Vamos

Tips and Hints for Vamos

7.1 Windows 95
7.2 Windows 2000, NT 4 and NTFS version 4 and 5
7.3 Dos from version 5.0
7.4 Boot from drive D: (DOS / Windows / Windows 95)
7.5 Hiding Partitions
7.6 Linux and LILO (LInux LOader)
7.7 Forewarding keyboard events
7.8 How can I add a new boot configuration?
7.9 How can I hide partitions?

7.1 Windows 95

During the installation Windows 95 overwrites the MBR (Master Boot Record). If Vamos had been installed here, a part of it has been overwritten by Windows 95. You can restore Vamos with the help of its installation program and recall the former configuration. In this case follow the instructions of "Repair a damaged MBR installation".

7.2 Windows 2000, NT 4 and NTFS version 4 and 5

Windows 2000 is the successor of Windows NT 4. Windows 2000 has very similar boot restrictions as NT 4. The boot process is split into two parts:

• During the first step the NTLDR and the files BOOT.INI and NTDETECT.COM are loaded from the start partition and the boot menu is displayed.

• The second step is executed after selecting one of the NT boot menu entries. The kernel of the operating system is loaded and executed from the SYSTEM32 directory which can reside in another partition.

There are strict restrictions for the boot partition and the contents of the file BOOT.INI. Only primary partitions on the first fixed disk can be selected as boot partition. The windows 2000 installer gives no choice to select this partition. The user/administrator can only select the partition and path to the \WINNT system directory.

The file BOOT.INI uses a strange notation to specify the path to the \WINNT system directory. If you insert or move a partition or change the order of physical harddisks you may change the path in the BOOT.INI file. You can find a detailed description of the syntax in Microsofts KB item Q102873 (some additional information in Q155222). An interesting list of boot options can be found at http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/info/bootini.shtml. The file BOOT.INI can contain up to 8 (? or 10) boot entries. Before moving NTFS partitions or changing the order of partitions you may want to enter some additional boot menu entries to the BOOT.INI which reflect the changed order.

NTFS 4 -> NTFS 5 -> NTFS 4

Windows 2000 introduces a new version of the NTFS file system "NTFS 5.0". Windows 4 (service pack 4) can access the file system (reading and writing) but NT 4 cannot repair this file system any longer.

Windows 2000 converts all NTFS file systems into the NTFS 5 format every time it reboots. It cannot be stopped from doing this by an unknown partition type qualifier (the "Hide" mechanism of Vamos).

If a PC with NT 4 and Windows 2000 crashes and reboots the NT4 refuse to repair the partition. The volume cannot be mounted in NT 4. You first have to start Windows 2000 and repair the partition.

There are two solutions (I know about two):

• "System Internals" has built a software which uses parts of the Windows 2000 operating system to execute the Windows 2000 chkdsk routine in Windows NT 4. See: http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/NTFSCHK.shtml

• I have built an own program, that changes the 'NTFS 5' version information back to "NTFS 4". The alterations done by Windows 2000 aren't undone with that. It the version information has changed back you are able to execute the NT 4 CHKDSK again.
  If you have executed Windows 2000 and converted the version information back to NTFS 4, you can "repair" the partition and remove the unknown and changed file attributes (in NT 4 unknown) which reflects the new NTFS features. You may loose some information like security attributes because of the changed fomats.
  The program (a Windows text mode program) to change the NTFS version information can be downloaded here:
  ftp://ftp.vamos.de/pub/vamos/Mark4NTFS.zip
  Take it as provisional solution till someone develops a better and more complete conversion software (hey, PowerQuest, wake up, ... ) or wait until the "NTFS 4" format has died out.

• I am working on another solution which uses a different "hiding" mechanism, which works with Windows 2000.

Dynamic ...

Windows 2000 introduces a new partitioning schema and new notation:

• dynamic disks
• and dynamic volumes.

