LegendOS - An Impressive Operating System Project
-------------------------------------------------

LegendOS Boot Manager V0.91
---------------------------
Programming by Serdar Ozler
E-Mail: sozler@sitebest.com

Homepage: http://legendos.sitebest.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This utility is completely FREEWARE, and you can distribute it FREELY!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING: This software is a beta software. I've no beta testers like
other big companies, I can only test it in my computer and in my friends'
computers. So, USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is the first module of LegendOS. Thank you as you're reading this text now. If you see some errors in my english, sorry about it.

This utility is a boot manager which allows you to select which operating system you want to use. Then it jumps to this operating system.

Standard partition code in a HDD starts only the active partition which it finds. Therefore, you can't use more than one operating systems, or you have to create some bootdisks...

But, LegendOS BM (Boot Manager) has a setup in which you can select operating systems which you use. Then you can save this options and BM code to your HDD by using this setup utility. It will be active at the next time you restart your computer and display a menu which consists all operating system you have selected. You can select any OS and press Enter key in this menu, or wait 5 seconds to start highlighted OS automatically.

------
Using:
------

Firstly, you have to extract "losbm.zip" archive by using any PKZip compatible archiver. It will create three files:

setup.exe
boot.dat
bm.dat
losbm.txt

"boot.dat" and "bm.dat" are important data files of LegendOS BM, and DO NOT try to change these files.

"losbm.txt" is the file which you're reading now :)

You have to run "setup.exe" to define partitions to BM and save BM to your HDD.

First of all, Setup Utility will ask you from which drive it shall load current BM settings. Naturally, this is your first installation, and you can select A or C. It doesn't change something. Setup Utility will give you a message which says that setup can't found BM on the selected disk. This is so normal.

Top window lists any defined partitions to boot by using BM. But in your first installation, there will be no partitions in this list.

Bottom window lists all partitions which it can find. It also adds a "Drive A:" partition to this list. This is a virtual partition to boot from a diskette by using BM.

You can change active window by pressing the TAB key. If a window is NOT active, there will be no highlighted partitions in it. In startup, default active partition is the top window. You have to press TAB to change this.

When you press ENTER key in the bottom window, you add highlighted partition to the top window. Also, you make it bootable by BM.

If you add a partition which you don't want to use, you can go to the top window and press R key if this partition is selected. You can go through the partitions by using arrow keys.

You can also change defined partition order in the top window. This will directly affect your boot menu. You can drag one line up by using +, and one line down by using -.

Naturally, you can change names of the defined partitions by using N key. I'm sure that you don't want to use default names of these partitions :)

If you don't love LegendOS Boot Manager, or if it's not compatible with your system, you can run "fdisk /mbr". Or, you can restore your last partition sectors by running "setup /u". But if you run Setup twice, your last partition also contains BM. So, BM forgets your old partition sectors. Please try to use fdisk firstly.

-------------
Experimental:
-------------

You may have an operating system which stays in an extended partition. Normally, you can't start an OS like this. But I'm working about it (because I have a Win98 which stays in an extended partition), and have found a solution for Windows 98. I don't know whether it works for an another operating system or not.

If you have an OS like this, you will see it in the bottom window. You can press ENTER key to add it like the other OSes. Then try to start it by restarting your computer and using BM menu. If it doesn't starts, run Setup again. Select this partition in the top window and press the ENTER key. You will see a dialog box which allows you to select any extended options for this partition. There is only one option for now. It allows you to force Windows 98 boot block to use IBM/MS INT 13h Extensions. It works for my computer. So, you can try it.

--------
History:
--------

Version 0.91
- Fixes so many bugs.

Version 0.90
- First release.
