[syslinux] Memdisk doesn't work without floppy drive

[H. Peter Anvin]

Anssi Kolehmainen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I stumbled on a rather odd problem. A brand new HP Compaq dx2200 computer 
> didn't want to boot up pxelinux+memdisk image. The computer just gave "Disk I/O 
> error" and stopped there. Workaround was rather simple... Just attach regular 
> floppy drive to the motherboard and everything started working fine.
> 
> I tried with older 2.05 (pxelinux+memdisk) and newer 3.31. Both produced same 
> non-working results when floppy drive was not connected. Changing bios settings 
> (floppy controller enabled/disabled, floppy 1.44/none) didn't help (actually 
> with floppy controller disabled boot failed even with drive connected). Booting 
> works just fine with any other computer (so image & environment is OK). Boot 
> disk is made with Windows 98 boot files.
> 
> Does anybody have any ideas how to make booting work (without using extra 
> floppy drive)? Hard drive images might work, but boot images must be easily 
> modifiable from Windows XP and last time I checked there was no "loop-device" 
> for Windows.
> 

INT 13 08: Success, count = 1, BPT = f000:99a9
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

No wonder you're having problems.  Your BIOS says there is a floppy 
drive in the system when there isn't.  Did you disable the floppy in the 
BIOS, or did you just remove the drive?

	-hpa