bootAble

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Highlights

A few highlights of the script:

• Can be used to create bootable CDs and maintenance partitions (and thus can be seen as a replacement of bootOS2);
• Both floppy-emulation and  no-floppy-emulation boot methods supported;
  
• Easy configuration via configuration files (almost everything is configurable);
• Interactive build of configuration files;
  
• WPS (VGA and gengradd) or command-line boot;
• Support for FAT, FAT32, HPFS, HPFS386, NTFS, JFS, CDFS, UDF, and LVM;
• Support for IDE, SCSI, USB, Mouse, Serial port, and Parallel port;
• Support for Unicode;
• Support for REXX;
• Support for basic TCP/IP networking, including DHCP;
• Support for NETBIOS and NETBIOS over TCP/IP protocols;
• Support for PEER networking;
  
• Support for Roman Stangl's CD Boot Menu;
• Use of DANI or default drivers;
• Use of JJSCDROM or default drivers;
• Support for RSJ or cdrecord/mkisofs (both original and '2' versions supported);
• Small disk footprint; less than 5MB for the command-line version;
• Can make use of LXLITE to make disk footprint even less;
• And much, much more...

Default settings for file system and driver support are mostly retrieved from the current system (in case of SCSI, you will need to tell bootAble the drivers to use). Adapting these defaults is done by creating a configuration file with the necessary settings.

3. Installation

The simplest way to install bootAble is is to copy all files from the bootAble archive to directory on the PATH or a specific directory (if you use a specific directory, just make sure you run bootAble from that location).
To locate files, bootAble first looks at the specified location (or current directory if no path is given), if the specified file is not found, bootAble searches the paths as specified in the SEARCHPATH setting. By default the SEARCHPATH is made up of \os2\boot on the boot drive, followed by the LIBPATH, PATH, DPATH, HELP, BOOKSHELF, \psfonts, and \psfonts\pfm on the boot drive. Note: When specifying files with wildcards, the SEARCHPATH is not searched.

3.1. bootAble Files

3.2. Other files and applications

4. Syntax

The command syntax is as follows:

bootAble [/v <verbose>] [<configuration file>|/@<configuration-list-file>...]

The optional arguments are the verbosity level and one or more configuration files. These configuration files are used to override the defaults as specified in the file bootAble.cfg. The special form /@configuration-list-file causes the content of the configuration list file to be used to list additional configuration files. E.g. if the file myCfg.lst contains the lines

The command

would have exactly the same result as

Notes:

• Configuration files as well as configuration list files are searched for on the SEARCHPATH (by default os2\boot on the boot drive followed by LIBPATH, PATH, DPATH, HELP, and BOOKSHELF, \psfonts, and \psfonts\pfm on the boot drive);
• As a general rule you should specify your bootAble.myCfg as first configuration file on the command-line. This to make sure your settings will be used instead of the (global) defaults in the following configuration files;
  
• You only need to specify configuration options/variables in your own configuration files which override the defaults!

5. Using bootAble

After installing bootAble and its required files (see section 3, Installation), you are ready to use it.  Using bootAble is simple and basically comprises of only two steps:

1. Determine which configuration files you are going to use (see section 3.1.2, Configuration files for a description of the provided configuration files);
2. Run bootAble with the configuration files you require (see section 4, Syntax).

• For a first time, I suggest to run bootAble without any parameters. You will be asked to supply the answer to various questions (e.g., if you want to create a bootAble CD or maintenance partitition, add WPS support, etc.). Although the provided default answers should work in most cases, please read carefully before answering. The answers to the question can optionally be saved to a configuration file for later use. All other settings are derived from your system (e.g., your config.sys) by default;
• When using the script with RSJ, please make sure you either have a CD-R(W) attached before you run bootAble, or let the script do this for you (just answer yes when asked, or specify RSJATTACHCD in your bootAble.myCfg);
• When using mkisofs/cdrecord, please remember to supply mkisofs with the correct image file to be used for booting (the -b option to mkisofs). For normal floppy emulation booting, this is the OSBOOT.IMG in the root of the CD, for MEMDISK bootAble CDs, this is the CDLOADER.BIN in the BOOTIMGS directory (don't forget the -no-emul-boot option in this case!). Remember that mkisofs is case sensitive so use the correct case when specifying filenames. bootAble can also create a script which does all this for you (just answer yes when asked, or specify CDRECORDBURNCMD in your bootAble.myCfg). Though the default values for the mkisofs and cdrecord executables and options should work in most cases, you may need to tweak them (CDRECORDMKISOFSEXE, CDRECORDMKISOFSOPTIONS, CDRECORDEXE, and CDRECORDEXEOPTIONS);
• I strongly suggest to use CD-RWs when testing the creation of bootAble CDs; you are probably going to run bootAble many times before you get things the way you want. I know CD-Rs are dirt cheap, but please give the environment a break and what would you do with tons of coasters? (yeah, you can microwave them for great effects but that becomes boring after a while...);

6. Debugging

6.1 Test runs

6.2 Errors generated by the script

• To get progress messages and error output of external commands, specify VERBOSE=65 (64+1), this is the default;
  
• To get progress messages only, specify VERBOSE=1;
• For progress messages and a list of files copied, use VERBOSE=3 (2+1);
• To also get error output of extrernal commands, use VERBOSE=67 (64+2+1);
• For configuration file parsing information (use with care; creates lots of output), add 4 to your VERBOSE setting;
• To get all output, use VERBOSE=207 (or 255 to be on the safe side for when I add verbose levels  ;-) ).

6.3 Check config.sys file

7. Contact information

8. Thanks

Thanks go to Allan Dermody for providing CD_BOOT.FLT and the first insight into creating bootable CDs;
Thanks also go to Alfredo Fernández Díaz for providing lots of feedback and for writing an excellent article on how to create a bootable CD in OS2Voice, July 2000;
Thanks go to Veit Kannegieser for all his work, especially the no floppy boot support;
More thanks go to Daniela Engert for writing the DANI suite of device drivers and filters;
Many thanks go to Simon Wright who helped me get my DHCP and DDNS server up and running;
Thank you Doug Bissett and Rich Walsh for all your comments, suggestions, contributions, and beta testing.

