USB booting :: floppy + write-protected USB-ZIP > boot fails

I have made an USB-ZIP drive with standard boot-options (restore=sda2 mydsl=sda2). Everything works fine. This USB-ZIP-drive (alone) boots, it doesn't matter if it is write-protected or write-enabled.

BUT, if I boot first from an USB-Bootfloppy and then from the USB-ZIP-drive in connection, the USB-ZIP-drive only boots complete, if it is write-enabled. Otherwise is shows the following messages during boot:

{CRE}looking for DSL image in ....
Setting paths: .. not found
.. not found .. not found ..
directory nonexistent
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 1:03

Keyboard LEDs blink and I have to power of the computer.

Why can't I boot from a write-protected USB-ZIP-drive when I use an USB-bootfloppy before?
What will be stored on the USB-ZIP-drive during boot?
I tried the boot-option "norestore" as floppy boot parameter but without success.

Again:

1) Floppy + write-enabled USB-ZIP > boots fine
2) Floppy + write-protected USB-ZIP > boot fails
3) Only write-enabled USB-ZIP > boots fine
4) Only write-protected USB-ZIP > boots fine

Who can help?
Thank you

No software solution for this?

Wow, that's a strange problem.

I would expect to see the same behavior from a USBZIP direct boot vs. a USB boot floppy. They are essentially the same boot method, except the IN-USE bootloader, kernel and initial ramdisk are stored on the floppy instead of on the USBZIP device.

Do you see this behavior on the same PC, or do you use two different computers for your test cases?

I have tested this on 2 computers (IBM Thinkpad and an ordinary computer), both have the same behavior. Therefore I think that is everywhere the same.

Unfortunately, I only have 1 USB-pen-drive that can be write-protected. This, as USB-ZIP installed pen-drive with DSL 2.3 final, is a 256 MB TwinMOS Mobile Disk Z4.

From this USB-pen-drive booted DSL 2.3 final (without using any USB-bootfloppy, as my ordinary computer can boot directly from USB), I have made the USB-bootfloppy. My Thinkpad requires this USB-bootfloppy in order to access and boot from the USB-pen-drive. But as already written, this problem occurs on both computers, when the USB-pen-drive is write-protected and the first boot-steps have been done with the USB-bootfloppy.

It seems like nobody else has this problem?

Anybody has tried the same with a write-protectable USB-pen?

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