[syslinux] interesting problem...

[ishwar ramani]

Hi,
Thanks a lot for the great tools at syslinux. I have an interesting problem
for which i am trying to use memdisk. I have a cluster of 40 machines (same
hardware config) all needing a bios flash. Rather than doing it manually, i
am trying to use the PXE mode. So i am using memdisk to boot an image of my
bios flash floppy over the network.

my platform configuration is supermicro motherboards with award bios.

So far I have been successful in loading the DOS environment, required for
my flashing program (awdflash.exe), using memdisk. But once i start running
the exe, it starts loading the boot image and pauses. Even when i ignore the
dire warnings of not to reboot the machine and do it, the old bios is
intact.

i have heard that some BIOS flashing programs need to run in real mode to
work. Does memdisk by DEFAULT go into protected mode? Where/how does it
store the floppy image in memory?

thanks a lot
ishwar