ISO boot from FAT/NTFS/USB (GRUB.exe, grldr from boot.ini)

[ruymbeke]

Gilles:
- Is there a web site about your version of GRUB? Did you compile it yourself? (Topologilinux's version of GRUB only works in NTFS.)

Yes there is a couple of websites: https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/grub/ and http://denbbs.angelskyarea.com/YaBB.cgi?board=discuss
But I recompiled grub myself to include several patches all together: Grub-0.95+dos/ntfs patch+network patch

- When I was trying to get syslinux to work, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to transfer the DOS system to my USB key to make it boot to DOS. I've got several Win9x boot floppies laying around, but there's no DOS driver for my USB key (Memorex thumbdrive). Do you know of a generic one?

You may try this link: http://denbbs.angelskyarea.com/YaBB....num=1087878145

- I couldn't find a precompiled syslinux binary for DOS that worked. Puppy Linux has an old one up on their download page, but it didn't work. I was happy to find that it worked fine from Knoppix. Do you know where I could get a current precompiled syslinux binary for DOS?

Have a look here: http://syslinux.zytor.com/memdisk.php
But I am not sure to understand your question. Syslinux is compiled for x86 and is usually started at boot time from the (PXE) BIOS via the CD/HD/Floppy/Network/... A hard way to do it from DOS would be to use grub.exe to load a floppy disk image which contains a syslinux boot...

But generally speaking, the goal of grub is to be a generic boot loader. Via floppy emulation you can almost boot everything. Network and NTFS boot are very usefull. Binaries for DOS, CD/Floppy/HD boot sectors make it very versatile. Recently the capability to boot from the CD when the bios doesn't support it has been added. Well, there is a lot of activities around Grub these days and the next big challenge will be to get all these great patches merged and accepted by Okuji for the next official release of Grub !
Hope this will help... Gilles