Finally big thanks also go to all you people testing and commenting the script; because of you I kept working on it  ;-)

Known Problems/Limitations

Mozilla/Firefox

BackAgain/2000

Version History

v4.2.3 (28/11/2005)

• Adapted bootAble to the latest (1/11/2005) version of Veit Kannegieser's memdisk utility (thank you Michael Lueck)
  Note: you must upgrade to the latest version of the memdisk software, please also note that this version now places files in subdirectories. This probably means you have to alter your searchpath in your bootAble.myCfg.  For instance:
• ADDTOSEARCHPATH='P:\UTILS\MemDisk\exe;P:\UTILS\MemDisk\boot;',
      'P:\UTILS\MemDisk\bin;P:\UTILS\MemDisk\bin\en;'
  (assuming english messages)
  
• ADDTOSEARCHPATH='P:\UTILS\MemDisk_loaddll;P:\UTILS\MemDisk_untar;'
  (location of untar and loaddll files, optional)
  
• Doug Bissett updated ConfigMaker to support new memdisk layout.
  
• Doug Bissett updated support for Norman Anti Virus, now version 5.8 is supported (bootAble.norman, bootAble.normanRC);
• Doug Bissett updated bootAble.arcview to also support the new 2.x version (bootAble.arcview).
  Important note to bootAble 4.1 users of bootAble.arcview: The typo that was corrected in version 4.2 could have caused some of the archiving utilities (e.g., tar.exe) to become bzipped or gzipped. Simply replace these files with a correct version.
  

v4.2 (09/10/2005)

• Added identification of the corresponding unicode keyboard for the GR129 keyboard (thank you Hanno Sedlmayr);
• Corrected a typo in bootAble.arcview;
  
• If copying a file fails for some unexpected reason (e.g., zero length files that can't be copied for some people), bootAble will now ask you if it should abort or if the error can be ignored.
  

v4.1 (18/08/2005)

• New configuration file for adding the Java 131 support  (bootAble.java131, contributed by Doug Bissett);
• One is now asked for the location of the pmdll executable if  it was not found on the SEARCHPATH (bootAble.pmdll, thank you Doug Bissett);
  
• Norman virus scanner support now has some additional scanning icons added to the WPS (bootAble.norman by Doug Bissett);
  
• New configuration file for adding the eCS archive viewer (bootAble.arcview, thanks for the tip Keith Marjerison);
  
• Under certain conditions PEER may not require the WPS (doesn't work for me though). Replaced the error when enabling PEER without WPS suport with a warning;
• An error is now generated when one attempts to create a non-MEMDISK bootAble CD when PEER is enabled;
• Corrected bug where the MUGLIB directory did not get copied when creating a PEER MEMDISK bootAble CD with NETWORKINGDESTINATION='IMG';
• Corrected error in bootAble.firefox and bootAble.mozilla where specifying the image as destination for the files (APPDESTINATION_<FIREFOX|MOZILLA>='IMG') did not work;
  
• Corrected error in bootAble.firefox where APPSRC_MOZILLA was referenced instead of APPSRC_FIREFOX;
• Added note to indicate mozilla and firefox probably won't run in system with less than 512MB internal memory unless swapping to a HD is enabled;
  
• Removed the APM setting from bootAble.wps as the default value is already determined appropriately from the config.sys;
• When creating a MEMDISK bootAble CD with RSJ with the CDBOOTMENU option enabled, one could get an error indicating that both RSJCDBOOTEXE and CDBOOTMENUFILE pointed to the same file, even though CDBOOTMENUFILE is not even used in this case.  This has been corrected.
  

v4.0 (08/05/2005)

• The newer Mozilla and Firefox releases should work again (thanks Doug Bissett for fixing this);
  
• Added PEER support (PEER, thank you very much Hermann Ulrichskoetter for pointing me in the right direction);
  Note: PEER support can only be installed on a MEMDISK bootAble CD or a maintenance partition and requires WPS support.
  
• Completely reworked networking directory structure to match the OS/2 original structure;
• Improved autodetection of TCP/IP settings (TCPIPHOSTADDRESS, TCPIPHOSTNAME, TCPIPGATEWAYADDRESS, TCPIPDOMAINNAME, TCPIPDNSADDRESS);
  
• Improved determination of network card driver.  In case multiple are found, the user is asked which one to use (NETWORKCARDFILE);
• Now correctly identifying the FASTNIC network card (thanks Alan Beagley);
  
• You can now independently specify the destination (either the boot image or the CD) of the files in the IBMCOM directory (IBMCOMDESTINATION);
  
• The network messaging drivers are now loaded when possible (only on a MEMDISK bootAble CD with IBMCOMDESTINATION='IMG' or a maintenance partition);
  
• Renamed EXTRATCPIPFILES variable to EXTRATCPIPMPTNPROTOCOLFILES for clarity;
• You can now simply add to the value of variables by using the directives _ADDBEFORE_<variable> and _ADDAFTER_<variable>.  Previously you had to use the fairly complex varValue('<variable>') construction, now this can be done much simpler in (almost) all cases (just make sure to include the correct delimiter).
  See the diverse bootAble configuration files for examples;
• Added an option to control full window drag on a bootAble WPS system (WPSFULLWINDOWDRAG);
  
• Added newview.dll to the list of dlls to include (thank you Doug Bissett);
  
• Doug Bissett contributed TCP/IP 4.1+ firewall support (bootAble.firewall);
• Added a REXX exit called just before the cleanup (REXXEXIT_CLEANUP);
• Added identification of the corresponding unicode keyboard for the US103 keyboard (thank you Alan Beagley);
  
• Added setting to pause bootAble just after successfully completing the build (PAUSEBEFOREEXIT, default is not to pause);
• Added directive to the EXTRADIRECTORY settings to ignore file not found errors (EXTRADIRECTORYIGNORENOTFOUND.n);
• Adapted bootAble.pmview to ignore files not found in the dragdrop directory (thank you Hanno Sedlmayr for pointing this out);
• The bootAble configuration file for Back Again/2000 should also work for the server version and has hence been renamed to bootAble.ba2k;
  Note: Please remove the files bootAble.ba2kws and bootAble.ba2kwsRC if you still have them.
  
