Instalace Linuxu a Window98, pomoc!

[Kodet Jaroslav]

Ja pouzivam boot manager GAG, ktery by podle dokumentace toto omezeni mit
nemel. Existuje i ceska mutace, ale ja davam prednost anglicke.
Prikladam dokumentaci, na konci je URL odkut to jde stahnout.
Jarda

GAG

GRAPHICAL BOOT MANAGER

GAG is a Boot Manager program, this is, a program that is loaded when the
computer is turned on and allows to choose the operating system you want
to use. Its main features are:

        -Allows to boot up to 9 different operating systems.

        -Can boot operating systems instaled in primary and extended
        partitions. Them can be instaled in any hard disk too.

        -GAG doesn't need its own partition. It installs itself in the
        first track of the hard disk, wich is reserved for this kind of
        programs. It can also be instaled in a floppy disk, without using
        the hard disk.

        -Has a timer to boot a default operating system (selectable by
        the user).

        -The configuration menu can be protected with a password. Also,
        each operating system can be protected with its own password.

        -The program works in graphic mode (needs a VGA or better graphic
        card), and has a lot of icons.

        -Hides the primary partitions, allowing the installation of more
        than one DOS and/or Windows in the same hard disk.

        -Can exchange disk drives, allowing to boot from the second,
third...
        hard disk operating systems such as MS-DOS.

        -Has the SafeBoot system, that allows to boot your hard disk even if
        GAG is accidentally overwrited.


DISCLAIMER

GAG is a program distributed 'as is', without any warranty of any kind. The
autor will not be responsible if there's loss of data in your hard disk or
other problem. Use it under your own risk.

GAG is distributed under a GPL license. Read COPYING file for more
information.


ABOUT THE LBA PARTITIONS SUPPORT

The support for LBA partitions is limited, because it doesn't work with
partitions that are beyond the 8Gbytes limit. I needs that the partition
table has the CHS parameters too. If not, GAG will not be capable of
working with them.

This is because I haven't documentation about the new extended calls
for the BIOS, that allows to work with LBA parameters. If someone can
send it to me...


INSTALATION

GAG is distributed as a disquette image, so if you want to install it you
need an 3 1/2 inch, high density, formated empty floppy.


CREATING THE BOOT DISK

First, you need to create the floppy. That's why is included the
RAWRITE2.EXE program.


FROM DOS

Insert the formated disk and type

        RAWRITE2.EXE -F GAG.IMA -D A:

This will create a boot disk with GAG.


FROM WINDOWS

Restart the system in MS-DOS mode and do the same that in FROM DOS.


FROM OS/2

Open a DOS session (it can be window or full screen) and do the same that
in FROM DOS.

If the program returns a DMA error, edit the CONFIG.SYS file and modify
your DOS variable, putting it as

        DOS=HIGH,UMB

Default value is DOS=LOW,NOUMB.

If you prefer, you can use the native program IMAGE.EXE, that comes in
the OS/2 CD-ROM.


FROM LINUX/UNIX

Insert the formated floppy in disk drive and type

        dd if=gag.ima of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2800

In other UNIX systems is possible you must use something different to
/dev/fd0.


OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS

You need a program that allows you to create floppies from disk images,
and use it.


BOOTING GAG

Restart your computer and boot it with the created floppy. In your screen
will be shown the main menu of GAG. There's only two icons: boot from
floppy and Setup. Under each description is the key you have to press to
make that action.

Press S (Setup) and the Setup Menu will be shown, with these options:


ADD OPERATING SYSTEM

The first option allows to install in GAG the operating system installed
in your hard disk. A list with all partitions in your first hard disk is
displayed (primary and extended partitions). Choose the partition where
is located the first O.S. you want to add by pressing the letter that is
with it (A for the floppy disk, B for the first primary partition...). If
you have more than one hard disk, you can choose another by pressing 1 to 8.

If you choose a partition from a hard disk different than the first, GAG
will ask you if you want to swap the disk drives. If you answer YES, each
time you boot with that icon a litle resident program will be installed,
wich will swap that drive and the first hard disk, so the operating
system will think that the second (or third...) hard disk is the first (C:)
and the first is the second (or third...) (D:). This allows you to
boot operating systems such as MS-DOS from a disk different than the first.

WARNING: the resident program works at BIOS level, so it will not work
with operating systems that uses specific drivers to access to the hard
disk. The resident will substract 1 KByte of conventional memory.

The resident program is installed even if you choose from a hard disk
different than the first the option 'Boot from floppy'. This allows you
to create an icon that boot from floppy with the hard disks swapped, wich
allow you to install that operating systems in theses drives directly,
without unmounting them.