Dynamic disks are not supported by other operating systems at the moment and Vamos cannot handle dynamic disks too. You should wait 2-3 years until using it in mixed operating system environments.

7.3 DOS - version 5.0 and newer

DOS supports more than one primary FAT partition on every harddisk, but DOS "fdisk.exe" cannot handle this.

Tip:

1. Use fdisk to create the first primary FAT partition.
2. Hide the partition with Vamos (either command line option or boot configuration).
3. Create the second primary FAT partition.
4. Unhide the first FAT partition.

7.4 Boot from drive D: (DOS / Windows / Windows 95)

As far as I know booting from drive D: is impossible with DOS and Windows 95. In every Microsoft's operating system (except Windows NT) it is important, that the boot files are located in the root directory of C:. The partitions are ordered beginning with C: in the following way:

1) primary FAT partition on harddisk 1
2) primary FAT partition on harddisk 2
3) 1. logical FAT drive on harddisk 1
4) 2. logical FAT drive on harddisk 1
5) 3. logical FAT drive on harddisk 1
...
6) 1. logical FAT drive on harddisk 2

To boot from a logical drive, this must be declared as C:. There may be no primary FAT partition respectively every such partition must be "hidden". Drawback: The previous drive C: is not accessable.

At the moment I cannot say which versions of DOS / Windows 95 you can combine, I only know that it is possible to boot Windows 95 ("Windows 95 OEM Service Release") from the first physical disk, if the primary partition is hidden.

To guarantee a correct functionality the system must meet the following condition:

• The boot drive must be C:. All drives which are ordered before must be hidden.

• In the configuration menu of Vamos the item:
  Bootsupport "OS/2"
  must be activated.

• The command "sys X:" may not work under every condition. To assert that the system is completely installed remove the hidden systems files (io.sys, msdos.sys, command.com, dblspace.bin, ...) from the drive and retype the command: "sys X:"

7.5 Hiding partitions

With the help of Vamos you can hide different partitions in every boot configuration. This means, that a partition gets a "wrong / unknown" partition type before booting, so that DOS handles it as a partition of a different operating system (Vamos takes type 160). Partitioning software (e. g. fdisk) may not find a hidden partition.

If Vamos is deleted from the harddisk in this state, the partitions remain hidden. You can unhide them with the installation program (e.g. unhide the first primary FAT partition):

vamos hd1:p1:6

This command assigns the type "FAT (6)" to the partition.
By the command:

vamos /l

you get a list of the known partition types.

With the new version of Windows 95, Microsoft has introduced some new FAT types. The actual standard type 6 for FAT has got some extensions. FAT32 is needed for FAT partitions greater than 2 MB and LBA mode is needed for harddisks > 8 GB.

• type 11 (FAT32)
• type 12 (FAT32 LBA mode)
• type 14 (LBA mode)

If in doubt about the type you can try out and reboot each time.

7.6 Linux and LILO (LInux LOader)

Vamos cannot boot Linux directly. You should install LILO in the bootsector of the root partition.

It is possible to hand over keyboard events to LILO. To enable this, you have to rebuild the LILO package with a modified configuration option. The default of LILO is to "eat" the keyboard buffer when LILO is started. For further information see the documentation of LILO.

7.7 Forewarding keyboard events

Vamos can hand over keyboard events to a following bootmanager. The number of keys is limited by the BIOS (16 keys/events). Not all key combinations are accepted (Alt, Shift, Ctrl).

In the bootprocess there are drivers/programs which "eat"/delete the keyboard buffer.

7.8 How can I add a new boot configuration?

In the configuration menu you can use the INS- / DEL-key to insert or delete a boot configuration within the list of existing boot configurations.

You get a hint to these keys by F1 - help.

7.9 How can I hide partitions?

Within the configuration menu there is a list of the possible partitions to hide for every boot configuration. If the cursor is within this list, you can use the DEL- / INS-key to hide or unhide a partition.

You get a hint to these keys by F1 - help.