SYSLINUX(1)                                                   General Commands Manual                                                  SYSLINUX(1)

NAME

       syslinux - install the SYSLINUX bootloader on a FAT filesystem

SYNOPSIS

       syslinux [-sfr] [-d directory] [-o offset] device

DESCRIPTION

       Syslinux  is  a  boot loader for the Linux operating system which operates off an MS-DOS/Windows FAT filesystem. It is intended to simplify
       first-time installation of Linux, and for creation of rescue and other special-purpose boot disks.

       In order to create a bootable Linux floppy using Syslinux, prepare a normal MS-DOS formatted floppy. Copy one or more Linux kernel files to
       it, then execute the command:

              syslinux /dev/fd0

       This will alter the boot sector on the disk and copy a file named LDLINUX.SYS into its root directory.

       On  boot  time,  by default, the kernel will be loaded from the image named LINUX on the boot floppy.  This default can be changed, see the
       section on the syslinux configuration file.

       If the Shift or Alt keys are held down during boot, or the Caps or Scroll locks are set, syslinux will display  a  lilo(8)  -style  "boot:"
       prompt.  The  user  can then type a kernel file name followed by any kernel parameters. The syslinux loader does not need to know about the
       kernel file in advance; all that is required is that it is a file located in the root directory on the disk.

       Syslinux supports the loading of initial ramdisks (initrd) and the bzImage kernel format.

OPTIONS

       -s     Install a "safe, slow and stupid" version of syslinux. This version may work on some very buggy BIOSes on which syslinux would  oth-
              erwise fail.  If you find a machine on which the -s option is required to make it boot reliably, please send as much info about your
              machine as you can, and include the failure mode.

       -f     Force install even if it appears unsafe.

       -r     RAID mode.  If boot fails, tell the BIOS to boot the next device in the boot sequence (usually the next hard disk) instead of  stop-
              ping with an error message.  This is useful for RAID-1 booting.

       -d subdirectory
              Install the SYSLINUX control files in a subdirectory with the specified name (relative to the root directory on the device).

       -o offset
              Indicates that the filesystem is at an offset from the base of the device or file.

FILES

   Configuration file
       All  the  configurable  defaults in syslinux can be changed by putting a file called syslinux.cfg in the root directory of the boot floppy.
       This is a text file in either UNIX or DOS format, containing one or more of the following items (case is insensitive for keywords).

       In the configuration file blank lines and comment lines beginning with a hash mark (#) are ignored.

       default kernel [ options ... ]
              Sets the default command line. If syslinux boots automatically, it will act just as if the entries after "default" had been typed in
              at the "boot:" prompt.

              If no configuration file is present, or no "default" entry is present in the configuration file, the default is "linux auto".

       NOTE: Earlier versions of SYSLINUX used to automatically
              append  the  string "auto" to whatever the user specified using the DEFAULT command.  As of version 1.54, this is no longer true, as
              it caused problems when using a shell as a substitute for "init."  You may want to include this option manually.

       append options ...
              Add one or more options to the kernel command line. These are added both for automatic and manual boots. The options  are  added  at
              the  very  beginning  of the kernel command line, usually permitting explicitly entered kernel options to override them. This is the
              equivalent of the lilo(8)
               "append" option.

       label label
         kernel image
         append options ...
              Indicates that if label is entered as the kernel to boot, syslinux should instead boot image, and  the  specified  "append"  options
              should  be  used instead of the ones specified in the global section of the file (before the first "label" command.) The default for
              image is the same as label, and if no "append" is given the default is to use the global entry (if any).  Use "append -" to  use  no
              options at all.  Up to 128 "label" entries are permitted.

              Notes: Labels  are  mangled as if they were DOS filenames, and must be unique after mangling.  For example, two labels "v2.1.30" and
                     "v2.1.31" will not be distinguishable.

                     The "image" doesn't have to be a Linux kernel; it can be a boot sector or a COMBOOT file (see below.)

       implicit flag_val
              If flag_val is 0, do not load a kernel image unless it has been explicitly named in a "label" statement.  The default is 1.

       timeout timeout
              Indicates how long to wait at the "boot:" prompt until booting automatically, in units of 1/10 s. The timeout is cancelled  as  soon
              as the user types anything on the keyboard, the assumption being that the user will complete the command line already begun. A time-
              out of zero will disable the timeout completely, this is also the default. The maximum possible timeout value is 35996;  correspond-
              ing to just below one hour.

       serial port [ baudrate ]
              Enables  a  serial  port to act as the console. "port" is a number (0 = /dev/ttyS0 = COM1, etc.); if "baudrate" is omitted, the baud
              rate defaults to 9600 bps.  The serial parameters are hardcoded to be 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit.

