[syslinux] Request for enlightenment..

[Ian McDonald]

I figure I'm probably trying to do something stupid, but here goes.

I'm trying to boot a hard disk image (with one 420MB partition, lilo in 
the MBR) containing debian etch (kernel 2.6.18) using memdisk (onto a 
dell 2950 with 8G of ram).

Lilo (22.6.1) fails on memdisk 3.35, 3.36, 3.50, 3.51, and 3.52-pre, 
with L 99 99 99 99 et al, but works on 2.x, 3.00 and 3.31.

However, the kernel fails to snag the emulated hard disk, and fails to 
boot past it's initramfs as it can't find the rootfs.

Can you tell me if this is because I've a newish kernel, but not got the 
"linux kernel boot protocol" updates in 3.50 and newer, as lilo fails 
with new enough memdisk to have it in?

I suppose what I'm asking is if I'm on a hiding to nothing because it'll 
never work, or whether I'm just being stupid and missing something 
painfully obvious.

-- 
ian