Bootman
Encyclopedia
bootman is the Haiku
and BeOS
boot loader on x86 systems. It resides solely in the master boot record
and does not require installing Haiku or BeOS, although it must be installed from Haiku or BeOS.
It is filesystem
-agnostic, and boots
an operating system
as if it were being booted directly from the hardware. As such, it can boot virtually any operating system. It can also chainload
GRUB, LILO
and NTLDR
. However, being independent of an OS prevents it being able to boot any disks which are not accessible via BIOS
I/O
routines (e.g. INT 13H), with the exception of BeOS disk-in-a-file images on FAT32
, NTFS
or ext2
file systems.
bootman appeared in BeOS R4.0, replacing LILO, which was used in R3.x. Installing, configuring and uninstalling can be done solely by a graphical application, also called bootman. This can also create an MBR restoration floppy disk
without modifying the current MBR.
In Haiku Alpha3 bootman was rewritten and reanmed to BootManager.
Haiku (operating system)
Haiku is a free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS. Its development began in 2001, and the operating system became self-hosting in 2008, with the first alpha release in September 2009, the second in May 2010 and the third in June 2011....
and BeOS
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
boot loader on x86 systems. It resides solely in the master boot record
Master boot record
A master boot record is a type of boot sector popularized by the IBM Personal Computer. It consists of a sequence of 512 bytes located at the first sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk...
and does not require installing Haiku or BeOS, although it must be installed from Haiku or BeOS.
It is filesystem
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...
-agnostic, and boots
Booting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
an operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
as if it were being booted directly from the hardware. As such, it can boot virtually any operating system. It can also chainload
Chain loading
Chain loading is a method used by computer programs to replace the currently executing program with a new program, using a common data area to pass information from the current program to the new program. It occurs in several areas of computing.Chain loading is similar to the use of overlays...
GRUB, LILO
LILO (boot loader)
LILO is a generic boot loader for Linux.-Overview:LILO does not depend on a specific file system, and can boot an operating system from floppy disks and hard disks. One of up to sixteen different images can be selected at boot time. Various parameters, such as the root device, can be set...
and NTLDR
NTLDR
NTLDR is the boot loader for all releases of Windows NT operating system up to and including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. NTLDR is typically run from the primary hard disk drive, but it can also run from portable storage devices such as a CD-ROM, USB flash drive, or floppy disk...
. However, being independent of an OS prevents it being able to boot any disks which are not accessible via BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
I/O
Input/output
In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it...
routines (e.g. INT 13H), with the exception of BeOS disk-in-a-file images on FAT32
File Allocation Table
File Allocation Table is a computer file system architecture now widely used on many computer systems and most memory cards, such as those used with digital cameras. FAT file systems are commonly found on floppy disks, flash memory cards, digital cameras, and many other portable devices because of...
, NTFS
NTFS
NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....
or ext2
Ext2
The ext2 or second extended filesystem is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was initially designed by Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system ....
file systems.
bootman appeared in BeOS R4.0, replacing LILO, which was used in R3.x. Installing, configuring and uninstalling can be done solely by a graphical application, also called bootman. This can also create an MBR restoration floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
without modifying the current MBR.
In Haiku Alpha3 bootman was rewritten and reanmed to BootManager.