Syslinux (Extlinux) and TCL

[nim108]

Ok, so my goal is to set up a simple boot partition (call it P0) that simply loads other OS's. So basically it would just contain a folder /boot/extlinux with ldlinux.sys and extlinux.conf and could be like 5 MB in size. I would like to have 3 different TCL initrd's on another partition (P1) and have extlinux be able to boot these through the boot menu (the layout on the partition could possibly look like this: /1 /2 /3 with /tce folders inside each of them). Is this possible at all? Every example I have seen places extlinux on the same partition as the kernel / initrd. Is this a limitation of syslinux and something GRUB could handle instead? I also have a Windows partition (P2) but that is easy enough to load by chain loading it with chain.c32. Thanks.

[gerald_clark]

The definitive answer is here: http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/The_Syslinux_Project

[tinypoodle]

Not sure if 5MB would be a valid partition size...

[nim108]

Not sure if 5MB would be a valid partition size...

I have it set at 10MB right now and it works fine ... I just don't know the proper menu entry to get Linux distros to boot from a partition other than where extlinux is installed.

Also gerald_clark, I've checked the syslinux wiki already, there is no mention of how to do this. Every example assumes you have Linux on the same partition as extlinux. I'm not sure you can even do this with extlinux. I know GRUB lets you change the root, maybe not extlinux.

[nim108]

Nevermind ... found the answer, SYSLINUX cannot do this (yet) without chainloading another bootloader:

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/38147/how-to-configure-syslinux-to-load-the-kernel-images-from-a-different-partition-o

I will just merge the two partitions together then ...

[genec]

I would like to have 3 different TCL initrd's on another partition (P1)

Not yet.  This is a part of GSoC work being done.