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══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ DocsBoot+ version 0.42 utilities documentation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1994-1998 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Introduction to the DocsBoot+ utilities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are several small utilities included with DocsBoot+ for your convenience or as debugging help. None of these are actually part of DocsBoot+ itself, so they are grouped together in this documentation file instead of in the DocsBoot+ documentation file. Each utility has its own section, and all of them are but a couple to a few paragraphs in length. These programs are distributed only as part of the DocsBoot+ package and are distributed on the same terms as the rest of the package. If you are not familiar with them, here they are (copied verbatim from the DOCSBOOT.DOC file)... ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Legal stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~ READ THIS 1. Usage license DocsBoot+ is a shareware program. This means that you are granted the right to run DocsBoot+ and its associated utilities and other files (henceforth collectively referred to as `the Program') for the purpose of evaluating it for up to a month. After this time, you must either register your copy (which extends the right to use the program until some other term of this agreement is broken), or you must remove the Program from your system. You may repeat the evaluation process with new versions as they become available. 2. Permitted use and restrictions You may install the Program on your system in accordance with the instructions that are included. You may operate the Program in accordance with said instructions. You may NOT reverse-engineer, disassemble, attempt to modify the Program except as expressly or implicitly provided in the instructions included with the Program. 3. Reistribution You may distribute the Program in its unmodified original archive file only. You may NOT distribute the Program in any other form, or if you have modified it in any way. You may NOT distribute the Program for a profit. 3a. BBS exemption to redistribution restrictions Computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) operator may charge for access to their systems or file areas, but may not charge specifically for the Program. 3b. Shareware distribution company exemption to redistribution restrictions Companies who specialize in the distribution of shareware programs on CD-ROM or other media may redistribute the Program for profit along with other programs, providing that : i. they state plainly on the package or on the medium (preferably both) that the programs contained are shareware and must be registered with their authors for continued use, and ii. they do not charge unusually high prices for the redistribution of the Program. 3c. Specific exemptions to redistribution restrictions Exemptions to certain aspects of the redistribution restrictions may be negotiated. Please contact Zac Schroff (zschroff@docsware.com) for more information or if you wish to negotiate an exemption. Note that exemptions are granted only physically and in writing, never electronically or verbally. 4. Disclaimer of warranty The Program is provided as-is and without warranty of any kind. DocsWare, Zac Schroff, and any licensee or authorized agent of DocsWare (henceforth referred to collectively as the Agent) expressly disclaim any and all warranties and/or condition, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness or usability for any purpose, satisfactory quality, continuous error-free or reliable operation, merchantability for any particular purpose, or that it will meet the requirements of any particular situation. The Agent makes no warranty for the readability, accuracy, correctness or reliability of the documentation which is included with the Program. No oral or written statement, nor advice given by the Agent shall create a warranty in any way, nor shall it increase the scope of any warranty. Should the Program prove defective, you, and not the Agent, assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or correction. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you. The terms of this disclaimer do not alter or prejudice your statutory rights in acquiring the Program other than in the course of a business, neither do they exclude or limit any liability for personal injury or death caused by the Agent's negligence. 5. Limitation of liability. Under no circumstances, including negligence, shall the Agent be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, or indirect damages arising from or relating to this license or the Program. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. In no event shall the Agent's liability exceed the lesser of the cost to you of the Program or the amount of fifty (50) US dollars. 6. Export law assurances. You may not use or export or re-export the Program except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Program was obtained. Particularly, but without limitation, the Program may not be used or otherwise exported or re-exported : i. to anybody on the United States Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals, or ii. to anybody on the United States Department of Commerce's Table of Denial Orders, or iii. into or to a resident or national of any United States embargoed country. 