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═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ DocsBoot+ version 0.26ß documentation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1994 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Introduction to DocsBoot+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DocsBoot+ is a program which operates primarily as a boot manager for systems with multiple operating systems in multiple partitions. It does not require repartitioning to install. DocsBoot+ also takes little space on floppies or no normally usable space on hard discs. DocsBoot+ has some features besides the boot menu, some which are not found in any other boot manager. In brief, these are : CMOS protection -- Saves your system settings and restores them if they are lost. Virus protection -- Removes several types of boot sector and MBR virii. Timed boot -- Automatically boots either a default or the last booted partition after a user-settable period of time. Boot floppies -- Boots floppies from the menu, so you can set your system to always boot hard disc, for security or whatever reason. Restart -- Allows restarting the system (cold or warm) from the menu. Extensions -- Allows loading of extensions which are run before the menu comes up. Extensions can be anything from password programs to drivers for hard discs. DriveSwap -- Swaps the A and B floppy drives so that many real-mode programs and operating systems can boot from either floppy drive. Many of these features can be enabled or disabled independently of the other features, so it is possible to just have DocsBoot+ on your system to keep a backup of your CMOS settings and load some extension. DocsBoot+ requires an AT class machine to operate. Nobody that I know of has had any problems with this, since all 80286 based or later systems meet this requirement, and many operating systems other than DOS require 80386 or later systems. This should not cause problems. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Beta notice ~~~~~~~~~~~ READ THIS THIS IS A BETA RELEASE OF DOCSBOOT. IT HAS THEREFORE NOT BEEN THOROUGHLY TESTED, AND SHOULD BE USED WITH DUE CAUTION. THE USER OF THIS PROGRAM TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED BY USE OR ABUSE OF THIS PROGRAM. YOU ARE STRONGLY URGED TO MAKE A FULL BACKUP BEFORE INSTALLING THIS PROGRAM AND MAKE PERIODIC BACKUPS DURING USE. This beta will expire on 31 December 1994. After that time, it will simply boot the first bootable partition it finds (or if it is on floppy, will tell you to insert a bootable disc). I do not want betas around after the final release, so please upgrade your copy when the final release is available. Since all registered betas will still operate normally after the expiration, they will not be automatically updated until the final release. Just think of this as another incentive to register. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Shareware notice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ READ THIS DocsBoot+ is shareware. This means that you may use it for a limited time (in this case, a month) for testing and evaluation. After this time, you must register the program to continue its use. In the case of DocsBoot+, registration is only $10 US (or equivalent). For this, you will be sent a copy of the current version, plus a registration code which will disable the registration notices. Please send your registration fee to : Zac Schroff 2906 Firethorn Drive Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35405 USA Please specify if you intend it for single computer use. If you intend for site use, please contact me to discuss a site license. PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH, AND I CAN NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. If a non-certified cheque is used to pay, I will not ship the disc until it clears (usually about a week, thanks to my bank). Registrations paid with certified cheques and money orders will be shipped immediately, where it is possible. Sometimes a copy will be held back because a new version is due out within a week, but it will probably not be held any longer than that. If none of the methods here are convenient or possible, please contact me (Internet is the fastest way right now) to discuss alternatives. Once you have registered DocsBoot+, you may upgrade whenever you wish by downloading a new version and registering it using your registration code. There is no additional charge this way. If you want the latest version sent to you, please contact me at the address above, or as zschroff@buster.eng.ua.edu on Internet. For a minimal charge (to cover the disc and shipping), it will be sent. I reserve the right to require an upgrade registration of major version upgrades (1.xx to 2.xx, for example), but intend to keep it minimal. You are hereby given permission to copy and distribute this product freely, providing that : (1) all files are included, (2) no files have been changed in any way, (3) it is not included with any other product, and (4) no charge is made for it except reasonable medium and handling charges. If you want to negotiate flexibility with any of these rules, contact me for written permission. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Introduction to the DocsBoot+ installer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the DocsBoot+ installer (DOCSBOOT.EXE) is run, it will display a menu, much like the one below, which contains several options. To select one of the options, move the cursor (the bar which covers the selected item) to the function you wish performed, and press then [Enter] key. The [Escape] key will exit from this menu, no matter what the current selection is. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ DocsBoot+ v0.26ß install. Copyright 1994 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved. │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ Install a copy of DocsBoot+ to hard disc 0 │ │ Setup a copy of DocsBoot+ on hard disc 0 │ │ Remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from hard disc 0 │ │ │ │ Install a copy of DocsBoot+ to a floppy disc in A: │ │ Setup a copy of DocsBoot+ on a floppy disc in A: │ │ Remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from a floppy disc in A: │ │ │ │ Exit the DocsBoot+ installler │ │ │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Move the cursor using the arrow keys. Press enter to make a selction. │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Install a copy of DocsBoot+ to hard disc 0 - This selection will install DocsBoot+ to the primary hard disc in your system. This does not require any special preparation. Setup a copy of DocsBoot+ on hard disc 0 - This selection will configure a copy of DocsBoot+ which has been installed on the hard disc. Note that if DocsBoot+ has not yet been installed to the hard disc, this does nothing. Remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from hard disc 0 - This selection will remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from the hard disc. If DocsBoot+ is not installed on the hard disc, this will do nothing. Install a copy of DocsBoot+ to a floppy disc in A: - This selection will install DocsBoot+ to a formatted floppy disc. Note that the disc MUST have at least 17 sectors per track (only 3.5 inch 1440KB discs normally) for this to work. THIS FUNCTION WILL DESTROY ALL THE DATA ON THE DISC UNLESS IT IS PREPARED AS DESCRIBED IN THE SECTION ABOUT INSTALLATION OF DOCSBOOT TO FLOPPY DISCS. Please take care in using this option. Setup a copy of DocsBoot+ on a floppy disc in A: - This selection will configure a copy of DocsBoot+ which has been installed on a floppy disc. Note that this requires DocsBoot+ be installed on the floppy disc. If it is not already installed, this function will do nothing. Remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from a floppy disc in A: - This selection will remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from a floppy disc. If DocsBoot+ is not installed on the disc, this function will do nothing. Exit the DocsBoot+ installer - This selection will quit the DocsBoot+ installer and return to DOS. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Installation of DocsBoot+ on hard discs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DocsBoot+ can be installed on your primary hard disc (indeed, this is where it was designed to be installed). When DocsBoot+ is installed on your hard disc, you are presented with a menu whenever you boot your system from the hard disc. DocsBoot+ takes no usable space on hard discs, and will load considerably faster than it does on floppy discs. DocsBoot+, when installed on a hard disc, takes no normally usable space. It installs to track zero, which is called reserved, and has not been used to date by any other legitimate software except FDisk, DiskManager and a few other partitioning utilities. If your system has any information you need to keep on track zero of the primary hard disc (not likely), then DO NOT INSTALL TO THE HARD DISC. Track zero is side zero of cylinder zero, not the entire cylinder. Note that DocsBoot+ preserves the partition table and DiskManager tables, so they should not be worried over. If you did not understand this paragraph, you probably have no cause to worry. In addition to the zero-usable-space need, DocsBoot+ adds a small time impact to the booting process, probably less than BootManager and much less than NTBoot, partially due to it's size (about half of BootManager, and apperantly about a hundredth of NTBoot), and that the DocsBoot+ program is in assembly, where BootManager is in C/C++ (I am not entirely sure which), and NTBoot is probably C also. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Installation of DocsBoot+ on floppy discs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WARNING : INSTALLING DOCSBOOT ON A FLOPPY CAN HAVE ADVERSE EFFECTS ON THE DOS FLOPPY I/O ROUTINES. DOS VERSIONS BY MICROSOFT AND IBM APPEAR TO HAVE A SEVERE PROBLEM WITH THE WAY DOCSBOOT `HIDES' ITSELF ON A FLOPPY, AND MAY EITHER TRASH THE DISC DOCSBOOT IS INSTALLED ON OR TRASH OTHER DISCS AFTER ACCESSING THE ONE DOCSBOOT IS INSTALLED ON. THIS MAY ALSO BE TRUE OF OTHER VERSIONS OF DOS. THESE PROBLEMS ARE NOT PROBLEMS WITH DOCSBOOT, BUT WITH DOS ITSELF. No such effects occur with hard disc installations. This problem does not occur under OS/2, nor does it occur under DOS by Digital Research, DR-DOS. DocsBoot+ can also be installed on a floppy disc in the primary (usually A:) floppy drive. While this allows it to be experimented with without making changes to the hard disc, it is considerably slower and a couple of features are disabled. The boot menu is still displayed, and any partitions which could be booted from a hard disc installed copy can be booted from a floppy installed copy. Normally, installing DocsBoot+ to a floppy disc renders it unusable for other uses (besides destroying any data already on it). There is a way around this. In order to use a floppy disc which has DocsBoot+ on it, you will need to follow this procedure : 1) Format a 3.5 inch high density (1440KB) disc. 2) Install DocsBoot+ on it. 3) Perform an unconditional quickformat on the disc. 4) Install DocsBoot+ on it again. Now, the disc will contain DocsBoot+ and will be usable for other purposes. Note that these instructions assume you have DOS 5.00 or later. If you are using an earlier version of DOS, you will have to experiment. Once you have finished these four steps, DocsBoot+ can be removed and installed to that disc without any further problems. This is to allow easy upgrades. Note that a floppy disc containing DocsBoot+ MUST NEVER BE SYSTEMED. Please make sure you can read other floppies afterward, and if not, reboot. If you could not, then you must not use that disc for other information. If enough people decide they actually want this as a permanent option, I will make the installer capable of making the changes to a floppy, so this option can be used with any operating system which complies with the standards set up by IBM and Microsoft back in the early 1980s (MS-DOS and PC-DOS do not). I will also include, if there are enough requests for it, the capability to install to a 1200KB (5.25 high density) disc. So far nobody has even asked. