43 replies to this topic

[Sha0]

Hey delicatepc: Syslinux' main author/developer, H. Peter Anvin, and myself worked through isolating the point of regression (there was one) and he identified the problem for Windows 98 DOS floppy images. There is a new version from the Syslinux git repository you can try. It should work for both FreeDOS and Win98 on ThinkPads, we hope. - Sha0

[delicatepc]

Hey delicatepc: Syslinux' main author/developer, H. Peter Anvin, and myself worked through isolating the point of regression (there was one) and he identified the problem for Windows 98 DOS floppy images. There is a new version from the Syslinux git repository you can try. It should work for both FreeDOS and Win98 on ThinkPads, we hope. - AndyTim

Awesome! No Lenovo's on hand to test at the moment but will try ASAP. I take the new version I should test with is 3.83pre6.

Looked through the Git repository and some of the notes on the fixes/updates. Good stuff.

thank you,
dpc

[delicatepc]

FreeDos - Still requires the memdisk RAW to boot fully w/certain options on the Lenovos.
MSDos/Win98/Lenovo Maintenance disk - Seem to be working well with just the updated (3.83pre6) memdisk (didnt need raw command).

From all that I am seeing the original issue(s) have been resolved. I will update the first post to reflect this.

THANK YOU Andy Tim and H. Peter Anvin for the fantastic help and resolution! Also much to Icecube for all your assistance - All of you are in the credits of my custom ubcd build.

~dpc

[Icecube]

On the X61 when it was able to load the image it would load it, run the keyboard,cd,usb scripts or whatever and then put me an a: prompt (didnt seem to be any failures anywhere I assumed that it was what it was supposed to do).

The X61one doesn't boot completely (can't find /ubcd/dosapps/ubcd.ini)
Can you test this model again? It should show a menu.

Download the newer FreeDos Image for UBCD and see if its helps for the X61:
http://localhostr.co...d/fdubcd.img.gz rename the file to fdubcd.igz or rename fdubcd.igz in the config files to fdubcd.img.gz).

FreeDos - Still requires the memdisk RAW to boot fully w/certain options on the Lenovos.

This is normal behavior. I need 'RAW for the FreeDos image on my PC too.

[delicatepc]

The X61one doesn't boot completely (can't find /ubcd/dosapps/ubcd.ini)
Can you test this model again? It should show a menu.

I have a Lenovo X301 on hand at moment... Will try to test with Lenovo X61 once I can get one in here again. However I think that boot issue may be stupidity on my part (I am not sure if I left the ubcd.ini when stripping one of the images). In any case I will try it out with a proper build.

Download the newer FreeDos Image for UBCD and see if its helps for the X61:
http://localhostr.co...d/fdubcd.img.gz rename the file to fdubcd.igz or rename fdubcd.igz in the config files to fdubcd.img.gz).

Out of curiosity will this be the next FreeDos build added to UBCD?

Thank you,
dpc

[Icecube]

Out of curiosity will this be the next FreeDos build added to UBCD?

Yes.

[delicatepc]

I think we may have a regression. ISOs using the latest memdisk are unable to fully load images (for example try loading ubcd's drive fitness test tool using memdisk 3.83pre6). Tried with memdisk and memdisk raw. I am using the same version of Virtual Box (3.0) as before. There is a new version and I will give a try with the new version however a couple of people trying out my latest ISO say that it fails to fully load on machines they are trying.

Symptoms are similar to the previous issue we were having with USB versions (now USB versions seem to work, ISO versions are having trouble)

MSDOS/PCDOS based bootdisks seem to be failing. For example Win98SE bootdisk loads img says loading bootsector... loaded.... starting Win98 start up disk.... then it says type in command interpreter (ie its telling us it cannot find command.com which is defintely there). Another example, Drive Fitness Test from UBCD (using memdisk raw) loads boot img says loading bootsector..... loaded... starting PCDos... and then it just sits there....

Seatools fails to load in the latest ISO....

thanks,
dpc

[Icecube]

Drive Fitness test also fails for me in VirtualBox (with memdisk, works fine with grub4dos). In qemu, it runs fine.

Does the FreeDos image works with memdisk 3.82-pre6 on CD (and USB) on the real PCs and are only the MS-DOS and PC-DOS based floppy images affected?