7. Government end users. Government end users are to follow the laws and terms which apply to everybody else. 8. Controlling law and severability. This license shall be governed by the laws of the United States of America. If for any reason a court in a competent jurisdiction finds any provision, or portion thereof, to be unenforceable, the remainder of this license shall continue in full force and effect. 9. Complete agreement. This licenese contitutes the entire and complete agreement between all parties with respect to the Program and the use of the Program. This license supercedes any and all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements about such matters. No modification or amendment to the terms of this license will be binding unless it is in writing, and signed by an Agent who has been specifically and properly authorized to make such modifications or amendments. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Trademarks ~~~~~~~~~~ Several trademarks from various sources were mentioned somewhere in this document. Here is a listing of some of the trademarks and their owners (any not listed here are still the property of their respective owners) : Trademark Owning entity ──────────────────────────── ──────────────────────────────────────── Adaptec Adaptec, Inc. AMI American Megatrends Incorporated ATI ATI Technologies Inc. BootManager International Business Machines corp. Borland Borland International BSD Berkeley Systems Development group DR-DOS Digital Research corporation Digital Research Digital Research corporation DiskManager Ontrack research DocsBoot, DocsBoot+ Zac Schroff DOSWatch Zac Schroff ExtraDrives Zac Schroff IBM International Business Machines corp. Microsoft Microsoft corporation MS Microsoft corporation MS-DOS Microsoft corporation Norton Utilities Peter Norton, then later Symantec corp. Ontrack Ontrack research OS/2 International Business Machines corp. PC, PC-XT, PC-AT International Business Machines corp. PC-DOS International Business Machines corp. Toshiba Toshiba America corporation UnixWare Novell originally, now SCO VersaBoot, VersaBoot ][ Zac Schroff Windows, Windows 95, Win95 Microsoft corporation Windows NT, WinNT Microsoft corporation ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The DocsBoot+ 1200KB utility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So far only one user has complained that he still has a 5.25 inch 1200KB floppy drive as his A: drive and a 3.5 inch 1440KB drive as B:, but something makes me think there may be other people still running this increasingly rare (and I think rather outdated) configuration (but then again, I came from 5.25" Apple discs to 3.5" discs on my first PC, so I sort of tend to think of 5.25" discs as older)... To remedy this situation without callously telling everybody to simply switch their drives, I have written this program. It will install a boot sector to a 1200KB (or 360KB if you still have one) disc. Booting this 1200KB or 360KB disc will look for the DocsBoot+ installation/configuration disc in the B: drive (which must be a 1440KB or 2880KB drive), and if it is there, it will be started. The floppy drives will be reversed while the installer is running (this was the simplest way to make this work). This has the perhaps odd side effect of making anything which would normally happen to the A: drive happen in the B: drive, so it will not allow you to install DocsBoot+ to a 1200KB floppy. DocsBoot+ is too large to install to a 1200KB floppy anyway without some very tedious and perhaps marginally dangerous tweaking. DO NOT USE THE DISC BOOT SECTOR MADE BY THIS PROGRAM TO BOOT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE DOCSBOOT+ DISC. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The MountHidden drivers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MountHidden drivers allow you to mount hidden FAT partitions so that DOS can access them as normal DOS drives. These drivers are complex enough to require their own documentation file. The file MOUNTHID.DOC contains a full description and the information needed to run them. At this time, MountHidden is not available apart from DocsBoot+, but if there are enough requests, I will consider making it available by itself. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The DocsBoot+ NameVol utility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Included with DocsBoot+ is a program which will name partitions so that they have sensible names on the DocsBoot+ menu. Typically, the DOS or OS/2 command LABEL will do this for a given partition, but for some reason, they do not allow certain characters in volume labels. For æsthetic reasons, I like lower case and some special symbols in mine (for example `OS/2 Boot') and did not like the limits placed by the LABEL command. Hence, this program. NameVol will change the name (in the boot sector only, so the normal volume label remains the same) of a FAT volume. It allows any special characters which can be placed on the command line, and also has the option of simply displaying the labels on all volumes which can be labelled. The labels that NameVol displays (or changes) will be the ones