90 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
90 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
EXTLINUX is a new syslinux derivative, which boots from a Linux
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ext2/ext3 filesystem.
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It works the same way as SYSLINUX, with a few slight modifications.
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1. The installer is run on a *mounted* filesystem. Run the extlinux
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installer on the directory in which you want extlinux installed:
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extlinux /boot
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NOTE: this doesn't have to be the root directory of a filesystem.
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If /boot is a filesystem, you can do:
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mkdir -p /boot/extlinux
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extlinux /boot/extlinux
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... to create a subdirectory and install extlinux in it.
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2. The configuration file is called "extlinux.conf", and is expected
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to be found in the same directory as extlinux is installed in.
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3. Pathnames can be absolute or relative; if absolute (with a leading
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slash), they are relative to the root of the filesystem on which
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extlinux is installed (/boot in the example above), if relative,
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they are relative to the extlinux directory.
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extlinux supports subdirectories, but the total path length is
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limited to 255 characters.
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4. EXTLINUX currently doesn't support symlinks it does, however,
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support hard links. This will be fixed in a future version.
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Note that EXTLINUX installs in the filesystem partition like a
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well-behaved bootloader :) Thus, it needs a master boot record in the
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partition table; the mbr.bin shipped with SYSLINUX should work well.
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To install it just do:
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cat mbr.bin > /dev/XXX
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... where /dev/XXX is the appropriate master device, e.g. /dev/hda,
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and make sure the correct partition in set active.
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If you have multiple disks in a software RAID configuration, the
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preferred way to boot is:
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- Create a separate RAID-1 partition for /boot. Note that the Linux
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RAID-1 driver can span as many disks as you wish.
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- Install the MBR on *each disk*, and mark the RAID-1 partition
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active.
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- Run "extlinux /boot" to install extlinux. This will install it on
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all the drives in the RAID-1 set, which means you can boot any
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combination of drives in any order.
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It is not required to re-run the extlinux installer after installing
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new kernels. If you are using ext3 journalling, however, it might be
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desirable to do so, since running the extlinux installer will flush
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the log. Otherwise a dirty shutdown could cause some of the new
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kernel image to still be in the log. This is a general problem for
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boot loaders on journalling filesystems; it is not specific to
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extlinux. The "sync" command does not flush the log on the ext3
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filesystem.
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The SYSLINUX series boot loaders support chain loading other operating
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systems via a separate module, chain.c32 (located in
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com32/modules/chain.c32). To use it, specify a LABEL in the
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configuration file with KERNEL chain.c32 and
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APPEND [hd|fd]<number> [<partition>]
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For example:
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# Windows CE/ME/NT, a very dense operating system.
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# Second partition (2) on the first hard disk (hd0);
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# Linux would *typically* call this /dev/hda2 or /dev/sda2.
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LABEL cement
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KERNEL chain.c32
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APPEND hd0 2
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See also README.menu.
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