Can't boot from floppy image in Bochs!

[ApacheYxn]

Hi, all.
I downloaded Bochs2.02 and added the following two lines into .bochsrc:

floppya: 1_44="bootnet.img", status=inserted
boot: a

# bootnet.img is the image file used by bootdisk of linux

But bochs freezes after loading vga bios, so I boot from harddisk and try to mount this image, I got some error like this:
#mount /mnt/floppy
......
0 90 12065
8 81 12070
e6 80 12070
0 90 12070
0 90 12070
0 90 12070
1 90 12070
2 90 12070
12 90 12070
1b 90 12070
ff 90 12070
last result at 12070
last redo_fd_request at 12064
20 0
status=10
fdc_busy=1
DEVICE_INTR=c01539d0
fd_timer.function=c0153938
cont=c01aaa60
CURRENT=c01c7644
command_status=-1

floppy0: floppy timeout called
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
#

Can anyone give me some suggestion? I want to install linux in bochs so that I can continue working on my os. Formerly I uses VMware but I find it hard to debug. it's time to take a change.
Thank a lot!

[K.J.]

Getting rid of the quotes might fix it.

K.J.

[ApacheYxn]

no, it still does't work,
thx anyway!

[Whatever5k]

Maybe su-ing to 'root' might help - you cannot read from floppy as a normal user, need supervisor privileges.

[Pype.Clicker]

gee! i got lost ...
what' s your "real" operating system (the one who called BOCHS) ?
You say you want to "install linux in bochs" ... is this making a disk image for bochs where linux will stand ? or setup bochs to use it under linux (i guess its the former one, but please confirm)

what operating system is on bootnet.img ?
what do you call "boot from the hard disk" ? booting from a floppy image locate on a file on the hard disk ? or booting from a hard disk image in another file ? or booting directly from the raw sectors BOCHS will find on your real disk ??

finally, what is the device/os/app that generated the message "end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0" ? if it's a real floppy, are you sure it isn't damaged (this is, can you access it from a real OS with tools likes diskedit - or hexdump /dev/fd0 ?)

sorry if i'm the only one to wonder all these ...

[ApacheYxn]

I'm sorry that I didn't explain clearly.
My "real" os is windows 2000, and you are right, I want to make a disk image for bochs where linux stands.

bootnet.img is an image file from redhat distribution, which can be "rawrited" into a floppy disk to make a linux bootdisk.

well, to say "boot from hard disk" , I mean booting from a hard disk image file with a small linux system , and after booting, I tryed to mount that floppy image file (connected as /dev/fd0) then those errors occur. The floppy image file has nothing wrong because I often use it to make redhat bootdisk.

I wonder if I have already make you understand my situation.
thank you !

[Pype.Clicker]

yep. It seems much clearer this way ...
One possible option is that your bootsector doesn't have the 0x55 0xAA signature, which isn't checked by most modern BIOSes, but that BOCHS will surely check ... This doesn't sound like being possible from the REDHAT guys, though ...

Another option, is that your floppy is damaged ... maybe you could try to format it under Windows and check you can read it before you make it use by BOCHS ... This doesn't sound very possible as well, but these are the only 2 thingsi can envision.