ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ DocsBoot+ version 0.33á documentation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1994-1995 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 which emulate ROMs for nonstandard hardware. DriveSwap -- Swaps the A and B floppy drives so that many real-mode programs and operating systems can boot from either floppy drive. Menu hiding -- Allows the menu to be hidden normally, and only invoked by holding the RightShift key down while DocsBoot+ is loading. 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. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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. But then again, you should be doing this anyway. I expect to be rather busy in the next few months, so this beta will expire after 30 June 1996. 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. People who register a beta version will be shipped the final release when it is available. I estimate this to be sometime in 1996. I am sorry about the minor typographical errors in the documentation for the last two versions, 0.32 and 0.32a. I have been more careful in this update, and think the manual is correct again. For those who sent in $15 US for registration of 0.32, the actual amount should have been $10, and I will be returning the $5 difference. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 whether you want it for use on a single system or on an entire site. If you intend site use, please contact me first. DocsBoot+ is currently only available on 720KB 3.5 inch discs, so that is what it will be shipped on. Due to the number of requests for it, I have decided to accept cash payments for DocsBoot+. If you intend to send cash, please try to send an email message at the same time, for confirmation purposes. Make sure you wrap it in something opaque (preferably black) before sending it, so the postal services will not be tempted to lose it. I can not be held responsible for lost payments of this kind, but there has only been one that I know of, so as long as you are careful it is probably safe. I still can not accept credit cards. I have tried to make arrangements for this, to no avail. I will try again should an opportunity present itself, or should there be enough people who can not register in any other way. If you are the author of a shareware product which requires a registration of some sort, tell me. If I find the program useful, I will be happy to trade a registration for DocsBoot+ for a registration of your program. I will send out the new copy as soon as reasonably possible upon receipt of your payment, unless a new version is due out shortly (which is defined here as `about a week from now'), then I will wait until the new version is ready. This is a change from the old policy, primarily motivated by the difficulty it caused in dealing with my bank. In any case, please allow about a month from the time you send the registration to the time you get the disc and registration code. I have extended the trial period from one month to two in order to accomodate this. 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. To have the latest version sent directly to you, contact me at my email address (zschroff@buster.eng.ua.edu) and I can send it electronically. If you want it on disc, there are two options. Send me a letter saying you want the latest version of DocsBoot+ and $3 US to cover the disc and shipping, or send a 720KB disc and SASE and the letter. Either way, I will send the latest version on disc. 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. No registered copy should expire, except the early betas (0.24 and down). You are hereby given permission to copy and distribute this product freely, providing that it is distributed only in the archive form (with all of the files included : DOCSBOOT.DOC, DOCSBOOT.EXE, UTILITY.DOC, DBINFO.COM, PARTSCAN.COM, NAMEVOL.EXE, OS2FIXUP.BAT, OS2FIXUP.CMD, FDISK.EXE, NTFIXUP.EXE, and DBEXT100.PRG), that it is not modified in any way, that it is not included with or as part of any other product, and that no charge over reasonable handling and medium charges is made for this distribution. If you with to negotiate execptions, contact me (in writing, not electronically). Stated exceptions to the above paragraph : Walnut Creek CDROM is granted the right to distribute DocsBoot+ in archive form as described above on any of their CDROMs. Other companies which distribute CDROMs of shareware or Internet site mirrors may also distribute DocsBoot+ in the same form. