SYSLINUX
Developer(s) | H. Peter Anvin |
---|---|
Stable release | 6.03
/ October 6, 2014 |
Preview release | 6.04-pre3
/ February 7, 2019 |
Repository | |
Operating system | Linux |
Type | Boot loader |
License | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Website | www |
The Syslinux Project is a suite of five different
Components
The Syslinux Project consists of five different boot loaders:
- The eponymous SYSLINUX, used for booting from the FAT filesystem
- ISOLINUX, used for booting from the ISO 9660 filesystem[1]
- PXELINUX, used for booting from a network server using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) system[1]
- EXTLINUX, used for booting from Btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT, NTFS, UFS/UFS2, and XFS filesystems
- MEMDISK, emulates a RAM disk for older operating systems like MS-DOS
The project also includes two separate menu systems and a development environment for additional modules.
SYSLINUX and ISOLINUX
SYSLINUX was originally meant for rescue floppy disks, live USBs, or other lightweight environments. ISOLINUX is meant for live CDs and Linux installation CDs.
The SYSLINUX bootloader can be used to boot multiple distributions from a single source such as a USB stick.[2]
A minor complication is involved when booting from
- No emulation – Requires storing the boot information directly on the CD. ISOLINUX is suitable for this mode.
- Floppy emulation – Requires storing the boot information in a disk image file suitable for emulating a FAT-formatted floppy disk. SYSLINUX is suitable for this mode.
To have this choice is sometimes useful, since ISOLINUX is vulnerable to
PXELINUX
PXELINUX is used in conjunction with a
EXTLINUX
EXTLINUX is a general-purpose bootloader, similar to
filesystems.COMBOOT
SYSLINUX can be extended by COMBOOT modules written in
.c32
filename extension. Version 5 and later do not support 16-bit .com
modules.[6]Hardware Detection Tool (HDT)
Since the 3.74 release, the Syslinux project hosts the Hardware Detection Tool (HDT) project, licensed under the terms of
See also
- Comparison of boot loaders
References
- ^ a b Negus 2006, p. 133.
- ^ Pakrashi 2009, pp. 66, 71−73.
- ^ "syslinux/doc/isolinux.txt". 2011-05-04. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
- ^ Bresnahan & Blum 2019, pp. 136–137.
- ^ "syslinux/doc/pxelinux.txt". 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
- ^ Matt Fleming (2012-12-06). "Syslinux 5.00 released". Syslinux mailing list. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
- ^ Hardware Detection Tool on SourceForge
Sources
- Bresnahan, Christine; Blum, Richard (11 July 2019). CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide — Exam XK0-004. United Kingdom: Wiley. OCLC 1066596041.
- Murphy, Mike (4 April 2017a). Slackware Linux: Syslinux Bootloader. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 17 August 2021 – via YouTube.
- Negus, Christopher (2006). Live Linux CDs: Building and Customizing Bootables. Prentice Hall. OCLC 846108594.
- Pakrashi, Arjun (August 2009). Rahul Chopra (ed.). "Create Multi-boot Discs". Linux For You. Vol. 7, no. 6. Delhi: Ramesh Chopra. pp. 66–73. ISSN 0974-1054.