Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 21:16:58 +0000
From: Bill Currie <billc AT blackmagic DOT tait DOT co DOT nz>
Subject: Re: .
To: Dennis Janssen <nessnaj AT worldonline DOT nl>
Cc: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Reply-to: billc AT blackmagic DOT tait DOT co DOT nz
Message-id: <33C5514A.2F86@blackmagic.tait.co.nz>
Organization: Tait Electronics NZ
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References: <199707100846 DOT KAA06386 AT triton DOT worldonline DOT nl>
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Dennis Janssen wrote:
> 
> [Your Bootmanager]
> 
> > This assumes the OS in question can boot from (say) d:.
> 
> But isn't that what the problem with OpenDOS is? Isn't is far easier to fix
> that and use an already existing bootmanager?

Appeatently, this has been fixed (unofficially) by Matthias Paul
<PAUL-MA AT reze-1 DOT rz DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>.

> 
> Or am I completely mistaken?

Not completely.  Yes, opendos does have to be fixed, but this is not
what my boot manager is for.  What it (BM) does is scan the partition
tables on the first 4 hard drives for partitions that look like they can
be booted from (have reasonable looking type fields (byte 4 of the
partition table entry), and valid boot sectors (valid bios magic)) and
then present these partitions to the user to choose which one to boot
from.

The whole reason I'm writing BM is I'm writing my own operating system
and I wish start running it from my hd instead of floppy disk.  The only
problem is the partition for my os is on the second hd in my system, and
I need to easily change from one boot setup to the other (dos on hd 1
and my os on hd 2).

Unfortunatly, BM is not even at pre-alpha stage. All it does so far is
scan in the partition tables.  It doesn't even print anything yet and if
I tried running it, the computer would probably die a horrible death
(the code just falls off the end...splat!).

However, when I get something going (end of the weekend maybe (doubtfull
though)), I WILL make it available to anyone brave enough to try it out.

BTW it magically takes no space on your hd (assuming the usuall mostly
unused first track on the hd).

Bill
-- 
Leave others their otherness.