bootloader, can you pleas post the configs or give me a hint what could have gone wrong?
Last edited by karol (2012-07-13 22:25:03)

Answer 1

I use syslinux (or more precisely the extlinux that boot from an ext{2,3,4} partition) successfully. Hereafter I briefly post what have to be done. If it still does not work. Repost posting exactly what you have tried.
1) create a directoty /boot/syslinux, containing syslinux.cfg and possibly modules that you will refer in this file (notably menu.c32 and chain.c32). You can put symlinks on the condition that the symlinks point to file in the same partition.
small edit: pay attention of 2) if you use symlinks. the / of the pointed file is the root of the partition where syslinux it. It does not correspond to the way you see it in the system if this partition is not mounted in /. See 2).
2) Place syslinux.cfg in this directoty. The root of the file mentionned are relative to the root of the partition containing the /boot/syslinux directory. You can also use relative paths that are relative to the directory /boot/syslinux (so if you have a /boot partition, the linux kernel will be referenced as /vmlinuz-linux, if /boot is on the same partition as / then /boot/vmlinuz-linux). I put here my config as an example: http://pastebin.com/zNunwupx
3) Make the partition containing /boot/syslinux bootable.
4) Put an mbr on the hard disk to be booted:
dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=440 count=1
Replace /dev/sda by your hard disk. If you use gpt partition, you may have to use /usr/lib/syslinux/gptmbr.bin
5) run
extlinux /boot/syslinux
Last edited by olive (2012-07-11 19:18:42)