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ DocsBoot+ v0.33á install. Copyright 1994-5 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ ³ ³ Install a copy of DocsBoot+ to hard disc 0 ³ ³ Setup a copy of DocsBoot+ on hard disc 0 ³ ³ Remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from hard disc 0 ³ ³ ³ ³ Install a copy of DocsBoot+ to a floppy disc in A: ³ ³ Setup a copy of DocsBoot+ on a floppy disc in A: ³ ³ Remove a copy of DocsBoot+ from a floppy disc in A: ³ ³ ³ ³ Exit the DocsBoot+ installler ³ ³ ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ Move the cursor using the arrow keys. Press enter to make a selction. ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 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. 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. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 less than a tenth 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. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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. Installing DocsBoot+ on a floppy will erase the contents of that floppy, unless DocsBoot+ (version 0.27 or later) has been installed on it before. This is because DocsBoot+ needs to move the FAT and root directory in order to install, and the only way to reliably do that is to effectively quick-format the disc. Once DocsBoot+ has been installed to a floppy, it can be removed and installed to that floppy at will, without bothering any data placed on the floppy after the initial installation. Under MS-DOS and PC-DOS, a floppy with DocsBoot+ installed on it should NEVER be used for any use other than DocsBoot+. This is because of a bug in the MS-DOS and PC-DOS disc handling routines. If a disc containing DocsBoot+ is written to by DOS, it will probably corrupt DocsBoot+, and scramble any of the other contents of the disc. This problem is not apperant under OS/2, nor under DR-DOS or certain OEM versions of MS-DOS or PC-DOS (Toshiba's DOS 3.30 has no problems with it, for example). A floppy disc containing DocsBoot+ must NEVER be systemed. If it is, DocsBoot+ will no longer function, and any other data on the disc may be corrupted. DocsBoot+ can only currently be installed to high density 3.5 inch discs because it requires at least 17 sectors per track, and the only floppies which meet this requirement are 3.5 inch 1440KB and 3.5 inch 2880KB floppies. Development plans prohibit support for installing DocsBoot+ to the 1200KB and smaller floppy discs. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 header found but no data 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). ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Other problems with DocsBoot+ Installer/Setup/Remover ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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+ uses several low-level disc I/O calls in order to operate, and the installer and setup utilities use others in order to install and configure DocsBoot+. Under certain conditions, errors may occur in these calls. DocsBoot+ itself retries errors several times, but will eventually give up and abort. The installer and setup utility, however, are more paranoid and give up immediately on an error. In this version there is an improved error reporting system which will indicate which error has occurred. In the case of an error in one of the install, setup, or remove routines, the installer will display a message followed by a two digit error code (if installing and the error code is four digits, see the previous section). These error codes are the same as the lower two digits of the four digit error code, but since the message reflects where the error occurred, it does not display the four digit code. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ DocsBoot+ v0.33á setup. Copyright 1994-5 Zac Schroff, All rights reserved. ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ Enable CMOS restoration Yes ³ Install DriveSwap if booting B Yes ³ ³ Enable MBR/BootSect protection Yes ³ ³ ³ Ctrl key down pauses on start No ³ Include extra details Yes ³ ³ Search for extensions Yes ³ Include floppy drives A and B Yes ³ ³ Alt key down skips extensions Yes ³ Timed boot enabled Yes ³ ³ Enable boot menu Yes ³ Timed boot delay (seconds) 15 ³ ³ RightShift down to use menu Yes ³ Confirm reboot request (^C/^B) Yes ³ ³ Include non-bootable partitions Yes ³ Confirm boot unformatted Yes ³ ³ Include unknown partitions Yes ³ Normal text colour Test ³ ³ Active scan for all drives Yes ³ Selection bar colour Test ³ ³ Default partition enabled No ³ ³ ³ Default partition number 0 ³ Program is registered? Yes ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ Use the arrow keys to move about and the PageUp and PageDown keys to change ³ ³ a setting, the F6 key to restore to the defaults, the F10 key to save the ³ ³ settings and exit, or the Escape key to exit without saving the settings. ³ ³ ³ ³ Press F9 to edit the partition types information. ³ ³ Press [Alt R] to register the program for your use. ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Enable CMOS restoration ÄÄ This feature is what allows DocsBoot+ to restore your system settings to normal if they are erased for some reason. On certain systems, or under certain circumstances, this feature may not work properly (nonstandard systems especially). For this reason, you can turn this off. Yes enables DocsBoot+ to restore your settings, no forces it not to. Enable MBR/BootSect restoration ÄÄ This feature is what allows DocsBoot+ to remove certain bootsector/MBR virii (such as Stoned and Micelangelo) from your system. In certain cases (particularly Phoenix BIOS based PCI Pentium systems), this may not work properly and get into a loop of restoring the MBR to a non-existant device. Yes enables this feature, no disables it. Ctrl key down pauses on start ÄÄ If this setting is yes, DocsBoot+ will check the status of the control key when it loads, and if the key is down, DocsBoot+ will display a message and wait for a keypress. If this is no, DocsBoot+ will not pause no matter what the state of the control key is. This could be a useful function when you need to see what is displayed before DocsBoot+ starts. Search for extensions ÄÄ 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. Alt key down skips extensions ÄÄ If this is yes, DocsBoot+ will check the state of the Alt keys before it scans for extensions, and if either is down, DocsBoot+ will not load any extensions. If both Alt keys are up, or if this is no, extensions will be scanned for according to the `Search for extensions' option, above. Enable boot menu ÄÄ If this setting is no, DocsBoot+ simply acts as an extension loader or a CMOS or MBR protection utility. If this setting is on, DocsBoot+ displays the boot menu according to the settings following. THIS MUST ALWAYS BE YES ON FLOPPY INSTALLATIONS. RightShift down to use menu ÄÄ If this option is yes, DocsBoot+ will only invoke the menu when the RightShift key is down while it is loading. If no, DocsBoot+ will always display the menu according to the `Enable boot menu' setting. If the boot menu is disabled, this has no effect. Note that if this feature is used to skip the menu, DocsBoot+ will select which partition to boot according to same method it uses to select the initial partition on the menu. Include non-bootable partitions ÄÄ If this is yes, all partitions that DocsBoot+ can find will be listed. If it is no, only partitions marked bootable will be listed. Most likely, this should be set to yes, unless you have some software which will let you change the partitions which are bootable directly (Norton Utilities contains a product capable of this). Include unknown partitions ÄÄ If this is yes, DocsBoot+ will examine anything that remotely resembles a partition on any of your drives, and include it in the boot menu. If it is no, DocsBoot+ will only include known partition types. WARNING : ON BRAND NEW DRIVES OR DRIVES WHICH HAVE BEEN RECENTLY LOW-LEVEL FORMATTED (and not yet partitioned), SETTING THIS TO YES THIS COULD CAUSE THE DRIVE TO ATTEMPT TO SEEK TO ILLEGAL LOCATIONS when DocsBoot+ is building the menu. This will usually cause some dreadful noise, but I know of no cases where the drive has been damaged by such. Active scan for all drives ÄÄ On some systems, some drives will not show up because they are not on the primary controller, or the controller is set up to expect a DOS version earlier than 5.00. If this is the case, only the first two drives will show up. To allow DocsBoot+ to scan for all drives, turn this On. Normally, this should be left off. Default partition enabled ÄÄ 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 ÄÄ 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. Install DriveSwap if booting B ÄÄ If this is set to yes, then 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 (the minimum which can be allocated at the time it is loading). Include extra details ÄÄ 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 or curious. Include floppy drives A,B ÄÄ 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. Timed boot enabled ÄÄ 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) ÄÄ 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. Confirm reboot request (^C/^B) ÄÄ If this is yes, pressing [Control C] or [Control B] will ask for confirmation before rebooting. If no, [Control C] and [Control B] will reboot the system immediately. Confirm boot unformatted ÄÄ 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. Normal text colour ÄÄ The word `Test' is displayed with the attribute which will be used to display normal text. High intensity backgrounds usually blink in DocsBoot+ (most displays will show blink instead of bright background). Selection bar colour ÄÄ The word `Test' is displayed with the attribute which will be used to indicate the selection bar. For best readability, this should not be the same as (or similar to) the normal text colour. High intensity backgrounds will probably be displayed in DocsBoot+ as blinking text (this is being worked on). Program is registered? ÄÄ 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. