I'm having trouble getting memdisk 6.03pre18 to boot large floppies and wondering whether I'm doing something incorrectly. 1) Download http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks/autogen/FDOEM.144.gz 2) gunzip FDOEM.144.gz 3) newmkfloppyimg.sh 8 FDOEM144.img fdoem_8mb.img 4) newmkfloppyimg.sh 9 FDOEM144.img fdoem_9mb.img 5) Use following pxelinux.cfg: LABEL works LINUX syslinux/memdisk INITRD fdoem_8mb.img APPEND floppy pause LABEL infinite_memdisk_loop LINUX syslinux/memdisk INITRD fdoem_9mb.img APPEND floppy pause With the latter, after memdisk asks me to press a key, boot sector code execution seems to start (I do get "FreeDOS" on the screen), but then somehow memdisk takes over again and starts over from scratch, so I get this loop: MEMDISK 6.03 6.03-pre18 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al e820: 0000000000000000 [snip] [...] Loading boot sector... press any key to boot... booting... FreeDOSMEMDISK 6.03 6.03-pre18 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al e820: 0000000000000000 [snip] [...] Loading boot sector... press any key to boot... booting... FreeDOSMEMDISK 6.03 6.03-pre18 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al e820: 0000000000000000 [snip] [...] I can provide screenshots if seeing the specific numbers would help isolate the issue. If memdisk is behaving as intended and I'm supposed to provide memdisk additional parameters once the floppy gets above a certain size, I'd appreciate some pointers on what I should try. Thanks, Alex
> I'm having trouble getting memdisk 6.03pre18 to boot large floppies and > wondering whether I'm doing something incorrectly. > > 1) Download http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks/autogen/FDOEM.144.gz > 2) gunzip FDOEM.144.gz > 3) newmkfloppyimg.sh 8 FDOEM144.img fdoem_8mb.img > 4) newmkfloppyimg.sh 9 FDOEM144.img fdoem_9mb.img > 5) Use following pxelinux.cfg: > > LABEL works > LINUX syslinux/memdisk > INITRD fdoem_8mb.img > APPEND floppy pause > > LABEL infinite_memdisk_loop > LINUX syslinux/memdisk > INITRD fdoem_9mb.img > APPEND floppy pause > > With the latter, after memdisk asks me to press a key, boot sector code > execution seems to start (I do get "FreeDOS" on the screen), but then > somehow memdisk takes over again and starts over from scratch, so I get > this loop: > > MEMDISK 6.03 6.03-pre18 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al > e820: 0000000000000000 [snip] > [...] > Loading boot sector... press any key to boot... booting... > FreeDOSMEMDISK 6.03 6.03-pre18 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al > e820: 0000000000000000 [snip] > [...] > Loading boot sector... press any key to boot... booting... > FreeDOSMEMDISK 6.03 6.03-pre18 Copyright 2001-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al > e820: 0000000000000000 [snip] > [...] > > I can provide screenshots if seeing the specific numbers would help > isolate the issue. If memdisk is behaving as intended and I'm supposed > to provide memdisk additional parameters once the floppy gets above a > certain size, I'd appreciate some pointers on what I should try. > > Thanks, > AlexIt's interesting that you ask this, because every document related to newmkfloppyimg.sh specifically recommends adding: floppy c=$CYLINDERS s=$SECTORS h=$HEADS to the MEMDISK arguments. You might also want to add "raw" too. There is a chance the resulting floppy image is not adequate anyway, but I have not tested it. Regards, Ady.
On 07/08/2014 11:26 AM, Ady wrote:> > It's interesting that you ask this, because every document related to > newmkfloppyimg.sh specifically recommends adding: > > floppy c=$CYLINDERS s=$SECTORS h=$HEADS > > to the MEMDISK arguments. > > You might also want to add "raw" too. > > There is a chance the resulting floppy image is not adequate anyway, > but I have not tested it. >It would be important for floppies to know if the geometry that MEMDISK guesses is the one that you actually intended. This will be in the information that was snipped out. "h" and "s" are the most important parameters; "c" can almost always be derived. -hpa
On 7/8/2014 13:54, Alexander Perlis wrote:> I'm having trouble getting memdisk 6.03pre18 to boot large floppies and > wondering whether I'm doing something incorrectly. > > 1) Download http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks/autogen/FDOEM.144.gz > 2) gunzip FDOEM.144.gz > 3) newmkfloppyimg.sh 8 FDOEM144.img fdoem_8mb.img > 4) newmkfloppyimg.sh 9 FDOEM144.img fdoem_9mb.img > 5) Use following pxelinux.cfg: >You could also make a floppy-disk image and install SYSLINUX onto it, then use chain.c32 to chain to FreeDOS. In fact, if FreeDOS enjoys the MEMDISK floppy, then you could transfer the FreeDOS SYStem onto it (replacing SYSLINUX), then DD the modified MEMDISK floppy back to an image file for next time. If you do this, it might be interesting to look at the difference between that resulting image-file and what you're getting from newmkfloppyimg.sh. - Shao Miller