              For this directive to be guaranteed to work properly, it should be the first directive in the configuration file.

       font filename
              Load a font in .psf format before displaying any output (except the copyright  line,  which  is  output  as  ldlinux.sys  itself  is
              loaded.) syslinux only loads the font onto the video card; if the .psf file contains a Unicode table it is ignored.  This only works
              on EGA and VGA cards; hopefully it should do nothing on others.

       kbdmap keymap
              Install a simple keyboard map. The keyboard remapper used is very simplistic (it simply remaps the keycodes received from the  BIOS,
              which  means  that  only  the key combinations relevant in the default layout - usually U.S.  English - can be mapped) but should at
              least help people with AZERTY keyboard layout and the locations of = and , (two special characters used heavily on the Linux  kernel
              command line.)

              The included program keytab-lilo.pl(8) from the lilo(8)
               distribution can be used to create such keymaps.

       display filename
              Displays the indicated file on the screen at boot time (before the boot: prompt, if displayed). Please see the section below on DIS-
              PLAY files. If the file is missing, this option is simply ignored.

       prompt flag_val
              If flag_val is 0, display the "boot:" prompt only if the Shift or Alt key is pressed, or Caps Lock or Scroll lock is  set  (this  is
              the default).  If flag_val is 1, always display the "boot:" prompt.

       f1 filename
       f2 filename
       ...
       f9 filename
       f10 filename
       f11 filename
       f12 filename
              Displays  the  indicated file on the screen when a function key is pressed at the "boot:" prompt. This can be used to implement pre-
              boot online help (presumably for the kernel command line options.)

              When using the serial console, press <Ctrl-F><digit> to get to the help screens, e.g. <Ctrl-F>2  to  get  to  the  f2  screen.   For
              f10-f12, hit <Ctrl-F>A, <Ctrl-F>B, <Ctrl-F>C.  For compatiblity with earlier versions, f10 can also be entered as <Ctrl-F>0.

   Display file format
       DISPLAY  and function-key help files are text files in either DOS or UNIX format (with or without <CR>). In addition, the following special
       codes are interpreted:

       <FF> = <Ctrl-L> = ASCII 12
              Clear the screen, home the cursor.  Note that the screen is filled with the current display color.

       <SI><bg><fg>, <SI> = <Ctrl-O> = ASCII 15
              Set the display colors to the specified background and foreground colors, where <bg> and <fg> are hex digits, corresponding  to  the
              standard PC display attributes:

              0 = black          8 = dark grey
              1 = dark blue      9 = bright blue
              2 = dark green     a = bright green
              3 = dark cyan      b = bright cyan
              4 = dark red       c = bright red
              5 = dark purple    d = bright purple
              6 = brown          e = yellow
              7 = light grey     f = white

              Picking a bright color (8-f) for the background results in the corresponding dark color (0-7), with the foreground flashing.

              colors are not visible over the serial console.

       <CAN>filename<newline>, <CAN> = <Ctrl-X> = ASCII 24
              If  a  VGA display is present, enter graphics mode and display the graphic included in the specified file.  The file format is an ad
              hoc format called LSS16; the included Perl program "ppmtolss16" can be used  to  produce  these  images.   This  Perl  program  also
              includes the file format specification.

              The  image  is  displayed in 640x480 16-color mode.  Once in graphics mode, the display attributes (set by <SI> code sequences) work
              slightly differently: the background color is ignored, and the foreground colors are the 16 colors specified in the image file.  For
              that reason, ppmtolss16 allows you to specify that certain colors should be assigned to specific color indicies.

              Color  indicies  0 and 7, in particular, should be chosen with care: 0 is the background color, and 7 is the color used for the text
              printed by SYSLINUX itself.

       <EM>, <EM> = <Ctrl-U> = ASCII 25
              If we are currently in graphics mode, return to text mode.

       <DLE>..<ETB>, <Ctrl-P>..<Ctrl-W> = ASCII 16-23
              These codes can be used to select which modes to print a certain part of the message file in.   Each  of  these  control  characters
              select a specific set of modes (text screen, graphics screen, serial port) for which the output is actually displayed:

              Character                       Text    Graph   Serial
              ------------------------------------------------------
              <DLE> = <Ctrl-P> = ASCII 16     No      No      No
              <DC1> = <Ctrl-Q> = ASCII 17     Yes     No      No
              <DC2> = <Ctrl-R> = ASCII 18     No      Yes     No
              <DC3> = <Ctrl-S> = ASCII 19     Yes     Yes     No
              <DC4> = <Ctrl-T> = ASCII 20     No      No      Yes
              <NAK> = <Ctrl-U> = ASCII 21     Yes     No      Yes
              <SYN> = <Ctrl-V> = ASCII 22     No      Yes     Yes
              <ETB> = <Ctrl-W> = ASCII 23     Yes     Yes     Yes

              For example:
              <DC1>Text mode<DC2>Graphics mode<DC4>Serial port<ETB>
               ... will actually print out which mode the console is in!

       <SUB> = <Ctrl-Z> = ASCII 26
              End of file (DOS convention).

