readme

PC BIOS Boot Manager _within_ the Master Boot Record (MBR) Displays list of partitions and let user

   then return this value back to 0.

  Useful hints and advices

     * Disable all MS-DOS disk caching programs before
       installing/configuring master boot sector with mbrbm.
     * Disable BIOS write-protection on boot sector and master boot sector
       at installation time. After installation the boot sector is never
       modified again - the BIOS protection could be enabled again. There
       is NO need for configuration - even after moving or
       deleting/creating primary partitions.
     * Always keep bootable floppy or CD with a backup of MBR. If for some
       reasons the MBR loader or (what is even worse) partition table is
       broken, you may restore it with the backup.
     * When using Linux with LILO/GRUB it is reasonable to install LILO
       into boot record of a chosen partition, not MBR. Of course if you
       want to use mbrbm in the MBR instead.
     * Installation of all known Windows operating systems overwrites MBR.
       You have to reinstall mbrbm after you install any Windows on any
       partition. Since boot record of a target partition is also updated
       by Windows installation routine it is safe to overwrite MBR
       contents with mbrbm - since mbrbm is only 438 bytes Windows's
       VolumeID is also preserved! Same with modern lilo's DiskID.
     * Due to mbrbm restriction to 1024 cylinders be aware to keep your
       booting OS partitions ("/", "/boot", "C:\") within the first 8
       Gigabyte - anyway a good idea to separate the root-filesystem
       (again "/", "/boot", "C:\") from all other data (applications and
       user data).

  Important notices and limitations

   There are following limitations and configurations that have never been
   tested yet. All information related to the topics below is welcome
   ([21]test cases, links to appropriate documentation, patches, etc.)
     * mbrbm supports so-called primary partitions (4 primary partitions).
       non-DOS partition tables are not supported.
     * SCSI hard disks with BIOS support are tested.
     * mbrbm works in configuration with RAID.
     * mbrbm works in configuration with LVM.
     * Microsoft Windows "dynamic disks" is not tested.
     * mbrbm can boot records from primary partitions on second drive.
     * mbrbm does check partition table for minor errors like standard
       DOS/Windows MBR does.

  Troubleshooting

   If mbrbm does not work for some reason you may ask for support. What do
   you need to provide in order to get help:
    1. Is mbrbm installed properly? "dd if=/dev/hda bs=1 count=438 |
       md5sum" should match the mbrbm.md5 in the distribution tar
    2. Deinstall mbrbm - does the problem stay? Remember installation of
       mbrbm does only alter 438 bytes on the HD!
    3. Describe hardware configuration (disks subsystem: number of drives,
       their types (ATA, SATA, etc.), primary or secondary, sizes, etc.)
    4. Report the version of mbrbm you are using
    5. Explain the problem (crash, hanging, incorrect behavior, etc.)
    6. Describe partitioning scheme of your hard drives (sizes and
       filesystems on primary partitions and logical disks). Appropriate
       screenshots of fdisk may help as well.
    7. Provide a description of OSes you want to boot: where are they, how
       many oses you want to boot, what are they (brands+versions)
    8. What other boot-related software do you use (other boot managers
       for example on other hard disk, OS loaders like LILO, etc.)

   Not all items above are mandatory, but however if you provide quality
   feedback with much info describing your problem, I may help you with
   greater probability.
   But please don't forget - mbrbm is my hobby, there is no guarantee this
   software will work properly. I'm not responsible for any damage it may
   cause. Immediate support is also not guaranteed.

Screenshots

   Boot menu (mbrbm version 1.0):
   Boot menu

Features

     * May boot up to 8 operating systems from primary partitions of two
       disks
     * MBR boot loader is written in Assembly language and compiled with
       NASM
     * Supports user-defined boot by pressing an appropriate key ("0",
       "1", "2", "3", etc.)
     * Supports boot timeout with loading of the active partition
     * It fits into first 438 bytes of a 1st sector on a hard disk, not
       requiring separate partition to be allocated
     * Supports all kind of hard disks supported by BIOS: ATA, SATA and
       SCSI
     * Development of mbrbm requires only free software: Linux/xBSD and
       nasm

Download

   Distribution file Version number Date Status Release short description
   [22]mbrbm-1.0.tar.gz 1.0 October, 2006 Stable, production for
   compilation/install with Unix Current
   [23]mbrbm-1.0.zip 1.0 October, 2006 Stable, production for install with
   FreeDOS Current

ToDo

   There are some plans for future. Feel free to [24]suggest new features,
   send patches and improvements:
    1. Strong optimization of assembly code in MBR
    2. LBA support. There are still 6 bytes free for code!

