Hello, Ok, since I've seen some vmware posts, I thought I'd add mine. I cannot get a virutal machine to boot from a floppy. I change the bios for this to happen, but it won't. A CD boots just fine. Anyone else had a problem with this? I have a couple of programs that I would like to run in a virtual machine, if I can get them to boot from a floppy. (SuSE 7.2) . Thanks -- TRBishop tb64710@alltel.net SuSE 7.2 Pro
Yep! Ditto, not a clue why though (worked fine under SuSE 7.1). M On Sunday 05 August 2001 9:13 pm, Thomas Bishop wrote:
Hello, Ok, since I've seen some vmware posts, I thought I'd add mine. I cannot get a virutal machine to boot from a floppy. I change the bios for this to happen, but it won't. A CD boots just fine. Anyone else had a problem with this? I have a couple of programs that I would like to run in a virtual machine, if I can get them to boot from a floppy. (SuSE 7.2) . Thanks
On 05-Aug-01 Thomas Bishop wrote:
Hello, Ok, since I've seen some vmware posts, I thought I'd add mine. I cannot get a virutal machine to boot from a floppy. I change the bios for this to happen, but it won't. A CD boots just fine. Anyone else had a problem with this? I have a couple of programs that I would like to run in a virtual machine, if I can get them to boot from a floppy. (SuSE 7.2) . Thanks
Two suggestions:
1. Make sure that VMWare is configured to start with "floppy connected".
2. Check that the floppy really is bootable:
a) Power on the VM
b) during the BIOS phase, press F2 to enter BIOS setup
c) Pan across to "Boot". The "+Removable Devices" should be
highlighted.
d) Press RETURN. You should then see it "expand" to
"Legacy Floppy Drives.
e) If there's a "!" to the left, then it's bootable. Press F10 now.
f) Otherwise, press SHIFT + 1 and you should see the "!" appear.
Now press F10.
Now it should be able to boot from the floppy. If it still won't, then
I'm stuck!
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding)
Two suggestions:
1. Make sure that VMWare is configured to start with "floppy connected".
2. Check that the floppy really is bootable:
a) Power on the VM b) during the BIOS phase, press F2 to enter BIOS setup c) Pan across to "Boot". The "+Removable Devices" should be highlighted. d) Press RETURN. You should then see it "expand" to "Legacy Floppy Drives. e) If there's a "!" to the left, then it's bootable. Press F10 now. f) Otherwise, press SHIFT + 1 and you should see the "!" appear. Now press F10.
Now it should be able to boot from the floppy. If it still won't, then I'm stuck!
Ted.
Been there, done that, except for doing the "!". Always thought that was along the lines of "not". I'll give it a try. Honestly don't know why I haven't tried it.......bull-headed, I guess. Thanks very much. Tom -- TRBishop tb64710@alltel.net SuSE 7.2 Pro
On 06-Aug-01 Thomas Bishop wrote:
Two suggestions:
1. Make sure that VMWare is configured to start with "floppy connected".
2. Check that the floppy really is bootable:
Been there, done that, except for doing the "!". Always thought that was along the lines of "not". I'll give it a try.
I beg your pardon -- you are right! Yes, if there is NO "!" then
the floppy should be bootable; if there is a "!" then it isn't.
Pity the VMWare Help isn't helpful about this.
(I'd managed to confuse myself by overlooking that I a bootable CD in the
drive at the time I tried to boot from floppy; the floppy boot failed
-- nothing happened, maybe a duff floppy -- so I gave the floppy BOOT
entry a "!" and it booted -- but off the CD!).
Anyway, I just powered up my Win98 VM with the original SuSE boot floppy
in the drive, and it booted off the SuSE floppy; I then put the "!" on the
floppy and it booted into Win98. Then I created a new VM for Linux and
switched that on; it again booted off the floppy.
So I don't know what the problem is with your setup. (I suppose you've
made sure that the boot order is appropriate, i.e. you've moved the
floppy above the other devices).
Sorry about the confusion.
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding)
Been there, done that, except for doing the "!". Always thought that was along the lines of "not". I'll give it a try.
I beg your pardon -- you are right! Yes, if there is NO "!" then the floppy should be bootable; if there is a "!" then it isn't. Pity the VMWare Help isn't helpful about this. snip<
Sorry about the confusion. Ted.
