Multi-booting from USB stick

While still looking for a better way to boot several OS distributions, I'm writing down the one I use with satisfaction.
There are a lot of how-tos about the topic on the web: they often contain steps which are distribution-specific, like renaming or moving folders to other locations, in order to avoid conflicts, for example. I dont'like it. I like, instead, a more general, systematic way:

1. suitably partition (FAT filesystem) the usb drive:




• the first primary partition, with the bootable flag set, reserved to hold some shared data (some operating system do recognize only the first one on removable media), and to hold a bootmanager to deal with the multi-boot scheme;


• allocate (generally) one partition per distro to avoid conflicts;




2. copy the distro (generally the content of an .iso image) on its devoted partition;


3. install syslinux on that partition;


4. edit "syslinux.cfg" accordingly; if the distro comes from a bootable .iso, most of the time it's enough to:




• copy the "isolinux" folder over the "syslinux" one;


• in the new folder "syslinux", rename "isolinux.cfg" to "syslinux.cfg";




5. install a bootmanager, like Grub4DOS, to the master boot record of the bootable partition;


6. in the bootmanager menu, add an entry for each partition to chainload its own syslinux.
   

Booting FreeDOS from USB sticks

These are only my quick notes on how to boot FreeDOS from an usb stick, mainly taken from this short and confusing post and from this more detailed guide.

1. get and install syslinux on a FAT32 (or FAT) usb stick;
2. get a FreeDOS distribution;
3. copy the "fat32lba.bin" (or "fat16.bin" in case of FAT), "command.com" and "kernel.sys" files from the FreeDOS distro to the root directory of the stick;
4. rename the "*.bin" file as "*.bss";
5. edit "syslinux.cfg" to be:

timeout 1
default fdos
prompt 0

label fdos
   BSS fat32lba.bss
   append -

6. if necessary add a suitable autoexec.bat and config.sys;
7. unmount the usb stick and reboot.

Boot and multi-boot related stuff

Useful references:

• boot managers:
  
  
  
  • GRUB
  
  
  • GRUB2
  
  
  • GRUB4dos : tips and a good guide
  
  
  • superGRUB
  
  
  • SMB
  
  
  • PLoP
  
  
  • LILO
  
  
  • ISOlinux, SYSlinux, EXTlinux
  
  


• boot from images:
  
  
  
  • direct from ISO, through some parameter in kernel options line, like knoppix and quantian
  
  
  • install distros from HD
  
  


• booting tips:
  
  
  
  • Just booting tips
  
  
  • Boot from one kernel to another kernel without rebooting the system
  
  
  • for GRUB4dos
  
  


• bootable iso images