[syslinux] Bug report

[risc at volumehost.com]

as everyone deserves to know when things go wrong:

i'm trying to flash the bios on my IBM T20 laptop. i've got a floppy image, and am attempting to use memdisk with grub to boot it via the following:

title		Flash T20 Bios
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/memdisk root=/dev/md0
initrd		/T20_flash_floppy.img

that much WORKS.

the interesting part is that the system becomes unresponsive RIGHT AFTER putting up the big "do not reboot" warning, and saying it may take 1 minute to flash.

i waited two hours, capslock and scroll lock were both functioning. finally, i gave up and power cycled the machine. still the old bios, no change.

now, i dont know if its a problem with the BIOS flashing utility, the system, or memdisk, so heres your URLs/versions:

running debian unstable, about a week old.
syslinux version 2.11-0.1
grub version 0.95+cvs20040624-17
to quickly search the ibm site for the flash disk, enter "2647-46U" in the search box on the download products. there are two bios programs available, one for within windows, one as a bootdisk. i'm trying the bootdisk option. win/dos is required to decompress the image, i cannot get BOCHS/unzip to work.

this unit has no cd-rom or floppy, or windows, so memdisk looks perfect, however...
this unit is also part of a T20, part of a T21. its possible the flash utility is just freaking out over mixed parts issues, HOWEVER, the T20/21/22 use the same motherboard/processors/etc anyways, so i think the possibilities are remote.

i'm ordering a floppy drive and dvd burner for this unit, when i verify the program works normally, i'll re-post.

i'm off list, so inquiries/responses will need a CC.

hope this helps.

Julia Longtin <risc at volumehost.com>