• Adapted bootAble.ba2k to now also copy the registration info for version 4 (only works on a maintenance partition or a MEMDISK bootAble CD, thank you Doug Bissett);
  
• Improved control over if and how the WarpCenter is to be started (WPSWCAUTOSTART, WPSWCSTARTUP);
  
• Corrected minor bug where the WarpCenter would always be shadowed in the startup folder;
• Corrected bug when EXTRADIRECTORYDESTINATION.n was set to 'IMG';
  
• Corrected problem where the /etc directory would not always end-up pointing to the correct location (thank you Hermann Ulrichskoetter).

v3.7 (20/03/2005)

• Added known problems/limitations section in the documentation(problems with the latest versions of mozilla and firefox and a note on BackAgain/2000);
  
• Mario Guzman contributed bootAble.unimaint and bootAble.spf;
• Updated bootAble.ba2wks; additional directories copied and it now automatically adds the required (IDE) tape drive drivers (thanks Mario Guzman);
• Added tmscsiw.add to the list of valid SCSI drivers;
• Now determining TCP/IP level automatically (TCPIP431);
• The EPM-file default.bmp not part of standard eCS 1.2 distribution anymore and is made optional (thanks Chris Brendes);
  
• The pmvdrop.dll file is not part of the later PMView versions and is made optional (thanks Doug Bissett);
  
• Corrected bootAble.mozilla (you would receive a file not found error if you had already specified EXTRADLLFILES);
• Adapted bootAble.firefox, the gcc and libc libraries are now also placed in the default directory;
• Fixed a problem with building a memdisk bootAble CD with HPFS386 support;
• Fixed problem with copying files to directories with spaces;
• Corrected reference to section in bootAble.cfg the file destinations are set ("DESTINATION configuration options");
• Corrected error messages from the xcopy command;
• Fixed problem with setting multiline variables (e.g., EXTRACONFIGSYS).

v3.6 (02/01/2005)

• Created a .wpi version of bootAble (thank you Doug Bissett);
  
• Added Doug Bissett's config maker program (included in the .wpi version of bootAble);
  Config Maker helps you to, even more, easily create bootAble CDs /Maintenance Partitions.
  
• Added a generic networking question, if you set this to NO, no further networking questions are asked (NETWORKING);
• Settings of TCPIP, NETBIOS, and NETBIOSTCPIP are now determined automatically based on contents of the config.sys file;
• Adoptations for minimal eCS 1.2 installation;
  
• pmwsock.dll is now included by default when TCP/IP support is enabled;
  
• Doug Bissett adopted bootAble.injoy; it now supports both v2.3 and v3 (bootAble.injoy)
  Note: Please remove the file bootAble.injoy3 if you still have it.
• Doug Bissett adopted bootAble.norman; the automatic tasks are not included anymore (bootAble.norman);
• Now working: automatically checking HPFS filesystems (HPFSAUTOCHECK) in combination with a memdisk boot;
• Fixed the option to turn-on the process kill feature of the WarpCenter (WPSWCKILLFEATURE).

v3.5 (02/11/2004)

• Changes to accomodate the latest version (18/10/2004) of Veit Kannegieser's memdisk;
  Note: You must use this latest version (zip file) as the previous versions will not work anymore.
• You can now have the WarpCenter start from the startup folder instead of using the AUTOSTART feature (WPSWCAUTOSTART, uses the AUTOSTART feature by default);
• Added option to turn-on the process kill feature of the WarpCenter (WPSWCKILLFEATURE, enabled by default);
  
• Added bootAble.injoy3 for adding injoy 3.0 support, contibuted by Doug Bisset;
  
• Adepted bootAble.usbres to accomodate for eCS 1.2 changed location of files (thanks, Doug Bisset);
• Adepted bootAble.mozilla to place gcc and libc libraries into the OS2\DLL directory.

v3.4 (11/10/2004)

• You can now specify whether to add classic Rexx or Object REXX, regardless of the currently installed version (OBJECTREXX);
  Note: For command-line boot, only classic REXX is supported.
• Added option to specify default action if file to write results of asked questions to already exists (WRITEASKEDTOFILEALREADYEXISTS);
• Fixed eCS 1.2 cdrom driver problem (eCS 1.2 uses IBMCDROM.DMD instead of OS2CDROM.DMD, thank you Doug Bissett);
  
• Fixed eCS 1.2 UK keyboard layout problem (added detection of UK166 keyboard layout, thank you Mark Ellen);
• Added lsimpt.add to list of recognised scsi drivers (thank you Mark Ellen);
• Adapted bootAble.mozilla to cater for versions using libc05.dll instead of libc04.dll, enabling later versions of mozilla (e.g., 1.7);
• libuni.dll now gets added to non-wps systems als well when installing unicode support (required for FAT32 for instance);
• Restructured bootAble.cmd and added short descriptive comments for all (internal) functions.

v3.3 (05/06/2004)

• Greatly simplified (I hope) the use of the script; bootAble now asks for values of settings that can not be determined automatically. These values can optionally be written to a configuration file for later use (i.e., this is an automated way of creating a bootAble.myCfg);
  
• SCSI support now determined automatically when specifying SCSI=-1 (the default);
• Rich Walsh contributed bootAble.dragtext for adding dragtext v3.8 support;
• Rich Walsh & Doug Bissett contributed bootAble.injoy for adding injoy support;
• Doug Bissett contributed bootAble.doip for adding DOIP support;
  
• Added Mozilla support (bootAble.mozilla, thank you Rich Walsh for providing the essential detail);
• Doug Bisset adapted bootAble.firefox for adding firefox;
• Added extra check for the VIRTUALDRIVE setting (should point to a 2.88MB FAT  drive);
  
• You can now configure the ini entries SYSDLLS LOADONETIME and LOADPERPROCESS (SYSDLLS_LOADONETIME, SYSDLLS_LOADPERPROCESS, see bootAble.dragtext for an example);
• On top of normal text files (EXTRACREATEFILES), you can now create binary ini files as well (EXTRAINIFILES settings), see bootAble.dragtext for an example;
  
• APPROOT_<app> renamed to APPSRC_<app> in application configuration files;
• Added options to defaultIfNotSet function to enable asking the user for the value if an empty or no default value was provided. This is used for example in the bootAble.4os2, bootAble.acrobat, and bootAble.dfsee configuration files to ask the user for the location of the executables if they couldn't be found on the default locations;
  
• Applications now get added to the \PROGRAMS directory on the destination media instead of \OS2\APPS (e.g., acrobat reader now goes to \PROGRAMS\ACROBAT by default instead of \OS2\APPS\ACROBAT). This default destanation root can be altered by setting APPDEST_ROOTDEFAULT (globally initialised to \PROGRAMS);
  
