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Linux Remote-Boot mini-HOWTO: Configuring Remote-Boot Workstations with Linux, DOS, Windows 95/98 and Windows NT
Marc Vuilleumier Stückelberg, David Clerc
v3.19, February 1999This document describes how to set up a very robust and secure server-based configuration for a cluster of PCs, allowing each client to choose at boot-time which operating system to run. The key of this configuration is a bootprom based program, which let the user choose at boot time one of several boot images. This configuration is applicable using InCom TCP/IP Bootprom (add-on for most network cards) or any PXE-compliant Boot ROM (ready-to-use in most recent PC with built-in network cards). The most up-to-date version of this document, with hypertext links to downloadable software and other related materials, can be found at the address
Linuxdoc-SGML, DVI
and PostScript versions are available in the
same directory. If you are interested in getting info on further
developpments, send an E-mail to
1. Disclaimer and Copyrights
2. What has changed...
3. Introduction
- 3.1 Boot ROM and Hard-disk
- 3.2 The Network
- 3.3 How it Works
- 3.4 Related non-commercial documentations
4. The Configuration How-To
- 4.1 Server-side configuration
- 4.2 Client-side configuration
- 4.3 Setting Up the Boot Process
- 4.4 Setting Up Linux
- 4.5 Setting up DOS 6 and Windows 3.1
- 4.6 Setting up Windows 95
- 4.7 Setting up Windows NT
- 4.8 Troubleshooting (FAQ)
5. Remote-Boot Tools Reference Manual
6. Special TFTP Servers
- 6.1 Incom Enhanced TFTP Server
- 6.2 Linux Enhanced TFTP Server
- 6.3 The Security Gateway
- 6.4 The Broadcast TFTP Server
1. Disclaimer and Copyrights
This document and the related software are provided as is to the Linux and Internet community, with no form of warranty. Please note that some operations related in this document may destroy the content of your hard-disk. We assume no liability for any use, correct or not, of this document and of the related software.
You are free to do anything you want with the remote-boot tools as long as you do not make money by selling them or by distributing them with a commercial product. If you want to commercialize a product derived from these tools, please contact the authors first to make a commercial agreement. These remote-boot tools will remain available for free forever, but we may authorize derived commercial tools.
These provisions shall be interpreted under and in accordance with the laws of Switzerland, canton of Geneva. All disputes, defenses, controversies or claims arrising in conncetion with this document and the related software, shall be subject to the exclusive juridiction of the courts of the canton of Geneva, Switzerland.
If you like this program, you can send us a Postcard and/or make a gift to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or to the UNICEF.
2. What has changed...
2.1 ...since version 2.x ?
To say it frankly, almost everything. The underlying concepts are the same, but the software part has been completly redesigned to overcome the limitations of previous versions and to make it easier to use. An highlight of the new features :
- All functions (bpmenu, bpclean, bpunzip) are encompassed in a single program.
- The program can run not only from the boot rom, but also under DOS, Windows 95 and Linux.
- The program can now restore images of FAT16, FAT32 and EXT2FS partitions. If someone want to write NTFS support, let me know... For now, NT users still have to stick to FAT16.
- The program can not only restore disk images but also add and patch individual files in order to customize the client behaviour.
- Disk images are not any more bound to 87 MB. They are now file-system independant archives.
- We provide a mean for automatically downloading a disk image to an arbitrary big number of clients at the same time (broadcast).
- You can now write your own secure boot script, that will determine the behaviour of the machine before the real boot.
- You can now boot any Linux kernel, without applying any patch. Its is also possible to provide a command line and a ramdisk image.
- You can authenticate users at boot time using a Unix, NT or Radius server and deny them any access to the machine.
- Full national language support is included.
- And many, many other new features...
- Is there a program for converting old archives to the new format ?
No, because the internal format is radically different. But you can easily do the conversion by yourself:
- Boot an old image (unzip it to your disk)
- Remove calls to the old
utility and replace them by the adequatepatch
commands (it is very easy, see the detailed instructions below) - Run the new
program to create a new-style disk image
2.2 ...since version 3.0 ?
Version 3.0 was the beta-release. A dozen of sites around the world have tested it during a month and given much of their time to help us finding bugs and to suggest enhancements. Thanks to all of them for their patience, and in particular to Maciek Uhlig, Dick Velders and Jeff Teeters.
A few minor features have been added since 3.01, such as support for diskless Linux boot (by disabling the cache).
Version 3.10 introduced compatibility with Intel's Wired for Management 1.1a NetPC standard. The tools now work with any PXE-compliant boot ROM (as are most on-board boot ROMs) available today. Thanks to InCom GmbH for giving us the PXE bootprom that permitted this developpment. We also succesfully tested the tools with the PXE Boot ROM that I found incidentally in my Dell computer with onboard network card (called LanDesk Service Agent).
Version 3.11 to 3.12 added UNIX server-side tools (a PXE Proxy DHCP server for Solaris and Linux, and an enhanced TFTP server for Linux), as well as detailled informations on server-side setup and the PXE booting process.
Version 3.13 added Advanced Power Management support (PowerOff command).
Version 3.14 added minor enhancements and some corrections. We fixed a problem with the terminal under RedHat 5.1, and another problem in the syntax of the "if" command. We added some features suggested by the Laboratori de Càlcul de la Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona (LCFIB) :
- A new APM variable let you know if your system support the Advanced Power Management (i.e it supports the poweroff command).
- A "beep" command.
- A new parameter to DrawWindow, to include a title at the window creation. You can now do DrawWindow 200 200 400 200 "Title".
Version 3.15 added full VESA support. BpBatch now support several video modes, to accomodate old computers not being able to display 800x600 graphics. A new parameter has been added to InitGraph to specify the video mode, and a list of detected video mode can be retrieved from the new VESA-Modes variable.
Version 3.16 fixes the following bugs:
- "Malloc failed" during the Fullunzip process of a multiple fragments image. Many thanks to Christian Meyer for his collaboration.
- A bug which prevented the linux version of MrBatch to properly fullunzip images. This bug was located in the low-level functions of MrBatch, so it may fix other problems encountered in the linux version of MrBatch. Many thanks to Jeff Teeters for his collaboration.
- An error in the codepage translation tables. This bug was found by the Laboratori de Càlcul de la Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona (LCFIB). You can find the bug report in the BpBatch forum.
Version 3.17 adds some minor features and fixes bugs:
- Fullunzip was turning Extended Memory off
- Booting on the RedHat boot disk now works
- When extracting images with a large number of directories, the resulting FAT file system was corrupted.
- We added retries to text TFTP transfers. BpBatch will now retry three times before saying "Could not transfer the file".
- Timestamps are now correctly updated in FAT. (thank to Francis Chan)
Version 3.18 fixes a bug with the IncrUnzip function. Thanks to Gary Pike for its collaboration.
Version 3.19 fixed a bug in the error handling of the
command on ext2fs, as well as the inappropriate
handling of names starting with A: under Linux. The following new
features were also added:
- A new
if valid disk:partition
syntax can be used to check if a partition has been formatted - FAT32 disk images are now fully functional (they now boot properly)
- Linux EXT2 partitions bigger than 2 GB are now supported
- Linux Swap partitions bigger than 128 MB are now supported (this feature needs a recent kernel, at least 2.1.x)
- FullUnzip is now also possible without a cache partition, by
. This might be usefull for a unique installation, but is not recommended in general is it results in a high network load.
3. Introduction
The configuration described here was developped since Summer 1996 at the CUI, University of Geneva. The Computer Science Department uses several servers and a number of PCs, which fall into two classes:
- computers devoted to students
- computers devoted to research and teaching assistants
- Every computer should be able to run under Linux, DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT. One should be able to choose the desired operating system for each session.
- All softwares, including operating systems, should be take from the server, in order to facilitate the installations and upgrades.
- Clients computers should be able to run without any write-access on the server (for security reasons), except for their home directory.
- Client-side configuration should be reduced to its very minimum. Clients should automatically get their IP configuration parameters from the server, and this information should be located in a single file, used for all operating systems.
- Since almost every computer now has a hard-disk, clients should be able to take profit of it for reducing network load and as temporary storage space for the user.
- Users must have a login to be able to use any of the computers.
- The login should be the same for all operating system and should let the user access its unique home directory, common to all operating systems.
- Student (and secretary :-) computers should be fully cleaned up at each start. That is, the PC should always look like if it were just installed.
- Every computer has to be protected from virus attacks.
3.1 Boot ROM and Hard-disk
Bootproms exist for quite a long time, but until recently, they were solely used with diskless computers. Since 1996, this How-to has been claiming that bootproms are even more interesting for computers which have a local harddisk, since they allow to take profit of both sides:
- A boot rom make the configurations more robust, since it ensure that the computer will always boot the same way, no matter any virus or partition table crash. It can be used, as we did, to cleanup the harddisk even before the operating system is loaded.
- A local harddisk make the configuration more efficient, since it can reduce the network trafic through caching, and allows for efficient swap.
Note that you can still use the tools described below in an old fashioned way, that is as a simple kernel/ramdisk loader, even for diskless computers. However, we do not encourage this use.
3.2 The Network
The University of Geneva owns a class B domain, subdivided into several subnets. The CUI uses four subnets, among them one is dedicated to students.
Originally, our PCs were concerned about two network protocols: IPX and IP. On the IPX side, we used a single Novell Netware 3 server for sharing software and users files for DOS and Windows. On the IP side, we used a SUN server for sharing software and users partitions for Linux, with NFS.
In our latest configuration, we do not any more use IPX. There is a single Unix server (which could be Linux as well as a SUN), sharing software and user files using NFS for Linux clients and using SMB (NetBIOS) over TCP/IP for Dos and Windows clients. In this way, we have a single home directory used by all operating systems.
3.3 How it Works
- When a client PC is turned on, it first performs the traditional system checks before the TCP/IP Bootprom or PXE Boot ROM takes the control.
- The bootprom issues a BOOTP/DHCP request in order to get its IP configuration parameters.
- If the server knows the PC issuing the request, it will send back a BOOTP/DHCP reply with informations such as the client's IP address, the default gateway, and which bootdisk image to use.
- In case of a PXE boot ROM, there might be some more exchanges between the client and the server to determine installation parameters.
- The bootprom then downloads the boot image from the server
using the TFTP protocol. The boot image happens to be a small
program called
, our boot-time batch file interpreter. - The batch interpreter is started. At this time, it is almost alone in the computer memory. There is no operating system loaded, except the preboot execution environment (offered by the Boot ROM).
- The batch interpreter look in the BOOTP/DHCP reply for command-line options, and in particular for the name of the batch to execute.
- According to the instructions in the batch file, it will for
- Load a national keyboard mapping
- Authenticate the user according to a remote server (Unix, Radius or Windows NT)
- Let the user choose between the available operating systems
- According to the operating system choosen, repartition the hard-disk and quick-format some partitions
- Check if an up-to-date compressed image of the selected OS is present at the end of the disk. If not, it download it using TFTP
- Uncompress the selected OS to the main partition
- If the selected OS is Linux, load a kernel and start it
- If the selected OS is DOS or Windows, simply let the computer boot on its fresh new hard-disk
) as SMB client. Microsoft LanManager supports dynamic configuration using DHCP. After logging in, the user is faced to DOS, and can start Windows 3.1 by typing the traditionalwin
command. Note that at this point, DOS and Windows 3.1 appear to be installed locally. For Windows 95 and Windows NT, we also use Microsoft SMB client (called Client for the Microsoft Network), that supports dynamic configuration using DHCP. We reduce network load using Shared LAN Cache, a nice and powerful network-to-disk cache program.
