And avoid installing BootMan on computers with only Windows NT, 2K and XP installed.
IMO it’s a more clean approach to install programs into MBR.
(I think R5 PE uses this approach. Does my R5 Pro do this already?)
Ronald wrote:
And avoid installing BootMan on computers with only Windows NT, 2K and XP installed.IMO it’s a more clean approach to install programs into MBR.
(I think R5 PE uses this approach. Does my R5 Pro do this already?)
I believe R5 PE requires a boot floppy for NT/2000/XP - on 95/98/(ME?) it simply quits to DOS and launches a program that removes DOS from memory and launches BeOS from an already-booted computer.
At least, that’s the way I remember it…
Now I think if you set up multiple drives/partitions with BeOS on it’s own, you might be able to use NT/2k/XP’s boot manager, but I’ve always used XOSL or something similar so that I can keep everything straight and hide partitions from others OSes as necessary.
umccullough wrote:
Oh yeah, now I remember.
I believe R5 PE requires a boot floppy for NT/2000/XP - on 95/98/(ME?) it simply quits to DOS and launches a program that removes DOS from memory and launches BeOS from an already-booted computer.
IMO we need a clean way, without installing more layers of software, to have the user select which OS (s)he needs at startup. And preferably without a BootDisk. Since most users have Windows installed and is what Haiku needs to be compatible with.
Question:
I assume “flexboot” is the name for the standard boot manager Windows XP installs? Given that, are the data structures it uses known or have been reverse-engineered by someone, so that the boot manager is usable for non-Microsoft OSs?
ChrisK wrote:
Question:I assume “flexboot” is the name for the standard boot manager Windows XP installs? Given that, are the data structures it uses known or have been reverse-engineered by someone, so that the boot manager is usable for non-Microsoft OSs?
If I recall, it doesn’t really use data structures - it simply loads a boot record from a specified named partition in the boot.ini config file - so if your OS “foo” has a boot record on the second partition of the first disk of the first adapter, you just add an entry to the boot.ini specifying that “foo” is booted from that partition
It also supports launching the windows kernel directly…
Example for locating and launch the windows kernel on a base Win2000 install in the \WINNT directory on the first partition of the first drive is the following:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT=“Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional” /fastdetect
I’m assuming /fastdetect is some parameter passed to the w2k bootstrap/kernel - I never really looked it up before.
The NT bootloader hates all other OS’s it’s not a matter of Supporting teh XO bootloader, its a matter of MS not deliberately making if difficult to boot other OS’
Regard less you can try this: http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm
Quote:
IMO we need a clean way, without installing more layers of software, to have the user select which OS (s)he needs at startup. And preferably without a BootDisk. Since most users have Windows installed and is what Haiku needs to be compatible with.
There are a wide variety of bootloaders available already, no need to re-invent the wheel. Bootman does an excellent job most of the time although it’s a bit of a drag that you have to boot into BeOS to change it. I personally favor Smart Bootmanager.
I dont see BIOS boot managers appearing anytime soon.
Also note that due to the amazingly stupid “Iintel” partitioning scheme ("lets limit it to 4 ‘primary’ partitions for no really good reason at ll’) it’s very hard to get more than 4 different OS’s on a single disk, especially if you also have dedicated data partitions for sharing.
Oh, and XP likes to nuke your partition table if you have BFS partitions, regardless of boot manager.
ChrisK wrote:
Question:I assume “flexboot” is the name for the standard boot manager Windows XP installs? Given that, are the data structures it uses known or have been reverse-engineered by someone, so that the boot manager is usable for non-Microsoft OSs?
I’ve never heard the nt bootloader called flexboot… ntloader, the bootloader used by win nt and 2000 is a PITA to make work with other os’s that is why people who dual boot usually end up using lilo or grub or bootman