Vamos

Bootmanager Vamos

(Versatile Advanced Manager for Operating Systems)

1. Introduction
2. Features
3. Screen shots of the bootmanager
4. Screen shots of the installation program
5. Installation
6. Configure Vamos to your needs
7. Tips/Hints ....
8. Restrictions
9. Download page

1. Introduction:

Vamos is a Bootmanager to load different operating systems from different partitions like the OS/2 Bootmanager does. I built it because of the problem to install OS/2 and Windows NT on one PC and integrated many features that give you new options of configuring your computer.

You are guided by dialogs and menues through the installation program and the bootmanager itself, so that the handling is easy. Everyone who knows the structure of a harddisk (partitioning, installed operating systems etc.) should be able to use the program intuitively.

If you really should be inconfident with Vamos you can deinstall it completely with the help of the installation program and the undo file.

Vamos is distributed as shareware (see LICENSE.TXT in the zip-archive).

2. Features:

• Vamos needs no primary partition.

• Vamos is configurable while booting.

• Vamos can boot an operating system from a secondary partition.

• Vamos can boot from a second harddisk (if OS support).

• Vamos has password protection: You can use different passwords for every boot configuration.

• Vamos automatically starts a configuration after a chosen delay time if no key is pressed. This may be the last booted configuration or a fixed chosen configuration.

• Vamos can put keyboard events to the keyboard buffer which may start an action in the operating system (if OS support).

• Vamos can 'hide' partitions to solve conflicts between different operating systems.

• Vamos can activate the boot partition (for an OS that needs this) .

• Vamos can replace the OS/2 bootmanager.

• The installation program carefully tests the configuration before writing any changes to the harddisk.

3. Screen shots of the bootmanager:

On the following page you see a series of screen shots and comments concerning the bootmenu and the configuration menu of Vamos.

4. Screen shots of the installation program:

On the following page there is a series of screen shots and comments of the installation program (VAMOS.EXE).

5. Installation:

1. Copy the installation program "VAMOS.EXE" and the documentation to a floppy disk.
   Leave space for the undo file (about 100 kB), that is built during the installation. This extra disk is the best way to save your data for undoing.
2. Boot DOS.
   (You can as well install Vamos with Windows 3.x (DOS shell) or Windows 95 (console mode), but the configuration tests are more reliable when running in "real" DOS.)
3. Start the DOS program "VAMOS".
4. Follow the instructions of the dialogs.
5. The bootmanager itself is configured while booting.
   After writing Vamos to your harddisk remove any floppy disk and restart the computer.
   

There is a small online help available by pressing <F1>.

The installation program has some additional command line features. Call "vamos -h" to see a list of options (e. g. activate a primary partition like fdisk or change the type flag of a partition).

6. Configure Vamos to your own needs:

• Vamos creates an initial boot menu when booting the first time. You can change the names of the items, passwords and other options by using the Tab- and Cursor-Keys or highlighted letters + Alt-Key.

• You can duplicate items e. g. to assign different passwords for the same operating system or to assign different keyboard events for a following bootmanager.

• With <F1> you get help to some special functions that may not be obvious.
  

7. Tips/Hints...

8. Restrictions:

• There is a BIOS extension for disk access which enables the BIOS to handle harddisks > 8 GB. Vamos 1.1.x has support for the extension but it is partially untested and many operating systems do not allow to boot from behind 8 GB.
  Additionally, DOS Windows 3.x and Windows NT 4.0 do not support these extension.
  
• Restrictions within Windows 95
  DOS and Windows assume that they boot from drive C: (primary FAT partition on first harddisk).
  Windows 95/98 ("Windows 95 OEM Service Release") is able to boot from a logical drive in an extended partition, but afterwards tries to load start files from drive C: (which may not be the same). (see Tips/Hints...)

• Restrictions to DOS
  Actually Vamos is only able to boot DOS from a primary partition.
  A second restriction is, that DOS / Windows NT 4.0 (FAT) do not boot from the region behind the first 2 GB of a harddisk. With the new installation program it is possible to disable this "original Microsoft" restriction (see VAMOS.EXE command line option "fix ..").

9. Download page:

Click here