Syslinux - Apr 2004 - Syslinux 1.75, LEAF Bering 1.2, Compaq 2266

I have been using the LEAF Bering firewall for a year or so.  It boots
with Syslinux 1.75.  But Bering is too large for a 1440KB floppy, so it
formats the diskette as 1680KB.  Recently I found a small Compaq 2266 box
to replace a larger Compaq 7170 to run the firewall.  But when I try to
boot the Bering diskette on the 2266 I get the following message:
Loading Linux ............
Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue.

I have determined that the problem is an interaction between this Phoenix
BIOS, Syslinux, and the 1680KB format.  Syslinux, the 1680KB diskette,
with this floppy drive will boot the Bering Linux kernel on a different
motherboard.  This system will boot the Bering Linux kernel on a 1440KB
diskette, without all the necessary Bering packages of course.

I tried running "syslinux -s" from my W95B box on the 1680KB diskette,
although it didn't work for me after "lock a:", but did after
"unlock".
The date of the ldlinux file had been updated.  The "buggy BIOS"
version
of Syslinux gave me the same failure.  The chipset is a SiS5598, Cyrix
MII CPU.

Apparently the BIOS is unconvinced 1680KB is a legitimate format. 
Compaq/HP is spectacularly unforthcoming about anything more than the
machine as delivered in it's intended configuration for it's supplied
software.  No BIOS upgrades or the like can be expected.  Can Syslinux be
configured to avoid using the BIOS?

Paul Rogers  (paul.rogers at juno.com)
http://www.xprt.net/~pgrogers/
http://www.angelfire.com/or/paulrogers/
Rogers' Second Law: "Everything you do communicates."
(I do not personally endorse any additions after this line. TANSTAAFL 
:-)


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Paul G Rogers wrote:
> I have been using the LEAF Bering firewall for a year or so.  It boots
> with Syslinux 1.75.  But Bering is too large for a 1440KB floppy, so it
> formats the diskette as 1680KB.  Recently I found a small Compaq 2266 box
> to replace a larger Compaq 7170 to run the firewall.  But when I try to
> boot the Bering diskette on the 2266 I get the following message:
> Loading Linux ............
> Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue.
> 
Can you try 2.09 instead?

	-hpa

Paul G Rogers wrote:
 >
> Can Syslinux be configured to avoid using the BIOS?
> 
No way in hell...

	-hpa

Paul G Rogers wrote:
> I've been looking through my documentation, trying to cobble this thing
> together.  The hard drive looks like: hda1=Win98SE, hda2=swap,
> hda3=RHL7.2.  I'm thinking that making a small
> extended(hda4)/logical(hda5) partition for the "virtual floppy"
would
> enable me to maintain it from the Win98SE system.  Windows would be happy
> with that.  As best I can figure if I point Grub to syslinux on the hda5,
> syslinux would carry on just as if it were still on the floppy?  Have I
> misunderstood how to put the pieces together?
> 
That should work, *IF*:

a) hda5 is a FAT12/16 filesystem;
b) hda5 is <= cyl 1024.

	-hpa