label memdisk kernel memdisk append ramdisk_size=100000 network load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 initrd=/images/x vga=788 root=/dev/ram -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEMDISK #syslinux.cfg/pxelinux.cfg/isolinux.cfg label dos kernel memdisk append initrd=dosboot.img MEMDISK is meant to allow booting legacy operating systems via PXE, and as a workaround for BIOSes where ISOLINUX image support doesn't work. MEMDISK simulates a disk by claiming a chunk of high memory for the disk and a (very small - 2K typical) chunk of low (DOS) memory for the driver itself, then hooking the INT 13h (disk driver) and INT 15h (memory query) BIOS interrupts. To use it, type on the SYSLINUX command line: memdisk initrd=diskimg.img Note the following: a) The disk image can be uncompressed or compressed with gzip or zip. b) If the disk image is one of the following sizes, it's assumed to be a floppy image: 368,640 bytes - 360K floppy 737,280 bytes - 720K floppy 1,222,800 bytes - 1200K floppy 1,474,560 bytes - 1440K floppy 1,720,320 bytes - 1680K floppy (common extended format) 1,763,328 bytes - 1722K floppy (common extended format) 2,949,120 bytes - 2880K floppy 3,932,160 bytes - 3840K floppy (extended format) For any other size, the image is assumed to be a hard disk image, and should typically have an MBR and a partition table. It may optionally have a DOSEMU geometry header; in which case the header is used to determine the C/H/S geometry of the disk. Otherwise, the geometry is determined by examining the partition table, so the entire image should be partitioned for proper operation (it may be divided between multiple partitions, however.) You can also specify the geometry manually with the following command line options: c=# Specify number of cylinders (max 1024[*]) h=# Specify number of heads (max 256[*]) s=# Specify number of sectors (max 63) floppy[=#] The image is a floppy image[**] harddisk[=#] The image is a hard disk image[**] # represents a decimal number. [*] MS-DOS only allows max 255 heads, and only allows 255 cylinders on floppy disks. [**] Normally MEMDISK emulates the first floppy or hard disk. This can be overridden by specifying an index, e.g. floppy=1 will simulate fd1 (B:). This may not work on all operating systems or BIOSes. c) The disk is normally writable (although, of course, there is nothing backing it up, so it only lasts until reset.) If you want, you can mimic a write-protected disk by specifying the command line option: ro Disk is readonly d) MEMDISK normally uses the BIOS "INT 15h mover" API to access high memory. This is well-behaved with extended memory managers which load later. Unfortunately it appears that the "DOS boot disk" from WinME/XP *deliberately* crash the system when this API is invoked. The following command-line options tells MEMDISK to enter protected mode directly, whenever possible: raw Use raw access to protected mode memory. bigraw Use raw access to protected mode memory, and leave the CPU in "big real" mode afterwards. safeint Use INT 15h access to protected memory, but invoke INT 15h the way it was *before* MEMDISK was loaded. e) MEMDISK by default supports EDD/EBIOS on hard disks, but not on floppy disks. This can be controlled with the options: edd Enable EDD/EBIOS noedd Disable EDD/EBIOS Some interesting things to note: If you're using MEMDISK to boot DOS from a CD-ROM (using ISOLINUX), you might find the generic El Torito CD-ROM driver by Gary Tong and Bart Lagerweij useful: http://www.nu2.nu/eltorito/ Similarly, if you're booting DOS over the network using PXELINUX, you can use the "keeppxe" option and use the generic PXE (UNDI) NDIS network driver, which is part of the PROBOOT.EXE distribution from Intel: http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/1000/software.htm