extlinux for Debian
-------------------

In order to use extlinux as your bootloader, you should do the following steps:

1. install extlinux:

   # apt-get install extlinux

2. install a syslinux theme to optain a graphical menu displayed to select the
   kernel to boot (optional):

   # apt-get install syslinux-themes-debian

3. create all necessary config files:

   # extlinux-update

4. optionally alter defaults (like timeout etc.) in /etc/default/extlinux and
   running extlinux-update again.

5. install extlinux into your harddisk (e.g. sda):

   # extlinux-install /dev/sda

6. make sure your partition which you boot from is marked with the bootable flag,
   set it with tools like fdisk, cfdisk or parted if necessary.

7. if you were using grub before, remember to disable automatic re-installation
   of grub into the mbr with:

   # dpkg-reconfigure -plow grub-pc

8. be happy :)


Notes:

  * the current MBR is saved to /boot/mbr-${DEVICE}.old. In case of troubles,
    you can restore it with the following command:

      # dd if=/boot/mbr-${DEVICE}.old of=/dev/${DEVICE} bs=440 count=1

    Remember that MBR backups are not rotated which means that every call of
    extlinux-install will overwrite the previous backup with a new one.

  * any ISO (*.iso) or HDD (*.img) image stored in /boot/ can be booted through
    memdisk. In order to enable these, set EXTLINUX_MEMDISK=true in /etc/default/extlinux.

  * other operating systems which are detected by os-prober can be booted via
    chainloading. In order to enable this feature, install the os-prober package and
    set EXTLINUX_OS_PROBER=true in /etc/default/extlinux.

 -- Daniel Baumann <mail@daniel-baumann.ch>  Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:56:04 +0200
