grub, booting a cd from a floppy

[Robert Citek <rwcitek@alum.calberkeley.org>]

Is there a way to boot a CD from a floppy using grub?

At ByteWorks[1] we have a number of machines that don't boot from the  
CD-ROM because the BIOS doesn't let us.  As a workaround I thought of  
installing GRUB to a floppy and then have it continue booting from  
the CD-ROM.

As a positive-control test, I installed GRUB to a floppy on a machine  
that can boot from the CD-ROM and that has linux installed on the  
harddrive.  That is, if I boot from the harddrive, Ubuntu starts and  
if I insert a Knoppix CD and boot from the CD, Knoppix boots.  When I  
boot with this boot floppy grub starts just fine.  At the grub prompt  
I can specify the root, kernel, and initrd for the harddrive and when  
I type boot, Ubuntu starts.  However, I have not been able to specify  
the CD-ROM.  If I type 'root (cd)' grub complains with "Error 23:  
Error while parsing number."  A google for that message returns this  
bug report:

http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=12967

which states "RTFM. Not a bug."  A read through the manual suggests  
that 'root (cd)' should work:

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/index.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/root.html#root

How does one tell GRUB "no, really, there is a CD-ROM device with a  
CD in it that contains a linux kernel, honest" ?

Thanks in advance for any pointers in the right direction.

[1] http://stlouis.missouri.org/bworks/programs.html

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/downloads
Help others get OpenSource software.  Distribute FLOSS
for Windows, Linux, *BSD, and MacOS X with BitTorrent

-
To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
"unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.