Syslinux - Mar 2005 - Syslinux 3.07 hangs when using on old system

When I try to use syslinux 3.07 on older system, such as celeron 333 Mhz,
BIOS is AMIBIOS. The screen freezes with "Syslinux 3.07 2005-01-12".
But when I syslinux 3.07 to boot from diskette on the same system, it works,
I have also tried ISOlinux on a CD, it works too on the same system.
Then I took the same harddisk (85MB) and put on a newer system, celeron 550
Mhz, Award Bios, it works.
The problem seems like syslinux cannot work on harddisk installed on older
system.
I have tried serveral other harddisk (2Gb, 8GB etc) too, the same error
occured on the older system.

Is there any way to work around this? Please advise.

Thanks & regards,
Alan Sim

alansim wrote:
> When I try to use syslinux 3.07 on older system, such as celeron 333 Mhz,
> BIOS is AMIBIOS. The screen freezes with "Syslinux 3.07
2005-01-12".
> But when I syslinux 3.07 to boot from diskette on the same system, it
works,
> I have also tried ISOlinux on a CD, it works too on the same system.
> Then I took the same harddisk (85MB) and put on a newer system, celeron 550
> Mhz, Award Bios, it works.
> The problem seems like syslinux cannot work on harddisk installed on older
> system.
> I have tried serveral other harddisk (2Gb, 8GB etc) too, the same error
> occured on the older system.
> 
There does seem to be some bug in syslinux 3.07 which trips up a bunch 
of older systems, unfortunately none that I have.  One of the members of 
the mailing list is sending me a motherboard to test out with.  Given 
the number of systems that appear affected, this is getting to be a 
moderately high priority.

	-hpa

Surprisingly when I tried Syslinux 2.13, it is able to boot.
Maybe there is something missing.

Hope this helps...

----- Original Message -----
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com>
To: "alansim" <alansim at pacific.net.sg>
Cc: <syslinux at zytor.com>
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 3:46 AM
Subject: Re: [syslinux] Syslinux 3.07 hangs when using on old system

> alansim wrote:
> > When I try to use syslinux 3.07 on older system, such as celeron 333
Mhz,
> > BIOS is AMIBIOS. The screen freezes with "Syslinux 3.07
2005-01-12".
> > But when I syslinux 3.07 to boot from diskette on the same system, it
works,
> > I have also tried ISOlinux on a CD, it works too on the same system.
> > Then I took the same harddisk (85MB) and put on a newer system,
celeron
550
> > Mhz, Award Bios, it works.
> > The problem seems like syslinux cannot work on harddisk installed on
older
> > system.
> > I have tried serveral other harddisk (2Gb, 8GB etc) too, the same
error
> > occured on the older system.
> >
>
> There does seem to be some bug in syslinux 3.07 which trips up a bunch
> of older systems, unfortunately none that I have.  One of the members of
> the mailing list is sending me a motherboard to test out with.  Given
> the number of systems that appear affected, this is getting to be a
> moderately high priority.
>
> -hpa

Alan Sim wrote:
> Surprisingly when I tried Syslinux 2.13, it is able to boot.
> Maybe there is something missing.
> 
> Hope this helps...
It would be great if you could figure out exactly with which release 
(including prereleases available under Testing) broke it.

	-hpa

When I tried with version 3.00, the same problem still occurs, the system
hung.
Working backwards, I tried with 2.13, it is ok.

Hope this gives you some clue for your findings. Thanks!

----- Original Message -----
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com>
To: "Alan Sim" <alansim at pacific.net.sg>
Cc: <syslinux at zytor.com>
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 8:53 AM
Subject: Re: [syslinux] Syslinux 3.07 hangs when using on old system

> Alan Sim wrote:
> > Surprisingly when I tried Syslinux 2.13, it is able to boot.
> > Maybe there is something missing.
> >
> > Hope this helps...
>
> It would be great if you could figure out exactly with which release
> (including prereleases available under Testing) broke it.
>
> -hpa

Alan Sim wrote:
> When I tried with version 3.00, the same problem still occurs, the system
> hung.
> Working backwards, I tried with 2.13, it is ok.
> 
> Hope this gives you some clue for your findings. Thanks!
> 
Could you please try the 2.20-pre* and 3.00-pre* prereleases as well? 
That would greatly limit the changesets I have to go over.

Thanks!

	-hpa

Alan Sim wrote:
> When I tried with version 3.00, the same problem still occurs, the system
> hung.
> Working backwards, I tried with 2.13, it is ok.
> 
> Hope this gives you some clue for your findings. Thanks!
Please try the prereleases in between (2.20-pre* and 3.00-pre*) and find 
the point where it breaks.  This would be *extremely* valuable!

	-hpa