XOSL
Encyclopedia
xOSL is the name of a bootloader, which is a program product class that launches operating systems from a bootable device such as a hard disk or floppy drive. The letters are an acronym that stand for eXtended Operating System Loader. xOSL was originally developed by Geurt Vos.
which allows the user to set up and boot a computer into any of 24 different operating systems. xOSL is nondenominational bootloader, owing allegiance to no system in particular, and booting them all equally well.
The xOSL interface installs and uninstalls easily. The xOSL program poses very little risk of permanent damage to existing data. Removing the program can be accomplished with the DOS command fdisk /MBR, which returns the disk to its original boot configuration. Generally Xosl resides on it own fat32 partition requiring less than 2mb, and it does not intermingle with other data.
The xOSL solution is highly portable (less than 1 MB) and incorporates easily navigable menu boxes and interfaces. The program requires very little time to configure.
Note: The 24 system limititation is imposed by the physical space available on the operating system menu. Theoretically, the program could support an infinite number of operating systems. By 'chainloading' the bootloader, users have reported booting vastly more operating systems than the program is claimed to support.http://www.tprthai.net/xosl.htm
license. The project was actively developed by Geurt Vos between 1999 and 2001 and spanned four major revisions and two minor revisions after its initial creation.
From its origin in xOSL version 1.0.0, xOSL underwent major changes in ver. 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3. These revisions were significant departures from one another, and introduced new features to the program. These features ranged from drastic user interface improvements to improved compatibility on diverse hardware platforms.
xOSL ver. 1.1.4 and 1.1.5 only introduced improvements to existing functionality and repaired features that should have been functional in their predecessors. Although their improvements were subtle, they did serve to stabilize a developing protocol, and are the most polished revisions of the original to date.
The project lapsed into a dormant state and was abandoned by its original developer from 2001-2007. xOSL remained available for download and use throughout this period.
and other support sites on the internet. These groups became the foundation of the 'xOSL Culture'. The xOSL groups assisted fellow members with advice and accomplishments through the use of xOSL. After the original xOSL web site expired it was mirrored in multiple locations by Filip Komar and Mikhail Ranish.
The cult-like devotion to xOSL gave credibility to the idea that the future development of xOSL was an inevitability. Other bootloaders such as Lilo
and GRUB
performed effectively, but xOSL survived as time passed without development support or a marketing platform of any kind.
Very few enhancements to the original product occurred during this time, most of them being fairly inconsequential. One such enhancement gave the user the ability to change wallpapers and the image displayed at startup, and like most other revisions, it did not add a great deal to the program in terms of core functionality.
Other revisions included the translation of xOSL into several different languages, including German, Czech and French, among others.
The product boasted that it has added CD support, when in fact the original xOSL incorporated installation from a CD device. Visually and functionally, the product is basically unchanged, except for a startup screen that bears the xOSL2 logo instead of the classic xOSL logo. No major enhancements were introduced, except a streamlined CD install process. Development of this version of xOSL2 has apparently ceased, and the website is no longer available.
The XOSL-OW Open Watcom Port allows for future development of XOSL using an Open Source development tool set.
XOSL-OW has no new functionality compared to XOSL but it does give improved behavior on specific PC hardware. In fact stability issues with XOSL on some PC platforms have been the reason for porting XOSL to the Open Watcom tool set.
Examples of stability issues on specific PC hardware are:
In XOSL-OW these stability issues have been solved by an improved A20 Line Switching algorithm and flushing the keyboard buffer before the XOSL boot manager hands over control to either the Ranish Partition manager, the Smart Boot Manager or the Operating System Bootloader.
where it references items on the physical hard drive for its GUI and other features. As long as a drive is formated in FAT32, xOSL does not require additional partitioning. The FAT32 drive on which xOSL resides does not need to be the first partition of the drive.
Other features include:
Booting Features:
The continued development of xOSL is almost entirely dependent on individual user contributions and community participation.
Basic appeal
xOSL provides a graphical user interfaceGraphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
which allows the user to set up and boot a computer into any of 24 different operating systems. xOSL is nondenominational bootloader, owing allegiance to no system in particular, and booting them all equally well.
The xOSL interface installs and uninstalls easily. The xOSL program poses very little risk of permanent damage to existing data. Removing the program can be accomplished with the DOS command fdisk /MBR, which returns the disk to its original boot configuration. Generally Xosl resides on it own fat32 partition requiring less than 2mb, and it does not intermingle with other data.
The xOSL solution is highly portable (less than 1 MB) and incorporates easily navigable menu boxes and interfaces. The program requires very little time to configure.
Note: The 24 system limititation is imposed by the physical space available on the operating system menu. Theoretically, the program could support an infinite number of operating systems. By 'chainloading' the bootloader, users have reported booting vastly more operating systems than the program is claimed to support.http://www.tprthai.net/xosl.htm
History
xOSL is free software released under the GPLGNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
license. The project was actively developed by Geurt Vos between 1999 and 2001 and spanned four major revisions and two minor revisions after its initial creation.
From its origin in xOSL version 1.0.0, xOSL underwent major changes in ver. 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3. These revisions were significant departures from one another, and introduced new features to the program. These features ranged from drastic user interface improvements to improved compatibility on diverse hardware platforms.
xOSL ver. 1.1.4 and 1.1.5 only introduced improvements to existing functionality and repaired features that should have been functional in their predecessors. Although their improvements were subtle, they did serve to stabilize a developing protocol, and are the most polished revisions of the original to date.
The project lapsed into a dormant state and was abandoned by its original developer from 2001-2007. xOSL remained available for download and use throughout this period.