For "safe" computers (ie. for assistants computers), once the computer has been booted once using the above described system, the boot script simply redirect the boot to the local hard-disk, without cleaning it again. This allow users to leave data on their local hard disk. But whenever the configuration gets corrupted, the user can simply choose from the boot menu in order to have a fresh installation.
3.4 Related non-commercial documentations
This configuration has been successfully reproduced at several
places around the world. A few people have written some hints and
tricks that complement this How-To. If you did so and that your
page is not already referenced in this documentation, please send
an e-mail to
And if you experience problems while reproducing this
configuration, have a look at these pages !
, by Alain Empain of the Belgium National Botanic Garden. Many useful sample scripts, and a nice PERL program to automatically generate graphic menus and corresponding HTML documentation from a higher level description. -
, by Johan Carlstedt of The Cathedral School of Uppsala, Sweden. At this day, the configuration described at this place is still based on the previous version of the remote-boot tools. However, almost everything remains applicable, given a few changes. -
, in portuguese, by Frederico Goldschmidt of the Passo Fundo University, Brasil. -
, in spanish, by Lluis Arino, of the Escola Tecnica Superio d'Enginyeria, Spain.
You can also send me your BpBatch script if you want me to include it in the sample scripts collection.
4. The Configuration How-To
First, arrange to have the following two machines within arm's reach:
- the server, usually a Unix or Windows NT machine
- the client, a PC with a bootprom enabled, and nothing valuable on the hard disk.
. This diskette
will make your computer behave like if it had a TCP/IP Bootprom
plugged in.
If you already have a Boot ROM, you need to enable it. If you are using Incom TCP/IP Bootprom, you can do that using a special program from your network card manufacturer. If you have a PXE Bootprom, you can do it simply from BIOS setup, by changing the default boot device.
For student computers, we configured the boot on network first, and disabled hard-disk and floppy-disk boot. For assistant computers, we also configured network-boot first, but we allow hard-disk and floppy-disk boot.
4.1 Server-side configuration
On the server, you will need the following services:
- A BOOTP/DHCP server
- May be a Proxy DHCP server
- A TFTP server
ndd /dev/ip
to see if you have it enabled and
ndd -set /dev/ip ip_path_mtu_discovery 0
to disable
it. However, this fix only works for non-broadcast packets (ask SUN
why...). That means, it will work for TFTP but not for DHCP :-(.
Intel has recently fixed this bug, and if you bought your computer
after June 1998, you surely have a corrected PXE implementation.
Setting up DHCP
The role of the DHCP server is to give to the client an IP address
and to make it load the file named bpbatch.P
from the
TFTP server. DHCP is a superprotocol over BOOTP. If you are using
InCom TCP/IP Bootprom, you may live without DHCP (using an old
BOOTP server).
On Windows NT, you will probably use the native DHCP server. If you are using InCom TCP/IP Bootprom, you will have to use a special trick to specify the boot file name (get more info from InCom WWW site). If you are using a PXE Bootrom, you will need a Proxy DHCP server, but no other trick is needed as the boot file name will be provided by the Proxy DHCP server.
On Linux, the best choice is the standard DHCP server from the Internet Software Consortium. If you are using a PXE Bootrom, in addition to the usual options, you will need to add the following ones:
option dhcp-class-identifier "PXEClient"
option vendor-encapsulated-options ff;
On Solaris, you can either use the Internet Software Consortium DHCP server (available on the Web), or use Solaris DHCP server (available since Solaris 2.5). However, as Solaris DHCP server does not seems to be able to insert a client class identifier in its DHCP offer, you must install a Proxy DHCP server. Morever, this Proxy DHCP server must reside on another computer since Solaris DHCP server locks the DHCP port.
We suggest giving infinite lease time for remote-boot clients. Don't forget that BOOTP/DHCP requests are bounded by subnets. If the client and the server do not reside on the same subnet, you should install a BOOTP/DHCP Relay agent on any computer between the two. For now, just assume that both machines are on the same subnet.
Setting up a Proxy DHCP
The role of the Proxy DHCP server is to overcome limitions of some DHCP servers and to provide PXE specific extensions. A proxy DHCP server only makes sense for a PXE Boot rom.
As BpBatch itself is quite powerfull, you wont need to use any PXE specific DHCP extension (menus, etc.). However, if your DHCP server is not able to show minimal PXE compliance, you will need a Proxy DHCP server or your PXE Boot ROM will not accept to go further.
On Windows NT, you can try to use Intel WfM PDK (available from their web site), but it is not very easy to use. We rather suggest having a Linux machine on the subnet and using our small Proxy DHCP. The major advantage of our Proxy DHCP Server for BpBatch is that our server will let you specify an option 155 vendor tag that will be interpreted by BpBatch as a command line.
On Linux and Solaris, you can run our Proxy DHCP program, that
simply takes as argument the TFTP server IP address, boot file name
and optional arguments, and does everything for you. If the DHCP
port on the server is already requested by another daemon, the
proxy DHCP server will run on port 4011. In this case, it is
necessary that the other daemon on DHCP port answer a DHCP offer
with client class PXEClient
so that the PXE client
knows that it must try on port 4011.
If you want to understand better PXE extensions to DHCP, there is an extensive description available on Intel WWW site. However, be warned that the documents are quite confusing, as the protocol has been extended to a number of optional stages, in order to allow for a maximal flexibility. The key to understand it is that all what a PXE client needs is a complete enhanced DHCP answer. If it receives only a standard DHCP offer, it will look further until it gets
- a client class (T60) set to
- vendor encapsulated options (T43) (possibly empty, ie. hex
) - a non-empty boot filename
Setting up TFTP
The TFTP server is a very simple file server. In its basic version, TFTP use 512 bytes data blocks, which are quite inefficients. InCom TCP/IP Bootprom and PXE Boot ROMs allow to use larger blocks (1408 bytes), which speeds up transfers a lot. However, this can only work with an enhanced TFTP server.
On Windows NT, we suggest using InCom enhanced TFTP server, available on their web site.
On Linux, you can use our enhanced TFTP server, available at
On Solaris, you should use InCom enhanced TFTP serer, available on the utility disk provided with the TCP/IP Bootprom.
If you prefer using a standard TFTP daemon, remove the
in all boot image name extensions, in order to tell
the Bootprom to use only the standard TFTP port (This trick was
introduced by InCom GmbH for the TCP/IP Bootprom. We still use it
as an easy way to select the default TFTP port with PXE
4.2 Client-side configuration
First, we will do set up the part common to all operating systems, ie. the batch-file interpreter. Then, for each operating system, we will go through the following steps:
- Setup a stand-alone client
- Save its configuration on the server
- Test it as a remote-boot client
- Adapt it so that it works for any similar client machine
Our examples assume that you have a hard disk of 1.4 Gb or more. If you have less, reduce the sizes of the partitions, but remember the you need to leave a few hundreds megabytes unallocated (that is, the last partition must not take up to the last cylinder) to leave free room for the special cache partition. Moreover, as the cache always starts at the cylinder following the last allocated cylinder, if you do not use the same total size for all your tests, you will have to download several times the same files (the cache will be automatically cleared).
Never despair. If you can't get it to work, first look in the
Troubleshooting section if your problem is not already
solved (get the latest version from the Web). Then, take a look in
the BpBatch forum. Perhaps someone else had the same troubles as
you have, and the answer can be found in the forum. Forum's URL :
If it still does not work, think about monitoring network traffic
for network related problems (use tcpdump
on Linux or
on Solaris). If you really cannot get it to
work, you can send an E-mail to
. If your
problem is strictly related with the remote-boot configuration and
if we are not overflowed, we will try to solve your problem.
4.3 Setting Up the Boot Process
Get the BpBatch
software, either as .zip
or as .tar.gz
. The executables are available at
In the server /tftpboot
directory, put the following
three special boot images, which together make our pre-boot batch
file interpreter:
, the dynamic loader (respect the uppercase !) -
, the relocated interpreter -
, the on-line help file
. Define
a vendor option tag 155 (decimal) with the value "-i"
(on the standard DHCP server, this is done by the following
command: option option-155 "-i";
). It is interpreted
by bpbatch
as the command line, and -i
stands for "interactive".
Boot the client computer. You might shortly see
- The Boot ROM copyright
- The string
while the client waits for a DHCP reply - The string
while the client waits for the first TFTP packet - The string
Loading BpBatch
while the loader download the interpreter - And finaly our banner, followed by a nice greather-than prompt
Note that you can run the same interpreter within DOS and Linux by
running the MrBatch
program. There are a only very few
differences (the Linux version do not have graphics support and the
DOS version can only send BOOTP and TFTP requests if the BootProm
is not hidden by the operating system).
It may be a good idea to read now the section about the Syntax
Rules of BpBatch
, and in particular the
paragraphs on File References and on The Cache
Filesystem. This will help you understand the examples.
Once all operating systems will be set up, you will have to make a menu to let the user choose the one he wants. You should be able to discover by yourself how to make such a menu. All necessary commands are documented at the end of this document.
Discovering BpBatch
Try to type LogVars
. You should get about thirty
variables listed. Roughly, the first are BpBatch settings, then
come all parameters extracted from the BOOTP/DHCP reply, and the
last variable is a list of disks sizes, in Megabytes.
Type GetPartitions part
, then LogVars
again. There should be one more variable containing the list of
defined partitions on your first hard-drive. Assuming that the
first partition is either BIGDOS, FAT32 or LINUX-EXT2, try
LogDir "{:1}"
to get the content of the root
directory, then LogDir "{:1}/usr"
if there is an
directory. You can even try LogTree
to get a directory tree.
Put a GIF file (format GIF-87a, interlaced or not, but NOT GIF-89a)
on your TFTP server. We will suppose that the file is named
. You can copy it wherever you want with the
following command: Copy "image.gif"
. Or you can use it directly from the
server. Now type Logvars "V*"
and look at the value of
the VESA
variable. If it is On
, which is
most probable, that means you have a VESA-compliant video adapter.
You can list the available video modes using Echo
. To display your image try the following
command: DrawGif "image.gif"
. The image should be on
the upper left corner of the screen. You can draw it on another
place by specifying X and Y coordinates after the image name. You
can also draw text with DrawText 200 200 "Hello world"
. Or draw an empty window with DrawWindow 200
200 300 150
. To insert a title when you create a new window,
try DrawWindow 200 200 300 150 "My Window"
. When you
are tired of graphic mode, simply type CloseGraph
Note on graphics : by default, all graphical routines work in the
800x600 VESA mode (with 256 colors), which is the first field of
the VESA-Modes
variable. If you want to use a
different video mode, change the variable in order to have the
requested video mode as the first field of the list.
Now take a text editor, and create a file named
in the tftpboot
directory with
the following content:
In your BOOTP/DHCP configuration, change the option-155 from
:again DrawWindow 150 200 400 160 "Identity check" TextAttr Black LightGray At 15,20 Print "Username : " Input username 8 At 17,20 Print "Password : " Getpasswd userpass 8 if "$username" != "smith" goto again if not "$userpass" match-passwd "BpR8oiIlRR9bo" goto again # clear DrawWindow 200 200 150 100 green blue "Congratulations" DrawText 220 250 "You got it !" yellow WaitForKey 3 CloseGraph interact
to "test"
, and
reboot the client computer. The small script should run
automatically, and ask you for a username and password. If you do
not type smith
and justdoit
, you wont be
able to boot the computer. Later you will learn how to use a Unix,
NT or Radius server to check valid user names.
