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Date:	Fri, 24 Oct 2003 18:06:43 PDT7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: System files, MBRs, boot managers

Content Type: text/plain

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Peter wrote:

> > Programs compressed with PKLite for DOS can be expanded with:
> >
> > CAUNLITE.EXE 17,376 1-01-93
> > DISLITE .DOC 19,337 4-14-92
> > DISLITE .EXE 17,358 4-14-92
>
> Can you send them to me privately? I'm really curious what's inside
> SYS.COM.

I'd like to get a copy of those too, unless they are readily available on
Hobbes or Norloff.

> There are a whole bunch of "boot managers" and they aren't OS-specific
> so they should all work with vanilla OS/2 (although System Commander is
> file-system specific because it stores control files in a
> subdirectory).

SC used to (and may still) require a FAT-16 C:, and probably the first C: .
It has a way of protecting its vital boot control files, and detects changes to
the first cylinder or MBR areas that could be due to boot-sector viruses.

The Win-32 boot loader is amazingly DUMB, and just plain sux. Our own
Boot Mgr. is terribly fragile. Ever since SP-4 made my system unbootable for
a week, I've had serious multiboot problems, having to replace BM several times
after it gets wiped out, and to re-create the Win-32 boot loader several times, with
considerable trouble and annoyance. At the moment, all my bootable HPFS
partitions are working, but both of the W2K boot partitions are crippled, and
will need to be restored from earlier DAT backup or DI image, with varying loss
of being up-to-date. It is a tremendous hassle keeping that WinCrap at a recent
service level, plus applying all the security patches ! Really makes you appreciate
that aspect of OS/2. The one thing I haven't quite had to do yet is to re-LVM
everything -- in effect, fully revising the MBR -- via the detailed procedure
Steven gave me . . . but perhaps I should, and I think that may be necessary soon.

Anyway, I was getting sick of this revolving door, so I went out and bought SC
ver. 7, which is the current one, and will soon be installing it. My hope is that it
will resolve the multiboot mess, *without* trampling all over the LVM partition
signatures. We don't really know about that for sure, because V-Comm is not at
all responsive to such queries. I did use a much earlier version of their product
for a few years, and liked it very much. Ray is using SC 2000, which may be the
version just prior to 7, with good results (but I don't think he has LVM partitions),
and I think at least one other SCOUG member uses SC.

> Here are the ones I know of (I bought all the cashware ones). I'll post
> the links if anyone wants them.
>
> AiR-BOOT - has OS/2 options, supports LVM
> Boot Manager (IBM)
> Boot Manager (PowerQuest)
> BootMagic (PowerQuest) [same as their Boot Manager??]
> EZ-Drive (loads before the boot loader)
> GRUB
> LILO
> Maxtor's MaxBlast (loads as a "pre boot-loader")
> Power Boot and Power Bios Lite (BlueSky Innovations LLC)
> Ranish's Boot Manager
> ShellCity's "Other Operating Systems"
> System Commander (V Communications)
> XOSL (Extended Operating System Loader)

You are overlooking the BOOT-IT family of products, one called K-BOOT
(shareware, possibly no longer around), and a current competitor of SC called
OS Selector (from Acronis), recently mentioned by Ray. There may well be
others. I would *not* make the assumption that all of these support OS/2,
ECS, or HPFS partitions. LVM support is going to be scarcer still.

Jordan

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