[syslinux] pxelinux/memdisk booting MSDOS floppy image requires local floppy disk

Andre Dalle andre at dalle.ca
Tue Dec 3 10:01:12 PST 2002


I wonder, would FreeDOS work any better?

I'll try the latest -pre version and report back.

Currently using Syslinux-1.76.

On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 09:45:48AM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Andre Dalle wrote:
> >I found that if I do not have a local floppy installed and enabled on my 
> >client,
> >I will get the error 'Non-system disk' when I try to boot DOS floppy 
> >images.
> >
> >NT or Syslinux floppy images boot fine.
> >
> >If I enable the floppy in the BIOS, then it boots the DOS floppies just 
> >fine.
> >
> >Is this normal?  Is there a workaround?
> >
> >There are MS-DOS images, so perhaps this is an MS-DOS limitation.
> >
> 
> Sort of.  MS-DOS relies heavily on groping around in BIOS internal data 
> structures, and if there are no floppies at all it's possible the BIOS 
> doesn't initialize them properly.  Now, MEMDISK tries to modify these, 
> but it's probably can't actually initialize them from scratch.  Try the 
> latest -pre version, though.
> 
> 	-hpa
> 
> _______________________________________________
> SYSLINUX mailing list
> Submissions to SYSLINUX at zytor.com
> Unsubscribe or set options at:
> http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/syslinux
> Please do not send private replies to mailing list traffic.
> 

-- 
Andre Dalle                   [andre at dalle.ca]



More information about the Syslinux mailing list