• EXTRACONFIGSYS setting now empty by default (i.e., not changing the display to 80x50 anymore);
  
• Added setting ADDTOSEARCHPATH to simply add entries to the (beginning of) SEARCHPATH;
• The SEARCHPATH is now verified; illegal and double entries are removed;
• You can now seperately specify the location of the WPS help and font files (WPSHELPDESTINATION, WPSFONTSDESTINATION);
  
• Added option to include LAN or dial-up only TCPIP support (TCPIPLAN, contributed by Rich Walsh);
• Added option to use lean or standard TCPIP driver files (TCPIPLEAN, contributed by Rich Walsh);
• Added option to use KEE or standard TCPIP driver files (TCPIPKEE, contributed by Rich Walsh);
• Added option to allow for adding extra TCPIP driver files (EXTRATCPIPFILES, contributed by Rich Walsh);
• You can now specify the font size of WPS command-line windows (WPSSHELLFONTSIZE);
  
• Incorporated true type font and unicode font support into main script (WPSTTFSUPPORT and WPSUNIFONTSUPPORT);
• Added ability to specify additional font files (WPSEXTRAFONTFILES and WPSEXTRAPFMFONTFILES);
• The font files from PSFONTS are now copied to the PSFONTS directory instead of OS2\DLL. The PFM files are now included as well;
• Removed bootAble.font configuration file from distribution;
• Renamed UNICP to UNICODEPAGE and this should now only be the codepage number;
• Added ability to add additional unicode code pages (UNIEXTRACODEPAGES);
  
• Added option to create an ISO image only (CDRECORDCREATEISOONLY);
• Added -quiet to mkisofs and -silent -n to cdrecord command line options by default to suppress (most of) their normal output;
  
• Renamed CREATECLONECDDRIVE to CREATECLONECDMAINTENANCEDRIVE for clarity;
  
• The CD recorder device to use with mkisofs/cdrecord is now determined automatically (CDRECORDEXEOPTIONS, CDRECORDDEVICENR);
• ASPI support can now be added without having to add SCSI support as well;
• The progress message when cleaning a directory is now displayed with verbosity level 1 instead of 2 to better inform users (cleaning-up a directory can take a long time...);
• Added locale.dll when WPS support is enabled (thanks, Rich Walsh);
• The config.sys lines now always stripped, this solves the rare problem where the environment did not contain all settings (thanks, Rich Walsh);
• When updating ini files, string values did not receive the terminating null character, this is now corrected (thanks, Rich Walsh);
  
• cloneCD command now correctly sets TCPIPDHCP and TCPIPDHCPUPDATEHOST;
• Upon an error, the script now waits for a keypress before actually exiting;
• Picture Viewer program only added if it exists on the system (apparently not all systems included it);
  
• Norman Anti Virus and Back Again require basic TCPIP support, this is now specified (bootAble.norman, bootAble.ba2kws);
  
• Object REXX now correctly supported (added missing libraries and files);
  
• Corrected bug where parsing of %% constructs was not always done correctly;
• Corrected file not found error for apm.sys on some systems;
  
• Corrected bug where bootAble tried to create a tar-file of a non-existing directory when setting a destination to 'IMG' without adding the option (e.g., REXXDESTINATION='IMG' with REXX='NO' and all the other destinations set to 'CD');
• Corrected LIBPATH, PATH, and DPATH settings; removed duplicate entries of S:\OS2[\dll];
  
• Corrected bug where not all EXTRACREATEFILES got created.
  

v3.2 (27/03/2004)

• Added option for allowing access to >16MB early in boot process, a recent kernel is required for this to work (EARLYMEMINIT);
  
• The WPS and the WPS Application files can now also reside on the image (WPSDESTINATION, WPSAPPSDESTINATION);
  Note: Requires EARLYMEMINIT='YES' (done automatically).
• Renamed lvmrefresh.cmd and lvmrefresh.ico to lvmrfrsh.* to comply to 8.3 naming convention;
• Doug Bissett contributed configuration files for adding Back Again 2000 support (bootAble.ba2kws and bootAble.ba2kwsRC);
• Renamed bootAble.ttf to bootAble.font to prevent interpretation of the file as a true type font by the OS/2/eCS GUI;
  
• VERBOSE is now 65 by default (i.e., progress messages and error output of external commands);
  
• Added ability to automatically burn the CD (AUTOBURNCD, RSJATTACHCD, ERASECD, CDRECORDERASEOPTION);
• Improved defaults value determination for CDROMDRIVE and WRITERDRIVE (see bootAble.cfg for the new defaults);
• The values of EXTRACONFIGSYS, STARTUPCMD and EXTRACREATEFILECONTENT.n are parsed for $$ and %% constructs before they are written to file.  This means that variables/functions are determined at the moment their final value is known (i.e., after processing all configuration files), see bootAble.norman for example usage;
  
• Added note on location of bootAble.myCfg on the command-line (i.e., it should generally be the first configuration file on the command-line, see also Syntax section);
  
• Corrected default setting for USBCDROM and USBSTORAGE;
• Corrected option finding for ATAPI basedev (if you used daniatapi and had both the daniatap.flt and daniatapi.flt files on the system, bootAble could fail to pick up the options);
  
• Corrected paths to cdloader.bin in burnCD.cmd;
• burnCD.cmd now burns the CD without having to create an iso image file first;
• Removed unnecessary options to mkisofs and cdrecord commands;
• Enhanced bootAble.wps so that it does not override previous settings for display resolution etc.;
  
• Corrected startup directory of the dfsee and norman anti virus objects;
• The SWAPPATH line is not aded to the config.sys file anymore when swapping is not enabled (e.g., on a boot CD using the floppy emulation boot method);
  
• Added check for existence of required (non standard) executables;
  
• Corrected a syntax error in bootAble.norman (sorry Doug...);
• At boot, the \OS2 directory on the MEMDISK/RAMDISK now only gets created when necessary;
  
• Unicode keyboard setting should now always default to the correct keyboard layout based on the KEYB setting (UNIKEYB);
• Spelling corrections in documentation.

v3.1a (10/03/2004)

