Syslinux - Apr 2003 - ISOLINUX problem booting with no Hard Disk

I am experiencing a problem booting a machine with ISOLINUX on a machine
that has no hard drive (CD-ROM only). I've tried two different machines, a
Dell Poweredge 2600 and a Dell Poweredge 1300, both exhibit identical
symptoms. When I boot the exact same cd on a system with a hard drive, the
boot is just fine.

I had been using ISOLINUX 1.66, but I just upgraded to 2.02 and I am 
having the exact same problem.

The messages from the debug version are:

ISOLINUX 2.02 2003-02-13  Copyright (C) 1994-2003 H. Peter Anvin
isolinux: Starting up, DL = 82
isolinux: Loaded spec packet OK, drive = 82
isolinux: Loading main image from LBA = 00002792
isolinux: Sectors to load = 0004
isolinux: Loaded boot image, verifying...
isolinux: Main image read, jumping to main code...
isolinux: Root directory at LBA = 0000001D
isolinux: isolinux directory at LBA = 0000001E
isolinux: About to load config file...
isolinux: Configuration file opened...
boot:
Loading DSA.1....(more dots)
Loading DSA.2....(more dots)
Ready.

After the "Ready." prompt, there are no more messages, the cursor
stays on
the next line under the "R", and the expected, "Uncompessing
kernel..."
message never appears. 

Anybody have any suggestions?

--
Michael Brown

Michael E Brown wrote:
> I am experiencing a problem booting a machine with ISOLINUX on a machine
> that has no hard drive (CD-ROM only). I've tried two different
machines, a
> Dell Poweredge 2600 and a Dell Poweredge 1300, both exhibit identical
> symptoms. When I boot the exact same cd on a system with a hard drive, the
> boot is just fine.
> 
BIOS bug :(  Report to your vendor.

	-hpa

I suspected that, but how can I prove it. I _am_ the vendor :-( 

I need some trace code or something to prove they are wrong. Basically, a
testcase I can give them and tell them they are broke. Do you have any DOS
executable things that I can run that would prove they are broke, or
possibly a debugging isolinux version.

If I can get this, I can walk downstairs to the BIOS guys and hand them a
defect report.

I am _VERY_ motivated to fix this, as it is a _HUGE_ impact on a project I
am on.
--
Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 5:07 PM
To: Brown, Michael E
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com
Subject: Re: [syslinux] ISOLINUX problem booting with no Hard Disk


Michael E Brown wrote:
> I am experiencing a problem booting a machine with ISOLINUX on a machine
> that has no hard drive (CD-ROM only). I've tried two different
machines, a
> Dell Poweredge 2600 and a Dell Poweredge 1300, both exhibit identical
> symptoms. When I boot the exact same cd on a system with a hard drive, the
> boot is just fine.
> 
BIOS bug :(  Report to your vendor.

	-hpa

Michael_E_Brown at Dell.com wrote:
> I suspected that, but how can I prove it. I _am_ the vendor :-( 
> 
> I need some trace code or something to prove they are wrong. Basically, a
> testcase I can give them and tell them they are broke. Do you have any DOS
> executable things that I can run that would prove they are broke, or
> possibly a debugging isolinux version.
> 
There is one already (isolinux-debug.bin).  The other thing you could to
is to wrap all calls to INT 13h and record the contents of the registers
and the EDD transfer area; this should give you a complete record of
what is happening.
> If I can get this, I can walk downstairs to the BIOS guys and hand them a
> defect report.
> 
> I am _VERY_ motivated to fix this, as it is a _HUGE_ impact on a project I
> am on.
Good, on both of those.  Both El Torito and PXE BIOSes seem to be
complete shit these days.

	-hpa