[syslinux] syslinux installation issues

[Bernd Blaauw]

I've recently returned to working on FreeDOS again after quite some 
time, and read about an unmerged MEMDISK branch that allows to boot 
DOS-based ISOs. This seemed quite usefull to me as it allows for faster 
modifications to my code/scripts/disklayout.
The general idea was to install Syslinux 3.83 to harddisk, then add the 
modified Memdisk from that boot-land forum, as well as my ISO. In the 
end this turned out to be working fine.

However, getting recent (3.83) 'syslinux.com ' DOS program to perform a 
succesfull SYSLINUX C: was a horrible nightmare in VMware Workstation 
64bit under Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. I kept getting a 'syslinux sector 
reading error' message all the time. Situation was solved by getting a 
MSDOS 6.22 bootdisk from bootdisk.com, then performing Fdisk and Format 
in my virtual machine (FAT16 thus) to get a full 1GB harddisk with a 
single 1GB primary FAT16 partition, then 'syslinux.com c:' (syslinux 
2.11) then again 'syslinux.com C:' (syslinux 3.83). After that I added 
the remainder of the files (memdisk, my iso, and syslinux.cfg) to get 
into a working state.

Is there anything that can be done to get syslinux.com (maybe the .exe 
was already fixed?) working better without giving me the sector reading 
error message?. I'd imagine SYSLINUX C: would always work as long as C: 
is a primary partition and actually formatted.

Bernd