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README.135
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1992-12-18
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OS Boot Select Version 1.35, December 1992
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992 Thomas wolfRAM
Manual
------------------------------------------------------------
I. INTRODUCTION
II. INSTALLATION
III. HINTS
III.1 FDISK (!)
III.2 FDISK /mbr
III.3 DOS disk caching programs
III.4 ISC UNIX 2.x, OS/2 2.0, MS DOS 5.0, DR DOS 6.0
III.5 ISC UNIX 3.0
III.6 386BSD 0.1
III.7 Linux
IV. BUGS
I. INTRODUCTION
---------------
OS Boot Select is a replacement of the ordinary master boot
program. It provides a customizable boot menu with a timeout
and the abiltity to automatically set the active partition
before booting. This avoids boot problems with some UNIX
systems. Unlike the OS/2 2.0 boot manager it only requires
the 512 byte of the master boot sector (sector 0) and no
seperate partition.
OS Boot Select comes with a installation program running
under DOS.
II. INSTALLATION
----------------
Installation is quite simple. First you must unpack the
archive. This is done by typing:
C:\>os-bs135.exe
This will create a directory "os-bs".
WARNING!!! At this point having a *tested* bootable DOS
floppy is strongly recommended! Don't continue without!
To recall:
C:\>format a: /s
will do it. Copy then os-bs to the boot floppy!
C:\>cd os-bs
C:\OS-BS>copy os-bs.com a:\
OS Boot Select comes with an installation program. To start
it, type:
C:\OS-BS>os-bs
A simple desktop appears. In the upper half the partition
table is displayed with number, hex id byte, state (bootable,
active or "os-bs"-default) and in the lower half you'll see
a menu:
Install
Uninstall
Change active partition
Exit
(You can also quit os-bs by pressing <ESC>. The third
item is only for convenience.)
If you select 'Install', OS Boot Select will first create a
backup copy of the original master boot sector. You can either
enter the path name, or use the default, which is a:\mbs.sec.
(Be sure to put the backup on the DOS boot floppy!). Next, you
can create your boot menu. For every *bootable* partition the
program asks you whether you want it to add the partition to
the menu. If you do, you are prompted for the partition name,
which can be up to 15 characters long. (Note, os-bs starts
partition numbering with 0.)
E.g.: Suppose following partition table is displayed:
# id ... system
0 63 ISC UNIX, other System V/386, GNU HURD or MtXinu Mach
1 06 Primary 'big' DOS (> 32MB)
2 A5 386BSD
3 00 unused
Than you can create a boot menu of any combination
of partition 0, 1, 2.
E.g.:
ISC 2.2...........1 (part. 0)
MS-DOS 5.0........2 (part. 1)
386BSD 0.1........3 (part. 2)
or
Interactive.......1 (part. 0)
386BSD............2 (part. 2)
(partition 1 is not added here)
The next step consists of choosing the "default" operating
system. The "default" system is the system that will be
booted after the boot timeout period has elapsed without
a valid key being pressed.
NOTE: The active id hasn't its usual meaning to os-bs (this
is the "default" id to os-bs)! "Active" is only a flag in
the partition table passed to the respective operating
system.
You can now customize the boot timeout in seconds (1..90).
Use '+' and '-' to adjust it, press <Enter> to confirm.
Last but not least you have to choose whether
os-bs will make the booting partition active before
continuing with the second stage boot code. That means the
master boot sector is written back every time you boot! Use
it only if you really need it (see HINTS). If you use it
you cannot use the master boot sector write protection
feature provided by some BIOSes. Otherwise, your machine will
hang.
After asking whether you are sure about all this, os-bs is
installed and a new menu is displayed:
Change boot menu
Change default boot operating system
Modify start id before booting (set active), yes/no
Change boot timeout
Uninstall
Change active partition
Exit
You can change all items again if you want. (The first
item doesn't see the previous boot menu.)
Now you can test os-bs. Reboot your machine. After the
several BIOS tests the menu should be displayed. Test all
menu items.
If it works, test the timeout. Reboot and look whether
the default system gets booted after the delay.
If something goes wrong and the machine is hanging:
put in your boot floppy (remove the write protection!)
and boot DOS. After the prompt comes, run os-bs,
choose 'Uninstall' from the menu and enter the path
name of the previously created backup file.
This will put the old master boot sector back.
If a particular system doesn't boot with os-bs please
email me (which system and what happens).
III. HINTS
----------
III.1 FDISK (!)
