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The Syslinux Project is a suite of five different boot loaders for starting up Linux distros on computers. It was primarily developed by H. Peter Anvin. The Syslinux Project consists of five different boot loaders: The eponymous SYSLINUX, used for booting from the filesystem ISOLINUX, used for booting from the ISO 9660 filesystem PXELINUX, used for booting from a network server using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) system EXTLINUX, used for booting from Btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, , NTFS, , 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 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. A minor complication is involved when booting from compact discs. The El Torito standard allows booting in two different modes: 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 file suitable for emulating a -formatted floppy disk. SYSLINUX is suitable for this mode. To have this choice is sometimes useful, since ISOLINUX is vulnerable to BIOS bugs. For that reason, it is handy to be able to boot using SYSLINUX. This mostly affects computers built before about 1999, and, in fact, for modern computers the "no emulation" mode is generally the more reliable method. Newer ISOLINUX versions support creation of so-called "hybrid ISO" images, that put both the El Torito boot record of the compact discs and the master boot record of hard disks into an ISO image. This hybrid image could then be written to both a compact disc or a USB flash drive. PXELINUX is used in conjunction with a PXE-compliant ROM on a network interface controller (NIC), which enables receiving a bootstrap program over the local area network.

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Related concepts (13)

Comparison of bootloaders

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders. Note: The column MBR (Master Boot Record) refers to whether or not the boot loader can be stored in the first sector of a mass storage device. The column VBR (Volume Boot Record) refers to the ability of the boot loader to be stored in the first sector of any partition on a mass storage device.

Bootloader

A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called boot manager and bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer. When a computer is turned off, its softwareincluding operating systems, application code, and dataremains stored on non-volatile memory. When the computer is powered on, it typically does not have an operating system or its loader in random-access memory (RAM).

Live USB

A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, though they may be referred to as "live HDD" and "live SSD" respectively. They are the evolutionary next step after live CDs, but with the added benefit of writable storage, allowing customizations to the booted operating system.