[ANNOUNCE] Gujin PC graphic bootloader version 2.4

From: Etienne Lorrain
Date: Wed Feb 06 2008 - 07:42:33 EST


Hello,

A new version of the Gujin bootloader has been released, with those improvements:

- fix the problem booting kernels after linux-2.6.22
- can also install the second stage inside a filesystem (contigous file, no RAID
supported) by:
"instboot boot.bin /boot/gujin.ebios"
and remove by:
"instboot --remove=/dev/sda ; rm /boot/gujin.ebios"
- moves DBG messages in "xdata" segment to stop "stack overflow" messages in debug
executables.
- adds confirmation before restoration of MBR and partition table from backup.
- add a small executable "gujin-cmdline" to edit the "embedded command line" of vmlinuz
files.

Because Gujin automatically detect vmlinuz files, it has difficulties to affect command
line parameters for different kernels in potentially different distributions. Only one
generic command line can be edited/saved inside Gujin interface. Gujin does not have
a "configuration file" because there is nowhere to store it in a PC where distributions
are added and removed at will - no filesystem can be trusted to stay.

As a temporary measure, Gujin uses some empty space of vmlinuz bootsector (the first
512 bytes) with marker "cmdline:" to store a zero ended string which is appended to the
Linux command line and then completely erased before starting Linux. It is what I call
the "embedded command line".

When installed in a filesystem, the second stage bootloader needs to be contigous,
so in EXT2/3FS the file starts by a hole of 12 blocks. I hope it will be a strong hint
for any defragmentation tool to consider this file "unmoveable". Also I did not find
the real way to set hidden/system bit for file /boot/gujin.ebios when filesystem is VFAT.

Gujin description at:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/gujin/

Gujin homepage at:
http://gujin.org

Install pack at:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gujin/install-2.4.tar.gz

Have fun,
Etienne.



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