[syslinux] Emulation question

[Seth Kurtzberg]

Hello,

I'm using syslinux to create bootable CDs, and I'm stuck.  I'm new to the 
list so if there is relevant documentation just point me at it.

I'm not able to get an image created with the mkisofs option -hard-disk-boot. 
 Here's what I've done...

First, I cloned the bootable Redhat CD, put it on my hard drive, created an 
image with mkisofs, and booted the CD.  This worked fine.

Then I used the same procedure but made some changes to the file system.  I 
then ran syslinux on the new image.  This also worked fine, and the CD boots.

In both these cases floppy emulation, size 2.88, was used and everything 
worked as expected.

I then made a bigger FAT file system image (FAT16) and copied the same files 
into the larger image (that is, the same files that worked with floppy 
emulation mode).  I then ran mkisofs on the new image, using the flag 
"-hard-disk-boot".

I tried creating the image in several ways but I haven't hit on the correct 
one yet.  I created a FAT16 file system image in a file, mounted it as a 
loopback file system, populated it, ran syslinux against it, copied it into 
the directory with the file system (the same one that booted in floppy 
emulation mode), and ran mkiosfs.  I tried also running fdisk on a 64 meg CF 
card, created one bootable FAT16 partition, formatted the partition (FAT16), 
copied the files in, and ran syslinux against this combination.

The only unusual thing I saw during this process is that mkisofs complains 
that the geometry of the device doesn't match (which I presume means that 
something in the partitioning is inconsistent).  I'm not sure whether this is 
relevant or not.

In both the above cases, the BIOS decides that the CD is bootable and 
attempts to boot it.  After that a blank screen with the cursor in the upper 
left corner is displayed, forever.

Any clues?  Should I be using hard disk emulation or turning emulation off?  
(floppy emulation is out because of size requirements).
-- 
Seth Kurtzberg
MIS Corp.
Office:  (480) 661-1849
Fax: (480) 614-8909
email:  seth at cql.com
pager:  888-605-9296 or email 6059296 at skytel.com