   Comboot Images and other operating systems
       This  version  of syslinux supports chain loading of other operating systems (such as MS-DOS and its derivatives, including Windows 95/98),
       as well as COMBOOT-style standalone executables (a subset of DOS .COM files; see separate section below.)

       Chain loading requires the boot sector of the foreign operating system to be stored in a file in the  root  directory  of  the  filesystem.
       Because neither Linux kernels, boot sector images, nor COMBOOT files have reliable magic numbers, syslinux will look at the file extension.
       The following extensions are recognised:

       none or other    Linux kernel image
       CBT              COMBOOT image (not runnable from DOS)
       BSS              Boot sector (DOS superblock will be patched in)
       BS               Boot sector
       COM              COMBOOT image (runnable from DOS)

       For filenames given on the command line, syslinux will search for the file by adding extensions in the order  listed  above  if  the  plain
       filename is not found. Filenames in KERNEL statements must be fully qualified.

       A  COMBOOT file is a standalone executable in DOS .COM format. They can, among other things, be produced by the Etherboot package by Markus
       Gutschke and Ken Yap. The following requirements apply for these files to be sufficiently "standalone" for syslinux to be able to load  and
       run them:

       o      The  program  must  not execute any DOS calls (since there is no DOS), although it may call the BIOS. The only exception is that the
              program may execute INT 20h (Terminate Program) to return to the syslinux prompt. Note especially  that  INT  21h  AH=4Ch,  INT  21h
              AH=31h or INT 27h are not supported.

       o      Only the fields pspInt20 at offset 00h, pspNextParagraph at offset 02h and pspCommandTail at offset 80h (contains the arguments from
              the syslinux command line) in the PSP are supported. All other fields will contain zero.

       o      The program must not modify any main memory outside its 64K segment if it returns to syslinux via INT 20h.

       Syslinux currently doesn't provide any form of API for the use of COMBOOT files.  If there is need, a future version  may  contain  an  INT
       interface to some syslinux functions; please contact me if you have a need or ideas for such an API.

   Novice protection
       Syslinux  will  attempt  to  detect  if the user is trying to boot on a 286 or lower class machine, or a machine with less than 608K of low
       ("DOS") RAM (which means the Linux boot sequence cannot complete).  If so, a message is displayed and the boot sequence  aborted.   Holding
       down the Ctrl key while booting disables this feature.

       The  compile  time  and date of a specific syslinux version can be obtained by the DOS command "type ldlinux.sys". This is also used as the
       signature for the LDLINUX.SYS file, which must match the boot sector

       Any file that syslinux uses can be marked hidden, system or readonly if so is convenient; syslinux ignores all file attributes.   The  SYS-
       LINUX installed automatically sets the readonly attribute on LDLINUX.SYS.

   Bootable CD-ROMs
       SYSLINUX  can  be  used  to create bootdisk images for El Torito-compatible bootable CD-ROMs. However, it appears that many BIOSes are very
       buggy when it comes to booting CD-ROMs. Some users have reported that the following steps are helpful in making a CD-ROM that  is  bootable
       on the largest possible number of machines:

       o      Use the -s (safe, slow and stupid) option to SYSLINUX

       o      Put the boot image as close to the beginning of the ISO 9660 filesystem as possible.

       A CD-ROM is so much faster than a floppy that the -s option shouldn't matter from a speed perspective.

       Of course, you probably want to use ISOLINUX instead.  See the documentation file isolinux.doc.

   Booting from a FAT partition on a hard disk
       SYSLINUX  can  boot from a FAT filesystem partition on a hard disk (including FAT32). The installation procedure is identical to the proce-
       dure for installing it on a floppy, and should work under either DOS or Linux. To boot from a partition, SYSLINUX needs to be launched from
       a Master Boot Record or another boot loader, just like DOS itself would. A sample master boot sector (mbr.bin) is included with SYSLINUX.

BUGS

       I  would  appreciate hearing of any problems you have with SYSLINUX.  I would also like to hear from you if you have successfully used SYS-
       LINUX, especially if you are using it for a distribution.

       If you are reporting problems, please include all possible information about your system and your BIOS; the vast majority of  all  problems
       reported turn out to be BIOS or hardware bugs, and I need as much information as possible in order to diagnose the problems.

       There  is  a  mailing  list  for discussion among SYSLINUX users and for announcements of new and test versions. To join, send a message to
       majordomo@linux.kernel.org with the line:

       subscribe syslinux

       in the body of the message. The submission address is syslinux@linux.kernel.org.

SEE ALSO

       lilo(8), keytab-lilo.pl(8), fdisk(8), mkfs(8), superformat(1).

AUTHOR

       This manual page is a modified version of the original syslinux documentation by H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>. The conversion to  a  man-
       page was made by Arthur Korn <arthur@korn.ch>.

SYSLINUX                                                         18 December 2007                                                      SYSLINUX(1)