After that, you have to type a litle description (up to 15 characters) of
the Operating system. As an example: Linux, OS/2, Windows...

Then, you have to type a password to protect this operating system. This
password will must be typed each time you want to boot this operating
system. If you press RETURN, no password is required.

Finally, you choose the icon you want for that O.S. just by pressing a
letter from A to Z (A for the first icon, B for the second...)

Repeat this for all O.S. you have in your hard disk.


DELETE OPERATING SYSTEM.

This option deletes the entry of an operating system from GAG. When you
press D, a list of the configured operating systems is showed. Pressing a
number from 1 to 9 you eliminate it. But WARNING: this option DON'T DELETE
the operating system from the hard disk; only delete it from the GAG list,
but you can add it again. To eliminate an O.S. you have to use FDISK.

If you don't want to delete an O.S., you can return pressing ESC.


BOOT TIMER

This option allows us to select the time in seconds that GAG must wait
before boot the default O.S. The maximum is 99 seconds. If we had the
timer enabled and want to disable it, just press RETURN or type 0.

Boot timer is disabled every time an O.S. is deleted from GAG too.


SETUP PASSWORD

With this option we can enter a password to avoid people to change the
configuration when GAG is instaled in a 'public' computer.


RETURN

With this option we return to the main menu.

INSTALL IN FLOPPY

With this option GAG and the actual configuration is saved in the floppy.
This allows to try GAG without instaling it in the hard disk.

INSTALL IN HARD DISK

This option allow us to save GAG and the actual configuration in the MBR
of our hard disk, so it will be loaded every time we turn on the computer.
As GAG is larger than 512 bytes, only a little loader is saved in the MBR,
and the rest of the code is saved in the first 15 sectors of the first
track, wich are reserved for this kind of programs. But this has some
little problems:

        -GAG can't be instaled in a hard disk with less than 17 sectors
        per track. This isn't really a big danger, because I have never
        seen a HD with less than 17 sectors (this is just the number that
        had the first MFM/RLL Hard Disk for XT. Today all hard disk has 63
        sectors per track, so there's no problem).

        -Some old BIOSes (before 1992, aprox) can't recognize hard disks
        with more than 1024 cilinders. In this cases, there's a lot of
        programs that fixes this. The problem is that these programs
        stores itselfs in the first track, so GAG is incompatible with them.

        -Some viruses installs itself in the first track too, so if a day,
        instead of GAG, an O.S. is booted directly, is possible that
        there's one in your hard disk.

        -I strongly recomend to test GAG first from a floppy, and only if
        it works right, install it in the Hard Disk.

WARNING: each time you change the options or the list of O.S. to boot, you
must use the INSTALL IN FLOPPY or INSTALL IN HARD DISK too, because only
then will be saved that changes.


WHAT IS SAFEBOOT?

SafeBoot is a new feature of GAG that allows to boot your hard disk always.
If there's an error when GAG is loading, just reset your computer and hold
pressed the SHIFT, ALT or CNTRL key. Instead of load GAG, the MBR code will
load the last operating system used, so you can reinstall GAG or fix the
error.


ERRORS RETURNED BY GAG WHEN IT BOOTS

When GAG boots, makes some tests. If it founds an error, it shows a number
in the screen and halts the system. The errors are theses:

    GAG: 1

    BAD SECTOR: there was a read error when tried to load GAG. If you was
    booting from floppy, reinstall it in other floppy without bad sectors.
    If you was booting from hard disk, use SafeBoot to boot an operating
    system and reinstall GAG. If the error is still present, you have bad
    sectors in your hard disk.

    GAG: 2

    ACTIVE PARTITION NOT FOUND: this error occurrs only with SafeBoot.
    There's no one partition marked as active (this is, marked as C:).
    Just boot with a floppy, use FDISK to mark one and reset.

    GAG: 3

    GAG NOT FOUND: the code loaded from the floppy or the hard disk
    has not the GAG signature. Is possible that the first track has
    been overwrite. Use SafeBoot and reinstall GAG.

    GAG: 4

    NO BOOT SECTOR: this error can occurr only with SafeBoot. The
    active partition doesn't contain a valid operating system. Reboot
    with a floppy, use FDISK to mark other partition as active and
    reboot.


GAG AND THE OPERATING SYSTEMS

If you want to use GAG with MS-DOS or Windows 95/98, you don't need to do
nothing special, because it can be instaled only in primary partitions.

