bonecrusher,
Here's a more complete way that will work better for larger kernels.
Put a floppy in the drive.

fdformat - n /dev/fd0u1680
mkdosfs -F 12 /dev/fd0u1680 1680
mkdir /mnt/tmp
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/tmp
cp /path/to/kernel /mnt/tmp/vmlinuz
rdev -R /mnt/tmp/vmlinuz 0
rdev -r /mnt/tmp/vmlinuz 49152
rdev -v /mnt/tmp/vmlinuz -1
rdev /mnt/tmp/vmlinuz /dev/fd0
cp /path/to/syslinux.cfg /mnt/tmp/syslinux.cfg
cp /path/to/message.txt /mnt/tmp/message.txt
cp /path/to/f1.txt /mnt/tmp/f1.txt
umount /dev/fd0
sync
syslinux -s /dev/fd0
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0u1680 /mnt/tmp # if not u1680 the file names are garbled
### if they fit...
cp /path/to/config /mnt/tmp/config
cp /path/to/system.map /mnt/tmp/system.map
umount /dev/fd0u1680
sync
for your purposes, that is to make a boot floppy which will by default ask for a root floppy then your syslinux.cfg should look like this:

default vmlinuz ramdisk_size=7000 root=/dev/fd0u1440 vga=normal rw
label mount
kernel vmlinuz
append ro
I'm sure you know, but for others benefit: to make a bootdisk image do this:
dd if=/dev/fd0u1680 of=/root/kernel-image.name
This will still let you mount a partition.

Still another note on this. the last part for making an image won't work. The method I gave will work if you have a local machine where you make the disk floppy directly. To duplicate it you'd have to format a new floppy to 1680K, mount the image and copy the files to the new floppy.
If you want to make a more convenient, transportable floppy image, then do as above except format the floppy to 1440K (fd0u1440). the image will then be writable directly to floppy with rawrite or linux 'dd'.
This still should work for kernels up to 1417K. You should be able to get syslinucx.cfg, message.txt, and f1.txt in there, but probably not the config file. You may be able to get the system.map in by copying it in BEFORE unmounting and running syslinux. I haven't checked to be sure, but it seems that, MAYBE after running syslinux, you get 'Device Full' errors.
You can make any kernel default to booting a root floppy, but you need to be sure and set the other rdev flags first, plus have the syslinux.cfg set up for it.
Bonecrusher, I'll happily make your bootdisk available for download at amigolinux.org iy you like. I'd like, at least, to have a copy of your config file. My distro can't use 2.6.x directly, since 2.6.x doesn't support umsdos. However Amigo Linux can be easily 'migrated' to a linux partition and could then use a 2.6.x kernel. Your bootdisk might be useful for that.

Well, I'm back. I was away getting everything in working order. I now have a nice running 2.6.6 kernel on my sata drive. (I am using KDE 3.2.2 right now...!) I am happy, and I suppose this is well deserved as this was a headache getting right.

I am in the process right now of getting back into the groove of getting that kernel put to boot disk. It is becoming tricky as the kernel is right at the limit of size for a bootdisk. I still need to trim some fat off it. I just posted to another question someone had in a thread before this... As soon as I get the kernel operation off boot disk I will put it on my ftp site...

Than ks for all your help...(again!)


-bc