How to install extlinux (syslinux) as a bootloader (Shallow Thoughts)

How to install extlinux (syslinux) as a bootloader

When my new netbook arrived, I chose Debian Squeeze as the first Linux distro to install, because I was under the impression it still used grub1, and I wanted to avoid grub2. I was wrong -- Squeeze uses grub2. Uninstalling grub2, installing grub-legacy and running grub-install and update-grub didn't help; it turns out even in Debian's grub-legacy package, those programs come from grub2's grub-common package.

What a hassle! But maybe it was a blessing in disguise -- I'd been looking for an excuse to explore extlinux as a bootloader as a way out of the grub mess.

Extlinux is one of the many spinoffs of syslinux -- the bootloader used for live CDs and many other applications. It's not as commonly used as a bootloader for desktops and laptops, but it's perfectly capable of that. It's simple, well tested and has been around for years. And it supports the few things I want out of a bootloader: it has a simple configuration file that lives on the /boot partition; it can chain-load Windows, on machines with a Windows partition; it even offers pretty graphical menus with image backgrounds.

Since there isn't much written about how to use extlinux, I wrote up my experiences along with some tips for configuring it. It came out too long for a blog article, so instead I've made it its own page: How to install extlinux (syslinux) as a bootloader.