CD Bootmanager

This is an old outdated program!

Description:

Its a program to create a bootcd in win2k bootcd style, it waits for defineable seconds and boots from cd or hardddisk. You can set a binary ascii image or a text file to display at boottime. Its possible to select a bootup screen resolution of 80x25 or 80x50.

Example ISO:

Its and example ISO-File, you can burn it on a RW-CDR to see how it works, it will boot from cd with FREEDOS or your harddisk
click here to download the example ISO

How to use this in small steps explained:

First you need a bootable floppy with a fat12 filesystem, for win9X users do following at command prompt:

format a: /s

or if you have stored all nessesary programs on the disk then run

sys a:

now you have a floppy that can boot

you can also download a bootfloppy from BOOTDISK.COM

Next step:

run MLDRINST.COM from the commandline, it will ask you some questions to configure the new loader

you can abort the installation by pressing CTRL-C, the value between [ and ] are default values, you can change them

1. select drive: thats the drive where the floppy is
2. create mini boot loader: press Y to continiue, if N the program ends without doing anything
3. enter timer in seconds: how long should it wait before booting the harddisk (in seconds) 0=wait for key then boot cd
4. boot text resolution: the textmode at booting and after booting
5. load ascii image or textfile: if you press N the nothin will be displayed except the boot cd message and the counter
   if Y: you can select between ASCII-Image or Textfile, a ASCII Image can be made with "THE DRAW" and save as binary, a textfile can be a readme.txt or somethig else.
   The file must be copied before you start the install program into the root directory of the disk
6. Save old loader: thats the MS-DOS loader or something else that makes the bootdisk bootable. It writes that to the file OLDBOOT.BIN. If you reconfigure a existing PLoP loader disk then press N, else you will overwrite the old loader with the PLoP loader and you cant boot from CD
7. Install PLoP loader: thats the last step and makes the floppy bootable to the PLoP mini bootmanager

now you can test your bootdisk and add all nessesary tools, maybe driver to access the whole cd after booting cd

now burn the cd:

windows users can use NERO - Burning ROM and linux users can use cdrecord to create the bootcd

1. create the bootimage for the cd:
   dos or windows users can use DISKIMG.COM from my page: diskimg -r boot.img -d a
   linux users: dd if=/dev/fd0 of=BOOT.IMG bs=1024
2. NERO users: select Create new CD, select CD-ROM [boot], at properties select boot, image file is the created boot.img file, enable expperts settings, set emulation to floppy 1.44MB and press NEW, now you can add more files to the CD
   cdrecord users: create a folder with all needed programs, in that example the folder is called "cd", make a directory in "cd" called "boot" and copy the BOOT.IMG file into, then enter following:
   mkisofs -r -T -l -J -v -V BOOTCD -b boot/BOOT.IMG -c boot/boot.catalog -o bootcd.iso cd
   and burn the created bootcd.iso
   

now you can boot with your cd, have fun.  

Screenshot example of the install program:

Screenshot cd bootmanager (textmode 80x50):