Survivability
Despite the lack of active product development, an enthusiastic community of xOSL users began exchanging ideas and product results through the use of Yahoo! GroupsYahoo! Groups
Yahoo! Groups is one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. The term Groups refers to Internet communication which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum, in other words, Group messages can be read and posted by e-mail or on the Group's...
and other support sites on the internet. These groups became the foundation of the 'xOSL Culture'. The xOSL groups assisted fellow members with advice and accomplishments through the use of xOSL. After the original xOSL web site expired it was mirrored in multiple locations by Filip Komar and Mikhail Ranish.
The cult-like devotion to xOSL gave credibility to the idea that the future development of xOSL was an inevitability. Other bootloaders such as 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 GRUB
GNU GRUB
GNU GRUB is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Multiboot Specification, which provides a user the choice to boot one of multiple operating systems installed on a computer or select a specific kernel configuration available on a particular...
performed effectively, but xOSL survived as time passed without development support or a marketing platform of any kind.
Very few enhancements to the original product occurred during this time, most of them being fairly inconsequential. One such enhancement gave the user the ability to change wallpapers and the image displayed at startup, and like most other revisions, it did not add a great deal to the program in terms of core functionality.
Other revisions included the translation of xOSL into several different languages, including German, Czech and French, among others.
xOSL2
Responding to the demand for an updated xOSL, John Marlowe did some development of the software under the XOSL2 title.The product boasted that it has added CD support, when in fact the original xOSL incorporated installation from a CD device. Visually and functionally, the product is basically unchanged, except for a startup screen that bears the xOSL2 logo instead of the classic xOSL logo. No major enhancements were introduced, except a streamlined CD install process. Development of this version of xOSL2 has apparently ceased, and the website is no longer available.
XOSL-OW
XOSL-OW is an Open Watcom Port of XOSL. XOSL is developed by Geurt Vos using the Borland C++ 3.1 tool set while XOSL-OW is based on the Open Watcom version 1.8 tool set.The XOSL-OW Open Watcom Port allows for future development of XOSL using an Open Source development tool set.
XOSL-OW has no new functionality compared to XOSL but it does give improved behavior on specific PC hardware. In fact stability issues with XOSL on some PC platforms have been the reason for porting XOSL to the Open Watcom tool set.
Examples of stability issues on specific PC hardware are:
- Launching the Ranish Partition Manager from within the XOSL boot manager (Ctrl-P) results in a non-responsive keyboard.
- Booting into the Smart Boot Manager (used to support booting from CD/DVD) results in a non-responsive keyboard.
- Booting into Linux using the XOSL boot manager is not successful because of a non-responsive keyboard after the XOSL boot manager hands over control to the Linux boot process.
In XOSL-OW these stability issues have been solved by an improved A20 Line Switching algorithm and flushing the keyboard buffer before the XOSL boot manager hands over control to either the Ranish Partition manager, the Smart Boot Manager or the Operating System Bootloader.
Compatible file-systems
Currently xOSL is capable of booting operating systems from a variety of format types. These include, and may not be limited to:- WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
- FAT12 (File Allocation Table)
- FAT16
- FAT32
- NTFSNTFSNTFS 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....
(New Technology File System)
- LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-- EXT2Ext2The 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 ....
- EXT3Ext3The ext3 or third extended filesystem is a journaled file system that is commonly used by the Linux kernel. It is the default file system for many popular Linux distributions, including Debian...
- ReiserFSReiserFSReiserFS is a general-purpose, journaled computer file system designed and implemented by a team at Namesys led by Hans Reiser. ReiserFS is currently supported on Linux . Introduced in version 2.4.1 of the Linux kernel, it was the first journaling file system to be included in the standard kernel...
- EXT2
Conclusions
Other reasons for the success of xOSL include its compact size. Its primary location is in the MBRMaster 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...
where it references items on the physical hard drive for its GUI and other features. As long as a drive is formated in FAT32, xOSL does not require additional partitioning. The FAT32 drive on which xOSL resides does not need to be the first partition of the drive.
Other features include:
- Graphical User Interface
- Full windowing system with mouse and keyboard support
- Resolutions up to 1600x1200
- Configurable mouse speed
- A set of color schemes
- Several color adjustment options
- Password protected boot configuration and settings
- Restart/Reboot/Shutdown
Booting Features:
- Up to 24 boot items
- Microsoft file system partition hiding support
- Storing additional keys before booting
- Can automatically switch the boot flagBoot flagA boot flag is a 1-byte value in a non-extended partition record, within a master boot record. Its primary function is to indicate to a MS-DOS/MS Windows-type boot loader which partition to boot. In some cases it is used by Windows XP/2000 to assign the active partition the letter "C:"...
to whichever partition is being booted. Although XOSL does not use the boot flag to decide which partition to boot, this helps to ensure that a Windows system being booted (for example Windows XP) will assign the letterDrive letter assignmentDrive letter assignment is the process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to physical or logical disk drives or partitions in the root filesystem namespace; this usage is now mostly found in Microsoft operating systems...
"C:" to its partition.http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm - Automatic booting (with timeout)
- Auto boot last operating system
- Password protection per boot item
- Boot master boot record on any drive
- Boot DOS/Windows 9x on any drive
- Hotkey per boot item
- Support for hard disks larger than 8Gb
- Coexists with virtually any other boot manager
- Runs Ranish Partition Manager 2.38 beta 1.91 (ver 1.1.5 and above)
- Master boot record virus protection
The continued development of xOSL is almost entirely dependent on individual user contributions and community participation.