[syslinux] feedback/help request

[Stephen Brown]

Hi,
	First, let me thank you for the excellent documentation and
programming work on Syslinux.  It has made getting to this point
infinitely easier.
	Unfortunately, I need to request some guidance in
troubleshooting a problem I am having using the RedHat installer on
their version 7.3, which uses Syslinux as the boot mechanism.  A little
background:  I have an old Micron Powerdigm XsU dual PII system that
uses their Samurai chipset.  There is only one IDE controller on the
board (that is actually connected), but the Linux 2.4 kernel detects a
second one inside the Samurai chip that isn't connected (a relic of
hurried release, and buggy design, it seems).  The symptom is that as
the kernel loads, the Intel PIIX4 chip is detected, and parameters for
ide0 and 1, hda through hdd are retrieved from the BIOS as expected,
then the Samurai controller is detected, and the kernel tries to
retrieve info on ide2,3 and hde through hdh from the BIOS (which isn't
there) and hangs.  I _think_ I have tried every combination of trying
to pass parameters to the kernel to tell it to ignore that controller,
using command line parameters and editing the syslinux.cfg file on the
install floppy, to no avail.  I even tried editing the pci-ide kernel
source to remove the IDs for the Samurai, but the kernel still tries to
ask the BIOS for info on the, now unknown, second controller.
	What I am requesting, I guess, is guidance in continuing
troubleshooting -- what is the best way to determine whether the
parameters I try to pass to the kernel actually get there, and are
ignored, or are dropped along the way?  Are there, say, line length
limits on the "append" clauses in syslinux.cfg, or the resulting kernel
command line?  Or, maybe, am I missing quoting requirements to escape
the "=", or blowing the parameter separators (I tried both spaces and
commas, and one long quoted string)?

Steve Brown
sbrown7 at umbc.edu

P.S.: The particular parameters that I have tried passing in have been
just about all permutations of pci=noprobe, idex=noprobe, hdx=noprobe,
and hdx=none (with the proper replacements of "x", of course).