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 Û 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. Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä DocsBoot+ version 0.33 BETA Copyright 1994-5 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ This copy of DocsBoot+ is not registered. Label x: Type ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Pri floppy A: Sec floppy B: DOS v5.00 C: FAT-16 ----------- D: FAT-16 ----------- E: FAT-16 ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝOS/2 v2.10 F:ÞÛÝFAT-16ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ Maintenance G: FAT-16 ----------- H: FAT-16 ----------- I: FAT-16 ----------- J: FAT-16 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. Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä DocsBoot+ version 0.33 BETA Copyright 1994-5 Zac Schroff, all rights reserved. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ This copy of DocsBoot+ is not registered. Label x: Type ## * OEM Serial Drv SectOffs ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Pri floppy A: Sec floppy B: DOS v5.00 C: FAT-16 04 P MSDOS5.0 DD80-0000 80 00000020 ----------- D: FAT-16 06 P MSDOS5.0 DD81-0000 81 0000001A ----------- E: FAT-16 06 P MSDOS5.0 DD82-0000 82 0000001A ÛÛÛÛÛÝOS/2 v2.10ÞÝF:ÞÛÝFAT-16ÞÛÝ06 EÞÛÝIBM 20.0 DD80-EE01ÞÛÛÝ80ÞÝ0000F820ÞÛÛÛÛÛ Maintenance G: FAT-16 04 E IBM 20.0 DD80-EE02 80 0002F820 ----------- H: FAT-16 06 E MSDOS5.0 DD80-EE03 80 0003F020 ----------- I: FAT-16 06 E MSDOS5.0 DD80-EE04 80 0005F020 ----------- J: FAT-16 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. Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä Ä 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. If the partition is a hidden partition, it will be unhidden (and any other FAT or HPFS primary partitions on the same drive will be hidden) before it is booted. 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) You can press [Space]. This will refresh the display no matter which partition is selected. If a hidden partition is selected, it is unhidden and any other FAT or HPFS primary partitions on the same drive are hidden. 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 ÄÄ 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. Most other operating systems are not compatible with this naming convention, so they will also not have a name displayed. x: ÄÄ 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 ÄÄ 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. ## ÄÄ 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'. * ÄÄ This indicates whether the partition is primary (P appears here) or extended (E appears here). OEM ÄÄ 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 ÄÄ This is displayed on those partitions which support it. If it is not supported, 0000-0000 is displayed. Drv ÄÄ 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 ÄÄ 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 ÄÄ 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 ÄÄ Reserved for future expansion. FAT-12 ÄÄ 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. FAT-16 ÄÄ Newer style DOS partitions for DOS 3.xx and later if less than or equal to 32MB in size, DOS 3.31 and later if greater than 32MB in size. Used on small (16MB to 32MB) partitions and medium (32MB to 512MB) partitions. Sometimes is problematic if the partition size is 32MB exactly. HPFS ÄÄ OS/2's High Performance File System, used on partitions from 100MB to 64GB. NTFS ÄÄ Used by WindowsNT's NT File System. Purportedly works up to 256GB partitions. Not tested (partition type number is not known to me). CP/M ÄÄ Used by the CP/M operating system. Not tested. Xenix ÄÄ Used by the Xenix operating system. Not tested. PC-ix ÄÄ Used by the PCix operating systems. Not tested. Novell ÄÄ Used by Novell's Netware packages. Added in this version the NetWare386 partition type. Not tested. DiskMngr ÄÄ Used by DiskManager's DMDRVR.BIN -- is this even bootable??? Not tested. Speed ÄÄ Used by SpeedStor's driver (I think) -- is this even bootable??? Not tested. BootMngr ÄÄ Used by OS/2's BootManager. HFS ÄÄ Reserved for future expansion. Linux ÄÄ Used by the Linux operating system. SCO Unix ÄÄ Used by SCO Unix on 386 and later systems. I have been informed that DocsBoot+ works with SCO Unix. NeXTStep ÄÄ Used by NeXT computer's NeXTStep operating system. I have been informed that DocsBoot+ works with NeXTStep. FreeBSD ÄÄ Used by FreeBSD for what appears to be anything. I have been trying to test FreeBSD, but it does not like my system very much, crashing during the install phase. HidFAT12 ÄÄ Used by IBM's BootManager to hide a FAT-12 partition which is a primary on a drive with other (DOS or OS/2) primary partitions. Now supported by DocsBoot+. HidFAT16 ÄÄ Used by IBM's BootManager to hide a FAT-16 partition which is a primary on a drive with other (DOS or OS/2) primary partitions. Now supported by DocsBoot+. HidHPFS ÄÄ Used by IBM's BootManager to hide an HPFS partition which is a primary on a drive with other (DOS or OS/2) primary partitions. Now supported by DocsBoot+. