Syslinux - Aug 2006 - Making DOS/Win9x HD Image for memdisk

Hi list!


I'm trying to make a hd image with can boot from memdisk over PXE.

So this is what i did:

- Created a new VM [VMware]
-Installed  DOS on a 100MB HD from a floppy
-bootet Linux over PXE [DamnSmallLinux]
-in terminal: dd if=/dev/hda of=dos.img


This image [dos.img] isn't working! Memdisk loads the Image and boots the 
HD! The error message is something like this:

I/O Device Error...
Replace disk and press any key


The interessting thing is that this message appears in German and the only 
german thing in this VM is the dos installation.

I tried to use raw or bigraw mode, but this doesn't solve the problem.

I tried also to create the image like this: dd if=/dev/hda of=dos.img bs=512 
count=[number of sectors]

thx in advance

nobody knows??


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lukas Tribus" <lukyt at gmx.net>
To: <syslinux at zytor.com>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 1:50 PM
Subject: [syslinux] Making DOS/Win9x HD Image for memdisk


Hi list!


I'm trying to make a hd image with can boot from memdisk over PXE.

So this is what i did:

- Created a new VM [VMware]
-Installed  DOS on a 100MB HD from a floppy
-bootet Linux over PXE [DamnSmallLinux]
-in terminal: dd if=/dev/hda of=dos.img


This image [dos.img] isn't working! Memdisk loads the Image and boots the
HD! The error message is something like this:

I/O Device Error...
Replace disk and press any key


The interessting thing is that this message appears in German and the only
german thing in this VM is the dos installation.

I tried to use raw or bigraw mode, but this doesn't solve the problem.

I tried also to create the image like this: dd if=/dev/hda of=dos.img bs=512
count=[number of sectors]

thx in advance

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [syslinux]  Making DOS/Win9x HD Image for memdisk
> From: "Lukas Tribus" <lukyt at gmx.net>
> Date: Fri, August 25, 2006 4:07 am
> To: <syslinux at zytor.com>
> 
> nobody knows??
> 
> 
Hi Lukas,

I used QEMU (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/download.html) to
create a blank disk image
(http://kidsquid.com/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/QuickStartGuide)
and installed DOS 6.22 then copied the image file to the pxelinux folder
and DOS boots up perfectly.  Didn't try Win 9x.

Additional cool stuff to mount the disk image:

losetup /dev/loop0 /path_to/diskimage.img -o 32256 (if loop0 doesn't
work 

mount -t vfat /dev/loop0 /mountpoint

umount loop device
losetup -d /dev/loop0

(For Reference:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/CDServer-HOWTO/addloops.html
http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/losetup.8.html)

Good luck!

oss at need2eat.com

Revised my previous post.

Hi Lukas,

I used QEMU (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/download.html) to
create a blank disk image
(http://kidsquid.com/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/QuickStartGuide)
and installed DOS 6.22 then copied the image file to the pxelinux folder
and DOS boots up perfectly.  Didn't try Win 9x.

Additional cool stuff:

(to mount the loop device)
# losetup /dev/loop0 /path_to/diskimage -o 32256 
# mount -t vfat /dev/loop0 /mountpoint

(to umount loop device)
# losetup -d /dev/loop0

(For Reference:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/CDServer-HOWTO/addloops.html
http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/losetup.8.html)
 
Good luck!

I was now able to make a working HD image!

As i said befor i'm using VMware to make HD Images. So i have a 
VirtualMachine with a 100MB HD.

The HD is exactly 102MB big. If i use fdisk and use the whole 102MB of the 
HD for the partition, then its impossible to create a working hd image!

If i use instead of the whole 102MB another value such as 101MB or 16MB its 
working perfect!



So this is probably a VMware Bug or something like this!

I will try this also with Win98SE but i think thats the same...



@oss: i haven't tried QEMU yet, but i may do this later, thanks anyway!



thanks


Lukas Tribus