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Installation problems with DocsBoot+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTICE : This section is included for the somewhat technically minded user. It is here as a help in troubleshooting, but since it is technical in nature, you are urged to simply report problems directly to me unless you have some background in the material presented here. If not, you should skip this section. DocsBoot+ installs itself to the zeroth track of a hard disc (cylinder zero, head zero). This can cause problems with some types of software. Resident antiviral programs usually misinterpret this as an act of a virus, or at least very dangerous, and may either prompt for authorisation or simply prohibit it. Some operating systems (OS/2 for example) do not like direct disc writes, because they could `potentially destroy the integrity of the filesystem'. Because these problems exist, and the possibility of being installed to older hard discs which may have defects on track zero, the DocsBoot+ installer will display an error code if it tries to install to a drive and it has problems. This error code will be displayed in the area of the screen where the messages appear, and it will contain a message and an error, like this : Installation failed : ccee The way to interpret the code is : the first two digits (cc in this example) are the portion of the install code where the error occurred, and the last two digits (ee here) are the error code. See these tables for explanations of the codes... Install code segment : 00 = preparing to install DocsBoot+ 01 = checking for space available and scanning sectors to check flaws 02 = writing the DocsBoot+ program and copying the original MBR 03 = writing the DocsBoot+ MBR and the setup tables FF = indicates internal failure; error code is meaningless Error code : 00 = undefined error 01 = invalid disc command 02 = sector address mark not found 03 = disc write protected 04 = sector not found 06 = floppy disc changed unexpectedly 08 = floppy disc DMA overrun 09 = DMA 64KB boundary crossed 0A = sector marked bad during format 0B = track marked bad during format 0E = sector data mark not found 0F = HDD DMA arbitration failure 10 = uncorrectable CRC or ECC error 11 = correctable CRC or ECC error 20 = controller failure 40 = seek failure 80 = drive not ready AA = HDD not ready BB = unexpected HDD error CC = HDD write fault E0 = HDD status register error FF = HDD sense operation failed Other error codes are HIGHLY unlikely, but if they occur, please report them immediately. Other install code segments are currently unused, and those that are used may change without notice at some future date (they are only included here as a reference). ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ The DocsBoot+ setup facility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DocsBoot+ has many features which can be set by the user. These options are changed from a configuration utility which displays a setup screen which looks like this one. The cursor can be moved with the arrow keys and the settings can be changed using the [PageUp] and [PageDown] keys. Pressing the [F10] key will save the settings and return to the main menu, pressing the [Escape] key will return to the main menu without saving the settings. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ DocsBoot+ v0.26ß setup. Copyright 1994 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved. │ ├──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ No boot menu (only CMOS prot) No │ Install DriveSwap if boot B Yes │ │ Extra details displayed No │ │ │ Timed boot enable No │ │ │ Timed boot delay (seconds) 15 │ │ │ Include non-bootables Yes │ │ │ Include BootManager Yes │ │ │ Include floppy drives A,B Yes │ │ │ Default partition enabled No │ │ │ Default partition number 0 │ Search for extensions No │ │ Confirm reboot request (^C) Yes │ Right-Alt skips extensions Yes │ │ Warn on boot unformatted Yes │ │ │ │ Program is registered? No │ ├──────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Use the arrow keys to move about and the PageUp and PageDown keys to change │ │ a setting, the F6 key to restore to the defaults, the F10 key to save the │ │ settings and exit, or the Escape key to exit without saving the settings. │ │ │ │ Press F9 to edit the partition types information. │ │ Press [Alt R] to register the program for your use. │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ No boot menu (only CMOS prot) ── This setting only applies to DocsBoot+ when it is installed on a hard disc. If it is yes, DocsBoot+ will keep the CMOS settings, but will not offer a boot menu. Instead, it will boot as the normal MBR for a hard disc. If it is no, DocsBoot+ will still keep up with the CMOS settings, but it will also offer the boot menu. Note that this does not disable the extensions loader function. Extra details displayed ── This setting will allow more information to be displayed about each partition on the boot menu. Most of the extra information is technical in nature, and is probably of little interest to anybody except the technically experienced. Timed boot enable ── If this is yes, DocsBoot+ will only wait a limited amount of time for a selection to be made, then it will automatically boot either the last partition booted or the default (if the default is enabled). Note that this function can be toggled at boot time with the escape key. Timed boot delay (seconds) ── This is how long DocsBoot+ will wait before it chooses a partition to boot automatically. This setting only matters if the timed boot is enabled above or at boot time. At boot time, toggling the timed boot function resets this delay to the value set here. Include non-bootables ── If this is yes, all partitions that DocsBoot+ can find will be listed. If it is no, only partitions marked bootable will be listed. IF YOU ARE USING BOOTMANAGER WITH OS/2, THIS SHOULD BE SET TO YES. If you wish to change which partitions are marked as bootable, Norton Utilities 6.0 and later has a good disc editor which can (somewhat painlessly) do this. Include BootManager ── If this is yes, DocsBoot+ will include BootManager (if it is detected) in its menu. If