[syslinux] Memdisk doesn't work without floppy drive

[Anssi Kolehmainen]

Note to self: remember to use reply to all so replies come to list also :)

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> Anssi Kolehmainen wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I stumbled on a rather odd problem. A brand new HP Compaq dx2200 computer 
>> didn't want to boot up pxelinux+memdisk image. The computer just gave "Disk 
>> I/O error" and stopped there. Workaround was rather simple... Just attach 
>> regular floppy drive to the motherboard and everything started working fine.
>> 
>> I tried with older 2.05 (pxelinux+memdisk) and newer 3.31. Both produced 
>> same non-working results when floppy drive was not connected. Changing bios 
>> settings (floppy controller enabled/disabled, floppy 1.44/none) didn't help 
>> (actually with floppy controller disabled boot failed even with drive 
>> connected). Booting works just fine with any other computer (so image & 
>> environment is OK). Boot disk is made with Windows 98 boot files.
> 
> INT 13 08: Success, count = 1, BPT = f000:99a9
>           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> No wonder you're having problems.  Your BIOS says there is a floppy drive in 
> the system when there isn't.  Did you disable the floppy in the BIOS, or did 
> you just remove the drive?

There are two options in BIOS
  - Floppy controller [enable / disable]
  - Floppy 1 [1.44 / none]

Setting floppy 1 to none didn't help, though I didn't check what INT 13 08 
reported then. Disabling floppy controller didn't help either. One thing I 
didn't try was setting floppy to none and disabling controller.

-- 
Anssi Kolehmainen