[syslinux] Any way to boot a CD if no BIOS support & CD-ROM is not 100% standard?

[Nazo]

On 11/22/05, Scott Thornley <scott at sathornley.net> wrote:
> Grub might do what you want.
>
> Create a GRUB boot floppy. Make one of the options in menu.lst point to
> a kernel image on a linux CD.This link describes how to create a
> bootable GRUB CD, but the techniques would seem to apply to your case:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Making-a-GRUB-bootable-CD-ROM.html
>
> Regards,
> Scott
>
>
> Nazo wrote:
>
> >On 11/19/05, Geert Stappers <stappers at stappers.nl> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Fri, Nov 18, 2005 at 11:58:30PM -0600, Nazo wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>I originally asked in a hardware/software forum, but, got basically no
> >>>results.  It occured to me that if anyone would know, it would be you
> >>>people.  What I'm wanting to do is set up a rescue disc for a really
> >>>old laptop.  It needs to boot up a linux based CD, hopefully with
> >>>minimal to no working stuff on the harddrive (I plan to put a floppy
> >>>image to be written to a disk when needed to do the actual booting.)
> >>>
> >>>
> >> <bigsnip> (SBM is Smart Boot Manager) </bigsnip>
> >>
> >>
> >>AFAICT is a laptop with an add-on CD-ROM drive
> >>but no BIOS support to boot from that drive.
> >>
> >>
> >>The most clean solution would be updating the BIOS.
> >>Contact the manufactor for detailed information.
> >>
> >>I have no clue how much they will charge for it.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>What about booting from floppy?
> >>
> >>
> >>GSt
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >Upgrade the BIOS?  Are you kidding me?  We're not talking a simple
> >flash here, you'd have to REPLACE the BIOS.  This is a ~1995 system,
> >not a 2000+ one...  It just simply lacks the capability and if it can
> >get it via a flash, I realy seriously doubt they ever would have made
> >one for such a system anyway, and they sure as heck aren't going to
> >for one little ordinary user rather than some business running
> >thousands of the things or something.  Seriously though, I really
> >doubt Toshiba supports a laptop they made a decade ago.  Last I
> >checked they showed no sign of this anyway that I've been able to
> >find.  I can't blame them, I wouldn't expect anyone to.  If someone
> >asked me to support something I did for them ten years ago, I'd just
> >laugh at them.  It's not a question of money because I'm not BIll
> >Gates, so I don't have enough money to make it feasible for them to
> >try to rig up some kind of bios upgrade for me.
> >
> >Now, floppy booting works.  That's what I was saying earlier.  I had
> >hoped I could figure out how to get SBM to boot the CD-ROM and I
> >planned to use it via floppy.  My intention is to, once I get
> >something that works, include a disk image on the restore CD so that
> >it can be written to floppy.  My intention is to not rely on a floppy
> >disk to last as long as a CDR for the person I'm selling this system
> >to later.  (Floppies have the annoying tendency to die in a matter of
> >weeks in some bad cases, years in the best cases.  Whereas CDRs, if
> >you take care of them, theoretically promise up to 10 years.
> >Theoretically...)
> >
> >Right now the only solution I've found is directly booting.  Thing is,
> >the kernel+initrd for anything I wish to boot MUST fit on the floppy,
> >and I have to implement such a solution on a case by case basis, and
> >there were one or two bootable CDs that I thought might benefit that
> >person, not just the restoration disc I'm planning to rig up.
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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>
Thanks for that.  I was typing up my response to the previous e-mails
and didn't see this message until just now.  You probably just saved
me a few hours of work trying to figure out how to do this with a
program I'm unfamiliar with myself.