• Corrected unicode keyboard setting for german (GR) keyboard layout, now de.kbl file is used (thank you Veit Kannegieser);
• Corrected syntax error in script (noticeable when using object rexx or the hpfs386 file system, thanks again, Veit Kannegieser).

v3.1 (09/03/2004)

• IMPORTANT: Renamed ADDITIONALCFG to EXTRACONFIGSYS for consistency, check your own configuration files for the use of ADDITIONALCFG settings and change these to EXTRACONFIGSYS;
• bootAble now determines defaults for almost all settings from the config.sys file, meaning your bootAble.myCfg can now almost be empty except where your bootAble CD (or maintenance partition) should differ from the running system, or where you need to specify your SCSI card(s) (see bootAble.cfg and bootAble.myCfg for details);
  
• You can now specify to include more files on the boot image instead of the CD. Due to space constraints, this is probably only useful when using the memdisk boot CD method (OS2APPSDESTINATION, REXXDESTINATION, NETWORKINGDESTINATION, EXTRAFILESDESTINATION, EXTRADLLFILESDESTINATION, EXTRADEVICEDESTINATION, EXTRADIRECTORYDESTINATION.x, EXTRACREATEFILEDESTINATION.x);
• Added option to create a cloneCD command to clone a CD to a maintenance partition using exactly the same options as were used for creating the bootAble CD (CREATECLONDECD and CREATECLONECDDRIVE, CREATECLONECDVERBOSE, CREATECLONECDRAMDISK, CREATECLONECDREMOVEROFLAG, CREATECLONECDDIRECTORY);
  Note: due to FAT filename constraints, the cloneCD command always gets created on the CD.
  
• When using cdrecord, added an option to create a burnCD command (Doug Bissett, thanks for the hints) which can be used to create and write an iso image of the bootAble CD (CDRECORDBURNCMD and other options, see section Using cdrecord+mkisofs instead of RSJ of this document for more info);
  
• Added ability to add a ramdisk to a memdisk bootAble CD. If added, the ramdisk (instead of the memdisk) is used for the temp directory, desktop, etc. The advantage is that the ramdisk is an HPFS-like drive and not a FAT drive, allowing for long file names etc. To support this feature, a new setting has been introduced to specify the drive letter of the memdisk (MEMDISKDRIVE);
  
• Added ability to specify a list-file at all locations where a list of files is expected. The content of this file is then inserted in the file list (see syntax section of this document for an example);
• Instead of a fixed size, you can now also specify the minimum amount of free space on the memdisk boot image by prefixing the MEMDISKSIZE string with a + sign.The default is now to leave approximately 2MB of free space (5MB in case of a WPS system without RAMDISK);
  
• Added PSFONTS directory on the boot drive to the SEARCHPATH by default;
  
• Now cleaning-up unnecessary files on the memdisk boot image (e.g., the tar files), the freed-up space is taken into account when determining the MEMDISKSIZE;
  
• Doug Bissett enhanced bootAble.norman, the log file is now automatically erased after viewing to save space;
• Doug Bissett contributed bootAble.dfsee to add dfsee to your maintenance partition/bootAble CD;
• Added bootAble logo to no floppy emulation boot;
  
• When creating a maintenance partition with FORMATMAINTENANCE not set, the user is now asked to format the partition;
• Added option to set the DHCP server timeout (TCPIPDHCPTIMEOUT);
• Added fdiskpm.exe for non-lvm WPS systems;
• Added objects for FDiskPM/LVM in the setup folder;
• Added icons to LVM and Refresh Removable Media objects;
• Added verbose level 8 to show INI rc file parsing;
• When using the EXTRADIRECTORYADDTOPATHS setting, directories are now only added once to the specified path(s);
  
• A temp directory is now also created on a maintenance partition and not only when a ramdisk or memdisk was loaded;
• Added ability to insert the result of a piece of rexx code within ini files ($$@<rexx-code>$$, see bootAble.pmdll and bootAblefor.usbres for examples);
• Introduced new function to determine the destination drive, mostly for use within ini file definitions (destinationDrive, see bootAble.pmdll and bootAblefor.usbres for examples);
• Added more config.sys information retrieval functions (configSysContains, configSysCount, configSysOptions);
  
• Added option to enable the removal of the Read Only flag when copying files (REMOVEROFLAG);
• The savedskf.exe command does not need to be in the path anymore, you can now specify its location via the SAVEDSKFEXE setting;
  
• HPFS386 files are now found via the searchpath as well;
  
• Enhanced bootAble.emxrt and bootAble.acrobat, by default they should now be able to correctly find the application root in almost all cases;
• Corrected bootAble.4os2 (4os2.ini got created in the wrong directory);
• Progress messages now more consistently (and correctly) indicate the destination (e.g., Boot Image, CD, or Maintenance Partition);
• Rewrote some of the sections in this document to clarify things better (I hope);
  
• Moved unicode.sys before all IFS drivers (where it should be...).

v3.0a (23/02/2004)

• Corrected bugs in bootAble.norman, thank you Doug Bissett! (bootAble.norman and bootAble.normanRC);
• Corrections to documentation on small keyboard.dcp, added note on smaller viotbl.dcp;
  
• No more ea stripping in internal sCopyFile function anymore, saves a little processing time.
  

v3.0 (22/02/2004)

• Added support for the no floppy emulation boot (memdisk) by Veit Kannegieser.Not only does this allow bootAble to operate in many more situations, but booting will be slightly faster and the 2.88 floppy disk space restriction is lifted allowing for many more configurations to be booted from CD;
• Added configuration files for PMdll and USB resource utilities (bootAble.pmdll and bootAble.usbres);
  
• Added preliminary True Type and UniFont support (bootAble.ttf);
• Changed way ini RC files get processed, you can now override previous entries (set the corresponding EXTRAxxxxINIRCFILEUPDATE.x to 'YES').  Furthermore. the EXTRAUSERINI and EXTRASYSINI settings are processed last and can be used to override any entry (see bootAble.myCfg for examples);
• Ini RC files should now only contain the body of a makeini file (i.e., the "<application>" "<key>" <value> triplet, see bootAble.Urc etc. for details);
• Added low-level syntax checking on ini RC files;
  
• Added configuration option for adding OS2SCSI.DMD driver (SCSIDMD, enabled by default if you're adding SCSI support);
  
