[syslinux] memdisk: DOS as a PreOS

[Matthew Moffitt]

This is something I would be interested to see as well.  The 
3com/Lanworks environment we used to use had a pboot.exe utility that 
would unload the DOS floppy environment and roll over the boot to the 
local disk.  It was handy for us.

Since switching I get most of what I need by having several memdisk 
images available and, during the times when we need to boot the 
floppies, I switch the server side configuration file to reference the 
different disks for the default boot.  However we then lose our ability 
to step into the boot process during normal boots since we need to let 
it come straight from the local disk.

Anyway, things work well enough but if we could get more control by 
applying our customizations during a pre-boot environment and then 
unload it, rolling over to the PC hard drive, it would be ideal.  Would 
there by any more flexibility working from another OS in the floppy 
image than DOS?  Something that would allow it to unload when finished?

-Matt

Gordon Dey wrote:

> On June 27, 2004 06:15 am, Alexander Heinz wrote:
> 
>>Is it possible to load a virtual DOS Floppy with memdisk to do a few
> 
> 
> This I can do albeit in a limited fashion.
> 
> 
>>to the local disk) and continue booting from the local hard disk without
>>a reboot?
> 
> 
> The "without a reboot" is an interesting challenge. For one, you have to deal 
> with cleaning up the virtual floppy space while executing out of it. Like 
> closing the hatch door on the way out; reboot punts this problem. Another is 
> the cmos and hook tweaks needed to redirect the original DOS to the virtual 
> disk need to be gone so the hd os loader doesn't trip on them.
> 
> 73, Gord.
> 
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