Latest builds of GRUB4DOS unbootable on Pentium MMX boards.

skrzyp commented 6 years ago

GRUB4DOS stays at blinking cursor right after the MBR finds /grldr on one of supported partitions (in this case, 4/8GB FAT32).

The real machine tested is Toshiba Libretto 100CT, as well as QEMU (i386, with cmdline `qemu-system-i386 -cpu pentium -hda /dev/sdb -m 32). Both cases fail to load.

However, when I try with CPU pentium2 in QEMU, everything loads properly with the same image

Tested build: grub4dos-0.4.6a-2018-04-23.7z Installation method:

# ./bootlace64.com  --no-backup-mbr --mbr-disable-floppy --mbr-disable-osbr /dev/sdb
Disk geometry calculated according to the partition table:

        Sectors per track = 63, Number of heads = 255
Success.
# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt # FAT32 partition with MS-DOS and Windows 98 SE
# cp (…)/grldr /mnt/grldr
# umount /mnt/ && sync

yaya2007 commented 6 years ago

From which version of the problem? Please report.

It may be that the grldr file is too late.

steve6375 commented 6 years ago

He says 2018-04-23??

yaya2007 commented 6 years ago

I mean, the line between a good version and a bad version.

steve6375 commented 6 years ago

I tested using QEMU 32-bit x86 emulator under Windows and Easy2Boot USB flash drive using recent 0.4.6a and 0.4.5c 2015-05-18.

pentium - FAIL pentium2 FAIL pentium3 PASS

Easy2Boot ran menu.lst and processed all commands OK, but froze at point where menu should be displayed (configfile command).

A simple menu.lst displays the menu and works OK e.g. title test boot

I also tried E2B with 0.4.6a 2013-03-20 and that also hangs just when about to display the E2B menu. P2 was made in 1997, P3 was made in 1999. Not many 18 year old systems around now...

yaya2007 commented 6 years ago

see. Use 486 or 586 instructions, old CPU is not suitable. Old motherboard, use the early grub4dos bar

chenall / grub4dos

Latest builds of GRUB4DOS unbootable on Pentium MMX boards. #177