[ale] Initial ramdisk load failuse using Loadlin

[byron at cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff)]

I've set up a loopback filesystem setup to install Slackware 7.1 on
my students boxes here at Clark Atlanta. I've always used loadlin
to boot the kernel and set up a small initial ramdisk to mount and
configure the loopback file.

But all of a sudden this week the system has started failing on a 
couple of machines. Both are Compaqs. One a Presario 7950, the
other a newfangled laptop. Both are running WinME with the DOS real
mode boot patch, which seems to work fine on both machines.

The symptom is that while loadlin (version 1.6a) loads the ramdisk,
the kernel doesn't seem to pick it up, uncompress it, and run the
linuxrc in the disk. The kernel message:

RAMDISK: compressed image found at block 0 ....

doesn't appear after the IDE drive partitions.

I've tried different kernels and different boot images. None boot
on these two machines. The system works fine on other machines in the
past (including a very similar Compaq laptop running WinME)
and I plan to spend some time booting some test machines too.

Lastly the Slack 7.1 boot disk uses syslinux 1.48 with a ramdisk and
the CD's boot fine on both machines. The only difference is that the
CD doesn't ever egt to WinME.

Any suggestions?

BAJ
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