Hi Ted, No problem, and no, it didn't work ;-( Let me ask you this: when you expand the removable drives section to reveal the floppy drive, can you actually get it to move to the top of the list with "+" ? This does not happen for me. I can highlight the floppy drive (which I do, and exit and save) , but it won't budge. I seem to recall that I didn't have this prob in prior SuSE versions. In fact it seems to me that I used to pay heck to get a CD to boot, but a floppy always did, especially with a fresh VM. Curious. Thanks again. Tom -- TRBishop tb64710@alltel.net SuSE 7.2 Pro
Tried this too, and it didn't work either. The floppy drive is at the top of the list and it seems to be accessed since the LED comes on. Didn't have any problem with SuSE 7.1 but I have made a few fundamental changes to the system (hardware and software) so I'm not really comparing like-for-like. M On Monday 06 August 2001 9:39 pm, Thomas Bishop wrote:
Been there, done that, except for doing the "!". Always thought that was along the lines of "not". I'll give it a try.
I beg your pardon -- you are right! Yes, if there is NO "!" then the floppy should be bootable; if there is a "!" then it isn't. Pity the VMWare Help isn't helpful about this. snip<
Sorry about the confusion. Ted.
Hi Ted, No problem, and no, it didn't work ;-( Let me ask you this: when you expand the removable drives section to reveal the floppy drive, can you actually get it to move to the top of the list with "+" ? This does not happen for me. I can highlight the floppy drive (which I do, and exit and save) , but it won't budge. I seem to recall that I didn't have this prob in prior SuSE versions. In fact it seems to me that I used to pay heck to get a CD to boot, but a floppy always did, especially with a fresh VM. Curious. Thanks again. Tom
On Monday 06 August 2001 17:39, Thomas Bishop wrote:
Been there, done that, except for doing the "!". Always thought that was along the lines of "not". I'll give it a try.
I beg your pardon -- you are right! Yes, if there is NO "!" then the floppy should be bootable; if there is a "!" then it isn't. Pity the VMWare Help isn't helpful about this. snip<
Sorry about the confusion. Ted.
Hi Ted, No problem, and no, it didn't work ;-( Let me ask you this: when you expand the removable drives section to reveal the floppy drive, can you actually get it to move to the top of the list with "+" ? This does not happen for me. I can highlight the floppy drive (which I do, and exit and save) , but it won't budge. I seem to recall that I didn't have this prob in prior SuSE versions. In fact it seems to me that I used to pay heck to get a CD to boot, but a floppy always did, especially with a fresh VM. Curious. Thanks again. Tom
I may have a clue here... :o) 1) I recently installed VMware and the first thing I tried was to boot from a floppy. I figured it would be an easy test... but I could never get it to work. I went through most of the gyrations you did. 2) Then it came time to install a copy of windows and I wanted to boot from the startup floppy. Undaunted I went through the machine config including making up the HD for the machine. When it came time to boot, it had no problem seeing the floppy without any special BIOS fiddling. I have since even had it try to boot a floppy that I left in the drive when I was really trying to boot from the HD.. (the usual real life experience...) Anyway, my impression is that there must be a HD defined to the machine in order to boot from a floppy..... but I could be all wet on that. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 08/06/01 17:54 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "Never insult an alligator until you have crossed the river."
snip<
I may have a clue here... :o)
1) I recently installed VMware and the first thing I tried was to boot from a floppy. I figured it would be an easy test... but I could never get it to work. I went through most of the gyrations you did.
2) Then it came time to install a copy of windows and I wanted to boot from the startup floppy. Undaunted I went through the machine config including making up the HD for the machine. When it came time to boot, it had no problem seeing the floppy without any special BIOS fiddling. I have since even had it try to boot a floppy that I left in the drive when I was really trying to boot from the HD.. (the usual real life experience...)
Anyway, my impression is that there must be a HD defined to the machine in order to boot from a floppy..... but I could be all wet on that.
Hi Bruce, Well, I don't think you're all wet, but you might be slightly damp! ;-) I have tried to boot from a floppy when starting an already configured VM, eg: Win89 or WinNT4, and it still won't do it. However, the Win98 and WinNT4 VM's I have now *must* have been booted from a floppy, but that was *not* in 7.2 as I save them before installing the latest version of SuSE, which would lead me to believe it's somethin' with 7.2, throw mother from the train, a kiss. Sorry, my thought processes surpass my typing skills. I think I'll contact VMware about this. Thanks, all. I'll post if I get an answer, but keep the ideas coming! Tom -- TRBishop tb64710@alltel.net SuSE 7.2 Pro
On Monday 06 August 2001 20:28, Thomas Bishop wrote:
snip<
I may have a clue here... :o)
1) I recently installed VMware and the first thing I tried was to boot from a floppy. I figured it would be an easy test... but I could never get it to work. I went through most of the gyrations you did.
