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AirBoot
AirBoot is a track0 Boot Manager.
That means it is stored at the very start of the disk, just after the Master Boot Record.
AirBoot 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 occured 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 harddisks 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 co-existance with other operating-systems.
See the section below where to download AirBoot or view its manual.
AirBoot Downloads
https://github.com/rousseaux/netlabs.air-boot/releases/download/v1.1.0-RELEASE/AirBoot-v1.1.0.zip
(bootloader, installers & manual)
(** contact information is out-of-date **)
https://rousseaux.github.io/netlabs.air-boot/pdf/AirBoot-v1.1.0-manual.pdf
(pdf-format)
(** contact information is out-of-date **)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
- rousseaux
