Air-Boot ¶
Air-Boot is a track0 Boot Manager.
That means it is stored at the very start of the disk, just after the Master Boot Record.
Air-Boot is also an interactive Boot Manager, which means it presents a list of Operating Systems in a menu from which the user can select one to boot.
Some AirBoot Highlights ¶
No Primary Partition Required ¶
Because AirBoot is written in (neat and compact) Assembler, it is small enough to fit in the track0 (nowhereland) space. So, unlike OS/2 Boot Manager, AirBoot does not require a primary partition, resolving the problem that occurred with Windows 7 OEM installations. And since OS/2 has had long time capability of booting from logical partitions, it could completely leave the dogfight for primaries.
On The Fly Partition Scanning ¶
When AirBoot starts it scans all partitions on all disks and enumerates them in a list which is then presented. Whenever partitions are added or removed, at the next boot AirBoot presents these changes immediately.
Built-in Setup ¶
AirBoot contains a Setup mode which allows configuration directly from within AirBoot itself. No other tools required.
Support For Huge Harddisks ¶
Under OS/2, huge hard drives are handled by using a special geometry.
AirBoot understands this special geometry, allowing OS/2 to boot from partitions located above the 512 GiB boundary.
Operating System Agnostic ¶
While the major focus of AirBoot is booting OS/2, it has always been capable of booting other operating-systems. It supports booting many versions of Windows and booting Linux is done by chainloading GRUB.
Before Using AirBoot ¶
Before installing AirBoot, it would be a good idea to learn a little bit more about it.
This is especially true with regard to partitioning hard disks the way OS/2 likes it (use its volume manager) and the coexistence with other operating-systems.
See the section below where to download AirBoot or view its manual.
Downloads ¶
Releases: https://github.com/rousseaux/netlabs.air-boot/releases
| Component | Package | Version | Description |
| Bootloader, installers & manual | ZIP | 1.1.4 | Binary Package |
| Bootloader, installers & manual | ZIP | 1.1.4 | Source Package |
| Manual | 1.1.4 | User Manual for v1.1.4 | |
| Bootloader, installers & manual | ZIP | 1.1.2 | Binary Package |
| Bootloader, installers & manual | ZIP | 1.1.2 | Source Package |
| Manual | 1.1.2 | User Manual for v1.1.2 | |
| Bootloader, installers & manual | ZIP | 1.1.0 | (contact information is out-of-date) |
| Manual | 1.1.0 | (contact information is out-of-date) |
Developer Notes ¶
There exists a project clone at: https://rousseaux.github.io/netlabs.air-boot
That project is *not* a fork of the original Netlabs project. It is a *clone* done with git-svn with the purpose to be able to use Git branching for testing and feature additions.
The bi-directional mapping is: github:project~master <-> netlabs:project~trunk
Reporting Problems ¶
The preferred way is through Netlabs Track, and you can create a new ticket using the following link:
http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot/newticket
(note: you need to be logged-in to netlabs to create a ticket)
But, before you report a new problem, please check if the problem you are about to report was not already reported by somebody else:
http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot/report
License ¶
GNU General Public License v3.0
Credits ¶
- Martin Kiewitz
- Ben Rietbroek (rousseau)