4.4 Setting Up Linux
In order to set up Linux, you will need to boot the floppy disk
provided with the RedHat Linux distribution. BpBatch includes a
command that can redirect the boot to the floppy:
Set up RedHat Linux on your client, with network support, and any packages you may want. You may want to recompile the kernel to better fit your hardware, but it is not necessary.
Configuring the Client
It is probably a good idea to include BOOTP support to the kernel, so that you do not have to customize the client IP address manually.
In order to reduce network load, you might also want to setup the
for caching on the hard disk files that are
loaded by NFS. Roughly, the principle of the filecache is that
whenever a symbolic link from the cache
is followed, it is replaced by its target. If the target is itself
a subdirectory, each entry of the subdirectory becomes a symbolic
link to the original entry of the foreign filesystem. The filecache
has been written by Unifix GmbH, and is part of Unifix Linux 2.0.
It is freely distributable, and you can get the necessary files
from http://cuiwww.unige.ch/info/pc/remote-boot/soft/filecache.tar.gz
In order to use the filecache, you have to
- apply a patch to the kernel (file
), enable filecache support throughmake config
or whatever you prefer, and recompile the kernel - copy the filecache binary file to
- create a mount point called
) - copy
. This file contains the following lines:Max 100 MB 50 % # Cache /mnt/nfs/usr /usr Cache /mnt/nfs/opt /opt
- copy the content of
to the server, export them read-only withanon=0
(for allowing root access) and mount them under/mnt/nfs
(add a line for that in/etc/fstab
) - rename
- link
- rename
- link
- ensure that
are not empty and contains the correct directories - recursively remove
- copy
- And finally link
Testing the Configuration
Copy your compressed kernel image (zImage
, vmlinuz
or whatever you call it)
to the server /tftpboot
directory as
. If you had to unplug the bootprom from the
PC, you can now plug it again. When BpBatch
type LinuxBoot "linux.krn" "root=/dev/hda1
(assuming that the root ext2 filesystem is
on the first partition). Alternatively, if you did setup your
configuration on a computer without bootprom, just boot let it boot
using the loader you installed (lilo, ...). But in the later case,
if you want the filecache to work, you should have explicitely
installed your kernel with filecache support at the right place.
Wait until the system comes up. If you installed the filecache, you
can check that /usr
has exploded into a directory with
some symlinks and some already-exploded directories. Now start the
programs that the end-users will use most of the time, in order to
load them once for all to the hard disk.
You can still make adjustements to your configuration, like on any stand-alone linux station.
Building the Disk Image
When you are happy with your configuration, login as
, go to the /tmp
directory and run
our mrzip
program. MrZip
is a command
interpreter like BpBatch
, but it can understand more
commands than BpBatch
does. In particular, it can
understand the following commands:
This will create a disk image in
showlog filter -"tmp/*" filter -"var/log/*" fullzip "/" "/tmp/linux.imz"
. Move it to the server
directory. Then copy the following batch
file to /tftpboot/linux.bpb
hidelog setpartitions "linux-ext2:992 linux-swap:32" fullunzip "linux.imz" 1 clean 2 linuxboot "linux.krn" "root=/dev/hda1 BOOT_IMAGE=linux"
The BOOT_IMAGE
argument is to stay compatible with
for RedHat 5.1 and later rc.sysinit
Your remote-boot linux configuration is ready ! You can now either
set the BOOTP-option-155 to "linux"
, or type
include "linux.bpb"
from within BpBatch to test it.
System Maintenance and Upgrades
If you want later to upgrade software, install bug fixes and security fixes, proceed as follow:
- Remote-boot a client computer to get a fresh linux install
- Make your changes
- Redo the disk image
- Copy the new image in place of the old one on the server
4.5 Setting up DOS 6 and Windows 3.1
On the client computer, boot on your favorite dos floppy disk
(either remove the bootprom or type FloppyBoot
BpBatch). Format the dos partition of your hard-drive with the
option, in order to put the operating system on it.
The size of the partition is not important, as disk archives
created with MrZip
Create a DOS
subdirectory, copy DOS in it. Install your favorite network client
(for instance Microsoft LanManager), Windows 3.1, and so on. If you
use Microsoft LanManager, do not use DHCP for the IP configuration
as it is a very poor implementation that will almost surely fail
with reasonable network load. To do that, add the following lines
in your protocol.ref
file, in the section that loads
(of course, replaces the xxx
your true IP parameters):
IPADDRESS0 = xxx xxx xxx xxx SUBNETMASK0 = 255 255 xxx xxx DEFAULTGATEWAY0 = xxx xxx xxx xxx DISABLEDHCP = 1
Do not be afraid to use EMM386 to optimize the memory usage, and
even to include the area where you put your network adapter ROM,
since it is not used anymore at this time. But carefully exclude
the network adapter RAM, or you will not be able to connect to your
server. Use the NOEMS
If you want to ensure that the client machine cannot be used
without a valid login name, download our nobreak
pseudo-device driver (available at http://cuiwww.unige.ch/info/pc/remote-boot/soft/nobreak.zip
and run it at the beginning of your config.sys
. Then
add something like this to your autoexec.bat
rem -- we use the dummy file c:\logged as a flag del c:\logged >nul :loginneeded cls echo Please type in your login name and password echo. net logon * rem -- the login script should have created c:\logged if not exist c:\logged goto loginneeded del c:\logged rem -- now enable break again echo Yes >NOBRK
Ensure that your client boot well by rebooting the client and
evaluating the following commands within BpBatch
interactive mode:
HideBootprom HdBoot
Building the Disk Image
On the server, make a share called admin
for instance,
on which you will put some stuff for the system administrator. If
the server is a Unix machine, it is a good opportunity to put in
a softlink to the /tftpboot
subdirectory, so that you can put images in it directly from the
client. Within admin
, create a /utils
subdirectory and put the following files in it:
, the DOS version ofBpBatch
, the DOS version of the program for building disk images -
, the on-line help file
file that contains the
commands needed for building a DOS image, like this one:
showlog filter -"lanman.dos/lmuser.ini" filter -"temp/*" filter -"*.swp" fullzip "c:/" "L:/tftpboot/dos.imz"
Now go back to your client, mount the admin
volume on
drive L:
, go to your utils
directory and
type the following command:
mrzip -b zipdos
One minute later, you will have a new file in the server
subdirectory called dos.imz
which is a compressed image of your hard disk. Copy the following
batch file to /tftpboot/dos.bpb
hidelog setpartitions "bigdos:1024" setbootpart 1 fullunzip "dos.imz" 1 hidebootprom hdboot :1
Your remote-boot DOS configuration is ready ! You can now either
set the BOOTP-option-155 to "dos"
, or type
include "dos.bpb"
from within BpBatch to test it.
Adapting the configuration for other machines
If you want to customize some settings according to the machine,
typically the IP settings since Micro$oft DHCP is buggy, you can
setup BpBatch
to change some files before booting.
Firsti go to the lanman.dos
directory and do
copy *.ini *.refThen edit the
files and replace all fixed
parameters with BOOTP variable names as in the following examples:
computername = ${BOOTP-Host-Name} ipaddress0 = ${MS-IPAddress} subnetmask0 = ${MS-IPSubnet} defaultgateway = ${MS-IPRouter}Then rebuild the disk image as previously. Note that for IP parameters, we do not use the BOOTP variables directly because LanManager needs then as space-separated numbers instead of dot-separated numbers. Change
to the
If you prefer, you can also put the
hidelog setpartitions "bigdos:1024" setbootpart 1 fullunzip "dos.imz" 1 set MS-IPAddress="$BOOTP-Your-IP"/.= / set MS-IPSubnet="$BOOTP-Subnet-Mask"/.= / set MS-IPRouter="$BOOTP-Routers"/.= / patch "{:1}lanman.dos/protocol.ref" "{:1}lanman.dos/protocol.ini" patch "{:1}lanman.dos/tcpputils.ref" "{:1}lanman.dos/tcputils.ini" patch "{:1}lanman.dos/lanman.ref" "{:1}lanman.dos/lanman.ini" hidebootprom hdboot :1
files in the server /tftpboot
directory instead of in
the disk image.
We like to be able to easily change the computers configuration
without rebuilding the image. To do that, copy your
and config.sys
and config.ref
to the server
and add the following two lines to the batch
file above:
patch "autoexec.ref" "{:1}autoexec.bat" patch "config.ref" "{:1}config.sys"You can then freely change the files and even customize them with machine-dependant values obtained from BOOTP.
After making any change to the client machine configuration, do not
forget to rebuild the disk image using mrzip
if you
want to preserve your changes.
System Maintenance and Upgrades
If you want later to add new software or change anything else, proceed as follow:
- Remote-boot a client computer to get a fresh install
- Make your changes
- Redo the disk image
- Copy the new image in place of the old one on the server
4.6 Setting up Windows 95
In previous versions of this document, we used the Microsoft server-based installation of Windows 95, but it was really too much pain and not much worth:
- It is very, very bogus
- Many software package do not support it and their install will fail. Among them, Microsoft Internet Explorer, OnNet 32, Novell's Protected-mode client (which is MUCH more secure than Microsoft Client for Netware).
- It cannot be used with the Microsoft Network client over TCP/IP, since Microsoft provides no real-mode driver for TCP/IP compatibe with Windows 95. That means, it cannot be used with Samba
- It makes software upgrades almost impossible since every client turned on will lock many DLLs on the server, and thus produce sharing violations if you try to upgrade them.
Setting up a Stand-Alone Client
Setup a regular Windows 95 client, either starting from scratch as explained in the configuration of a DOS client, starting from the DOS client and installing over the network (that is what we did). You can also start with a preconfigured Windows machine, but you will probably have less knowledge of what stuff is on the hard disk.
Proceed as described above for a DOS client. It is usually NOT
necessary to use EMM386 with Windows 95. If you are using Windows
95 OSR2 (alias MSWIN 4.1, alias Windows 95 service pack 1, alias
Windows 95 with Internet Explorer), you should add the following
line in the [Options]
section of
(yes, it is a text file):
This will let Windows know that you do not want ScanDisk to be runned automatically at boot time.
If you want to reduce network and server load (which will improve your system performances) while keeping all softwares on the server, you should consider installing the excellent Shared LAN Cache, from Measurement Techniques, Inc (see http://www.lancache.com). This software runs on each client computer, and caches to the local hard disk every data obtained from the network. Even MS-Office starts much faster the second time you run it... You need one license per client computer, but it is not very expensive, and the firm make special prices for universities and colleges. The best thing to do is to go to their Web site and download the free evaluation copy.
Building the Disk Image
Your MrZip script will be named zipwin95.mrz
showlog filter -"temp/*" filter -"*.swp" fullzip "c:/" "L:/tftpboot/win95.imz"
To build the image, mount the admin
volume on drive
, go to your utils
directory and type
the following command:
mrzip -b zipwin95
A few minutes later, you will have a new file if the server
subdirectory called win95.imz
which is a compressed image of your hard disk. If your compressed
image was bigger than 87 MB, it has probably been splitted in two
or more fragments. These fragments will automatically loaded one
after the other when needed. Note that an image bigger than 87 MB
will usually take More than one minute to uncompress and may
irritate your users. Our Windows 95 image is only 70 MB big,
because most software (except Office and Explorer) completely
reside on the server. Only 45 seconds are needed to uncompress the
image and restore the full disk.
Copy the following batch file to /tftpboot/win95.bpb
hidelog setpartitions "bigdos:1024" setbootpart 1 fullunzip "win95.imz" 1 hidebootprom hdboot :1
Your remote-boot Windows 95 configuration is ready ! You can now
either set the BOOTP-option-155 to "win95"
, or type
include "win95.bpb"
from within BpBatch to test it.
