146 lines
7.1 KiB
HTML
146 lines
7.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>Linux Remote-Boot mini-HOWTO: Configuring Remote-Boot Workstations with Linux, DOS, Windows 95/98 and Windows NT: What has changed...</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Remote-Boot-3.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Remote-Boot-1.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="Remote-Boot.html#toc2" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Remote-Boot-3.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Remote-Boot-1.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Remote-Boot.html#toc2">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s2">2. What has changed...</A></H2>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss2.1">2.1 ...since version 2.x ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>To say it frankly, almost everything. The underlying concepts are the same, but
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the software part has been completly redesigned to overcome the limitations
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of previous versions and to make it easier to use. An highlight of the new
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features :
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<UL>
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<LI>All functions (bpmenu, bpclean, bpunzip) are encompassed in a single
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program.</LI>
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<LI>The program can run not only from the boot rom, but also under DOS,
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Windows 95 and Linux.</LI>
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<LI>The program can now restore images of FAT16, FAT32 and EXT2FS
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partitions. If someone want to write NTFS support, let me know...
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For now, NT users still have to stick to FAT16.</LI>
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<LI>The program can not only restore disk images but also add and patch
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individual files in order to customize the client behaviour.</LI>
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<LI>Disk images are not any more bound to 87 MB. They are now
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file-system independant archives.</LI>
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<LI>We provide a mean for automatically downloading a disk image to
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an arbitrary big number of clients at the same time (broadcast).</LI>
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<LI>You can now write your own secure boot script, that will determine
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the behaviour of the machine before the real boot.</LI>
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<LI>You can now boot any Linux kernel, without
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applying any patch. Its is also possible to provide a
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command line and a ramdisk image.</LI>
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<LI>You can authenticate users at boot time using a Unix, NT or Radius
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server and deny them any access to the machine.</LI>
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<LI>Full national language support is included.</LI>
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<LI>And many, many other new features...</LI>
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</UL>
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<DL>
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<DT><B>Is there a program for converting old archives to the new format ?</B><DD><P>No, because the internal format is radically different. But you can easily
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do the conversion by yourself:
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<OL>
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<LI>Boot an old image (unzip it to your disk)</LI>
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<LI>Remove calls to the old <CODE>unzipreg</CODE> utility and replace them
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by the adequate <CODE>patch</CODE> commands (it is very easy, see
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the detailed instructions below)</LI>
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<LI>Run the new <CODE>mrzip</CODE> program to create a new-style disk image</LI>
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</OL>
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</DL>
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<H2><A NAME="ss2.2">2.2 ...since version 3.0 ?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Version 3.0 was the beta-release. A dozen of sites around the world have
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tested it during a month and given much of their time to help us finding
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bugs and to suggest enhancements. Thanks to all of them for their patience,
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and in particular to Maciek Uhlig, Dick Velders and Jeff Teeters.
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<P>A few minor features have been added since 3.01, such as support for diskless
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Linux boot (by disabling the cache).
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<P>Version 3.10 introduced compatibility with Intel's <EM>Wired for Management
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1.1a</EM> NetPC standard. The tools now work with any PXE-compliant boot ROM
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(as are most on-board boot ROMs) available today. Thanks to
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<A HREF="http://www.incom.de/">InCom GmbH</A> for giving us the PXE
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bootprom that permitted this developpment. We also succesfully tested
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the tools with the PXE Boot ROM that I found incidentally in my Dell
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computer with onboard network card (called LanDesk Service Agent).
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<P>Version 3.11 to 3.12 added UNIX server-side tools (a PXE Proxy DHCP server
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for Solaris and Linux, and an enhanced TFTP server for Linux), as well as
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detailled informations on server-side setup and the PXE booting process.
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<P>Version 3.13 added Advanced Power Management support (PowerOff command).
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<P>Version 3.14 added minor enhancements and some corrections. We fixed a problem
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with the terminal under RedHat 5.1, and another problem in the syntax of
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the "if" command. We added some features suggested by the Laboratori de
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Càlcul de la Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona (LCFIB) :
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<UL>
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<LI>A new APM variable let you know if your system support the Advanced
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Power Management (i.e it supports the poweroff command).</LI>
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<LI>A "beep" command.</LI>
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<LI>A new parameter to DrawWindow, to include a title at the window
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creation. You can now do DrawWindow 200 200 400 200 "Title".</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>Version 3.15 added full VESA support. BpBatch now support several video modes,
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to accomodate old computers not being able to display 800x600 graphics. A new
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parameter has been added to InitGraph to specify the video mode, and a list
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of detected video mode can be retrieved from the new VESA-Modes variable.
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<P>Version 3.16 fixes the following bugs:
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<UL>
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<LI>"Malloc failed" during the Fullunzip process of a multiple fragments
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image.
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Many thanks to Christian Meyer for his collaboration.</LI>
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<LI>A bug which prevented the linux version of MrBatch to properly
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fullunzip images. This bug was located in the low-level functions of
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MrBatch, so it may fix other problems encountered in the <EM>linux</EM> version
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of MrBatch.
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Many thanks to Jeff Teeters for his collaboration.</LI>
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<LI>An error in the codepage translation tables. This bug was found by
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the Laboratori de Càlcul de la Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona (LCFIB).
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You can find the bug report in the BpBatch forum.</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>Version 3.17 adds some minor features and fixes bugs:
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<UL>
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<LI>Fullunzip was turning Extended Memory off</LI>
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<LI>Booting on the RedHat boot disk now works </LI>
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<LI>When extracting images with a large number of directories, the
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resulting FAT file system was corrupted.</LI>
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<LI>We added retries to text TFTP transfers. BpBatch will now retry
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three times before saying "Could not transfer the file".</LI>
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<LI>Timestamps are now correctly updated in FAT. (thank to Francis Chan)</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>Version 3.18 fixes a bug with the IncrUnzip function. Thanks to
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Gary Pike for its collaboration.
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<P>Version 3.19 fixed a bug in the error handling of the <CODE>delete</CODE> command
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on ext2fs, as well as the inappropriate handling of names starting with
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A: under Linux. The following new features were also added:
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<UL>
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<LI>A new <CODE>if valid disk:partition</CODE> syntax can be used to check
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if a partition has been formatted</LI>
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<LI>FAT32 disk images are now fully functional (they now boot properly)</LI>
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<LI>Linux EXT2 partitions bigger than 2 GB are now supported</LI>
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<LI>Linux Swap partitions bigger than 128 MB are now supported (this
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feature needs a recent kernel, at least 2.1.x)</LI>
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<LI>FullUnzip is now also possible without a cache partition, by
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setting <CODE>CacheNever</CODE> to <CODE>"ON"</CODE>. This might be
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usefull for a unique installation, but is not recommended in
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general is it results in a high network load.</LI>
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</UL>
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Thanks to Ruben Schattevoy for its help and contributions to this release.
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Remote-Boot-3.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Remote-Boot.html#toc2">Contents</A>
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