If you want to use GAG with OS/2, is possible that, during the O.S.
instalation, you must to install the OS/2 Boot Manager too (this ocurrs
when you install OS/2 in an extended partition and/or in the second,
third... hard disk). Don't worry. Continue the instalation and, after it
ends, install GAG. But there's a little problem: when OS/2 is instaled in
an extended partition, GAG can't boot it directly. You must have instaled
the OS/2 Boot Manager, and boot it from GAG. To prevent the Boot Manager's
menu to be displayed, you can put its timer to zero seconds. I hope to fix
this in a near version of GAG.

If you want to use GAG with Windows NT, you have to install its Boot
Manager in the same partition that the O.S., but you can put its timer to
0 seconds.

If you want to use GAG with Linux, you only need to install LILO in the
Boot Sector of the partition where the kernel is.

If you have different Linuxes in different partitions, you will have to put
a
different LILO on each partition, possibly setting the LILO timer to 0.

Of course, GAG can be used with all other operating systems too, such AIX,
FreeBSD, BeOS...

When the timer is active, a decremental orange bar is showed at the top of
the screen. If you press a key, the timer is stopped. If you press RETURN,
the default operating system is booted.

WARNING: if the BIOS virus protection is enabled, you can get false alarms
each time you boot a new O.S. This is because to hidde partitions, GAG (and
all Boot Managers) must to change a bit in the partition entry, in the MBR.


RECOMPILING GAG FROM THE SOURCES

GAG has been written with Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM). If you want to
recompile it, just type:

        TASM gag.asm
        TLINK /t gageng.obj

wich will create a COM executable file.

MS-DOS modifies some BIOS pointers, so if you try to use GAG from it, your
computer will crash. You can only install it in a floppy or in the hard
disk, and then reboot and configure all. GAG can work rigth only if is
booted directly.


VERSIONS HISTORY

Version 1.0: first public release.

Version 1.1:

        -In some motherboards, GAG sets the time to 12 o'clock. Fixed in
        this version (using the timer 2).

        -Has a color bar that allows you to know how time rests to expire
        the boot timer.

        -Now GAG tests if there are read/write errors when it installs or
        loads from floppy or hard disk.

        -Fixed other minor bugs.

        -Added some little details that makes easier the configuration.

Version 1.2:

        -Multilanguage support

Version 1.3:

        -Has a new icon for BeOS and another for a generic O.S.

        -Recognizes FreeBSD partitions (doesn't mark it as unknow type).

        -Pressing RETURN with the timer active, boots the default operating
        system.

        -Allows to have different passwords for each operating system.

Version 1.31

        -Fixed a bug with hard disks greater than 8GBytes and/or with
        more than 16 partitions.

        -New icons for Linux and OS/2.

Version 2.0

        -GAG can swap hard disks, allowing to boot and install operating
        systems such as MS-DOS in the second, third... drive.

        -Has SafeBoot, wich allows you to boot your hard disk even if GAG
        is overwrited.

        -Better boot test.

        -Older versions didn't change the active partition when GAG hidded
        or unhidded one. Fixed in this version.

        -Shows a message when the installation is succesfull.

        -Recognice the new LBA extended partitions of Windows 95.

        -Shows in the screen the version number.

        -New icons for Solaris and SCO Unix.

        -Source code with better documentation.

        -Now GAG guarantees that only one primary partition is visible
        each time.


FAQ

1.Have I pay money for GAG?

No, you haven't. GAG is free software, distributed under a GPL license. Of
course, if you want to pay money you can do it, just write me (look my
e-mail address at the end of the text).


2.Where's the mouse cursor?

GAG can't use (yet) the mouse. You must use the keyboard.


3.What is the utility of the Boot floppy option? Can I delete it?

You can delete it and add it again later if you want or need it. That
option allows you to boot a disk from GAG, so you can disable in the BIOS
SETUP the option of booting from floppy. If you need to boot from a floppy,
you can use GAG instead of enabling it again. This is good because if you
restart your computer, you don't need to drop out the floppy from the
drive. I hope to add suport for booting CD-ROM too.


4.How can I uninstall GAG?

>From MS-DOS or Windows, just type

        FDISK /MBR

(take care of capitals).

>From OS/2, type

        FDISK /NEWMBR

from Linux, reinstall LILO in the MBR.


5.I want a version of GAG in my language. What have I do?

Just write me, and I'll send you the files you have to translate and how.


6. I can't boot Linux from GAG. What can I do?

Be sure you have instaled LILO in the SuperBlock of your Linux partition.
This is, if your root partition is /dev/hda8, be sure you install LILO in
/dev/hda8, not in /dev/hda.


CONTACTING THE AUTOR.

GAG has been written by

        Sergio Costas Rodriguez (RASTER SOFTWARE VIGO)
        scostas na arrakis.es
        2:348/613.4 (FIDONET)
        http://www.arrakis.es/~scostas

If in doubt, just write and ask me.