[syslinux] 2.4.20, 2.4.21-pre2 and 2.4.20-ac2

[Jonathan Thorpe]

Greetings,

I have just tested Syslinux 1.75 and Syslinux 2.00 on a floppy disk that
worked fine with Kernel 2.4.19 on a 1.44Mb floppy disk (the kernel about
1.1Mb in size). I decided to update the Kernel to the new 2.4.20 (as well
as 2.4.21-pre2 and 2.4.20-ac2) which I tested to work fine when booting
from the HDD using Lilo, but when I took my original disk that used 2.4.19
and replaced the Kernel with the new one (and then updating the syslinux
installation on the floppy), the boot gets to a certain point on the
loading of the Kernel and stops, saying "Boot Failed: Please change disks
and press any key to continue".

This same problem exists with even the latest pre3 version that I just
downloaded, and even when using the slow, safe and stupid mode. The new
kernels have I have tested are 980Kb in size and are built in the exact
same manner to the 2.4.19 using the "make bzImage" method.

Originally my disks were formatted as 1.77Mb, but after seeing the error
message for the first time, I built a few 1.44Mb floppy images that also
don't work (they seem to stop at exactly the same point of loading the
Linux Kernel). The contents on the floppy are fine, this was tested with
various disks and a few different floppy drives and all contents can be
copied from the floppy to the HDD without incident.

Are you aware of any problem with the latest Kernels and Syslinux? Is
there a workaround for this?

I've been using Syslinux for about two years now and I have never
experienced a problem like this before.

Any comemnts are welcome, if you require a copy of one of my new boot
disks (that don't work, as they're using the 2.4.20 kernel), please let me
know and I'll gladly send one.

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Jonathan Thorpe