[syslinux] [memdisk] remote boot fails: Non-System disk error

[H. Peter Anvin]

Salman Haq wrote:
> Hello People,
> 
> I'm trying to boot a Mini-ITX system using PC-DOS. I had a working 
> bootable floppy (1.44MB) for PC-DOS that I used as a starting point.
> 
> I used 'dd' to create an image of the floppy and used it to remote boot 
> my client. It worked fine.
> 
> Then I created a new blank image that is ~16Mb and copied (using dd) the 
> floppy image onto the new image. This image, which I believe is 
> identical to the floppy image except that it is much bigger failed to 
> boot. The message I got at the end was "Non-System disk or disk error / 
> Replace and press any key when ready"
> 
> I don't understand what is causing this error. My hunch is that it is 
> Cylinder/Head/Sector issue.
> 

Yes, if you read the documentation you find that it derives floppy vs 
hard disk and the C/H/S geometry from the size of the file.

If you specify "floppy h=2 s=18" on the command line it will probably work.

	-hpa