• Added configuration option for copying the config.sys of the boot image to the root of the CD (COPYCONFIGSYS, disabled by default);
• Added function to retreive values from the config.sys file (getFromConfigSys);
• Added configuration option to specify the name of the config.sys file to use in getFromConfigSys, globally initialised to the config.sys in the root of your boot drive (CONFIGSYSFILE);
• More variables now automaitcally get the correct defaults based on the host system (e.g., RESERVEDRIVELETTER, CDROMDRIVE, VIRTUALDRIVE, SHELLPROMPT, COUNTRY, CODEPAGE, KEYBOARD, UNICODE, UNILANG, UNICP, LVM);
  
• The SEARCHPATH variable is now globally initialised to the value of os2\boot on the boot drive, LIBPATH, PATH, DPATH, HELP, and BOOKSHELF, greatly reducing the need for specifying full file paths in the configuration files (just make sure the correct files are first on the SEARCHPATH!);
• Removed the SMALLKEYBOARDDCP option.If you now want to use a different keyboard.dcp (or viotbl.dcp for that matter) file, simply make sure it is located somewhere on the SEARCHPATH before the original;
  
• Disabled USB support by default (USBxxx);
  
• Added ini RC file option to allow inclusion of a line if an option is not set (%%!<optionname>%%)
  
• Applications now get installed into \OS2\APPS instead of root directory (bootAble.acrobat, etc.);
• Adopted 4os2 support and made it independent of the WPS setting (icon and inf file always copied), furthermore allowed for a destination directory to be set (bootAble.4os2);
  
• Added section on debugging to this document;
• You can now use the /v command-line argument to specify the value of VERBOSE from the command-line (usage: bootAble [/v <verbose>] [<config file>...]);
• You can now download the SIO2K Patch file from my website (kindly provided by the author, Veit Kannegieser);
• Improved PMView support (2.x and 3.x supported), now copying only required files and, thanks to Alfredo Fernández Díaz, also added pmvddrop support (bootAble.pmview);
• The RESERVEDRIVELETTER option is now allowed to be empty;
• Swapping is now enabled when booting from a maintenance partition or a MEMDISK enabled boot;
• Files are now copied to the destination slighly faster (i.e., not always via temp anymore);
  
• Corrected bug where you couldn't copy extra files to the root of a CD when using cdrecord or testing;
• Corrected initial font settings of WPS (now correctly using warpsans);
• Adaptations for the latest newview versions (newview.exe is required);
• Renamed bootAble.PMVrc and bootAble.Xrc to bootAble.pmviewRC and bootAble.xwpRC;
  
• Removed progress message about ignoring already created directories.

v2.19 (25/01/2004)

• Added configuration file for PMView (bootAble.pmview and bootAble.PMVrc);
  
• Changed application configuration files so that you can now simply specify paths (e.g., the application root) in your bootAble.myCfg without having to change the application configuration file itself (see the files bootAble.myCfg, bootAble.4os2, bootAble.acrobat, etc., for examples);
  
• Improved setting application root of some of the applications, these now make use of entries in the ini files (see bootAble.pmview and bootAble.xwp for examples);
• Path/file specifications can now have double backslahes, the script does not fail on this anymore;
  
• Added function defaultIfNotSet to set a variable to a default value if not already set;
• Added function getFromIni to return the text porting of an ini entry (stripping off the trailing 0 delimiter);
• Added a verbosity level to help debug syntax errors in configuration files (VERBOSE);
  
• Changed behaviour of the VERBOSE setting, it is now a binary mask so you have more control over the output;
  
• Added global initialisation of OSBOOTDRIVE with sysBootDrive();
• Added global initialisation for EXTRADEVICE, EXTRABASEDEV, etc. settings, no need to default these anymore in your own configuration files;
  
• Added option for PROTECTONLY setting (default is 'YES');
• Added missing option for specifying the use of the DANI DASD driver instead of the IBM version (DANIDASD), Note: only to be used on non-lvm systems!;
  
• Added sample pmview configuration file (bootAble.pmview);
• Corrected bug with multipe extra ini rc files (only the first rc file got included);
  
• Corrected reference to boot image (osboot.img) in the cdrecord section of this document.

v2.18 (23/12/2003)

• Thanks to Alfredo Fernández Díaz, I've now finally added XWorkplace support (see bootAble.xwp and bootAble.Xrc files).
  XWorkplace can be altered to support additional languages, currently German and Spanish (partial support) are included (see bootAble.xwp_DE and bootAble.xwp_ES for details);
  
• Added ability to enter hexadecimal values in the INI RC files (precede unquoted hexadecimal string by 0x);
• Added ability to specify additional user en system INI RC files (EXTRAUSERINIRCFILES and EXTRASYSINIRCFILES);
• Added advanced option for specifying AUTOSTART directive;
  
• Added option to add EXIT statement to created startup.cmd file (STARTUPCMDEXIT, on by default);
• Added option to update DHCP server with hostname (TCPIPDHCPUPDATEHOST, off by default);
• Changed defeult behaviour of 4OS2 command shell icons to open a new window (bootAble.4os2);
  
• Device driver DOS.SYS now added (actually a required file).
  

v2.17a (21/12/2003)

• Minor corections to bootable.norman configuration file by Doug Bissett.

v2.17 (19/12/2003)

• Support for NTFS version 1.07 (added ntfschk.exe and changed file locations);
• Correction for Newview (ibmhmgr.dll and newview.inf added if found);
• Updated bootable.norman configuration file made by Doug Bissett;
• Settings which typically reside in multiple configuration files (like EXTRADIRECTORIES, EXTRAFILES, etc.) now show the use of varValue in bootAble.cfg to ease adaptation in home made configuration files;
  
• Changed default for formatting the maintenance partition to NO to prevent accidental data loss if the wrong choises have been made (FORMATMAINTENANCE);
  
• Progress message for creating extra files only shown when actually creating extra files.
  

v2.16 (09/07/2003)

• Added SIO and SIO2K serial port driver support (SIOSERIALPORT, SIO2KSERIALPORT, disabled by default);
  
• Added ability to specify content of files to be placed on the CD (EXTRACREATEFILES, EXTRACREATEFILEDIRECTORY.n, EXTRACREATEFILENAME.n, EXTRACREATEFILECONTENT.n), see bootAble.4os2 for an example;
  