2) Then it came time to install a copy of windows and I wanted to boot from the startup floppy. Undaunted I went through the machine config including making up the HD for the machine. When it came time to boot, it had no problem seeing the floppy without any special BIOS fiddling. I have since even had it try to boot a floppy that I left in the drive when I was really trying to boot from the HD.. (the usual real life experience...)
Anyway, my impression is that there must be a HD defined to the machine in order to boot from a floppy..... but I could be all wet on that.
Hi Bruce, Well, I don't think you're all wet, but you might be slightly damp! ;-) I have tried to boot from a floppy when starting an already configured VM, eg: Win89 or WinNT4, and it still won't do it. However, the Win98 and WinNT4 VM's I have now *must* have been booted from a floppy, but that was *not* in 7.2 as I save them before installing the latest version of SuSE, which would lead me to believe it's somethin' with 7.2, throw mother from the train, a kiss. Sorry, my thought processes surpass my typing skills. I think I'll contact VMware about this. Thanks, all. I'll post if I get an answer, but keep the ideas coming! Tom
Hold the phone.... being a glutton for punishment, I thought I would go test my theory... and I was right... I'm all wet.. <g> However, I was able to boot from a floppy. I *did* create a HD but it was never needed and I eventually deleted it. I *did* go into the bios and removed the ! from the removable drives ==> floppy drive and that did it. During my testing, it also booted from the cd-rom but I was successful in just booting from a floppy. This is SuSE 7.2 but running VMware 2.0.4 with kernel 2.4.7 -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 08/06/01 21:00 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey."
On 06-Aug-01 Thomas Bishop wrote:
Let me ask you this: when you expand the removable drives section to reveal the floppy drive, can you actually get it to move to the top of the list with "+" ? This does not happen for me. I can highlight the floppy drive (which I do, and exit and save) , but it won't budge. I seem to recall that I didn't have this prob in prior SuSE versions. In fact it seems to me that I used to pay heck to get a CD to boot, but a floppy always did, especially with a fresh VM. Curious. Thanks again.
If you expand "+Removable Devices" and move the cursor down to "Legacy Floppy Drives" then no, you can't move it with "+" or "-". However, so long as the cursor is on "+-Removable Devices" (i.e. expanded or not) then you can move the whole "Removable devices" up & down. All you need is to have this at the top. Bruce Marshal wrote:
Anyway, my impression is that there must be a HD defined to the machine in order to boot from a floppy..... but I could be all wet on that.
Thought I'd test this out.
[A]
vmware -> Run Config Wizard -> OK -> Next
Choose "MSDOS" -> Next -> Accept "~/vmware/dos/ -> Next
(1)Accept "2000 MB" -> Next
(2)Accept "CDROM enabled", "Start connected" -> Next
Accept "floppy enabled", "start connected" -> Next
Choose "No Networking" -> Next -> Done
(3)<NUL>
Put SuSE boot floppy in drive -> Power On -> It boots from floppy!
-> Power Off -> exit VMWare
-------------
cd vmware
rm -rf dos
remove SuSE boot floppy
-------------
[B]
As [A] except
(1)Make virtual drive 100 MB (Note: no option to refuse a drive here)
(2)Choose "CDROM disabled"
(3)In VMWare window, click "Settings" -> Config Editor -> +IDE Drives
-> P-M Virtual Disk -> Remove -> Save
Now
Put SuSE boot floppy in drive -> Power On -> F2 during BIOS
Check: Legacy Diskette A present,
P Master /P Slave/Sec Master/Sec Slave all "NONE"
System Memory 640 KB
Extended memory 15360 KB
[just like the good old days]
F10 & continue boot
-> It boots from floppy!
So it seems to work each way round. I noticed that if you actually delete
~/vmware/dos.dsk then you have to go into the Wizard thing again, i.e.
start over; you can't power on. It seems you must accept some initial hard
drive setup in the VMWare config, even if you "Remove" it later (see (3)
above; this doesn't delete the virtual drive file -- it simply sets the
line "ide0:0.present = FALSE" in ~/vmware/dos/dos.cfg).
I dunno. I'm not having problems booting with the floppy, it seems,
and I'm not getting any more clues as to why you can't.
Good luck anyway.
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding)
participants (4)
-
Bruce Marshall -
Martin Webster -
Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk -
Thomas Bishop