Syslinux - Apr 2003 - isolinux boot issue...

I'm creating a Linux "live" CD that boots just fine on our newer
machines... but isolinux is not working on some of our older ones. The
older boxes work fine with boot floppy image systems like Knoppix... so
I'm wondering if there's something more I can do to make them happier
with isolinux? 

By "older", I mean a generic P-120 motherboard with an Award v4.50PG
bios. The hard drives have also been removed... so I tried moving the CD
to the first IDE controller which didn't help. I'm using the debug
isolinux.bin from syslinux 2.02... but on the older boxes, I don't get
far enough to see any of the messages.

What I do get is:

Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM :

  1. FD (junk*)  System Type-(00)
DISK BOOT FAILURE....

... where there's 3 garbage characters in (junk*)

I'm hoping to resolve this because the school has several hundred of
these machines... and the CD is destined to give them a new lease on
life! :)

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,

-Tom

Tom Lisjac wrote:
> I'm creating a Linux "live" CD that boots just fine on our
newer
> machines... but isolinux is not working on some of our older ones. The
> older boxes work fine with boot floppy image systems like Knoppix... so
> I'm wondering if there's something more I can do to make them
happier
> with isolinux? 
> 
> By "older", I mean a generic P-120 motherboard with an Award
v4.50PG
> bios. The hard drives have also been removed... so I tried moving the CD
> to the first IDE controller which didn't help. I'm using the debug
> isolinux.bin from syslinux 2.02... but on the older boxes, I don't get
> far enough to see any of the messages.
> 
> What I do get is:
> 
> Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM :
> 
>   1. FD (junk*)  System Type-(00)
> DISK BOOT FAILURE....
> 
> ... where there's 3 garbage characters in (junk*)
> 
Machines that old (and with Award bios to boot) might very well have 
problems with ISOLINUX (a lot of the early El Torito BIOSes didn't 
handle no-emulation mode correctly.)

You may want to see if you could do a BIOS upgrade, or otherwise you'll 
have to do floppy emulation mode on the CD for the boot (you can use 
SYSLINUX and a 2.88MB image, though.)

	-hpa