• Added NTFS support (NTFS, disabled by default);
• Added sample configuration file for adding the 4OS/2 command shell environment (bootAble.4os2);
• The PPZIP device is not enabled by default anymore;
• Minor eCS 1.1 adjustments (file locations have changed).

v2.15 (16/03/2003)

• Corrected fdisk.exe into fdisk.com when creating a non LVM system;
• The parallel port driver (print01.sys) and aspi driver (os2aspi.dmd) are basedevs, not devices;
• The EPM-file actions.lst is no longer a required file when adding WPS applications;
  
• Corrected bug where the BOOTFLTFILE was included even when creating a maintenance partition.

v2.14 (12/01/2003)

• Added ability to create startup.cmd file (STARTUPCMD);
  
• Added sample configuration file for adding Norman Anti Virus support (bootAble.norman, contributed by Doug Bissett);
• Changed the all-files selector '*.*' into '*' (which is more correct);
  
• Corrected comments for the EXTRADEVICE settings (were incorrectly referring to basedevs).
  

v2.13 (15/11/2002)

• Added ability to recurse directories when specifying extra directories (EXTRADIRECTORYRECURSE.n), see bootAble.acrobat for an example;
  
• Corrected path handling when HPFS386 support was enabled.

v2.12 (20/10/2002)

• Added NETBIOS and NETBIOS over TCP/IP protocol support (NETBIOS and NETBIOSTCPIP, disabled by default);
  Note: Only the protocols themselves are supported, PEER functionality, for instance, is not provided.
• Added option to clean-out cdrecord image directory (pointed to by WRITERDRIVE) prior to adding bootable files and directories (CDRECORDCLEANDIR, disabled by default);
• Added option to support latest IBM Atapi driver which doesn't need IBMIDECD.FLT anymore (LATESTATAPI, disabled by default);
• Made many changes to TCP/IP support:
• Added ARP.EXE by default,
• Added INETWAIT.EXE to the TCP/IP initialisation,
• Corrected TCP/IP initialisation when using DHCP,
  
• Now using AFLEAN.SYS and SOCKETS.SYS instead of AFINETK.SYS and SOCKETSK.SYS,
• AFOS2.SYS has been removed (was not required for basic TCP/IP),
• Improved DHCP support; nameserver can now also be specified by the server dynamically (requires RAMDISK support on a bootAble CD),
• DHCP Client Monitor gets added when DHCP is enabled (WPS),
  
• Improved TCP/IP version 4.31 support; the 4.31 DHCP client required some additional DLLs, these will now be added when TCP/IP 4.31 is specified (TCPIP431, default).
• Additional DEVICE drivers can now be specified similar to how extra BASEDEV drivers were specified (EXTRADEVICE, EXTRADEVICEFILE.n,EXTRADEVICEOPTIONS.n).
• You can now specify multi-level directory structures without having to create the higher level directories first (EXTRADIRECTORY.n), you can now also specify the BOOKSHELF as path (EXTRADIRECTORYADDTOPATH.n);
• You can now comment-out lines in the configuration files and ini-file template with ';' as well;
• Corrected bug with ASPI support;
• Options of CDROM and ASPI support are now respected;
• Added sample configuration file for adding EMX runtime (bootAble.emxrt, contributed by Christoph Brendes)
  
• Improved parsing of ini-file templates: using '$$' as variable and '%%' as option delimeters, furthermore all configuration variables and options can now be used;
  
• Removed second setting of displaytype and help-path when WPS support was enabled;
• Rewrote installation instructions and merged with obtaining required files section.
  

v2.11 (30/09/2002)

• Added DHCP support (TCPIPDHCP);
  
• Fixed bug in bootAble.extra (missing quotes);
• Fixed bug in handling of extra directories, sometimes ',1' was added to the directory name.
  

v2.10 (29/09/2002)

• You can now specify a search path (SEARCHPATH) where files will be searched for in addition to the location specified (by default this is set to the DPATH). This allows for adding components to a bootable CD/maintenance partition which have not (yet) been installed on your system (or reside in a completely different location from the deafult); just add the files to a directory on the specified path!;
• Added support for HPFS386 file system (HPFS386);
• Added support for parallel port ZIP drive (PPZIP);
  
• Added support for using lxlite when copying files, freeing extra space! (LXLITE);
• Added option for using the small keyboard.dcp file from the Warp 4 boot disks, saving yet again quite some space! (SMALLKEYBOARDDCP);
  Note: This keyboard.dcp most likely only supports a very limited set of keyboard layouts...
  
• You can now specify additional ini file lines using the format of the makeini command (EXTRAUSERINI, EXTRASYSINI);
  
• Added configuration variable for specifying the command shell prompt (SHELLPROMPT);
• Added configuration variables for specifying the names of the boot images (BOOTIMAGENAME.1 and BOOTIMAGENAME.2);
  Note: When using AudioCDCreator, the name of the first image should be OSBOOT.IMG (now default).
  
• Added advanced configuration variables for specifying the number of threads (advanced, THREADS, now 1024 by default), FAT cache options (advanced, FATCACHEOPTIONS, now 1MB by default), swapping parameters (advanced, MEMMAN and SWAPPATH);
• Renamed all *DLLS option variables to *DLLFILES for consistency;
  Note: If you have created your own configuration files, make sure to reflect this change!
  
• Added ability to specify additional directory structure and the extra files to go into these directories, including the ability to add these directories to a path (EXTRADIRECTORY.n, EXTRADIRECTORYFILES.n, EXTRADIRECTORYADDTOPATHS.n);
• Files can now contain spaces (just make sure they are within double-quotes!);
  
• Fixed bug where extra basedev files where not copied at all;
• Added main option name of new options in the version history (starting from version 2.0), to ease finding them;
• Corrected typo in Alfredo Fernandez Diaz's name in the documentation (Thanks section in this file);
  
• rxqueue.exe is now added by default when REXX support is enabled;
  
• wpstkmri.dll is now an optional file as well (only for scroll mouse?);
• When TCP/IP and REXX support are both enabled with WPS, either the file rxsock.infor the file rxsocket.inf is added (seems the file got renamed with later Warp installations);
• The maxtransmits directive has been removed from the protocol.ini file (network support), it is not supported on all network cards (and not required either);
• Added sample configuration file bootAble.testCD for testing the creation of a bootAble CD. Instead of writing the results to a CD-R(W), the results are written to a temp directory;
• Added sample configuration file bootAble.acrobat for adding acrobat reader to your system, also shows the use of the new EXTRADIRECTORY and EXTRA*INI configuration variables.
  