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ DocsBoot+ and operating systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DOS (Toshiba 2.11, Toshiba 3.30, PC 5.00, MS 6.00, PC 6.10, MS 6.20, MS 6.21, MS 6.22, PC 6.30, PC 7.00, Win95, et al) 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. The only known problem with DOS and DocsBoot+ is that DOS can not boot from anything other than A (primary floppy disc) and C (primary partition on the primary hard disc). I am working on fixing this limitation (suggestions are welcome). FreeBSD (version 2.0.5) I believe this works, since I can start it on my system. However, FreeBSD will not get past the installation routine (though I can look at the CD and some other files) on my system, so I can not guarantee this. Linux (Slackware 2.0, Slackware 2.3) Getting in on all the popular operating systems... slowly! This one I thought I had covered, but alas! I had not initially managed. This has been corrected due to pressure (and some help) from Linux users and 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 is no need for LILO to be set up with anything other than the Linux boot partition. NeXT Step for Intel (3.3) I have been informed that this operating system works with DocsBoot+, and no problems or caveats were reported to me. OS/2 (IBM 2.00, IBM 2.10, and IBM 3.00) 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 reason 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. Dual boot is not something DocsBoot+ can control at this time. All of your operating systems must be on different partitions. I have found that this arrangement offers greater stability than the `dual boot' system with several operating systems on a single partition anyway. The SETBOOT utility does not currently work with DocsBoot+. I am trying to get information on writing a setup utility for DocsBoot+ to run under OS/2, but this seems to be uphill work. Novell Unix (version unknown) I have been informed that this operating system works with DocsBoot+, and no problems or caveats were reported to me. This operating system uses the SCO unix partition type (Unix). SCO Unix (3.4.2) Unixes abound! I have been informed that this operating system works with DocsBoot+ (no problems with DocsBoot+ were mentioned). The partition type used by SCO unix is compatible with other unixes, so it is merely called `Unix' on the menu. The only problem with using SCO-Unin that I have been informed of is that it REQUIRES its partition be active (maybe the only active one?). If you use SCO unix, you should set the `set booted partition active' option in the base settings to yes. Banyan VINES (5.54(20)) I have been informed that this operating system works with DocsBoot+, as long as its partition is the partition which is set as active. SCO Xenix (3.x) I have been informed that this operating system works with DocsBoot+. Windows 95 (MS Windows 4.0 & MS DOS 7.0) Users of Windows 95 should read the DOS section, since Win95 behaves much like DOS as far as DocsBoot+ is concerned. It should be mentioned that all of the DOS limitations apply to Win95 also. In this entire document, I have grouped Win95 as a version of DOS for these reasons. There are, however, additional warnings which apply to Win95 and not to DOS. Installing Win95 will obliterate DocsBoot+ from the hard disc and replace it with its own code (DocsBoot+ can be reinstalled after Win95 is installed and things will again work normally). Every time Win95 is booted, it will replace certain parts of the boot code on ALL partitions with its own (there is no known way to fix this rather virus-like behaviour). Windows NT (MS 3.10, MS 3.50, MS 3.51) Okay, so this one's boot manager is even worse than OS/2's boot manager. It takes a long time to load, and insists upon installing to the C partition, even though it is portable. It also hides its setup, which is quite cryptic in itself. This 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). This patch is included with DocsBoot+ and is called NTFIXUP.EXE. Please run it under real DOS, not under WindowsNT, because its behaviour under WinNT is probably going to be rather strange. This particular patch does not work with NFTS partitions, but I do not know how they are set up, so you might need to experiment with copying the NTBoot files over yourself. That's really about all the patch does besides restore the original boot sector to your DOS partition. 