displayed in the DocsBoot+ menu. Note that in order for NameVol to name a partition, that partition must be formatted with a DOS or OS/2 version which recognises the extended BPB introduced at about the time DOS 4.0x came out. It this is not the case, then NameVol will say that the partition can not be named, and will not try. If you are using a DOS version 4.0x or later, or OS/2 version 2.0 or later, and you get this message, you need to back up your drive, and reformat the drive with your current DOS or OS/2. This will install a boot sector which complies to the extended BPB. It may be possible to simply install system files (with the SYS command under DOS or the SYSINSTX command under OS/2) then remove them, since this also updates the boot sector. To name a partition with NameVol, simply execute the NameVol command with the following command line : namevol d:name where `d' is the letter for the drive to be named, and `name' is the new name for the volume in the DocsBoot+ menu. The volume name can be up to eleven characters, and NameVol takes all which follow the colon literally. If there are not eleven characters, the name is padded right with spaces. If there are more than eleven characters, the name is truncated after the first eleven. To list the names for all drives which can be named, simply run the NameVol program without parameters, like this : namevol It will list all the drives which can be named, and what the name is for each one. If a drive can not be named, it will not be listed. NameVol can also change the serial number of a partition. To use this function, simply use this command format : namevol -s d:serial where `d' is the letter for the drive whose serial number is to be changed, and `serial' is the new serial number. The serial number is eight hexadecimal digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F). If there are fewer than eight digits specified, it will be padded left with zeroes. If there are more than eight digits, only the last eight will be used. If you suspect you are having problems with NameVol in a multitasking environment, you can tell NameVol to attempt to lock the drive before it tries to change the name or serial number. Simply insert `-l' (that's a minus followed by a lower case L) in the command, like this : namevol -l d:name namevol -l -s d:serial This will instruct NameVol to lock the drive for the duration of the time it is changing the name or serial number. However, in most cases, this will only produce a slightly different error message. I am trying to implement a `family mode' version of this. If you know of any good device-level or hardware-level programming books for OS/2, please recommend them to me. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The DocsBoot+ PartScan Utility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a small program which scans the partition tables on all your hard discs. It will operate on all hard discs, not just the first two. However, due to the way it was implemented, it scans each disc completely before it continues to the next. This tends to distort the apparent order of partitions. In order to interpret the output properly you will need to keep in mind that DOS and OS/2 (and many other operating systems) load all primary partitions first, then go back and look for extended partitions. This is intended mainly for a debugging tool, of whatever worth it may appear to be. I think keeping a copy of the output somewhere near the system would be helpful if anything happens to the hard disc partition tables. If you feel that you have some other use for it, feel free to experiment. If you find something that might be helpful to others, please write and explain it ── I will likely be delighted to include it (with credit) in the documentation for the next version. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The DocsBoot+ OS2Fixup Utility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The OS2Fixup utility has been removed from the DocsBoot+ package. This is because of some information that has just come to light about the OS/2 installation program. Basically, back in 2.10 or so of OS/2, IBM introduced an undocumented environment variable that sets the default partition to which the OS/2 installer will install. This environment variable is call INSTALLDRIVE. To use it, add a line to the CONFIG.SYS file on a copy of the installation floppies that resmebles the line below, with @ replaced by the drive you want OS/2 installed to. SET INSTALLDRIVE=@: SWAPPATH=@:\ 1024 1024 (If you already have either of these lines, change it to read as above instead of adding it.) The OS2FIXUP batch required far too much temporary space for versions later than 2.1x, and did not seem to work properly for the Merlin (4.0x) and later versions. Therefore, the OS2FIXUP batch and its patch for FDISK.COM (the FDISK.EXE file) have been removed and will no longer be supported. A utility that will automatically edit the CONFIG.SYS on the installation discs will be included if enough users request it. