[syslinux] Help Memdisk + Pxelinux hangs

Sun Jul 22 19:22:36 PDT 2007

Many thanks to Peter and Ian for their help!

I put the older version of Memdisk that Ian sent me in place of the file 
on the server and it started to actually load the images. Some of my 
images didn't work and some did - the one I settled on in the end was a 
(2.8MB) copy of the universal bootdisk from http://www.netbootdisk.com/ 
which is a bit slower to load than some but supports lots of network 
cards.

I actually had tried re-downloading and recompiling the latest version of 
Memdisk so I don't know if there is something about the version or it's to 
do with what I (and the guy before me who actually knows about Unix) did.

Anyway, thank you

Eileen McNaughton
Alcatel-Lucent
Test Engineer
eileen.mcnaughton at alcatel-lucent.co.nz
027 274 9407

Peter.Leenders at computacenter.com 
Sent by: syslinux-bounces at zytor.com
20/07/2007 06:30 p.m.
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For discussion of SYSLINUX and tftp-hpa <syslinux at zytor.com>

To
Eileen.Mcnaughton at alcatel-lucent.co.nz
cc
syslinux at zytor.com
Subject
Re: [syslinux] Help Memdisk + Pxelinux hangs

Hello Eileen,

because of the *. ima extension I suppose you use using WinImage you 
create
your DOS Bootdisk. If you want to use ghost for imaging I suppose you 
don't
use a 1.4 MB Floppyimage. How do you you create your boot image and what's
the size.

To narrow your problem:
 * Try first to use a standard 1,4 MB floppy that also boots from floppy
drive.
 * Don't use the DOS-Version of Windows ME (Freedos, MS Dos 5.0 till Win 
98
SE would bee ok) because this version will not boot via pxe.
 * If you use himem in your config.sys, use the /testmem:off switch
(otherwise this can overwrite pxe/memdisk).
 * Make sure (if possible at least for testing purpose) that a floppy 
drive
is attached to and activated in bios of the pxe-client (because of buggy
pxe implemetations).
 * If you want to create a 2,8MB floppy image with winimage, read first a
bootable normal 1,4 MB floppy, change format in WinImage to 2,8MB and add
then extra Files to image.
 * If you aren't experienced this WinImage and pxelinux/memdisk don't use
master boot images greater 2,8 MB
 * If you create boot floppies greater then 2,8MB with Winimage your 
config
file memdisk needs the floppy and c,h,s parameters (normaly something like
c=225 s=36 h=4,8 or 16).
 * Images greater 2,8MB must be uncompressed (ima) images, the smaller 
ones
can use compressed (imz) format.

If you need a greater bootimage please email me personaly and I can send
you a master image and the corresponding template for your config file
(just copy your files into this).

Mit freundlichen Gruessen - Yours sincerely

Peter Leenders

             Eileen.Mcnaughton 
             @alcatel-lucent.c 
             o.nz                                                       To 

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                                       [syslinux] Help Memdisk + Pxelinux 
             19.07.2007 23:43          hangs 

             Please respond to 
             For discussion of 
               SYSLINUX and 
                 tftp-hpa 
             <syslinux at zytor.c 
                    om> 

Hello,

I am a *nix newbie

I am trying to boot a DOS boot disk using PXE (to Ghost on windows
images).

We have an existing PXE server which successfully serves out PXElinux and
Fedora builds based on that but my floppy disk image with memdisk isn't
working

I have tried a few different floppy images which people have posted as
ones that work for them but I doubt the disk is the problem as the hang
occurs before memdisk itself seems to have even loaded:

Loading memdisk.....
Loading image.img .............
Loading Ready

and then nothing more....

I only found one other post with the same symptoms.
http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2002-April/000346.html

The guy who set up the server says that the versions of isolinux etc are
the latest.

This is from my config file (I tried all these variations but the same
result):

label 20
  kernel memdisk keeppxe
  append initrd=test.ima floppy

label test
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd=dos/bart.img keeppxe

label a
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd=dos/net.img floppy

label b
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd=dos/netlg.ima floppy

label c
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd=dos/net.img raw

label d
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd=dos/netlg.ima raw

label e
  kernel memdisk
  append initrd=dos/netlg.ima floppy raw

Any ideas much appreciated!

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