[syslinux] booting dell diagnostic hd image with isolinux

[Giulio Orsero]

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 15:17:07 +0100, <Harald_Jensas at Dell.com> wrote:

>Can you try the "raw" and "bigraw" options for MEMDISK?
>	kernel memdisk
>	append raw initrd=dell5061.img
>and
>	kernel memdisk
>	append bigraw initrd=dell5061.img

I got the same error messages.

So I went another route.

1) Downloaded the diagnostics in the 2 floppy version.

2) Made a DELLDIA2 dir in the CD and copied into it the following files from
disk no2: DISK2  MDM2.EXE  MPMEMORY.EXE

3) Modified 1st floppy image as follows:
- add eltorito.sys and shsucdx.exe to handle CD drive (from within Dell
floppy dos like os) in transparent way through "eltorito" BIOS extension.
- config.sys: DEVICE=\ELTORITO.SYS /D:CDROM001
- autoexec.bat: shsucdx.exe /D:CDROM001,X
- autoexec.bat, added at end of "first:"
	copy X:\..CD_PATH ..\DELLDIA2\DISK2 . 
	copy X:\..CD_PATH..\DELLDIA2\MPMEMORY.EXE %ram%:\
	X:\..CD_PATH..\DELLDIA2\mdm2.exe -o %ram%:\>nul
edit some other things in autoexec to skip some tests

I had to use eltorito.sys since I couldn't find a way to build a 2.8M floppy
image and transfer the Dell os onto it (non sys.com command on Dell floppy)
and was afraid "normal" dos wouldn't do it.

4) isolinux
kernel memdisk
	append initrd=dell5061.img
Where dell5061 is image of 1st floppy modified as explained above.
Didn't work without memdisk even if it's a pure floppy image.

Now I can boot, select Dell diag image from isolinux menu and perform test
on Dell PE server. I put the CD in an USB DVD drive connected to the PE
Server and eltorito.sys hadled it well.
-- 
giulioo at pobox.com