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. I have had no reports of problems with DocsBoot+ corrupting the Windows NT INI files. Others Actually, DocsBoot+ has only been tested on the operating systems listed here (as far as I know), but there are others which may be supported. I have tried to include many partition types, and DocsBoot+ is set to make few assumptions (assuming that certain features are NOT supported rather than are) about those which have not been tested. DocsBoot+ should work reasonably well with a majority of the operating systems out there which it can see, but if this is not the case, please help me get it to work with whatever you are using. Send me the information about what operating system you are using, a copy of the output from PartScan, and any other information which you feel might be helpful. Thanks! ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Compatibility issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DocsBoot+ has been found to be fully compatible with several versions of DOS (ranging from 2.11 through 7.00 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 (the development and testing of the installer was based upon DOS 5.00). WARNING : IF YOU USE THE ONTRACK DYNAMIC DISK OVERLAY (DDO), YOU MUST ALLOW IT TO LOAD BEFORE YOU BOOT THE CLEAN-BOOT DISC TO INSTALL DOCSBOOT+. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 ÄÄ the code space is highly limited. I will consider anything which appears to have reasonable justification (anything can be defended, just try it). ’sthetic changes are open to suggestion, though mouse support will probably not be offered (nor colour display anytime soon). 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 I expect to be graduating with my BS in CS at the end of the spring semester in 1996, so the Internet address may not be valid after that. I am trying to arrange another Internet account or the continuation of this one. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 NTFixup 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 ‘sthetic 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. 19941216 (v0.27) : Fixed DriveSwap problem with non-boot discs. Added partition entries for more partition types, including the popular SpeedStor and DiskManager utilities. Fixed a serious bug in the dating system which will causes any installation after a certain date in the year to expire instantly instead of after a month (both beta dates and demonstration dates). Finalising specifications for the extensions system and starting work on an extension toolkit. More improvements to the string space compression plus some ‘sthetic fixes (I think I like the screens now). Added more debugging code to the installer. Patched MBR virus protection to fix an incompatibility with certain Pentium PCI based systems. Added floppy fixup which allows OS/2 and other operating systems with well-written floppy I/O to properly access a floppy with DocsBoot+ installed to it. 19950210 (v0.28) : Added capability for post-menu extension execution. Changed right-alt down (for extension disable) to either-alt down since some keyboards or systems never report right-alt down. Added option to disable CMOS and MBR restoration because of minor incompatibilities on certain systems. Added the IDE StandBy driver extension. Fixed a bug in the code which runs without the boot menu that kept it from seeing ANY partitions (introduced sometime late 1994?). Pulled BootManager visible switch and just let it stay visible at all times. Added code which handles BootManager's kluge for hiding primary partitions on drives with more than one (DOS or OS/2) primary, including a way to change which partition is visible without booting it. Rewrote many other routines optimising for space (not speed) because all the other stuff made it too big (this caused a minor performance loss). Pulled the soft boot [^B] option, since floppy drives can be booted. Added notes for the SCO-Unix and NeXTStep operating systems. Added code to allow unknown partitions to be listed in the menu. 19950323 (v0.29) : Added colour to the menu screen. Fixed problem with spacebar disabling timer. Made any keystroke reset the timer, but only escape toggles it still. Fixed the flicker on the selection bar. Fixed [Space] so it does not reset the menu offset. Added way to make DocsBoot+ not actively scan for all of the drives (some systems have problems with this function). 19950719 (v0.30) : Fixed floppy disc bug on certain Pentium (and on rare other) systems. Updated PartScan utility. Fixed problem with automatic partition hiding/unhiding algorithm. 19950922 (v0.31) : Fixed some small problems with OS/2 v3.00 on certain systems. A few minor updates to the extension manager. 19951104 (v0.32) : Updated so FreeBSD was also supported. 19951115 (v0.32) : Fixed discrepancy between documentation and program, added a few months to the usable time period. 