no, BootManger will not be included. Include floppy drives A,B ── If this is yes, DocsBoot+ will include an entry for the floppy drives A and B. If no, the floppy drives will not be included. Note that DocsBoot+ DOES NOT VERIFY the existance of the drives before placing them on the menu, but it will not attempt to boot a drive which does not respond properly. This feature is useful if you want your system to prefer starting from C, but you also want the option of booting floppies. Default partition enabled ── If this is yes, the default partition will always be selected when DocsBoot+ is initially started. If no, the last partition booted will be selected initially. Default partition number ── This is the number (in the partitions list) of the partition which is to be the default. Note that the partitions list is zero based (the top entry is the zeroth). If the selected partition does not exist, DocsBoot+ will take the last one in the list as the default. Confirm reboot request (^C) ── If this is yes, pressing [Control C] will ask for confirmation before rebooting. If no, [Control C] will reboot the system immediately. This also applies to the soft boot sequence, [Control B]. Warn on boot unformatted ── If this is set to yes, DocsBoot+ will display a warning message and ask for confirmation before it boots an unformatted partition. If no, it will simply boot the partition as if it was a normal formatted partition. Note that this feature does not detect the presence or absence of a bootloader, kernel, or the system files on the partition; it only makes sure the boot sector of the partition appears to be legal. Install DriveSwap if boot B ── If this is set to yes, DocsBoot+ will install a stub which swaps the A and B floppy drives when drive B is selected as the boot drive from the menu. If this is set to no, DocsBoot+ will not install this stub. Note that this function may not work properly with protected-mode operating systems, or certain games and other programs which access the drive hardware directly. Also note that the stub takes 1KB of base memory. Search for extensions ── Soon, I expect to be releasing some extensions to DocsBoot+ (such as ExtraDrives for DocsBoot+, an extra hard disc manager). If this is yes, extensions of this nature will be searched for. If no, they will not be searched for. Right-Alt skips extensions ── If this is yes, DocsBoot+ will check the state of the Right-Alt key before it scans for extensions, and if it is down, DocsBoot+ will not load any extensions. If Right-Alt is up, or if this is no, extensions will be scanned for according to the `Search for extensions' option, above. This was here as an option because some of the planned extensions apply to system security. Program is registered? ── This can not be set directly. If it is no, the copy of DocsBoot+ has not been registered and will display a screen requesting it be registered each time before it displays the menu. If it is yes, then the registration request screen will not be displayed, and the registration will be displayed below the title bar. Pressing [F9] from this screen brings up the partition type editor, which allows unknown types of partitions to be added to DocsBoot+'s database. At this time, however, this function has not been implemented, so it does nothing. This will be implemented before the general release, which will be called version 1.00. Pressing [Alt R] from this screen brings up the registration entry screen, which allows a copy of DocsBoot+ to be registered so it will no longer display the registration screen when it is started. Note that this only registers the copy being set up. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Operation of DocsBoot+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you start your system, it will go through its normal self test, then it will start DocsBoot+. Under normal conditions, nothing of particular interest will happen for a moment, while DocsBoot+ loads and tests itself. If, during the load, DocsBoot+ determines that your system's settings have been lost, it will restore them and ask you to press a key to reboot. If, during the test, DocsBoot+ discovers a boot sector virus, it will attempt to recover the boot sector, then ask you to press a key to reboot. If neither of these happen, DocsBoot+ will (if Search for Extensions is enabled) scan for any extensions you may have, and will load them in the order in which they are numbered. Please see the documentation for all of the extensions you have loaded for information about how they operate, and how this process works. Once all the extensions are loaded, DocsBoot+ will display the partitions menu and let you choose the partition to boot. If you have turned on the `No boot menu' option, then DocsBoot+ will boot the first active partition it finds, or the first valid partition it finds if none are set active. Once the menu is displayed, you will see a screen similar to this one, with a light-bar indicating the current selection. This menu will vary from system to system, I have displayed bits of the menu from my system, as it is normally configured. I have chosen to set off the screen limits here using a dotted line. The light bar is illustrated as well as I could show it using only text, with the █ character. On the actual screen, it would be an inverse bar across the selected line. The first screen is in normal mode, the second screen is with extra details displayed. ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ DocsBoot+ version 0.26 BETA Copyright 1994 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This copy of DocsBoot+ is not registered. Label x: Type ─────────── ── ──────── Pri floppy A: Sec floppy B: DOS v5.00 C: FAT16 ----------- D: FAT16Big ----------- E: FAT16Big ████████████████████████ OS/2 v2.10 F: █ FAT16Big ████████████████████████████ Maintnance G: FAT16 ----------- H: FAT16Big ----------- I: FAT16Big ----------- J: FAT16Big If no choice is made in 30 seconds, the system will boot OS/2 v2.10 Press [Esc] to toggle timed boot, [Enter] to accept current selection, select another with arrow keys, or press [^C] to reboot the system. ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ DocsBoot+ version 0.26 BETA Copyright 1994 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This copy of DocsBoot+ is not registered. Label x: Type ## * OEM Serial Drv SectOffs ─────────── ── ───────────── ──────── ───────── ──── ──────── Pri floppy A: Sec floppy B: DOS v5.00 C: FAT16 04 P MSDOS5.0 DD80-0000 80 00000020 ----------- D: FAT16Big 06 P MSDOS5.0 DD81-0000 81 0000001A ----------- E: FAT16Big 06 P MSDOS5.0 DD82-0000 82 0000001A █████ OS/2 v2.10 F: █ FAT16Big 06 E █ IBM 20.0 DD80-EE01 ██ 80 0000F820 █████ Maintnance G: FAT16 04 E IBM 20.0 DD80-EE02 80 0002F820 ----------- H: FAT16Big 06 E MSDOS5.0 DD80-EE03 80 0003F020 ----------- I: FAT16Big 06 E MSDOS5.0 DD80-EE04 80 0005F020 ----------- J: FAT16Big 06 E MSDOS5.0 DD80-EE05 80 0007F020 If no choice is made in 30 seconds, the system will boot OS/2 v2.10 Press [Esc] to toggle timed boot, [Enter] to accept current selection, select another with arrow keys, or press [^C] to reboot the system. ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ There are several things which can be done from here. They are more or less explained on screen, you just have to think about a couple of them for a moment... 1) You can press [Enter] to boot the currently selected partition. If the current selection is a floppy drive and there is no disc in it, you will be returned to the menu. 2) You can wait until the timer expires (if it is enabled) and the default partition will be booted. The default partition is the one that the light bar was displayed on when the menu was originally drawn, and its name is displayed on the line which displays the timer status. 3) You can select another partition with the arrow keys. Note that if you have partitions that are not displayed, you can scroll the list by going down or up past the ends. Note that when you use the arrow keys, the light-bar (which indicates the current selection) will move around. 4) You can press [^C] to reboot the system. If you do this, DocsBoot+ will do a hard reset of the system, forcing it back through the ENTIRE standard power on self test. 5) You can press [Escape]. This will toggle the timed boot function. When timed boot is enabled, the timer counts down and DocsBoot+ will boot the default partition when it reaches zero. When timed boot is disabled, a selection must be made. Note that when timed boot is toggled, the timer is reset. 6) If booting from a hard disc, you can press [^B] to reboot the system through the `LoadBootstrap' vector, which will not remove any resident extensions like [^C] will. This can usually be used to boot a floppy after DocsBoot+ has loaded all of the extensions, but will probably not work with systems which have the boot sequence set to C,A. The items displayed on the DocsBoot+ screen may need some elaboration, so I endeavour to describe them better here. Note that many of these only appear in the extra details mode. Also note that many of these are not displayed for floppies, and that the labels for floppies are fixed. Label ── This is the label for the partition, taken from the boot sector on the partition. This is usually configured by DOS when you use the LABEL command to give a disc a label, but if you want to set these with special characters, et c., you should use the NameVol utility included with DocsBoot+. Some older DOS and OS/2 versions formatted drives in a way which is not compatible with the naming convention used; drives like this will not have a name displayed. x: ── This is the drive letter for the partition, as well as DocsBoot+ can guess it. Note that DocsBoot+ assumes that all partitions which are lettered are visible to all operating systems which use them (this is not always the case, such as booting DOS with an HPFS parition around). Type ── This is the type of the partition. This entry indicates the actual type code from the partition types lookup table, instead of reading it from the boot sector, which may be inaccurate on older systems. ## ── This is the partition type code itself. Not very useful for most people, but it can come in handy sometimes, especially when the type says `Unknown'. * ── This indicates whether the partition is primary (P appears here) or extended (E appears here). OEM ── This is the OEM name from the boot sector for this partition. Sometimes helpful to know what operating system and what version of that operating system formatted it. Serial ── This is displayed on those partitions which support it. If it is not supported, 0000-0000 is displayed. Drv ── This is the number of the physical device on which the partition is located. It is displayed in hexadecimal and should ALWAYS be 80 or greater. SectOffs ── This is how many sectors this partition starts from the zeroth sector (the MBR) of the physical device. This is also displayed in hexadecimal. The partition types used, for those who would find it interesting or helpful, are the standard partition types. I have taken the liberty to differentiate between certain types of FAT file system partitions, as well as include a few `future expansion' types. Those partitions which are recognised but I have not tested DocsBoot+ on are noted. Unknown ── DocsBoot+ does not have this type of partition in its partition types table. You will have to tell using the number. This should not be displayed. DocsBoot ── Reserved for future expansion. FAT12 ── Old style DOS partitions for DOS 2.xx or tiny partitions under later versions. Tends to be used on partitions which are smaller than 16MB. Also used on floppies. FAT16 ── Old style DOS partitions for DOS 3.xx and later on small partitions (16MB to 31MB). Note that it is difficult to make DOS work properly on a partition of about 32MB. Also note that this type can be used on any hard disc partitions 31MB or smaller. FAT16Big ── New style DOS partitions for DOS 3.31 and later on medium partitions (33MB to just under 512MB). Note that it is rather difficult to make DOS work properly on a partition of about 32MB. HPFS ── OS/2's High Performance File System, used on partitions from 100MB to 64GB. Not recommended for smaller, but I have found it works (rather slowly) on 62MB partitions. NTFS ── Used by WindowsNT's NT File System. Purportedly works up to 256GB partitions. Not tested. CP/M ── Used by the CP/M operating system. Not tested. Xenix ── Used by the Xenix operating system. Not tested. PCix ── Used by the PCix operating systems. Not tested. Novell ── Used by Novell's Netware packages. Not tested. BootMngr ── Used by OS/2's BootManager. HFS ── Reserved for future expansion. Linux ── Used by the Linux operating system. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ DocsBoot+ and operating systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DOS DocsBoot+ was actually designed and written with the requirements and standards for DOS originally. Granted, this seems to have been of little value in the long run, but that was all I had to work with for quite a while. There are no special installation or operation procedures to use DocsBoot+ with the DOS operating system. There are no known oddities when using DocsBoot+ with DOS. OS/2 DocsBoot+ was created because I wanted a repartitionless boot manager, and IBM seemed to think that this was either unwanted, unneeded, too much trouble, or simply impossible. No matter what the reason, this OS is the real driving force behind DocsBoot+. There is a patch for the installation process to allow OS/2 to install to a system with DocsBoot+ (taking fuller advantage of DocsBoot+). If OS/2 is already installed, this is not needed. There are no special operation procedures to use DocsBoot+ with the OS/2 operating system. Dual boot is not something DocsBoot+ can control at this time. Windows NT Okay, so this one's boot manager is even worse than OS/2's boot manager. So, who cares? Apperantly, I care more than I am willing to directly admit. There is a patch for the boot manager (NTBoot) which is included with WinNT which will move it to the NT partition (and fix the DOS partition back to normal). You may want to change your BOOT.INI file to use WindowsNT with DocsBoot+, so that NTBoot automatically boots WinNT instead of offering its menu. Linux Getting in on all the popular operating systems... slowly! This one I thought I had covered, but lo! I had not initially managed. This has been corrected due to pressure from Linux users or those who appear to be interested in it. You will probably have to install the Linux LILO utility on the root partition on your hard disc to allow DocsBoot+ to work properly with Linux. There are no special operation procedures to use DocsBoot+ with the Linux operating system. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Compatibility issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DocsBoot+ has been found to be fully compatible with several versions of DOS (ranging from 2.11 through 6.30 and including MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Toshiba-DOS, DR-DOS, and others). The only problem I have found so far is that many of these simply will not boot from an extended partition, or in some cases, even from a primary partition on anything other than the primary drive. If you are installing OS/2 v2.x or 3.0 on a system with DocsBoot+ installed, you must use the OS2FIXUP batch job provided with the DocsBoot+ files. Normally OS/2 requires IBM's BootManager to install to partitions other than C, but this patches the OS/2 install process so that it will install to any drive without BootManager present. The installer will not work from within OS/2 except on floppies. Please boot a DOS disc (it does not matter what version as long as it is 3.10 or later, because the installer does its own disc I/O) then run the Installer. In progress is a bootable installer which will work no matter what operating system is in use on a machine. Some programs may keep the installer from operating properly. Most notable of these are resident antiviral packages and possibly some disc compression packages. If you have any of these, or if you have problems installing, please boot your system from a clean DOS (no extras) disc and then install DocsBoot+. If you still have problems, try to get a clean DOS 5.00 disc and try it. DocsBoot+ appears to be compatible with WinNT, but since I have had nothing but hardware and software conflicts out of WinNT, I have not managed to test things thoroughly. Included with DocsBoot+ is a fixup for NTBoot (which basically moves it to the NT partition and puts the DOS partition back to normal). Unfortunately, WinNT corrupted my partition tables shortly after I installed it, and I have no wish to reinstall it and have to recover all my data again, so this fixup is largely untested. I may be able to test this fix at a local store which occasionally has WinNT running on a demo machine. If this works out, the fixup will be further tested. DocsBoot+ is now compatible with Linux, but as far as I can tell, this is conditional to Linux having LILO on the root partition. This should not be too big of a problem. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Support ~~~~~~~ DocsBoot+ is, like any other program, subject to errors, bugs, or what have you. I am open to suggestions and comments and bug reports, but I must have some level of detail. Comments such as `it does not work with xxxx' or `make it do yyyy better' will not be responded to. If you want to get a response, and possibly help eliminate a problem you need to include : Problem description A short description of what happens. Again, not `something went wrong'. I need more details. Describe screen effects, strange noises, odd messages, et cetera. A print-screen might help. Computer system description Please include ports, RAM, DMAs and IRQs of rare or non-standard hardware. Also, a more or less complete run down of the system would be extemely helpful. Please include a copy of the output from PartScan. Software description What happens with which packages? What operating system or systems? Does anything reasonable happen at all? Does changing any settings (DocsBoot+ or the other program) help? Workarounds you have used Detailed description of how you fixed the problem if you have managed to fix it. If not, anything you have tried and the results from these trials would be helpful. If you have a suggestion, please describe it in detail, along with where it is to be made, and what usefulness you think it may have. Useless doodads will not be considered ── the code space is highly limited. I will consider anything which appears to have reasonable justification (anything can be defended, just try it). Æsthetic changes are open to suggestion, though mouse support will probably not be offered. Comments, error reports, suggestions, et cetera should be directed to me, at one of these addresses : [mail] Zac Schroff 2906 Firethorn Drive Tuscaloosa AL 35405 USA [Internet] zschroff@buster.eng.ua.edu ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Revision history ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 19930906 (v0.00) : Created this program with the idea that OS/2's BootManager was too big. Decided after seeing an advert for a product called Amnesia that it, too, would be nice to have in this small space. 