Adapting the configuration for other Machines
The big difference between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 is that the later includes code for Plug-and-play , ie. automatic detection of your hardware. This not a bad thing in itself, but the trouble is that it is often too sensible, and that it sometimes fails.
If you try to start another client with exactly the same boot image, you will probably get several messages during startup telling that Windows has detected new hardware: a new sound card, a new hard-disk, a new network card, and even a new mouse... There can be two reasons for that:
- the devices may not use the same ressources (for instance the mouse is not connected on the same port, or the sound card is not connected in the same slot - yes, that is detected)
- the devices may tell to Windows 95 their personal serial number (for instance, every Windows 95 differenciate every network card on the basis of its world-wide unique ethernet address)
The thing you cannot avoid to differ between computers is the network card. PCI cards usually do not mind, but ISA Plug and Play do. Bad luck for us, the plug-and-play code for our SMC EtherEZ card hangs the computer. The only solution is to let Windows 95 believe that it already know the network card, and that it is not necessary to trigger plug-and-play. The trick for doing that is to automatically insert an entry for the network card in Windows 95 registery, before starting it. Note that this trick is not any more needed with most PCI cards.
Move the autoexec.bat
to the server as described above
for DOS. Edit it (on the server) and add the following lines:
rem --- Patch Windows registery in order to avoid plug-and-play detection regedit /L:c:\windows\system.dat /R:c:\windows\user.dat c:\temp\patch.reg
is a standard Windows 95 program that
let you browse the registery if you start it from within Windows
95, or do simple operations on the registery if you call it from
DOS. Run regedit
under Windows 95, search for your
network card, usually under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\ISAPNPand export the branch using the File menu. This will create a text file, that you should same as
in the server /tftpboot
diretory. Edit this file and
find out where the card ethernet address is stored (do that on two
different machines and compare the files if you can't find it by
yourself). Replace it by a pettern in the form
. Then add lines to the win95.bpb
script like this:
set macid = "$BOOTP-Client-ID" patch "patch.ref" "{:1}temp/patch.reg"(do any necessary string manipulation for setting
if it is not exactly the client Ethernet
address). That's all, your clients should not any more try to
autodect the network card.
Once again, this whole trick is not necessary when using PCI
network adapters. Incidentally, we can use the same mechanism for
automatically configuring the hostname, which Windows 95 does not
seem to take into account when configuring through DHCP. We just
add the following line to our patch.ref
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VNETSUP] "ComputerName"="${BOOTP-Host-Name}" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP] "HostName"="${BOOTP-Host-Name}" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\ComputerName\ComputerName] "ComputerName"="${BOOTP-Host-Name}"
Using this small registery trick, your configuration should normally be portable for all machines with similar configurations. If you cannot avoid that Windows detect some hardware as new on one machine, try to rebuild the disk image from this machine. This will include the registery configuration specific to this machine into the image, and hopefully supress the problem.
System Maintenance and Upgrades
If you want later to upgrade software, install bug fixes and security fixes, proceed as follow:
- Remote-boot a client computer to get a fresh install
- Make your changes
- Redo the disk image
- Copy the new image in place of the old one on the server
4.7 Setting up Windows NT
We do not use Windows NT for remote-boot client computers but we have tested our system to ensure that it work as well. And it works.
As our utilities currently have no support for NTFS (we neither have the documentation nor the time to do that, but I would be happy to help anyone who is interested in doing it), you will have to install NT on FAT16 (simply do not convert your partitions to NTFS during the setup).
Copy your win95.bpb
boot script to
. Change the setpartitions
in winnt.bpb
to the following:
setpartitions "BIGDOS:512 BIGDOS:512"Then boot Windows 95 using this script, and install your NT client on drive C. Do not worry about the second partition for now. Do not install too much stuff, or you will get a really large and slow-to-uncompress image. Remove Windows 95 from the disk disk C, you do not need it in a Windows NT image (the boot menu is handled by the bootprom, not by NT boot loader).
Reboot your computer in without overwriting the hard disk, ie. do
not execute the winnt
script but just
hidebootprom hdbootYour NT station should start-up correctly. Make any necessary customization.
Building the Disk Image
The trouble with Windows NT is that direct disk access is prohibed
by the kernel. That means, MrZip
will not even be able
to read the boot sectors. The best way to do an image is then to
boot Windows 95 and to run MrZip
from a DOS window. To
do that, change the winnt.bpb
script so that the
Windows 95 image is not restored on the first but on the second
(if you have any supplementary patch, change the
hidelog setpartitions "BIGDOS:512 BIGDOS:512" setbootpart 2 fullunzip "win95.imz" 2 hidebootprom hdboot :2
to "{:2}"
). Boot with this script;
you should have Windows 95 running, but a new drive D:
should be available, with Windows NT inside.
Make your disk image as usual (but on D:
, of course),
and save it as winnt.imz
on the server
directory. Edit one last time the
script like this:
Your Windows NT remote-boot configuration is ready. Of course, if you do not like to have two partitions, you can setup a single partition instead. But when you have to rebuild the image, you will have to setup the second partition again for booting Windows 95.
hidelog setpartitions "BIGDOS:512 BIGDOS:512" setbootpart 1 fullunzip "winnt.imz" 1 clean 2 #fullunzip "win95.imz" 2 hidebootprom hdboot :1
System Maintenance and Upgrades
If you want later to upgrade software, install bug fixes and security fixes, proceed as follow:
- Remote-boot a client computer to get a fresh install
- Make your changes
- Edit
: comment theclean
and winntfullunzip
, uncomment win95fullunzip
- Redo the disk image
- Copy the new image in place of the old one on the server
4.8 Troubleshooting (FAQ)
This section lists most frequently encountered problems.
- The image download never ends
You are probably using a standard TFTP server, and it cannot handle more than 65535 packets of 512 bytes (or even 32767 packets for the Solaris server). That is, your image must be fragmented in pieces of no more than 30 MB (or 15 MB for Solaris). See under CopyArchive for instructions on fragmenting an existing image. But you should seriously thing about using InCom's extended TFTP server, as it is much more efficient (it uses packets of 1408 bytes instead of 512 bytes).
- The archive decompression fails immediately
There are three possibilities. Either the image is really corrupted on the server (try use MrZip to see if it is the case), or the file transfer has failed because of TFTP timeout, or because of incompatible protocol.
TFTP timeout occurs when the network is too heavily loaded (for instance if you try to download a huge image with more than four clients at a time). In this case,
does not retry indefinitely because it would not help. Shut down a few computers and retry with no more than four computers (or maybe even three). If you often need to download images for a lot of computers, you can try our special Broadcast TFTP server (see the section dedicated to it).Incompatible protocol is caused by using a standard TFTP server (typically the one built-in in your UNIX server) while asking BpBatch to work with enhanced TFTP. If you use a standard TFTP server, you should remove the .P extension (see the explanation in the next question).
- The computer hangs instead of downloading/unzipping (1)
If you are using Incom's TFTP server, try to add -s 1408 59 to the command line. If you are not using an enhanced TFTP server, remove the
extension from BpBatch filename on the server and inbootptab
.Detailed explanation : this problem occurs if you did not setup an extended TFTP server but you used
as the bootfilename DHCP/BOOTP tag. BpBatch will indeed try to connect to an extended TFTP server when the bootfilename ends with a.P
extension. To solve this problem, you can either remove the.P
extension at the end of the bootfilename (it will tell BpBatch to use standard TFTP) or install an extended TFTP server. The only supported extended TFTP server today is the one provided by Incom. You can find compiled binaries on their web site, or on our distribution directory. For Incom's TFTP server to properly work with the extended TFTP feature, you must add-s 1408 59
to the command line. - The computer hangs instead of downloading/unzipping (2)
May be your computer has a bad VESA support. Try giving the
command-line argument or setting the VESA variable to"OFF"
. - VESA scrolling is broken
We use a VESA 1.1 function for scrolling. If your video adapter does not support VESA 1.1, forget it. If the scrolling works for one page, but then produces a strange strippled pattern, do not worry. This is a known bug, I will fix it as soon as I have time for it (VESA scrolling is not really essential...)
- There is a corrupted file in the cache
When a file in the cache is corrupted by an external program, it is automatically removed from the cache. When a file in the cache is not fully written (because the computer is turned off during the file transfer), it is also automatically removed. But if the server transmits a corrupted file or if the transfer aborts from the server side, it is possible that this file stays in the cache. You can clean-up the cache simply by holding both shift down while
access it for the first time. Alternatively, you can evaluateclean -1
in interactive mode. - The EXIT command does not work in a batch file
This is not a bug. Exit is not a command. There is no exit or quit command because it does not make any sense to exit from a boot script without booting. And MrBatch is really the same program as BpBatch. What you can do instead is calling HdBoot. This makes sense, and the DOS version will cleanly exit instead of rebooting. Note that you can exit from the DOS version at any time by pressing Ctrl-Break. This will restore all hooked interrupts before leaving.
- The Print command does not print
If you try to print something and immediately enter interactive mode, you may not see your text. This is because your text was written on the runtime screen and the
command has switched the display to the Log screen. Just put aGetKey
after the print commands and you will see the text output. -
MrZip says
Malloc failed
MrZip needs a lot of conventional memory to run. If you encounter this problem, first ensure that you have unloaded the bootprom either using
or using InCom'sbputil
. If you run MrZip from bare MS-DOS (not within Windows 95 DOS box), you should use EMM386 to load the network drivers high in order to get as much conventional memory as possible. From a Windows 95 DOS box, there is usually no problem (as long as you have not left your old 16-bit stuff in yourautoexec.bat
when you installed Windows 95). - MrZip aborts while reading directories
This bug has already been fixed once. Get the latest release of
. If the problem persists, try to build your image withTrace
set to"ON"
(and usuallyPauseLog
set to"OFF"
); this will let you discover which file causes the problem. Send a detailled bug report. - MrZip cannot access some file
MrZip is probably trying to read a locked, open or special file, such as Windows swap file. Such files should usually not be included in the image and should be filtered out (using the
command). It is also possible that the operating system is playing you a trick. If MrZip does not tell you what file causes the problem, try to build your image withTrace
set to"ON"
(and usuallyPauseLog
set to"OFF"
). You can also try to use direct disk access (that is, do not refer the source partition as"C:"
but as"{:1}"
or whatever partition it is). Using direct disk access is usually slower because we have less buffers than the operating system, but it may be sometimes more reliable. - Disk images are always reloaded from the server
Disk images are stored in the special cache area and should not be reloaded if they have not changed on the server. However, as the cache area always starts after the last used partition, changing the total size of partitions will move the location of the cache and thus destroy its content. Another possible reason for a file disappearing from the cache is that the previous file has grown more than one-and-an-half times its initial size. The file would then have been overwritten and need to be downloaded once again. This should almost never occurs. A third possible reason is a too small cache area. If the free space left outside the partitions is less than one-and-an-half times the sum of all compressed image sizes, only the most recently used images will be present in the cache and the other will have to be reloaded on demand.
- Red Hat Linux 5.1 does not boot properly
This distribution assumes Linux was booted using
and checks for theBOOT_IMAGE
command line argument (in/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
). Simply add it in thelinuxboot
call, or change yourrc.sysinit
. - The broadcast TFTP ramdisk hangs (Got in bound state)
Linux dhcp client is a program that dynamically changes the IP address of the client according to DHCP offers. If the address is offered forever (infinite lease time), the DHCP client just set the address and returns (this is what we expect). However, if the lease time is limited, the DHCP client must remain loaded and ask for new addresses every few minutes. And if the DHCP client does not return, MrBatch will never be loaded... The solution is to give an infinite lease time (sometimes encoded as -1).