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The DocsBoot+ NTFixup utility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have included, for the convenience of Windows NT users, a program which will move NTBoot to the NT partition and patch it so that its primary purpose is to boot Windows NT, not as a boot manager. Note that this utility will also allow IBM's BootManager and probably other boot managers to work with the NTBoot facility, making Windows NT installations slightly less painful. However, due to the way NT behaved (or, rather, failed to) on my system, THIS PROGRAM HAS NOT BEEN THOROUGHLY TESTED. I have not had the opportunity to test it as I had hoped, nor do I intend to try any further experiments with NT until I get a new version or find somebody else who does not mind being a test subject. I have been told it works resonably well, but that it can't work on NTFS partitions (so you should install WinNT on a FAT partition, run this from DOS, then convert the NT partition to NTFS if you want to use it. It might be easiest to simply install NT on a primary partition on the first hard disc and just use the hidden partition functions to make it work. The NTFixup program describes itself and its operation if you run it without parameters. Please read it thoroughly before running it on your Windows NT setup. An additional note : The NTBoot program does not require being installed to the NT partition. If your NT partition is NTFS, but you have some other FAT partition nearby, NTFixup can move the NTBoot program to that partition and it should still work properly. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The Extension load query extension ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an extension for DocsBoot+ which displays the name of every extension which would be loaded after it, and allows you to decide whether or not that extension should be loaded and executed. This extension loads temporarily into memory and unloads itself when DocsBoot+ has finished; it does not take any memory permanently. To install this extension, simply enable extensions in DocsBoot+, and copy the file !EXTEN.DBE to the root of your first (or only) C: partiton (if you have also told DocsBoot+ to load extensions from the directory, place it in C:\DOCSBOOT). Please see the note at the end of this section if you are using more than one extension. For each extension loaded after this one, the name of the extension will be displayed (the `full' name of the extension taking preference, but if there is no `full' name, the filename will be displayed). Then it will ask whether or not you want to load that extension. If you reply yes (press [Y]), it will allow that extension to load. If you reply no (press [N]), it will not allow that extension to load. If you reply all (press [A]), it will load that extension and all which follow. If you do not reply within about five seconds, it will act as if you had replied all by pressing [A], and load that and all following extensions (this was to allow unattended booting to work normally). NOTE : DocsBoot+ loads extension in the order it finds them in the root of the C: drive (or the C:\DOCSBOOT directory if loading of extensions from the directory is enabled). Therefore, if you have a particular order in which the extensions should be loaded, you must copy extensions to the proper location in the order that you want them to be loaded, or use a directory sorting utility to rearrange them. Most extensions allow you to rename them without ill effects (the filename's extension (the letters after the period) must not be changed when you rename it). ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The IDE StandBy extension ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an extension for DocsBoot+ which will enable the standby feature in many IDE hard discs which support it. It does not go resident, and is of no use unless your IDE discs support the timed standby mode. It will, however, configure the timed standby mode so that your drives will go into standby when they have not been accessed in some period of time, and this appears to remain in effect even under OS/2 and some other operating systems. To install this extension, simply enable extensions in DocsBoot+, and copy the file IDESTDBY.DBX to the root of your first (or only) C: partiton. Please see the note at the end of this section if you are using more than one extension. When it executes, this extension will display its banner (the extension name and copyright notice). As it tries to enable the timed standby mode on each drive, it will display the drive command port, the drive ID, and whether or not it successfully enabled timed standby mode for the particular drive. Currently, it is configured to expect four hard discs, two on the primary controller as master and slave, and two on the secondary controller as master and slave. Users of dual-port boards will probably find the `auxiliary' port to be the secondary. The standby timeout value used by default is 5 minutes (sixty intervals of five seconds each). This program does not care which interrupts are chosen for the ports, but I recommend 14 for the primary and 15 for the secondary, to ensure maximum compatibility. To change any of the settings, you will need a hex editor (this is a fairly simplistic extension and it has no setup facility). Load the file into the hex editor. It should fit neatly being only one sector (512 bytes). Here are the contents of this file : Bytes Contents ──────────── ────────────────────────────────────── 0000..01BF DO NOT CHANGE 01C0..01D8 Port and drive