[delicatepc]

Will need to test these things out but might be delayed (need to catch up on a few things.... sleep for one ).

If anyone gets to testing out before me definitely post your results!

thanks,
dpc

[H. Peter Anvin]

I would appreciate a copy of any disk image which fails to boot -- if it is an .iso then I need the full ISO, how to run it to replicate the failure, and a list of platforms on which it is known to fail.

[Icecube]

Some news:

I have spent some time (way too much) looking at this, and for some
reason PC-DOS does a well-formed read request to address 0:0. MEMDISK
dutifully executes the request, and wipes out the interrupt table.

I'm afraid I don't have time to track this down further at this time.

-hpa

http://syslinux.zyto...ust/013133.html

[delicatepc]

I feel for him. This issue has sucked quite a bit of time with progress being 1 step forward and 0.7 back.

I would consider moving to Grub but unfortunately Grub cannot chainload the Windows BOOTMGR (which my custom ubcd uses extensively).Oh well will sit tight and wait for the later version of syslinux.

thanks,
dpc

[H. Peter Anvin]

I feel for him. This issue has sucked quite a bit of time with progress being 1 step forward and 0.7 back.

I would consider moving to Grub but unfortunately Grub cannot chainload the Windows BOOTMGR (which my custom ubcd uses extensively).Oh well will sit tight and wait for the later version of syslinux.

thanks,
dpc

Does anyone know how many platforms other than VirtualBox are affected? If it's just VirtualBox, it's less of an issue, obviously...

[was_jaclaz]

Sorry, OT

Just to say HI, WELCOME to H.Peter Anvin.

It's a pleasure and a honour to have you among the members on boot-land.



jaclaz

[Icecube]

@ delicatepc
Can you try MEMDISK of Syslinux 3.84?
The PC-dos stuff is fixed (Drive Fitness test works now in VirtualBox).

[delicatepc]

Not going to be around a Lenovo/Thinkpad until after new years however I will setup an alert for myself to try it after that point.

Icecube on a side note... Have you considered creating a installer/framework for creating an installer to custom select tools and/or packages for ubcd? Essentially beautification of the batch file process. I was looking into creating one with something like NSIS however it seemed rather complicated. I once used a program called Atom Menu Builder (v0.33 i think) and it was really easy to create a menu system (for cds/dvds) but we couldnt use that here. Ideally this installer would be able to handle "add-in" pages where other people (devs?) could add like a page for creating BCD entries and linking them to actual WIM files. I created a custom build of UBCD for a group of people I work around and they loved it but adding an installer with a finite (not unlimited but enough) level of control would make this a pretty neat. Pipe dreaming...

Syslinux 4.0 (with C level code?) is rumored to possibly support NTFS partitions - would be cool. However FAT is starting to move into legacy (4gb file limit is perhaps biggest drawback).

~
dpc

[Icecube]

There is a project "UBCD Creator" that aims to do that. It is written in Java. Currently it only can extract and rebuild the iso. I have heard something from the developer some months ago. He was still working on it. I can try to contact him again:
http://ultimatebootc...opic.php?t=1597

Syslinux alpha 4.00pre8 supports ext2/3/4, fat16/32, iso9660, pxe and btrfs (new).

[H. Peter Anvin]

With the new filesystem framework in Syslinux 4, adding NTFS support shouldn't be all that hard. The biggest piece of work would probably be the installers.

-hpa

[delicatepc]

Sorry about the delay in reply... Do not know why but I occasionally have trouble accessing boot-land.net from work, home, and random networks/machines (sometimes get IPS error or similar).

With syslinux 3.84 it seems be working properly (from USB). To be honest I did a poor job testing it (busy busy at office). I still do get random STAK gibberish when running FreeDOS but it doesnt seem to break anything. Certain items still require a RAW command (like some dell diagnostics on certain machines) however this is not a big problem.

One of my next goal with my custom UBCD build is to throw together a simple, easy to configure, and basic installer for UBCD (who knows when). Im not a programmer and couldn't create it by hand. However I was thinking abstracting it to a set of batch files and have the batch files handle the heavy lifting and have the installer be an addon (for speed/simplicity considerations?).

Cheers,
dpc