19951124 (v0.33) : More proofreading. :b Fixed another slight discrepancy between the program and the documentation. Proofread the entire docfile this time. Added option for control key pause on init, and option for requiring rightshift down for menu. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Planned near-future enhancements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There may be an enhancement which sets the active partition to the one being booted shortly. This will of course be capable of being disabled. Certain unixes seem to require that their partition be active (and maybe the only active one). A new installation and setup facility will probably be provided in a soon to come version. This installation and setup facility will be bootable only, but the DOS command line utilities will likely remain, and there may be some OS/2 command line utilities soon also. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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. Workaround : Use Toshiba's DOS 3.30 to access the disc. Notes : Some DOS versions ignore their own standards. This can not be fixed by changing DocsBoot+. 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 installer 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 (but still not while in a VDM -- it has to be a clean boot). This will eliminate problems with systems which do not allow direct disc writes from DOS boxes. I will probably keep some command line utilities for DOS, and may develop some for OS/2. If you wish to develop some for your favourite unix or other OS, please send me mail to this effect. 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. Please submit any partitions which DocsBoot+ does not recognise (send the output of PartScan and a note detailing what operating system and partition type the unknown partitions are) so I can update it to include these partition types. Problem : My 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. Notes : This is currently being worked on. Problem : QEMM's DOS-UP option causes the menu to be redisplayed before the boot continues after it is loaded. Solution : None yet Workaround : It has been reported that by not moving the DOS kernel or data with this driver (what use is it then?) that this problem goes away. Notes : I am looking into this -- something strange is happening within that driver. Notes : This does not seem to happen with version 7.50 of the QEMM386 package, though I believe it happens on all of the version 6.x series. I am not certain about earlier 7.x QEMM386 versions. Problem : My Pentium (or PCI based) system does not allow floppy drive access when using DocsBoot+. Problem : As above, but on certain AST and Digital portables, and maybe on some others. Solution : DocsBoot+ 0.30 and later should fix this problem. Notes : I can not explain this strange problem, though I am now quite familiar as to how my DECpc325SL portable behaves in this situation, and I think the fix should apply to other systems which exhibit similar symptoms. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Development, testing and thanks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Development Zac Schroff : `I have this neat idea... hmm...' Documentation Zac Schroff : `What do you mean, ``the manual stinks''???' Alpha test group Zac Schroff : `WHAT??? Another version???' Toney Duck : `I *AM* testing it...' Scott Kelley : `I do not want to be quoted as ``works fine''.' Denny McGough : `Put in these features.' Thanks to Scott kelley : ideas for self-checking ideas for registration codes Arne Glenditsch : suggestion for booting floppy A & B suggestion for DriveSwap suggestion for IDE StandBy driver Denny McGough : suggestion for menu in centre of screen suggestion for light bar menu reporting the Linux information Toni Nikkanen : suggestion for colour suggestion for timer reset after keypress reporting the floppy disc access problem Marc-Andre Schmidt : suggestion for multiple primary part. support reporting the QEMM DOS-UP problem Jeremy Mathers : suggestion for menu hide option Jim Carpenter : reporting the NeXT Step information reporting the SCO Unix information Steve Richards : reporting the SCO Xenix information Michael Gerhardt : reporting the Banyan VINES information Toney Duck : suggestion for virus protection Hector Fuerte : reporting the Warp floppy access problem Felix Todd : letting me test on a machine in his store Ron Bonner : reminding me not everybody speaks computerese ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ 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 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 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. SpeedStor [?] 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. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ [end of file]