ID for each drive 01E0 Drives to try to set standby on 01E1 DO NOT CHANGE 01E2..01E9 Standby timeout values for each drive 01EA..01FF DO NOT CHANGE The port and drive ID for each drive should only be changed by someone who knows their system intimately and understands (at least minimally) how the IDE hard discs work. The port is a word indicating the I/O address of the Status/Command port, and the drive ID is a byte value (00 for the master, 10 for the slave). The port comes first, then the drive ID. The default value is {01F7,00,01F7,10,0177,00, 0177,10,0000,00,0000,00,0000,00,0000,00} (only the primary and secondary ports have standard addresses defined). The drives to try to set standby on is a bitset. A bit being on (set) indicats that that drive is to be issued the command which enables timed standby mode. The zeroth drive (master on primary) is bit zero, the next drive bit 1, &c. The default here is 0F, which indicates the first four drives. Note that if a drive is not present or does not respond, the program will continue anyway and WILL NOT PRINT AN ERROR MESSAGE. This was to eliminate those unnerving errors like `your fourth hard disc is not responding properly' on a single hard disc system. The standby timeout values for each drive is a byte indicating the number of five-second intervals of no activity before the drive enters standby mode. The default value here is 3C, indicating sixty of these five-second intervals, or five minutes. NOTE : There have been people complaining of incompatibilities between this extension and their favourite disc accelerating drivers. This is NOT my fault -- these drivers are timing out too quickly, so when the drive has spun down it does not have enough time to spin up and come back online. The only way to correct this is to either remove the driver or disable the `power management' function which this extension enables. Your choice, but I find power management on desktop systems to be nearly a contradiction in terms, and certainly something which only adds more things to go wrong, so I'd pull this extension and leave the accelerated driver installed. NOTE : DocsBoot+ loads extension in the order it finds them in the root of the C: drive (or the C:\DOCSBOOT directory if loading of extensions from the directory is enabled). Therefore, if you have a particular order in which the extensions should be loaded, you must copy extensions to the proper location in the order that you want them to be loaded, or use a directory sorting utility to rearrange them. Most extensions allow you to rename them without ill effects (the filename's extension (the letters after the period) must not be changed when you rename it). ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The VersaBoot Fixup extension ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This extension replaces the VersaBoot // compatibility code that was included in DocsBoot+ versions up to 0.41. This code was removed in 0.42 because of the extra overhead associated with it (when I finally made this code work properly even on incorrectly configured drives, it made DocsBoot+ too big). This extension is not needed unless you are running an extension which is based upon the VB// boot intercept technology (your extension should mention it, if it is). Most extensions will not need this loaded. If you do need to use this extension, copy the !VBFIXUP.DBE file to the root directory of the first primary FAT partition on your primary hard disc, making sure it occurs before any VB// extensions in the directory. Also, if you use VB// extensions, DocsBoot+ must NOT be set to load extensions from a directory -- VB// extensions MUST be loaded from the root. None of the extensions included with DocsBoot+ require this extension. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The MenuPlus extension ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MenuPlus extension is an add-on for DocsBoot+ that replaces the built-in menu routine with one that allows better descriptions, simple security, and some other options. The file MENUPLUS.DOC contains the documentation for this extension. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ General notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All of the programs which come with DocsBoot+ which are shipped as *.COM files are protected with a proprietary technology for keeping the files clean from viral attack. This means that these files can not be compressed with an executable compressor (they will decompress themselves when they are run). Also, if these files are compressed using some executable compressor, they will probably report a virus when they are run, even if there is not one. If a virus is detected, and the program can not recover to a command file, the program will create a file *.VRF which is simply the command file with a different name. Once you have cleaned the virus from your system, you can rename the file to *.COM and it will again work properly. Some heuristic virus detectors may give false alarms in `paranoid' mode because of this behaviour of these programs. These programs will normally clean themselves of a virus if they are infected, but often they are unable to see `stealth' virii, so you still need to be careful about virii. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ [end of file]