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

Andre Dalle andre at dalle.ca
Tue Dec 3 10:08:46 PST 2002


Yep, same behaviour with syslinux-2.01-pre3.

I'll try a FreeDOS image and see if that works.

On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 01:01:12PM -0500, Andre Dalle wrote:
> 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
> > 
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> 
> -- 
> Andre Dalle                   [andre at dalle.ca]
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-- 
Andre Dalle                   [andre at dalle.ca]



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