- File access hangs under BpBatch, but not under MrBatch
This problem occured on an AMI BIOS dated 94/07/25. We investigated a little bit, and found no solution. It seems that this problem is due to a bug in this BIOS (some register or memory location must be destroyed).
- Unzip of a fragmented archive fails (Malloc failed)
This problem was introduced with PXE compatibility, but has now been fixed. Please get the latest version.
- MrBatch and MrZip complain about the terminal under RedHat 5.x
This problem has been fixed in the 9th of August version of MrBatch/MrZip. There was a problem with a new version of ncurses which has been released with RedHat 5.1.
- "libncurses.so.3.0: cannot open shared object file" under Linux
MrZip has been linked to the version 3.0 of libncurses. You can use other versions of libncurses only if they are newer than version 3.0. To use a newer libncurses, all you have to do is to create a soft link from libncurses.so.3.0 to your libncurses.so.xx file. With RedHat 5.1, you can use the following command :
cd /usr/lib ; ln -s libncurses.4.2 libncurses.3.0
You can also download a version recent version of mrzip/mrbatch. Starting from the 10/25/98, mrbatch is now compiled under RedHat 5.1. - MrBatch and MrZip do not start under Linux (file not found)
This problem is the reverse of the previous one. Now that the distribution is libc6 ready, it cannot be used any more with libc5. If you encounter this problem, simply upgrade your Linux box (Well, if we hear too much complaints, we might try to keep two distributions...).
- I can not access other mode than the default 800x600 VESA mode
You should first display the contents of the
variable, to see if your hardware support the mode you would like to use. Then, try one of the two ways to select a special VESA mode :-
InitGraph "mode"
: Try InitGraph "1024x768", and then run the graphical primitive you are interested in (e.gDrawGif
). -
: The first field of theVESA-Modes
variable is the name of the default mode. If you change the VESA-Modes variable, all graphical primitive will use the mode you specified.
- BpBatch prints a "Malloc failed" message when restoring multiple fragments images
We corrected a bug in the memory allocation functions of BpBatch. You should make sure that you have a version of BpBatch which has been released after september the 22nd 1998.
- Fullunzip using the Linux version of MrBatch always fails
We corrected this problem in the 09/22/1998 release.
- Scandisk says my disk is corrupted
The 10/25/98 release did correct a problem with large images. Try to download a recent version of BpBatch.
- My RedHat boot floppydisk does not work with FloppyBoot
This bug has been corrected in the 10/25/98 release.
- My FAT32 disk image does not boot properly
This bug has been corrected in the 02/09/99 release.
5. Remote-Boot Tools Reference Manual
This section provides detailled informations on the use of the tools we developped at the CUI, University of Geneva for this remote-boot configuration.
5.1 BpBatch, MrBatch and MrZip
These three names stand for three variants of the same program, with the following characteristics:
is a special program that can be started from the BootProm before the operating system is loaded. It is made of two parts:bpbatch.P
, the dynamic loader, andbpbatch.ovl
, the program itself.BpBatch
has full disk I/O capabilities through our own implementation of FAT16, FAT32 and Ext2fs, as well as remote network I/O capabilities through the BootProm TFTP API.BpBatch
was compiled under DOS using Borland C 5.0 and Turbo Assembler 3.2. -
is the DOS/Linux version ofBpBatch
. All commands recognized byBpBatch
are recognized byMrBatch
and vice versa. This is very usefull if you want to test your batch scripts from a DOS/Linux session. Under DOS,MrBatch
emulates remote I/O by OS-based file access if the bootprom is not available. Under Linux, the bootprom cannot be seen anymore butMrBatch
can emulate it using Linux IP support, or use OS-based file access.MrBatch
was compiled under Linux using GCC 184.108.40.206 and under DOS using Borland C 5.0 and Turbo Assembler 3.2. -
is an interpreter that recognizes a superset ofMrBatch
language, and that serves to build disk images. InMrZip
, the limited remote file I/O is replaced by a full-featured OS-based file access.MrZip
does not include VESA support.MrZip
was compiled under Linux using GCC 184.108.40.206 and under DOS using Borland C 5.0 and Turbo Assembler 3.2.
Command Line Arguments
All programs accept the same syntax of arguments.
and MrZip
take them from the
command line, while BpBatch
look for them in the BOOTP
option 155 (decimal). Here is the syntax of the arguments:
[-x] [-l] [-b] [-v] [-w] [-i] [script-basename]where:
disable the use of extended memory -
disable the use of ISO-latin-8859-1 as default character set -
cancel the bootprom detection (which cause a floppy seek under DOS) -
cancel the VESA detection (which cause a switch to full screen under Windows 95) -
enable direct disk write access (disabled by default under DOS and Linux) -
enable interactive mode even if a script name is provided
is optional. If provided,
and BpBatch
load the file with
the .bpb
extension, and MrZip
loads the
file with the .mrz
extension. If not provided,
and MrZip
run in interactive mode
while BpBatch
loads the file with the same basename as
the BOOTP Boot file and a .bpb
Syntax rules
The following rules apply when BpBatch
parses an input
- Commands are parsed line by line. Lines are separated by CR and/or LF.
- The maximal line length is currently 255 characters.
- Keywords and variable names are case-insensitive.
- " is interpreted as the special string delimiter
- When ${variable} or $variable is encountred, it is substituted by the value of the variable, or by an empty string if the variable is undefined. The substitution also occurs within a string. Moreover, the resulting substituted value must be explicitely enclosed between double quotes if used as a string value (ie. one should merely speak of macro expansion than of a variables).
is substituted by the audible-bell character (ASCII 7) -
is substituted by the backspace character (ASCII 8) -
is substituted by the newline character (ASCII 10) -
is substituted by the return character (ASCII 13) -
is substituted by the tabulation character (ASCII 9) -
is substituted by the vertical-tab character (ASCII ...) -
where n is a 3-digit octal number between 000 and 377 is substituted by the character with ascii code specified -
where X is any other character not listed above is substituted by X itself. In particular,-
is substituted by a regular double-quote (not a string-delimiter) -
is substituted by a regular dollar sign (not variable substitution) -
is substituted by a regular backslash (not a special character)
- The character "end of string" (ASCII code 0) CANNOT be used anywhere as it is used internally as end-of-string delimiter
- The character "floating diaeresis" (ASCII code dec 249, hex F9, octal 371) CANNOT be used in any string as it is used internally as string delimiter in the input parsing routine.
- The character "block space" (ASCII code dec 255, hex FF, octal 377) CANNOT be used in any variable value as it is used internally as variable delimiter.
Empty lines are ignored. Lines starting with a sharp
) are treated as comments and are not interpreted.
Lines starting with a column (:
) are treated as labels
and are not interpreted.
- String expressions
Strings are delimited by opening and closing double-quotes:
"Hello world"
To include double-quotes within a string, quote them using a backslash:"I said: \"Hello world\""
Strings can be postfixed with a few operators.- The character substitution operator:
"Hello world"/o=u/ == "Hellu wurld" "188.8.131.52"/.= / == "198 76 54 32"
- The word selection operator (zero-based):
"Hello world"{0} == "Hello" "198 76 54 32"{1-3} == "76 54 32"
- The substring selection operator (zero-based):
"Hello world"[4] == "o" "Hello world"[4-7] == "o wo"
- The character substitution operator:
- Numerical expressions
Numerical expressions work on 32-bits integer numbers (from -2,147,483,646 to 2,147,483,647). Hexadecimal octal and binary numbers are not understood. Whenever a numerical expression is expected, the following are recognized:
- A positive or negative integer number
- An expression in the form (expr1 op expr2) where
op can be either +, -, * (multiply), / (divide) or
(modulo) andexpr
is a numerical expression. Note that EACH operation MUST be enclosed between parenthesis :((3 * 5)+2) == 17
- The string-length operator (@), followed by a string :
@"Hello world" == 11
- The word-count operator (#) followed by a string :
#"Hello world" == 2
- Durations
A few commands expect durations as arguments. Durations are measured in seconds, with a precision of up to a tenth of second:
Delay 3 waits for 3 seconds Delay 0.3 waits for 3/10 seconds
- Colors
Whenever a color is expected, you can either use the numeric value of the color or its symbolic name (case-insensitive). The following colors are recognized
Black 0 Blue 1 Green 2 Cyan 3 Red 4 Magenta 5 Brown 6 LightGray 7 DarkGray 8 LightBlue 9 LightGreen 10 LightCyan 11 LightRed 12 LightMagenta 13 Yellow 14 White 15
- File References
File names are strings. They must therefore always be enclosed between double-quotes. File names are case-sensitive on case-sensitive filesystems, case-insensitive on case-insensitive filesystems. Slash and backslash can be freely used one in place of the other. Do not forget to double backslash since a single backslash is an escape character.
There are two kinds of file references:
- Direct disk files
- Foreign files
Direct disk files are referenced using the following notation:
The disk number can be omitted and defaults to zero. For instance,"{:1}/usr/bin"
points to/usr/bin
assuming there is such a directory on the first partition. Direct file I/O is solely based on our own file access routines (we do not use the operating system).There are two special partitions. Partition zero corresponds to the hard disk master boot record (MBR) and has a pseudo file-system which let you access the boot code. Partition minus-one (-1) corresponds to the cache filesystem (see below).
Under BpBatch/MrBatch, foreign files correspond to remote files on the TFTP server when the BootProm is available:
"help.bpb" is the file help.bpb in the /tftpboot directory "gifs/MyImage.gif" is a file in /tftpboot/gifs
Other TFTP servers can be referenced :"126.96.36.199:help.bpb"
If the other server is behind a gateway :"126.96.36.199/184.108.40.206:help.bpb"
One can also specify a specific port for the TFTP connection :"22.214.171.124@89:getpasswd/smith"
There can be only one open remote file at a time. If the BootProm is not available, remote files are emulated using the operating system file I/O, but the same restriction apply.Under MrZip, foreign files correspond to files as seen by the operating system. There is no limitation, and foreign files can be used wherever direct disk files can be. Foreign files are usually faster than direct disk files, because the operating system has more buffers. Foreign files can refer to network files if supported by the operating system.
"C:\\autoexec.bat" "C:/config.sys" "/mnt/net/usr"
The Cache Filesystem
In order to reduce network load and to fasten the boot process, disk archives, linux kernels and possibly other files are cached on the hard disk. This disk cache is located at the end of the hard disk, between the last cylinder allocated in the partition table and the last physical cylinder of the disk (out of any allocated partition). There MUST be room between the last partition and the end of the disk if you want the cache filesystem to work. The cache filesystem MUST work if you want to restore a disk image.
The disk cache is organised in a volatile, CRC-validated filesystem : Each directory entry and each 32 KB data block is validated by a 32-bits CRC. Whenever a directory entry or a data block unexpectedly changes, the file is automatically removed from the cache and downloaded again upon the next request.
You can freely access the cache filesystem from within BpBatch,
MrBatch and MrZip using direct disk access on the special partition
. To see the content of the cache, just type :
logdir "{:-1}"If the cache ever gets corrupted and is not automatically cleaned (which should never occurs), you can either type :
clean -1(in interactive mode) or hold both shifts down when BpBatch access the cache for the first time.
Special variables
Some variable are initially set and/or have special meanings. Some of them exist within all programs, other are only available under MrZip and other are only available when a BOOTP/DHCP reply has been received.
