Hi folks,

I'm setting up a USB key for multi-boot. It works like a champ in most regards, except that I can't get any DOS or Windows floppy images to boot.

Here's a sample entry from syslinux.cfg:

LABEL 2
kernel memdisk
append initrd=w98

I've tried using the raw, bigraw, options and I've tried manually specifying CHS. Nothing helps.

when I attempt to boot one of the disk images, memdisk launches, displays some stuff (nothing to indicate an issue), and hangs after "Loading boot sector... booting...". On MS-DOS / Vista / Win98 floppies it stops right there. On an IBM PC-DOS floppy it gets as far as "Starting PC DOS..."

Booting a memtest floppy image, damnsmalllinux, or chntpw all work.

MEMDISK is version 3.11 and SYSLINUX is version 2.04.
The USB key is a Kingston Datatraveller II.
The test machine is an IBM Thinkpad T42.

Can anyone point me in the right direction here?

Anybody?
...

I upgraded memdisk and syslinux to 3.31, still no luck. There has to be someone out there that knows what's going on here.

*bump*

try mounting the img file as a loop device:

user@host# mkdir /tmp/img/


user@host# sudo mount -o loop /path/to/image/file/file.img /tmp/img/

then install a MBR (master boot record) using syslinux:

user@host# sudo syslinux -m /dev/loop0

then install syslinux on the mounted image (if you need it):

user@host# sudo syslinux -i /dev/loop0

this will make floppy images bootable in my experience (the -z option on syslinux i have yet to get working)

BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERWRITE YOUR MBR OR YOUR BOOTLOADER!!! MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL THE MBR & SYSLINUX ON THE CORRECT DEVICE NODE!