[syslinux] memdisk issues with 3com cards

[Dave Andruczyk]

I'm using pxelinux in an interesting way,  to load DOS boot disk images from a
win2k RIS (Remote installation Service) to do various functions.  Soem of the
disk images are used for flashing the BIOS on pcs, but a specific few are set
aside for booting MSDOS with MS lanman so that ghost can be run to load images
to/from the lan.  I've got 6 different disk images setup and the all work great
except for the ones for the 3Com 90x cards.

IF i use the disk image in hte floppy, works great, no issues,  if I feed that
image thru pxelinns/memdisk, when the image begins to boot it creates a
ramdrive which it uncompresses data into to startup the LAN,  I get the old DOS
"Abort Retry ignore" error when attempting to unzip the disk file onto the
ramdrive.  Hittign retry works and it unzips, but the network driver just hangs
the machine at this point.  

The same disk image booting from floppy works fine, not abort/retry/ignore
errors, and the lan starts up I can login and do whatever necessary.   This
problem ONLY exists on machines using the 3Com 3c9xx cards. (In this case I've
tried on Dell GX150/240/260 desktops, and Dell C400 laptops).  Our other range
of machines usethe Intel E100Pro and its variants and have no problems with the
pxe served boot disk and bootup and logon great. Just the 3coms give me
trouble.

Has anyone seen this? or know how to get around this issue? (using the floppy
for all these machines is troublesome as some don't have floppy drives
(laptops) and others have floppy disk locks in place._

Thanks...


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Dave J. Andruczyk

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