- General variables
is set to "BpBatch" within BpBatch, "MrBatch" within MrBatch and "MrZip" within MrZip -
is set to the basename of the script on which the batch interpreter was started -
is the name of the file loaded whenHelp
is invoked. Default:"${Basename}.hlp"
are variables set from the BOOTP/DHCP reply (see the paragraph on BOOTP/DHCP variables for more details) -
are variables set from the DHCP reply (see the paragraph on BOOTP/DHCP variables for more details) -
is set to the space-separated list of sizes for each disk. That means,#"$Disks"
represent the number of disks and"$Disks"{0}
is the size of the first disk -
is set to the next ready-to-read key available in the keyboard buffer (if available) -
controls the use of LBA to access disks > 2Gb. Default: "ON" -
controls the use of fast disk access (write accross cylinders). Default: "ON" -
controls the use of VESA graphics. Default: "ON" if available -
gives the list of all available VESA modes. The first entry of the list is the default mode, which is used when no parameter is given to InitGraph. Note: if VESA="OFF", this variable is blank -
is set to "ON" if your computer supports Avanced Power Management. If $APM is "ON", you can use the command PowerOff to turn your computer off. Default: depends on your hardware -
controls the display of each command before execution. It also controls the display of file names when creating new archives. Default: "OFF" -
controls the automatic switch to the text log whenever the ESC key is pressed. Default: "ON" -
controls the pause between each page of log when the log is visible. Default: "ON" -
is set to the disk used for caching remote files. Default: empty == 0, the first hard disk -
controls the automatic caching of remote files copied, patched or drawn as GIF. Default: "OFF" -
prevents any file from being cached. Turn this variable on for diskless Linux boot. Default: "OFF" -
controls the preventive allocation of 25 percent more space than necessary in the cache partition, to let the files grow. Turn this variable off if you are short of disk space. Default: "ON" -
controls the use of Extended Memory (or XMS). Once deactivated, extended memory cannot be reactivated. Default: "ON" if available -
controls the interpretation of upper ASCII codes in included and patched files. The IsoLatin settings are processed at the time the file is loaded, not at the time the file is processed. Default: "ON" -
controls the position of the progress window displayed in VESA graphics during archive download and decompression. Default: 200 200 -
controls the update of superblock backups in Linux ext2 filesystem. Superblock backups take a few seconds to do and are never used by current kernels (only by e2fsck). -
controls the gateway-server used for user authentication. Our special authentication gateway must be running on the target computer. Default:"${BOOTP-Server-IP}@89"
(ie. the TFTP server, on port 89) -
contains the answer of the security server for the last check performed, either PASSED or FAILED. Default: "FAILED" -
$Security-Passwd, $HelpTopic, $OnExit, $OnKey-...
are used internally.
See also BOOTP variables and MrZip-specific variables.
- MrZip-specific variables
The following variables are only used within MrZip.
controls the directory where temporary files will be stored. Default: <empty> == current directory -
controls the way archives are dumped to the log when requested. It is a string containing- "h"/"H" to display the archive header
- "b"/"B" to summarize/dump boot sectors
- "s"/"S" to display a short/long allocation summary
- "d"/"D" to display a short/long directory listing
- "f"/"F" to summarize/dump files
controls the size of archive pieces. If you do not use InCom's extended TFTP server, you should set this to "30 MB". Default: "87 MB" -
$SourceArchive, $DestArchive, $Filter...
are used internally.
- BOOTP variables
The following BOOTP-... and DHCP-... variables are recognized, as long as a BOOTP/DHCP reply has been received (TCP/IP Bootprom must be reported as detected):
$BOOTP-Client-ID $BOOTP-Your-IP $BOOTP-Server-IP $BOOTP-Gateway-IP $BOOTP-Bootfile $BOOTP-Server-Name $BOOTP-Subnet-Mask $BOOTP-Time-Offset $BOOTP-Routers $BOOTP-Time-Servers $BOOTP-Name-Servers $BOOTP-Domain-name-Servers $BOOTP-BOOTP-Log-Servers $BOOTP-Cookie-Servers $BOOTP-Lpr-Servers $BOOTP-Impress-Servers $BOOTP-Resource-Location-Servers $BOOTP-Host-Name $BOOTP-Boot-Size $BOOTP-Merit-Dump $BOOTP-Domain-Name $BOOTP-Swap-Servers $BOOTP-Root-Path $BOOTP-Extensions-Path $BOOTP-IP-Forwarding $BOOTP-Interface-MTU $BOOTP-All-Subnets-Are-Local $BOOTP-Broadcast-Address $BOOTP-NIS-Domain $BOOTP-NIS-Servers $BOOTP-NTP-Servers $BOOTP-Font-Servers $BOOTP-X-Display-Manager $DHCP-IP-Address-Lease-Time $DHCP-Message-Type $DHCP-Server-Identifier $DHCP-Message $DHCP-Renewal-Time $DHCP-Rebinding-Time $BOOTP-NIS+-Domain $BOOTP-NIS+-Servers $BOOTP-Server-Name $BOOTP-Bootfile $BOOTP-Mobile-IP-Agent $BOOTP-SMTP-Servers $BOOTP-POP3-Servers $BOOTP-NNTP-Servers $BOOTP-WWW-Servers $BOOTP-Finger-Servers $BOOTP-IRC-Servers $BOOTP-StreetTalk-Servers $BOOTP-STDA-Servers
Other BOOTP/DHCP parameters can be used under the name
where n is the decimal representation of the BOOTP option number.Do not mix-up
, which is the gateway to use for TFTP and should be 0.0.0.0 if the TFTP server is in the same subnet, andBOOTP-Routers
, which contains the default IP gateway(s). The TCP/IP Bootprom sometimes seems to set the value ofBOOTP-Gateway-IP
from the value inBOOTP-Routers
, causing each TFTP ack packet to be sent to the router first. To avoid such behaviour, if your TFTP server is in the same subnet as the client, forceBOOTP-Gateway-IP
(thanks to Maciek Uhlig for having pointed out this problem).
Monitoring commands
This section lists commands for monitoring the system state. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis (I would have prefered square brackets, but LaTeX do not like them at this place...)
- Interact
Show the log and turn to interactive mode until QUIT or EXIT is entered. Type HideLog before quitting if you want to avoid disturbing log messages during batch execution.
- Help (topic)
Load the on-line help file (
) and display the description of the given topic. If no topic is provided, or if the topic is unknown, display the help index. - Log "text"
Display the string on the log. No return/linefeed is implicitely added.
- Echo "text"
Display the string on the log and go to the next line. Equivalent to
Log "text\r\n".
- LogVars ("pattern")
Log (ie. display on the log) all variables matching the given pattern. The pattern can contain wildcards (? and *).
Example: LogVars "BOOTP-*" list all BootP variables
- LogDir "path/pattern"
Log (ie. display on the log) all files from the given path that match the pattern. The pattern can contain wildcards (? and *).
Example: LogDir "/usr/g*p" list files names like g...p
- LogTree "path"
Log the directory tree starting with the given path as root.
- LogFile "filename"
Log the content of the file. The file must be no more than 64 KB big.
- ShowLog
Make the log visible if it was hidden. Automatically performed when ESC is pressed with "$AutoShowLog" == "ON" and when entering interactive mode.
- HideLog
Prevent log messages to appear on the screen. Default state when BpBatch, MrBatch and MrZip are started on a script file.
- CaptureLog
Record all log output to a 64 KB buffer until EndCapture is issued. Wrap around buffer if the log output is more than 64 KB big. This command can be used to create a text file with an arbitrary content. The EndCapture MUST occurs within the same batch file.
- EndCapture ("filename")
End up the capture of the log. If a filename is given, store the captured text to a file. Otherwise, discard it.
- Beep
Make a sound. This command is equivalent to Echo "\007".
Control commands
This section lists commands that control the batch execution. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis.
- Include "filename"
Load the given file and start up the parser on it. Go back to the current point when the include file processing is done. The interpretation of characters above ASCII 127 within the include file depends on the value of $IsoLatin at the time the file is included.
- OnExit command
Setup an exit-handler that will automatically be evaluated at the end of current batch file.
- Goto label
Move the execution cursor to the given label (ie. the line starting with :label)
- Eval "command"
Perform all substitutions on the "command" and run the parser on it.
- If ...
If (not) <expr1> (==|!=|<|>|>=|<=|=>|=<|<>) <expr2> <command> If (not) (ci) "str1" (==|!=|<|>|>=|<=|=>|=<|<>) "str2" <command> If (not) (ci) "str1" Match-Expr "pattern" <command> If (not) (ci) "str1" Match-Passwd "unix-passwd" <command> If (not) (ci) "str1" in "wordlist" <command> If (not) (ci) "str1" in-file "filename" <command> If (not) exist "filename" <command> If (not) valid <disk>:<partition> <command>
These commands execute command; if the test succeeds. The 1st form compares two numerical expressions. The 2nd form compares two strings, optionally case-insensitive. The 3rd form tests if "str1" matches the given pattern (wildcards allowed). The 4th form tests if the clear password "str1" matches the Unix-crypted password. The 5th form tests if "str1" is included in the word list. The 6th form tests if "str1" is included in the word file. The 7th form tests if the given file exists. The 8th form tests if the given partition is valid (i.e. formatted). This form is only supported by BpBatch versions after February 1999.
- Set ...
Set variable = "string-value" Set variable = <expr>
Setup a value for the given variable. If the given value is a numerical expresison, it will be implicitely converted to a string. A variable can be used anywhere by refering it as $variable or ${variable}. If the resulting reference is to be interpreted as a string, it should be enclosed between double quotes: "$variable" or "${variable}".
- Delay duration
Waits until the specified duration (expressed in seconds) expired. See also the paragraph on the format of durations.
- GetTime variable, GetDate variable
Get the CMOS time and store it into variablein the form HH:MM:SS. Get the CMOS date and store it into variablein the form YY/MM/DD. This can be used to customize the behavior of your boot scripts depending on the time of day or on the date.
- SetTime "HH:MM:SS", SetDate "YY/MM/DD"
Set the computer CMOS time or date to the given value. If you have a security gateway (our special TFTP server) running, you can automatically adjust the CMOS time and date of the client computers at each boot by evaluating the following command:
include "$Security-Gateway:gettime"
If you want to understand what this command does, just type:logfile "$Security-Gateway:gettime"
- Poweroff
Turn off the computer. This command only works if the computer is Advanced Power Management (APM) compatible.
Keyboard-related commands
This section lists commands that let you monitor the keyboard input. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis. See also under National Language Support.
- GetKey (variable)
Indefinitely wait until a key is pressed and store it in the variable.
- WaitForKey duration (command)
Wait until a key is pressed for no more than duration seconds. If no key has been pressed after the given time, evaluate the command. Otherwise, leave the key in the keyboard buffer. See also the paragraph on the format of durations.
- Input (variable (max-length))
Read a return-terminated string from the keyboard and store the result string in variable (without the terminating return). If max-length is given, do not allow the user to enter more than this number of characters.
See also
under Security-related commands. - OnKey "c" command
Setup a key handler that will automatically evaluate the given command when the key "c" is pressed (except is explicitely waited by a GetChar or an Input command). If the string
is used instead of a single character, the command is executed if any other key is pressed.
Text output commands
This section lists commands used to perform regular text output. All these commands can be used in graphic mode also, with the same behaviour (except that text mode provides 80x25 characters while graphic mode provides 100x37, because graphic mode characters are of size 8x16). Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis. See also under National Language Support.
- Print "text"/expr
Print the specified string/expression at current cursor position and using current text attributes, then move the cursor. Add "\r\n" to the end of the string to go to the next line.