---------------
There are quite a few differences in how the fdisks of MS DOS,
DR DOS, OS/2 or UNIX are using and writing the partition
table. To avoid an inconsitent state in case you don't always
use the same fdisk, first uninstall os-bs before changing the
partition table! Afterwards you can reinstall os-bs and
it can pick up your new partition table. (Its a good idea to
follow the same procedure even if you use always the same fdisk.
But at least you must recreate the boot menu to update the os-bs
internal table!)
On uninstallation os-bs recognizes if the partition table
has been changed. It could be a moved active id but also a real
different partition table. Here you must decide what to do,
using the backup file as it is (could be dangerous since
you might be putting back an out-of-date table, but also usefull
if your master boot sector is destroyed), or copy the actual
partition table in the backup file and use this.
III.2 FDISK /mbr
----------------
Some fdisk versions (at least on MS-DOS 5.0) have the usefull
switch /mbr. If your master boot sector is really destroyed you
can use this switch to put a "normal" sector back to disk. But
some older fdisk versions only do it if the partition table is
empty. On MS-DOS 5.0 fdisk /mbr doesn't affect the partition
table. It puts only a ordinary master boot program back. This is
another way to uninstall os-bs.
III.3 DOS disk caching programs
-------------------------------
If you are using such programs with "write delay", like
PC CACHE, be sure the master boot sector is written to
disk before reboot, or disable the "write delay"!
III.4 ISC UNIX 2.x, OS/2 2.0, MS DOS 5.0, DR DOS 6.0
----------------------------------------------------
The second stage boot code of ISC 2.x reads the partition
table again. It uses the active id to locate itself in the
table. This is the reason why the ISC partition must
be set active on the disk and why booting ISC 2.x with the
OS/2 2.0 Boot Manager doesn't work.
There are no problems if you have one primary DOS partition
and one ISC. Install os-bs, set ISC active and booting DOS
or ISC should work. But if you have two or three primary DOS
or OS/2 partitions and ISC you have problems since then DOS
uses the active id to determine, which primary partition will
be drive C:, which D:, etc.. In this case you should use the
above described feature of os-bs to set the partitions active
on disk before booting.
Its possible to use a primary DOS partition and a primary
OS/2 2.0 (HPFS) partition simultaneously, if you first install
OS/2 or fake the DOS partition (put other id byte in the partition
table with disk editor) during installation of OS/2.
But note, for unknown reasons its impossible to access a
primary DOS partition from OS/2. (You could create a small
primary DOS partition only holds DOS and a big extended partition
holds your DOS applications you want to run from both systems
which can access a extended DOS partition.)
But it seems that there is an mysterious bug in OS/2. It gets
confused during booting if its entry in the partition table is
not *before* the primary DOS entry. A workaround is to sort the
entrys with a disk editor carefully by hand.
BTW, from my experience DR DOS 6.0 only boots from the first
of two primary DOS partitions.
MS DOS 5.0 doesn't care about this.
Another hint: It seems that ISC UNIX 2.0.x doesn't boot after
Ctrl-Alt-Del if EMM386.EXE was loaded under MS DOS.
A reset is safety.
III.5 ISC UNIX 3.0
------------------
ISC 3.0 comes with its own boot menu included in the second
stage boot code. The only way to get rid of this rigid menu
only knows "UNIX" and "DOS" would be patch a copy of /etc/boot
and then install the patched version with mkpart.
But its possible to install os-bs anyway. Then you get a
second menu if you boot ISC from the os-bs boot menu. Its not
nice but it works.
III.6 386BSD 0.1
----------------
Problem with the CODRV console driver from Holger Veit
(veit@du9ds3.fb9dv.uni-duisburg.de) fixed. No other problems with
386BSD 0.1 reported yet.
III.7 Linux
-----------
Os-bs can boot Linux if you install (e.g.) the LiLo boot program
in the Linux partition boot sector to boot Linux from hard disk.
IV. BUGS
--------
Some versions of fdisk store the partition table backwards.
There is no easy way to put the last entry (refering to the
first partition) in the first line of the os-bs menu.
(A somewhat dangerous workaround is to sort the entries
with a disk editor by hand *before* installation of os-bs.)
Neither os-bs is able to boot from a second disk nor from
a Extended DOS partition. Sorry.
Probably more. Please email me if you run into one.
Thomas Wolfram
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 6
1017 Berlin
Germany
Home: thomas@aeon.in-berlin.de +49 030 4262960
Work: wolf@prz.tu-berlin.de +49 030 31421294
Special thanks to:
MCE (eyckmans@imec.be) for helping out with english
and problem report with disk caching programs