199310xx (v0.0x) : Finished initial version, but kind of problematic with OS/2 so I intercepted the boot after BootManager to find my error. Fixed it with a simple insertion of two bytes of code. 19931215 (v0.10) : Another modification, this time added a couple of the currently supported options. 19931220 (v0.11) : Fixed a bug in the timer which caused a rounding error (the timer uses about 18.2 tics per second, which caused the rounding error). 19940102 (v0.20) : Rewrote user interface and part of internal operations. Added decent installer program, plus the setup facility. Then changed both to be modeled after the AMI BIOS setup facility (thought the interface was nicer than the one I used). Added floppy installation options, worked out a way to still use the floppy. Added manual. Actually started to document the updates. 19940120 (v0.20) : Debugged a few features. Added optional warning message for non-bootable partitions. Corrected a few problems in the manual. 19940218 (v0.21) : Attempted rewrite of some routines. Too buggy, so abandoned it and started on 0.22 with avoiding these bugs in mind. 19940331 (v0.22) : Debugged the problem with default/last drive selection starting out of bounds, and causing an invalid partition table message. Shrank internal code a bit. Dropped the sector table format which only worked on hard discs (now only one table format is used, which works on hard and floppy discs). Finalised the DocsBoot+ extensions method. Fixed OS/2 booting from extended partitions. Fixed a (nearly invisible) bug in the timer. Fixed a bug with more than eight partitions in a system reporting that anything numbered higher than 7 was non-bootable, even if it was a bootable partition. Added the NameVol utility. 19940408 (v0.22) : Fixed the sector-offset calculations. Added drive letters to the menu, and stuck the menu in the centre of the screen instead of to the left where it had been. Fixed the problem with the menu display if a partition #10 or greater is selected as last selected or as the default. Added the PartScan utility (more or less accidentally). 19940421 (v0.23) : Changed things so MBR is no longer used for storage of most data. Made it compatible with Toshiba's DOS 3.30 and simmilar versions. Fixed a potential bug in which if certain drive parameters change, the MBR from one drive may be written to another drive. Fixed quirk in computing sector offsets on drives with extended partitions. Active anti-virus code for boot sector now, should be able to uninfect system of some boot virii. Cut the program back to 15 sectors, so an MFM drive can be used that has DiskManager tables or other junk on it. Added the NTBoot utility (after deciding Windows NT was junk anyhow). 19940503 (v0.23) : Fixed a problem in the virus recovery code. 19940511 (v0.24) : Decided that registered users should not have to worry about beta expirations, after all, they HAVE been paid for, so why should I force updates? Added the OS2Fixup utility (this took quite some debugging work). 19940815 (v0.25) : Added checking for legality of partition types because of some problems with freshly low-leveled drives and brand new IDE and SCSI drives containing data other than zeroes. Added [^B] (soft boot) key to the options on the hard disc based version. 19940827 (v0.25) : Fixed a minor bug in checking for legality of partition types locking the system if an invalid partition was detected (ie, a freshly low-level formatted drive). Made it so soft-boot clears the screen instead of leaving the menu up. Also fixed a couple of minor æsthetic quirks. 19941002 (v0.25) : Fixed a bug in the installer, and added some debugging code to it. Documented the debugging code in the program documentation and updated some of the other tidbits in the documentation. Pulled an old debugging aid in the installer which many people reported as a bug. 19941101 (v0.26) : Added Linux to the supported operating systems. Revised PartScan technique so it is the same as the method DocsBoot+ uses. Rearranged the PartScan information. Added the capability to boot floppies. Added a bypass for the extensions loader (which can itself be enabled or disabled). Improved display string compression slightly. Added the DriveSwap utility so more things boot properly from B. Moved the utility docs to another file. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Planned near-future enhancements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At some point, I expect to add support for *ix systems which need their partition to be the only `bootable' partition on the disc. This should be added soon, but may or may not make it. It did not make it into this beta. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Known bugs and quirks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section is laid out in a more or less tabular fashion with problems, solutions, and workarounds (ways around the problem). Most of these which are problems with the program will be corrected before the final release. Problem : DOS can't read or trashes a floppy with DocsBoot+ on it. Solution : None known (this is a problem with DOS, not DocsBoot+) Workaround : Do not access the disc from DOS. Workaround : Use OS/2 to access the disc. Workaround : User DR-DOS to access the disc. Notes : Some DOS versions ignore their own standards. Problem : There is no upgrade option on the installer menu. Solution : One will be available on the released version. Notes : The beta releases are really not considered final, and the final release will probably have this option. The installer is being rewritten. Problem : The installer does not work from an OS/2 DOS box. Problem : The installer does not work from some other DOS box. Problem : The installed does not work with some software. Solution : None yet Workaround : Boot a DOS disc (from native DOS, not a VDM) and install or configure DocsBoot+ from there. Notes : The installer is being rewritten so that it is operating system independent (its own operating system), and it will operate from a boot disc. This will eliminate problems with systems which do not allow direct disc writes from DOS boxes. Problem : The partition type editor does not work in the setup. Solution : None yet Notes : The partition type editor has not yet been implemented. The installer is being rewritten. Problem : The program complains that I have (some number) boots remaining before it quits. Solution : Your copy must be registered. Register it and this message will go away. See the shareware notice. Problem : Unix requires its partition be active. Solution : None yet Workaround : DOS, OS/2, and some others do not care which are selected, so you may be able to set that partition active and the others inactive. Note that this sort of thing means you probably need to set the `include non-bootables' option to `yes' in the DocsBoot+ setup. Problem : Linux will not work with DocsBoot+. Solution : Linux must be booted with DocsBoot+ version 0.26 or later. It may also require the LILO utility be installed to the root Linux partition. Workaround : None known Notes : The people who wrote Linux made some interesting assumptions in their boot code. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Development, testing and thanks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Development Zac Schroff : `I have this neat idea... hmm...' Documentation Zac Schroff : `I hate writing manuals.' Alpha test group Zac Schroff : `Here we go with another upgrade.' Toney Duck : `You wanted me to actually test it?' Scott Kelley : `I do not want to be quoted as ``works fine''.' Denny McGough : `Put in these features.' <handing over a list> Thanks to Scott kelley : testing, various ideas and suggestions Denny McGough : testing, plenty of suggestions Toney Duck : ideas and suggestions Felix Todd : letting me try it on machines in his store Ron Bonner : reminding me not everybody speaks computerese A. G. Glenditsch : suggestion for boot floppy A&B and DriveSwap ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Legal stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~ By using this product (DocsBoot+ and the associated documentation and installer program and utilities and the associated documentation), you agree to the following terms : 1) Neither the author nor any distributor is to be held liable for any damages of any kind from the use or abuse of this program or its associated products. 2) Neither the author nor any distributor is responsible for any damages caused by unauthorised changes to the program or its associated products. 3) You will not disassemble, decompile, or reverse- engineer the program or its associated products. 4) You will not tamper with the program or its associated products in any way except expressly provided for in the documentation or as implied in the setup and installation facilities. 4) You will only copy and distribute the program and its associated products as expressly provided in the documentation for the program. 5) The sole remedy for any malfunctions of DocsBoot+ or damages caused by such are limited to a refund of the cost of the program. 6) There is no warranty on DocsBoot+ or anything which is included with it. If you do not agree to ALL of these terms, you must not use this program or any of the associated products. If you paid a distributor for them, please return them and insist upon a refund. Several trademarks from various sources were mentioned somewhere in this document. Here is a listing of the trademarks and their owners (any not listed here are still the property of their respective owners) : Trademark Owning entity ──────────────────────────── ──────────────────────────────────────── AMI American Megatrends Incorporated BootManager International Business Machines corp. CompuServe CompuServe corporation[?] 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. International Business Mac... 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 VersaBoot, VersaBoot II Zac Schroff Windows Microsoft corporation Windows NT, WinNT Microsoft corporation Toshiba-DOS is Toshiba's variant on MS-DOS. It appears to have fewer bugs than the Microsoft equivalent, and it gets along with more non-standard configurations. This is probably because Toshiba anticipated the strange demands the unique features in some of their laptop computers would provide. I have only tested Toshiba's 3.30 and 5.00 and found both to be quite good. I did use Toshiba's 2.11 for a short time, but I quickly upgraded to 3.30. Toshiba's 5.00 seems more like MS-DOS 5.00, including certain bugs not present in their 3.30. Note that ExtraDrives is NOT the product Xtra Drive, which is produced by somebody else (of whom I know little). ExtraDrives is a program which allows more than the normal two hard discs to be connected to a computer, and Xtra Drive is a hard disc compression utility. Besides, *I* know how to spell. ;-) DocsBoot, if anybody is still wondering after reading all this about DocsBoot+, was a boot sector for floppy discs which would transfer control to some other device (usually the hard disc) when it was booted. This was written because I accidentally left a floppy in the drive rather often at one time, and did not like having to physically remove it and press a key and wait for another boot try. DocsBoot was not very widely released, though it worked perfectly. Simpler programs are so much easier to write properly the first time. ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ [end of file]