[syslinux] memdisk and floppy controllers

[H. Peter Anvin]

Josef Siemes wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> just tried memdisk - it works, even with token-ring network cards!
> 
> I've some problems with dos 6.22 on one machine, though. This one
> doesn't have a floppy controller (e.g. linux reports that it didn't
> find any controller). The Dos 6.22 boot disk is loaded, then the boot
> sector is started and tells me that it can't load the system
> (German message: 'Kein System oder Laufwerksfehler', don't know
> the english one from the boot sector).
> 
> On a different system (this one has a floppy controller!) it works.
> 
> With a different bootdisk (Win98) both work, too.
> 
> Both systems tell me: 
> [..]
> INT 13 08 failure
> old: int13 = nnnn int15 = mmmm 
> new: int13 = oooo int15 = pppp
> [further messages from boot sector and dos]
> 
> Maybe it's also a bios issue, since the controllerless machine is only
> used for Netbsd (Network Station Manager), Linux and OS/2 (Workspace 
> on Demand), it's an IBM Networkstation 2800 with token-ring on board. 
> 
> Any further ideas? Do Win98 and Dos 6.22 do anything different in the 
> dos area?
> 


Odds are that the BIOS of the floppy-controllerless machine gets really 
confused and breaks when it appears that suddenly it has a floppy drive. 
  INT 13 08 is the "get number of drives."  It's quite possible Win98 
(DOS 7.1) does something slightly different and doesn't trigger the same 
bug.

	-hpa