extlinux (syslinux) debian style

my path away from grub2 took me via lilo to extlinux. i stayed with lilo for a while. syslinux was on my mind, but for something rather trivial/straightforward i couldn't crack. i finally got my head around it, and my usb sticks were the first ones to get it.

next stop was debian on my laptop, which has just been converted. the below steps are for debian systems only. if you want a how-to for other systems, let me know.

debian no systemd

debian testing jessie was steam rolling in to stable with talks of this oh-so-wonderful systemd. it all sounded so good.. then i wanted a preview at the internals of systemd, and took arch for a spin. and o boy, what a spin that was.. for my poor head! that was when i decided not to let that garbageware into my stables. it never was (and still isn't) stable, is it? this long love affair with debian, seems to be coming to an end with this episode!

systemd - the shameful episode in debian annals - forcing the debian tc (technical committee) to make a dodgy decision without giving them proper choices or time - three of the five tc resign soon after, and the debian founder allegedly commits suicide after having received death-threats! wonder who's pulling the debian strings??

lilo

grub2 has become bloatware afaiac, and i'd been meaning to move away for a while. i just didn't have the time, patience, and redundancy on my systems.

if you've been following me, you might have noticed that i like to trash bloatware. i'm always seeking smaller packages, and removing bigger ones. bloatwares are not just unnecessary resource hogs, but security concerns (malware?) too. bigger the code base, the easier it is to hide malware traits.