- TextAttr fg-color bg-color
Setup the text attributes. One can also put a single numeric value representing both colors and defined as 16*bg-color+fg-color.
If you need more fantasy, you can use
. See under National Language Support. - At line,col (command)
Move the cursor position to the specified position and evaluate the command if provided.
Example: At 10,20 Print "Gnats and rats !"
- Clear (color (pattern-char (top,left,bottom,right)))
Fill the given text area with the given pattern-char (either a string or the decimal ascii code). The area defaults to the full screen, the pattern char defaults to the full block (ASCII dec 219) and the color defaults to black (clear screen). Move the cursor to the upper left corner of the cleared area.
- BpMenu backward compatibility commands
.ATT (<attribute>) .CLS (<attribute>) .DEF <key> (<timeout_val>) .KEY <key> <filename> .POS ((<x>) <y>) .PWD <key> <cpasswd> .WLN (<text>) .WRT <text>
See InCom's manual for more infos. We wrote some time ago a program program for editing menu files using this syntax, but it is preferable to make your menus using the new explicit syntax. Note that the .PWD command is not implemented because we do not now the password crypting algorithm used by InCom GmbH.
Graphics output commands
This section lists commands used to perform graphic-mode output. For the functions listed in this section, coordinates are given in pixels. You can also use all text output commands (see above) in graphic mode. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis.
Note that the graphic mode is automatically turned on whenever a
graphic command is used, unless the variable VESA
set to "OFF"
- InitGraph ("mode")
Turn on VESA graphics. The origin is on the upper-left corner of the screen (0 0). VESA graphics may hang some computers under Windows 95. Run MrBatch with the -v option to avoid such problems.
You can request a specific video mode if you use the parameter "mode" This parameter is optional: if you do not specify any value, the video mode will be taken from the first field of the VESA-Modes variable.
Valid modes are :
- 640x480 => 640 by 480 pixels, 256 colors
- 800x600 => 800 by 600 pixels, 256 colors (default mode)
- 1024x768 => 1024 by 768 pixels, 256 colors
- 1280x1024 => 1280 by 1024 pixels, 256 colors
The VESA-Modes variable lists the video modes supported by your hardware.
InitGraph "640x480"
- CloseGraph
Close VESA graphic mode and go back to text mode.
- DrawBar x-pos y-pos width height color
VESA graphics. Draw a filled bar of the given size and colors.
- DrawWindow x-pos y-pos width height (bg-color (bar-color)) ("title" (title-color))
VESA graphics. Draw a window of the given size and colors. The background color defaults to LightGray and the title-bar color defaults to Blue. If you include a title string and a color, this text will be displayed in the title bar.
- Drawtext x-pos y-pos "text" (fg-color)
VESA graphics. Draw the text string at the given position with a transparent background. The color defaults to text foreground color.
- DrawGif "gif-filename" (x-pos y-pos (color-strategy))
VESA graphics. Load the given GIF-87a file and draw it on the screen. The file can be interlaced, but must be in GIF-87a (not GIF-89a). The image size should fit in the selected video mode. You cannot load a 1024x768 GIF file when you selected a 640x480 mode. The GIF position defaults to the top left corner of the screen (0 0).
The color-strategy defines the allocation of colors in the palette when more than 256 colors are needed (for instance when two 256 colors GIF files are displayed simultaneously):
use best possible colors for the most recent GIF -
try to avoid allocating colors, change existing colors -
try to avoid allocating colors, use existing colors -
allocate no new color, only use existing colors
. -
Security-related commands
This section lists commands that help you authenticate a user. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis.
Some of these functions cooperate with a Security gateway, that you should first install. See the section on Special TFTP servers for more infos.
- GetPasswd (variable (max-length))
Same as Input, but echo stars instead of the typed characters.
- Crypt "text" "salt" variable
Apply the Unix crypt function to the given 8-chars text and store the resulting crypted string into variable. The "salt" is usually a two-character string that will be found as the first two characters of the crypted string.
Note that Unix crypt is a one-way function. It is not possible to decode the crypted string. One can only try to crypt another string with the same salt and compre the resulting crypted string.
- DESCrypt "text" "key" variable
Crypt the given text using the given 8-chars key and store the result as an hexadecimal string in variable.
- DESDecrypt "hexcode" "key" variable
Decrypt the given hexadecimal string using the given 8-chars key and store the result in variable.
- MD5 "text" variable
Compute the MD5 checksum of the given text and store it as an hexadecimal string in variable. Can be used as an alternative to the Unix crypt function to check for passwords bigger than 8 characters.
- CheckUser "user" "password" "domain"
Connect to the $Security-Gateway and check if the given user exist in the given radius domain and uses the specified password. If the domain is
, use the Unix user/password definition on the security gateway. For any other domain, use the security gateway domain definition file to determine the real Radius or NT domain to check.Set the value of $Security-Check to "PASSED" or "FAILED". The password do not transit in clear on the network.
Disk-related commands
This section lists commands for preparing the hard-disk. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis.
- GetPartitions variable (disk)
Read the partition table(s) for the given disk and store it as a string into the given variable. The result string is a space-separated list of Type:Size, where
- Type is FAT16, EXT, BIGDOS, NTFS, FAT32, FAT32-LBA, BIGDOS-LBA, EXT-LBA, LINUX-SWAP, LINUX-EXT2 or the decimal filesystem id for unknown types.
- Size is the size of the partition in megabytes.
- SetPartitions "partitions" (disk)
Setup the partition table(s) to the content of the string. The format used is the same that for GetPartitions. This command also reset all boot flags (hint: use SetBootPart).
The main partition table in the master boot record (MBR) has only four entries. Moreover, DOS and Windows accept only ONE FAT partition (called the Primary partition, C:) in the main partition table. Any supplemental FAT partition should be nested in an extended partition (and is thus called a Logical partition). If we give numbers 1-4 to the partitions described in the MBR partition table and numbers 5-8 to the partitions described in the first extended partition, the definition of two FAT partitions would work by defining partition 1 as FAT, partition 2 as EXT and partition 5 as FAT. Partitions 3,4,6,7 and 8 should be marked as UNUSED. The same scheme can be used recursively to define more than two FAT partitions: nesting another extended partition in partition 6 and adding a logical FAT partition in partition 9.
In the most strict interpretation of DOS specifications, that means that entries 3 and 4 of the partition tables are never used. In practice, some versions of DOS and some other OS are able to use more than two partitions per partition table, but there is no clear rule. On this side, BpBatch is rather flexible in its interpretation of partition tables, it can often understands things that OSes cannot.
One universal rule is that there should never be more than one extended partition per partition table, otherwise the partition numbering scheme breaks down.
If you want to try funny configurations, make your own experiments, but don't complain if the OS does not recognize your partitions. The only way it is guarantee to work is to use the primary partition to store the OS boot partition, and to nest all other partitions, one at a time, in extended partitions.
Example of extended partitions :
SetPartitions "BIGDOS:100 EXT:400 EMPTY EMPTY BIGDOS:400"
- GetBootPart variable (disk)
Get the partition number with the boot flag turned on (DOS says: the activated primary partition) and store it to the variable. The first partition is numbered 1. If no partitions has the boot flag turned on, answers zero.
- SetBootPart partition (disk)
Set the boot flag to the given partition. The boot flag let the master boot record (MBR) choose which partition to boot on. The first partition is numbered 1.
- Blank partition (disk)
Fill the given partitions with zeroes. Can take quite a lot of time for big partitions. Do not format the partition for any operating system. See also
. - Clean partitions (disk) ("label")
Fast-format the given partition(s) according to the type declared in the partition table. If a label is given and the filesystem supports it, setup the partition label. For a paranoiac full format, call
on the partition first.Clean is supported for (FAT16) BIGDOS, FAT32, EXT, LINUX-EXT2 and LINUX-SWAP partitions. To clean the master boot record (MBR), use
Clean 0
.Clean should be used on data partitions and on MBR/EXT partitions. It is totally useless to clean a partition before unzipping a filesystem on it using
. - FullUnzip "full-archive" partition (disk)
Decompress a full disk archive to the given partition, overwriting any existing file (clean-up on the fly).
FullUnzip is supported for (FAT16) BIGDOS, FAT32 and LINUX-EXT2.
This commands turn on VESA graphics to display a progress banner, unless
has been turnedOFF
. - IncrUnzip "incr-archive" "destpath"
Decompress an incremental disk archive to the given path. Files in the archive replace those with the same name on the target path, but other files are not deleted.
IncrUnzip is supported for (FAT16) BIGDOS, FAT32 and LINUX-EXT2. This command is far less efficient than FullUnzip since the existing filesystem structure must be preserved. However, it avoids multiplying the number of different disk images by storing the differences only.
- FileUnzip "source-filename" "dest-filename"
Uncompress a file previously compressed with
FileZip command. The file is validated by a 32-bits CRC. - Copy "source-filename" "dest-filename"
Copy the source file to the destinaton file, byte-to-byte. Can be used after a FullUnzip for instance to update configuration files from the server without rebuilding the image. Better to use
for big and easy-to-compress files. - Append "src-filename-1" "src-filename-2" "dest-filename"
Copy the first, then the second file to the destination file, byte-to-byte. Can be used on arbitrary large files. The destination file cannot be one of the two source files.
- Patch "source-filename" "dest-filename" ("prefix" ("postfix"))
Read the source file and perform variable substitution before writing it to the destination file. The interpretation of characters above ASCII 127 depends on the value of $IsoLatin.
By default, variables are recognized when prefixed by "${" and postfixed by "}". This can be changed to any other non-empty string. remember that if you want to use a dollar sign within the prefix or suffix, you must escape it or it will get macro-evaluated. For instance, if you want to explicitely use the default prefix and postfix, use:
Patch "source-file" "dest-file" "\${" "}"
- MkDir "path"
Recursively create directories from the root to the given full path. If the path already exists, this command has no effect.
- Delete "filename", Del "filaname"
Remove the given file. The file must exist.
- DelTree "path"
Recursively remove all files and directories under the given path, and remove the directory itself.
Boot commands
This section lists commands for continuing the boot process. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis.
- HideBootProm
Restore the memory and the interrupt vectors allocated by the bootprom. All attempts to make TFTP transfers will fail after calling this command. It is usually a good idea to call this command before HdBoot, or you might run short of memory under DOS/Windows. This command is implicitely called by FloppyBoot.
Note that although this function restore all vectors "officially" rerouted by the BootProm, it does not seems to restore everything. But it works well enough for DOS and Windows.
- LoadRamDisk "ramdisk-filename"
Load a floppy disk image into the extended memory and redirect the BIOS Disk Services to make floppy disk calls use this image instead. This command implicitely calls
. CallFloppyBoot
to boot on the ramdisk you just loaded.This kind of ramdisk may not be as robust as what you get when you use the TFTPBoot command. The only advantage is that it only steals a few hundred bytes of conventional memory instead of the >64 KB reserved by the TCP/IP BootPROM. Warning, nothing secures the extended memory in which the ramdisk resides. There is no way to uninstall such a ramdisk.
- LoadZRamDisk "ramdisk-filename"
Do the same as
, but for an image that has been compressed usingMrZip
FileZip command. Compressed ramdisks are protected against data corruption (and uncomplete download) by a byte count and a 32-bits CRC. - TFTPBoot "remote-bootfile"
Chain to another boot file (for instance a floppy image made with InCom's BpShell program). See the file referencing conventions for accessing a file on another TFTP server.
- FloppyBoot
Hide the Boot ROM, load the floppy disk boot sector and boot on it.
