How To Install syslinux on CentOS 8

syslinux is Simple kernel loader which boots from a FAT filesystem

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install syslinux on CentOS 8.

What is syslinux

SYSLINUX is a suite of bootloaders, currently supporting DOS FAT filesystems, Linux ext2/ext3 filesystems (EXTLINUX), PXE network boots (PXELINUX), or ISO 9660 CD-ROMs (ISOLINUX). It also includes a tool, MEMDISK, which loads legacy operating systems from these media.

We can use yum or dnf to install syslinux on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install syslinux.

Install syslinux on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install syslinux using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install syslinux

Install syslinux on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install syslinux using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install syslinux

How To Uninstall syslinux on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the syslinux package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove syslinux

syslinux Package Contents on CentOS 8

/usr/bin/gethostip
/usr/bin/isohybrid
/usr/bin/memdiskfind
/usr/bin/syslinux
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/57
/usr/lib/.build-id/57/ca0cc4a4c586dea74790c3deae40ead47d89f7
/usr/lib/.build-id/72
/usr/lib/.build-id/72/856ece328d084b8c793e3d553bf5ee1b11c5dc
/usr/lib/.build-id/95
/usr/lib/.build-id/95/06265463fdaa8a6d21cb5e83c50e321d838526
/usr/lib/.build-id/d5
/usr/lib/.build-id/d5/55dc88ddae746125eb878f0c5ddae2c5289ff9
/usr/share/doc/syslinux
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/CodingStyle.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/NEWS
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/README
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/SubmittingPatches.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/building.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/chain.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/cptime.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/distrib.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/extlinux.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/gpt.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/isolinux.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/keytab-lilo.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/logo
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/logo/LICENSE
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/logo/syslinux-100.png
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/mboot.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/memdisk.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/menu.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/pxechn.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/pxelinux.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/rfc5071.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sample
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sample/Makefile
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sample/m16-640x640-syslinux.jpg
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sample/sample.msg
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sample/syslinux_splash.jpg
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sample/syslogo.ppm.gz
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/sdi.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/syslinux.txt
/usr/share/doc/syslinux/usbkey.txt
/usr/share/licenses/syslinux
/usr/share/licenses/syslinux/COPYING
/usr/share/man/man1/extlinux.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/gethostip.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/isohybrid.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/memdiskfind.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/syslinux.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/syslinux2ansi.1.gz
/usr/share/syslinux
/usr/share/syslinux/diag
/usr/share/syslinux/diag/geodsp1s.img.xz
/usr/share/syslinux/diag/geodspms.img.xz
/usr/share/syslinux/diag/handoff.bin
/usr/share/syslinux/dosutil
/usr/share/syslinux/dosutil/copybs.com
/usr/share/syslinux/dosutil/eltorito.sys
/usr/share/syslinux/dosutil/mdiskchk.com
/usr/share/syslinux/syslinux64.exe

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install syslinux on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.