Contacts

   The recommended way to contact current maintainer is to use an
   appropriate mechanism on [25]sourceforge project site (forum, tracker,
   bugs, feature requests, etc.). In the e-mail addresses below there is
   no hypertext references due to spam bots protection:

   Current maintainer of mbrbm is [26]Axel Reinhold
     * freakout42 __at__ users __dot__ sourceforge __dot__ net

   Note: you need to replace " __dot__ " with "." and " __at__ " with "@"
   before using the addresses above.

Links

   Project related resources:
     * [27]Site at sourceforge

   Similar projects (other boot managers):
     * [28]Master Boot LoaDeR
     * [29]MATTsoft Boot Manager
     * [30]XBOOT Multi Boot
     * [31]Smart Boot Manager
     * [32]GAG, the Graphical Boot Manager
     * [33]Ranish Partition Manager and XOSL Boot Manager

   Assembly language descriptions and CPU instructions set
     * [34]Intel 80386 Programmer's Reference Manual
     * [35]Intel 80386 Programmer's Reference 1986
     * [36]NASM (Netwide Assembler) and [37]NASM Manual
     * [38]A general NASM guide for TASM coders and other ASM people

   Partition tables and boot loaders
     * [39]How It Works: Partition Tables
     * [40]Boot Records Revealed!
     * [41]Partition types

   Development and packaging stuff
     * [42]FreeDOS - nice complete alternative to commercial MS-DOS
       operating system

   BIOS and ATA specifications
     * [43]Technical Committee T13 (AT Attachment)
          + [44]BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services - 3 (EDD-3)
          + [45]AT Attachment with Packet Interface - 6 (ATA/ATAPI-6)
     * [46]Phoenix Technologies
          + [47]BIOS Boot Specification Version 1.01
          + [48]Enhanced Disk Drive Specification Ver 3.0
     __________________________________________________________________

   Last updated: October 23, 2006

References

   1. http://mbrbm.sourceforge.net/mbrbm.png
   2. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#News
   3. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Summary
   4. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#About
   5. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Project goals
   6. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#License
   7. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Documentation
   8. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Requirements
   9. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Installation, uninstallation and configuration
  10. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
  11. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Useful hints and advices
  12. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Important notices and limitations
  13. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Troubleshooting
  14. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Screenshots
  15. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Features
  16. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Download
  17. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#ToDo
  18. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Contacts
  19. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Links
  20. file://localhost/home/axel/p/mbrbm/index.html#Links
  21. http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=180517
  22. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mbrbm/mbrbm-1.0.tar.gz?download
  23. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mbrbm/mbrbm-1.0.zip?download
  24. http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=180517
  25. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbrbm/
  26. http://sourceforge.net/users/freakout42/
  27. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbrbm/
  28. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbldr/
  29. http://penguin.cz/~mhi/mbtmgr/
  30. http://xboot.sourceforge.net/
  31. http://btmgr.webframe.org/
  32. http://gag.sourceforge.net/
  33. http://www.ranish.com/part/
  34. http://www.logix.cz/michal/doc/i386/
  35. http://www.online.ee/~andre/i80386/
  36. http://nasm.sourceforge.net/
  37. http://nasm.sourceforge.net/doc/html/nasmdoc0.html
  38. http://rs1.szif.hu/~tomcat/win32/intro.txt
  39. http://www.ata-atapi.com/hiwtab.htm
  40. http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/MBR_in_detail.htm
  41. http://www.win.tue.nl/%7Eaeb/partitions/partition_types.html#toc2
  42. http://www.freedos.org/
  43. http://www.t13.org/
  44. http://t13.org/docs2004/d1572r3-EDD3.pdf
  45. http://t13.org/docs2002/d1410r3b-ATA-ATAPI-6.pdf
  46. http://www.phoenix.com/
  47. http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/56E38DE2-3E6F-4743-835F-B4A53726ABED/0/specsbbs101.pdf
  48. http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/19FEBD17-DB40-413C-A0B1-1F3F560E222F/0/specsedd30.pdf