- HdBoot (disk)(:partition)
Load the given boot sector and boot from it. The disk default to zero, the first hard disk, and the partition defaults to zero, ie. the master boot record. You can boot from any partition, but be warned that Windows 95 may not let you boot a partition that has not been set as the boot partition (hint: use SetBootPart).
This command does not implicitely call HideBootProm, so you might want to call it before.
- LinuxBoot "kernelfile" ("command-line" ("ramdisk-file"))
Load the given kernel and ramdisk into the high memory, setup the command line and boot the kernel. It is a good idea to put at least a minimal command line with the location of the root filesystem (like
dev/hda1"/). If you are using a linux system that heavily relies onlilo
(like RedHat Linux 5.1), it may be necessary to add to the command line something likeBOOT_IMAGE=linux
. Note that the kernel can be loaded by TFTP (automatically cached on the hard disk) or directly from the target root partition.This command works for small and big kernels (
National language support
This section lists commands related not national language support. Optional arguments are listed between parenthesis.
- RemapKeys "original-keys" "remapped-keys"
National keyboard support. Remap given keys to other characters. For instance, to swap the Y and Z keys, use
Remapkeys "yzYZ" "zyZY"
It is a good idea to use the quoted octal notation when using characters not included in the minimal ASCII character set, in order to avoid a dependency to the iso-latin modal settings.For international keyboards, there are two keys that produce a backslash in non-remapped (US) mode. Each of them can be independantly remapped, thanks to the fact that
sees one of them as a key answering ASCII code 252 (octal) or ASCII code 335 (octal) when shifted.If you send me a sample script that does keyboard mapping for your national keyboard, I will make it available under
To help you make your own keyboard mapping, I suggest pressing all special keys without remapping the keyboard and writing down the character they produce. These will be theoriginal-keys
. Theremapped-keys
simply are the key you would have liked to see, in the same order. If some keys (either original or remapped) produce characters above ASCII dec 127, use the quoted octal notation. You can easily get the octal code for any given character by looking in the ASCII table of HelpPC for instance (HelpPC is a shareware hypertext on-line help program by David Jurgens). - RemapAltkeys "original-keys" "remapped-keys"
National keyboard support. Remap the given keys when ALT is depressed For instance, to map Alt-2 to the ampersand sign, use
RemapAltKeys "2" "@"
Note that dead keys are not supported. - LoadCodePage "cpxxx.bin"
Load and activate the given binary Codepage file. Codepages are used for the translation of Unicode characters (present on VFAT valumes for instance) into 8-bits characters. If you do not have the right Codepage loaded, you will get FAT warnings while accessing the filesystem when special characters are encountred.
All binary codepage files are available at
The default codepage is 850, a reordered superset of ISO-Latin-1. If you load a more exotic codepage, you should usually turn the variable
or you might get meaningless implicit conversions. Moreover, if you want to display exotic characters, you should also load the proper screen font (use"LoadFont"
). - LoadFont "fontfile"
Load and activate a VGA/VESA font, both in text and graphic mode. The font file must be a binary file of 16 bztes/characters (8x16 bitmap). This command can be used for National Language Support as well as for Fantasy support.
An archive with several fantasy fonts is available at
. This archive also contains a program to extract fonts for your codepage from the DOS.CPI
Commands specific to MrZip
- Source...
Source (i)archive "filename" Source path "path"
Set the source for the archive manipulation to the given (incremental) archive file or disk path.
- Dest...
Dest (i)archive "filename" Dest (i)dump Dest path "path"
Set the destination for the archive manipulation to the given (incremental) archive file, dump or disk path. To control the quantity of data displayed during dump, use the $DumpFormat special variable.
- FileZip "source-filename" "dest-filename"
Compress a file for further decompression with FileUnzip or for using as ZRamDisk. The file is validated by a 32-bits CRC.
- Filter...
Filter -"pattern" Filter +"pattern"
Avoid/allow files and directories matching the given pattern (wildcards allowed) to be included in the archive. The pattern is matched agains the full pathname. By default, all files are included in the image. You only need to explicitely allow files that where cancelled by a filter. Each negative filter has its own positive filter (allowed) sublist.
For DOS/Windows images, you will typically use
Filter -"*.swp" Filter -"temp/*"
and for Unix images, you will typically useFilter -"var/log/*" Filter -"tmp/*"
- CopyArchive
Start the archive manipulation operation, according to source, destination and filter settings. Except in a few circumstances, you will probably use the shortcut below instead of explicitely calling
. One circumstance in which you will useCopyArchive
explicitely is when you want to change the fragmentation of an image, as follow:set FragmentSize="30 MB" Source archive "original.imz" Dest archive "refragmented.imz" CopyArchive
- FullZip "path" "full-archive"
Shortcut for
Source path "path" Dest archive "full-archive" CopyArchive
You should usually first setup filters. - IncrZip "path" "incr-archive"
Shortcut for
Source path "path" Dest iarchive "incr-archive" CopyArchive
- FullDump "full-archive"
Shortcut for
Source archive "full-archive" Dest dump CopyArchive
- IncrDump "incr-archive"
Shortcut for
Source iarchive "incr-archive" Dest dump CopyArchive
- XCopy "srcpath" "dstpath"
Shortcut for
Source path "srcpath" Dest path "dstpath" CopyArchive
5.2 NoBreak.sys
is a very small (about 350 bytes only)
driver that you include at the beginning of your
. Its goal is to secure the boot process,
until the user is logged in. DOS provides a setting for this
(namely BREAK=OFF
), but it is not drastic enough, and
has almost no effect in the autoexec.bat
. Our driver
works by modifying the scan-code of the key pressed when a break is
requested, directly at the BIOS level. This way, no program at all
can receive a break until break is enabled again.
The driver must be loaded from the config.sys
using the devlod
program from Undocumented
DOS). Afterwards, break can be enabled by sending
to the NOBRK
pseudo-device, and
disabled again by sending No
(in fact, only the first
character, Y
or N
is significant).
As this driver relies on the BIOS, it does only work for DOS and Windows 3.1. Windows 95 has its own low-level keyboard handling routines.
Assembler source code is available.
6. Special TFTP Servers
As the only network support available in the TCP/IP BootPROM is TFTP, there is a special interest in enhancing TFTP servers for providing new capabilities.
6.1 Incom Enhanced TFTP Server
InCom GmbH distributes with the TCP/IP BootPROM an enhanced TFTP server that can send packets of up to 1408 bytes instead of the standard 512 bytes. This is a great enhancement that you should use. This server is available on the TCP/IP Bootprom Utility disk for Solaris, Windows and as Netware NLM.
6.2 Linux Enhanced TFTP Server
We built a modified version of Linux TFTP server that acts as InCom
enhanced TFTP server. Basically, we simply changed the packet size
from 512 to 1408 bytes and the port from 69 to 59. It is available
from http://cuiwww.unige.ch/info/pc/remote-boot/soft/etdtpd.tar.gz
6.3 The Security Gateway
We wrote a special TFTP server that serves as security gateway for
authenticating users. This server runs under Linux or Solaris, and
can authenticate users according to a Unix password database (NIS
and shadow passwords are supported), a Windows NT (or Samba) server
or a Radius server. It is available from http://cuiwww.unige.ch/info/pc/remote-boot/soft/stdtpd.tar.gz
with source and precompiled binaries. The precompiled binaries do
not include NT password encryption as we cannot distribute
but compilation is straightforward.
In order to use the security gateway, you just have to setup a
trivial security domains configuration file that describes
to which authentication server each logical security domains maps
(the Unix
domain implicitely maps to the server Unix
password database). This is a sample configuration file:
Note that if you are using Samba, you must set
# # STFTPD configuration file # # This file specify the server of the "security domains". Two types of # authentication servers are supported : radius or winnt (winnt includes # NT Server and Samba) # # Format of radius servers # radius <domain> <serveraddress> <secret> # # secret is the secret word as specified in your /etc/raddb/clients file # # Format of SMB servers # winnt <domain> <serveraddress> <netbiosname> # # netbiosname is the NETBIOS name of your server # # Examples radius sec-dom-rad radiusserver testing123 winnt sec-dom-nt1 192.168.1.1 NTSERVER1 winnt sec-dom-smb samba SAMBA1
security = user
You can also provide to the security server a file containing a list of users which are not allowed to log on (for which the check will fail anyways).
6.4 The Broadcast TFTP Server
We wrote a special TFTP server that implements a home-made
Broadcast variant of TFTP. Using this server, we were able to
download images to 25 clients on a heavily loaded 10 Mb ethernet
network at 6 Mb/s (it is more efficient than the regular TFTP
because it does not need to acknowledge each packets). This server
runs under Linux or Solaris. It is available from http://cuiwww.unige.ch/info/pc/remote-boot/soft/btdtpd.tar.gz
with source and precompiled binaries.
As the TCP/IP bootprom does not support this protocol, our solution consist in booting a tiny ramdisk-based linux system using the tools described in this document, and running the Linux version of MrBatch which has built-in support for Broadcast TFTP. A simple batch file can the download all files to the cache in a few minutes, simultaneously on all client computers. You do not need to install Linux yourself to use this package, except if you have exotic hardware and cannot directly use the kernel provided in the package.
The process works as follow. First, you startup the broadcast server manually, giving the number of expected client computers as argument (remember, this procedure is not to be used every day but only when you changed an image and want to ensure it is immediately uploaded to all your client computers). Then, you turn on all client computers, which will run the following BpBatch script:
The initial ramdisk contains:
# # This batch is run by bpbatch to launch a mini-linux using an initial # ramdisk, which will then run mrbatch under linux. # # The broadcast TFTP protocol only works with the Linux implementation of # mrbatch, because of the lack of broadcast support in the bootprom itself. # # 1. Setup a tiny partition, to let a lot of space for the cache setpartitions "BIGDOS:50" # 2. Clean the MBR clean 0 # 3. Run a Linux Kernel with initrd (Initial Ramdisk) supprt, and use # bcastrd.gz as the initial ramdisk (will be mounted root and then # executed via /linuxrc). See initrd.txt for more details about # initial ramdisks. You don't have to specify a root device (second # parameter is null) to the kernel, it will use the initial ramdisk. linuxboot "linux.krn" "" "bcastrd.gz" # 4. The initial ramdisk will run dhcpcd to setup networking using DHCP. # It will then run mrbatch -w bcastlx
, a DHCP client used to setup networking -
, a little wrapper automatically started by initrd and that startsdhcpcd
. -
, used by MrBatch -
, devices needed to run Linux and mrbatch
which is really huge. The resulting ramdisk is
Gzipped and takes less than 300 KB. The kernel itself takes 450 KB
(with many network cards and initrd support). When Linux is up and
running, MrBatch is called with the following script (that you
should edit for your needs):
When the transfer is done, you can simply turn off all client computers and change their initial boot script to your favorite menu.
# This file is executed when mrbatch is launched by the initial ramdisk # bcastrd.gz # It's main purpose is to "broacast copy" files to the cache # # 1. Be verbose showlog # 2. Don't want a "press a key" set pauselog="OFF" # 3. Set partitions at their final values. # Important: Since you will copy files into the cache to be used in future # boot, you need to specify the same partitions as in the future boots. setpartitions "BIGDOS:1024" # 4. Clean the CACHE partition clean -1 # 5. And the copy files into the cache, using the Broadcast TFTP protocol # (port 99) # # You can use the script "as is", but you surely need to modify the following # line ! In our example, we download the file mblinux.imz, which is the image # file for our installation of Linux. copy "$BOOTP-Server-IP@99:mblinux.imz" "{:-1}mblinux.imz"