Hello,
We have been using syslinux to boot machines successfully for quite a
while. However, we now have a model of machine that just doesnt seem to
work.
We are currently using syslinux/pxelinux 2.05 but have tried 2.03 as well
Here is the procedure we normally use. This is typically fully unattended.
We boot a small linux distro using pxelinux.
Then we copy in mbr.bin from the syslinux package.
dd if=mbr.bin of=/dev/[hs]da bs=512 count=1
Then we fdisk the drive with a 64 meg partition, mformat it FAT16, set
it active, bootable.
Then we run syslinux /dev/[hs]da1, copy in some boot files, syslinux.cfg
and reboot.
The boot files may be a kernel/ramdisk, memdisk/floppy ( windows ), or
DOS utilities to flash the bios, etc.
Upon reboot, the machine goes through its boot order and when it gets to
hard drive, it just stops with a _ in the top left corner. This is
similar to what you get by just putting in a raw disk.
The machine in question is an IBM 6850.
If I move that disk built on the 6850 into another model, it will boot.
If I make the disk on another computer and bring it back the the 6850,
it will boot. Very strange.
I just cant seem to build it and boot it on the 6850.
When we boot linux on the 6850 and a different model, the drive
sectors/heads/etc look the same. We thought it might be some LBA issue
or something like that. It is a 40 gig IDE disk.
Any ideas on what we can try to debug this? It has been stumping us for
a week.
Michael