v2.9 (24/09/2002)

• Added support for Roman Stangl's CD Boot Menu (CDBOOTMENU);
  Note: When using RSJ, make sure that Roman Stangl's cdboot command is not located on the PATH!
• Added comments to clarify the use of configuration files (you only need to specify the configuration options/variables which override the defaults in bootAble.cfg!);
• Added comments for when files are required (Obtaining required and optional files section in this file);
• Added reference to help for the country and keyboard definition configuration variables;
• UNICODELANGDIR not required anymore (some installations did not even have one!);
  
• Added icon (based on default CD icon), anyone a better idea?;
  
• Improved error checking for required files; created new function searchPath to be used in configuration files instead of the standard sysSearchPath.
  

v2.8 (23/09/2002)

• Corrected typos in required files for REXX TCP/IP support.

v2.7 (22/09/2002)

• Added basic TCP/IP networking support (TCPIP).
  Note: For most TCP/IP commands to work, WPS support is required.

v2.6 (17/09/2002)

• Added REXX support (REXX);
  Note: In order for REXX to work when booting to a command-line (even when WPS support is enabled), you will need to have bos2rexx.exe (from the BootOS2 package) located somewhere on your DPATH.
• Added support for non 512 bytes/sector removable media (NON512DASD);
• Added support for removable SCSI media geometry filter (REMOVABLESCSI);
• Added "Refresh removable media" object when LVM support is enabled (WPS);
• Help support is now installed as part of the command-line apps, not only when WPS support is installed;
• Corrected a bug introduced in version 2.5 where setting configuration variables to an empty string did not override the default (which could be non-empty);
• Corrected a bug with autochecking HPFS partitions (now it works :-).

v2.5 (13/09/2002)

• Added html documentation;
• fdisk.exe is now included if LVM support is disabled;
• Added harderr.exe to support error handling, autofail=yes is now specified as well;
• Added bootAble.extra sample configuration file for adding some extra applications;
• Added label.com and tedit.hlp by default;
• Language dll files only added when WPS support is enabled;
• chkdsk.sys is now included;
• Added configuration option for adding help files (WPS only, EXTRAHELPFILES);
• Improved handling of ide cd when not using the DANI drivers (ibmidecd.flt is now added as well);
• Added cachef32.exe and f32stat.exe when FAT32 support is enabled;
• Added configuration options for autochecking HPFS and JFS file systems (HPFSAUTOCHECK, JFSAUTOCHECK);
• pstat.exe is now only added with WPS support (doesn't work when not running WPS).

v2.4 (04/09/2002)

• Renamed script to bootAble (pronounce boot able) as bootIT happened to be a trademark of TeraByte Unlimited;
• Removed unnecessary files and adopted for non eCS Warp systems.

v2.3 (02/09/2002)

• Corrected a very annoying bug where the script would fail under the standard OS/2 command processor cmd.exe (it worked under 4OS/2);
• Added verbosity level 3 where also errors from external commands are shown (9 shows all output).

v2.2 (01/09/2002)

• Corrected additional bug regarding cleanup when creating a directory failed;
• The bootdrive is now determined by sysBootDrive by default (somehow this function is missing from the rexx documentation...);
• Renamed options for the FAT32 file system from FAT to FAT32.

v2.1 (01/09/2002)

• Corrected a bug where output would always be verbose and no cleanup was performed.

v2.0 (01/09/2002)

• Renamed script to bootIT as it is now able to create a maintenance partition as well;
• Added WPS support (VGA and GENGRADD, WPS);
• Added APM support (APM);
• Added UDF support (UDF);
• The command-line option can now specify multiple configuration files and these are now used to override the defaults in bootIT.cfg;
• Added ability to enable SCSI support before IDE (SCSIBEFOREIDE);
• Added ability to specify any number of SCSI cards. Note: The SCSI option has been changed into a number to support this!;
• Added option to use DANI drivers instead of the default drivers (the default is still to use the DANI drivers, DANIIDE, DANIATAPI);
• Adapted the script to handle both daniatapi.flt and daniatap.flt versions of the DANI ATAPI driver.
• Added option to use JJSCDROM instead of default cdrom driver (the default is not to use JJSCDROM, JJSCDROM)
• Added the ability to add extra basedevs (EXTRABASEDEV);
• Made sure that files copied to the FAT boot image follow the 8.3 file naming restrictions.

v1.4 (23/08/2002)

• Files now are copied without extended attributes to the boot image;
• Added command-line option for the specification of the configuration file;
• Corrected error in option name in bootCD.cfg for fallback driver (wasn't renamed);
• USB printer device now defaults to LPTn instead of $USBPRT;
• Added parallel port (printer) support;
• Added serial port support;
• Added mouse support;
• Improved the way of to specificy which shell to use, now it is possible to specify PROTSHELL and OS2_SHELL independantly (advanced options);
• Improved VERBOSE, you can now specify the message level;
• Added genral instructions for using this script;
• Added instructions for using this script with cdrecord/mkisofs;
• Added ability to split boot image over two disks providing even more room for device drivers and other things;
• Other general improvements.

v1.3 (22/08/2002)

• Added USB support;
• Fixed bug with SHELLFILE variable not being respected;
• Renamed option IDECD to ATAPI (more correct);
• Renamed option HDDFALLBACK to DASDFALLBACK (more correct);
• Now possible to specify options for IFS and BASEDEV lines (advanced options);
• Added comment why there is no autocheck for file systems;
• Better option handling, not case sensitive anymore and only first letter is required (e.g., specifying "Y" or "yes" works now);
• Cache sizes for HPFS and JFS file systems now 1024KB by default;
• Added VERBOSE option, with this set to "YES" all command output is shown;
• Added option to pause the script right before writing the boot image to CD. You can use this to check and or correct the content of the boot image on the virtual drive before it is actually written.

v1.2 (20/08/2002)

• Now a REXX script;
• Added configuration options
• CONFIG.SYS is now created automatically by the script and respects set options;
• Added notes concerning choices of virtual floppy software;
• Added contact information.

v1.1 (21/02/2002)

• Now using daniboot.flt instead of cdboot.flt.

v1.0 (16/02/2002)

• Original version for creating a bootable CD with support for most file systems and LVM.