The mtools dependence of syslinux is kind of silly ... Since only root can mount filesystems, but mtools can operate on any msdos filesystem with the appropriate permissions, the author decided to simply use mtools to copy the bootloader (LDLINUX.SYS) onto the disk.
The latest version of syslinux, 3.35, can be built so as not to depend on mtools... in this version, the msdos filesystem is mounted in the usual manner and then the bootloader is copied on the usual Linux way. Version 3.35 also makes syslinux more like isolinux in that the configuration files can be in a subdirectory. Hopefully there will be a 3.35 package for Ubuntu soon!! -- This package should depends on mtools https://launchpad.net/bugs/75765 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
