Making an disk image bootable in dosbox

[gm1168]

When attempting to make a (hard) disk image bootable in dosbox, I get the following error:

FreeDOS System Installer v3.6e, May 11 2016
SYS: failed to find kernel file KERNEL.SYS

This occurs both if do a "FORMAT /S C:" or just a "SYS C:".
The format command does reach the "QuickFormat complete" stage.

I've tried multiple versions of dosbox on more than one machine. I have tried the latest dosbox build.

While there might be other ways to make a bootable HD image, I wanted to get this work with dosbox if possible.

[gm1168]

I was able to workaround this issue by booting into a MS-DOS floppy disk image after mounting the HDD image and was then able to complete a "FORMAT /S C:".