chos (Choose-OS)
chos (Choose-OS) |
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Choose-OS is a alternative, easy, fully configurable boot loader for Linux/PC with a boot menu.
It is a program which, when you boot your computer, allows you to select the operating system to boot.
Linux, DOS and other operating systems are supported.
It does the same stuff that LILO or OS/2 boot manager do (offering a simple boot menu at bootup).
Choose-OS has some nice features not found in other programs of this kind.
Look and Coolness:
* You can choose the colors used for each image separately
* You can position the menu and timer or even each image separately on screen
* Hotkey can be specified for each image
* And finally, you can have a background image (plain ascii text or screendump format)!
Other stuff:
* Emergency bootsector - If there`s been a failure loading Choose-OS mapfile or 2nd stage loader, an emergency bootsector will be tried to load, if one specified
* Initrd,bzImage,MBR rewrite, hda/hdb and fd0/fd1 swapping, etc.
* Single-shot autoboot
* dosmenukey -option.
* Includes X interface to configure the boot screen and all parameters
===================
Last stable code from 0.8x branch - 0.85 (in fact created after unstable 0.9)
Last beta code (0.9 branch) released by Tuomo: 21 August 1999
Tuomo decided to no longer maintain it: 14 March 2000
Don Mahurin uploaded to sf.net: 17 January 2001
Arnold Shade decided to continue development (project take over from Don Mahurin): 31 January 2009
===================
Versions till 0.9 (21 August 1999) are under copyright (c) of Tuomo Valkonen 1996-1999
http://www.students.tut.fi/~tuomov/chos/
THIS IS BETA-STAGE SOFTWARE AND YOU ARE TRYING IT AT YOUR OWN RISK! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
SHORT INFO
Choose-OS is a boot loader (boot manager) for Linux/x86. What the
program does is let you choose the operating system to boot.
WHAT IS NEW?
0.9:
- Complete rewrite
- More configurable
- Some options can now be given at boot time
- Modular user interface support
- User interfaces support sub-menus
- More bloated than the old one :-)
INSTALLATION
To build and install the program:
cd sources
joe makedef.in # (to change compilation options if needed)
./build.sh # or: ./cfg.sh && make depend && make
make install # (as root).
- If you have a previous installation of chos, it might
be wise to 'cp /sbin/chos /sbin/chos.old' before running
'make install'. It should not overwrite other chos stuff
(modules are now located in /boot/chos-).
- When recompiling chos, running 'make realclean' is a good
thing to do before repeating the above steps
To install and configure the loader:
- Backing up any important data is *highly* recommended.
- Create a configuration file (see the following section).
- It might be wise to install chos on a FLOPPY for the first
time to see if it is willing to boot at all and then, if it
works, try to install it on a hd. When installing this way and
you have been running a previous version of chos, have chos
use mapfile other than /boot/chos.map.
- Run the installer: chos [--verbose] [other options].
For a list of options, run: chos --help.
- If everything was successfull, chos should be installed
now. Good luck with the next boot.
NOTICE:
Many distributions seem to contain a non-working version of as86
(0.4). This version should work at least.
(If you know an "official" site for the package, please let me know.
I am not going to waste my holiday searching for it).
CONFIGURATION
See the files under docs/:
configuration.txt General configuration
ui.txt General help on user interfaces
ui-*.txt Help on configuring user interfaces
loader-*.txt Help on options for loaders
There is still much work to be done with the documentation
but it is not on top of my priority list.
For help on command line options, run: chos --help
| Version number | Date | Status | Author | Release short description |
| 1.90 | Between 17 June and 21 August 1999 | Testing, obsolete | Tuomo Valkonen | This version is also known as 1.9-beta or chos-210899. |
| 1.85 | 18 March 2000 | Stable, obsolete | Tuomo Valkonen | You can also take a look at couple of Debian patches here and here. |
| 1.84 | 15 October 1998 | Stable, obsolete | Tuomo Valkonen | |
| 1.82 | 28 February 1998 | Stable, obsolete | Tuomo Valkonen | You can also take a look at Debian patch file. |
| 1.81 | 29 December 1997 | Stable, obsolete | Tuomo Valkonen | You can also take a look at Debian patch file. |
Releases till 1.9 have been created by Tuomo Valkonen. All above versions are maintained by Arnold Shade.
The changelog for versions 1.91 and above is available inside individual packages. However, the latest changelog
is available here. For complete set of files available for download,
look here.
Current maintainer of chos is Arnold Shade (what is a nickname due to several reasons being anonymous). Use it to refer chos 1.91 and above.
Special thanks to Don Mahurin who found chos and initially created chos project pages on SourceForge.
The original author of chos is Tuomo Valkonen. Use it to refer chos 1.9 and below:
Note: you need to replace " __dot__ " with "." and " __at__ " with "@" before using the addresses above.
Old pages related to chos project:
Similar projects (other boot loaders):
Information on Linux boot-up process
