It creates multiboot CDs for computers that normally do not
have the ability to start a bootmenu from the CD.
It creates a hierarchical bootmenu interface with
customized apperarance.
It supports the extended formats
of boot images (example).
What's in the zip?
bcdwboot.bin
The boot image file for the CD
BCDW\bcdw.bin
The bootmanager
BCDW\bcdw*.ini
Sample configuration files for the bootmanager
BCDW\FONTS\
The folder with localized fonts
BCDW\CHARSETS\
Descriptions of localized Charsets
BCDW\logo.gif
Example of the graphic prompt
Boot*.Ini
Examples of settings for the bootmenu
initest.com
The program to test a configuration before burning the
CD
DOS4BCDW\
The folder with the files necessary to create the
special boot image dos4bcdw.ima (how to do
this?)
How to create a
multiboot CD with BCDW?
Create a folder on your harddisk for the files of your
multiboot CD (e.g. C:\MyBootCD\)
Unpack the ZIP-archive with BCDW to this folder
Add your files to this folder (boot images etc.)
Using Windows Notepad open the file C:\MyBootCD\BootCat.Ini
Edit the boot choices according to your files (add/remove
the necessary entries)
Start your CD writing program
Choose the project for bootable and use the following
settings:
Boot image: C:\MyBootCD\bcdwboot.bin
Emulation type: No emulation
Loading address: 07c0
Number of sectors to load: 4
(how to do it using Nero, CDRWin, Easy CD Creator,
Instant CD+DVD, WinOnCD, CDImage
or mkisofs)
Add the contents of the folder C:\MyBootCD\ to the
project
Burn the disk
Customize BCDW
BCDW can be customized through two files (create or edit
existing):
\BCDW\bcdw.ini contains the start parameters for
BCDW
\BootCat.Ini contains the boot options and the
appearance settings
Both files are text files and can be created using Windows
Notepad or any similar editor.
The configuration files can be text files DOS/Windows or
*NIX/Linux.
The configuration files have a structure similar to the *.ini/*.inf-files
of Windows:
The files are divided into sections with the name of
the section in square brackets at the beginning of each section
The lines are of the type "keyword = value", that is
the way different options can be set
Empty lines and lines beginning with ';' (semicolon)
will be ignored
Remarks:
The current version of BCDW only uses one section [Options],
all other sections (if present) will be ignored. Unknown keywords in
section [Options]will
be ignored.
In the configuration file \BootCat.Ini the
space between the beginnig of the file and the first section is used
for the boot options (see description of \BootCat.Ini)
The configuration
file \BCDW\bcdw.ini
The configuration file \BCDW\bcdw.ini can contain a
section [Options] in which four keywords can be used to
customize. This section [Options] is optional, i.e. the simple \BCDW\bcdw.ini
would be empty.
Example of
\BCDW\bcdw.ini.
[Options]
Password = secret
Logo = \BCDW\logo.gif
Font = \BCDW\FONTS\russian.fnt
CharSet = \BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1251r.cpf
RootMenu = \BootCat.Ini
Keywords in
\BCDW\bcdw.ini
Password (or PasswordMD5Hash)
Sets the password (or MD5 Hash of password) to be entered on start of BCDW.
Logo
BCDW can display a graphic prompt on startup.
The keyword Logo tells BCDW the location of a *.gif
file to load and display as graphic prompt.
This file can be an animated *.gif file.
The gif must not be larger than ~500Kb.
BCDW supports the following video modes for the prompt: 320x200x256,
640x480x256, 800x600x256, 1024x768x256, 1280x1024x256 ? 1600x1200x256
(nearest will be used).
If the picture does not fit on the screen it will be aligned and
truncated.
If the keyword Logo is left out, there will be no graphic
prompt.
Font
At the start of a computer, a standard english font
(cp437) 8x16 is loaded in the video adapter memory .
BCDW allows another font to be loaded in the video adapter on startup
(e.g. a font with Russian characters) and a font with a different size
(the number of lines depends on the heigth of the symbol).
The keyword Font tells BCDW name and location of a different
font file to be used on startup.
The size of the font file can be anything from 1024 bytes (font 8x4 -
100 lines on the screen) to 8192 bytes (font 8x32 - 12 lines on the
screen).
If the keyword Font is left out, BCDW will use the standard
font of the video adapter.
The following fonts are included with BCDW:
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.fnt
Russian font 8x16 (25 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f32
Russian font 8x32 (12 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f19
Russian font 8x19 (21 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f14
Russian font 8x14 (28 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f12
Russian font 8x12 (33 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f11
Russian font 8x11 (36 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f08
Russian font 8x8 (50 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f06
Russian font 8x6 (66 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\russian.f04
Russian font 8x4 (100 lines on the screen)
\BCDW\FONTS\cyrillic.fnt
Cyrillic font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\cyrillic.f14
Cyrillic font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\cyrillic.f08
Cyrillic font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\latin1.fnt
Latin1 font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\latin1.f14
Latin1 font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\latin1.f08
Latin1 font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\latin2.fnt
Latin2 font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\latin2.f14
Latin2 font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\latin2.f08
Latin2 font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\baltic.fnt
Baltic font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\baltic.f14
Baltic font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\baltic.f08
Baltic font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\turkish.fnt
Turkish font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\turkish.f14
Turkish font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\turkish.f08
Turkish font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\arabic.fnt
Arabic font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\arabic.f14
Arabic font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\arabic.f08
Arabic font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\hebrew.fnt
Hebrew font 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\hebrew.f14
Hebrew font 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\hebrew.f08
Hebrew font 8x8
\BCDW\FONTS\ibmpc.fnt
Standard (cp437) font IBM PC 8x16
\BCDW\FONTS\ibmpc.f14
Standard (cp437) font IBM PC 8x14
\BCDW\FONTS\ibmpc.f08
Standard (cp347) font IBM PC 8x8
CharSet
In the configuration file \BootCat.Ini you can
use filenames and texts not only in English, but also some other
languages (e.g. Russian).
For texts in other languages than English different codings are used by
different operation systems
(e.g. the following codings are generally used for Russian: in DOS -
cp866, in Windows - cp1251, in *NIX/Linux - KOI8-R).
To be able to correctly interpret filenames and texts (for screen
resolution, file search on CD etc.) BCDW needs to know which coding you
used for the configuration file \BootCat.Ini.
The keyword CharSet tells BCDW name and location of the used
codefile.
If the keyword CharSet is left out, BCDW considers all texts
and names in the file \BootCat.Ini to be only in English.
The following codefiles are included with BCDW:
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1251r.cpf
Russian coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp866.cpf
Russian coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\koi8r.cpf
Russian coding *NIX/Linux
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1251c.cpf
Cyrillic coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp855.cpf
Cyrillic coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso88595.cpf
Cyrillic coding as in ISO8859-5
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1252.cpf
Latin1 coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp850.cpf
Latin1 coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso88591.cpf
Latin1 coding ?? ISO8859-1
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1250.cpf
Latin2 coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp852.cpf
Latin2 coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso88592.cpf
Latin2 coding as in ISO8859-2
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1257.cpf
Baltic coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp775.cpf
Baltic coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso885913.cpf
Baltic coding as in ISO8859-13
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1254.cpf
Turkish ????????? Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp857.cpf
Turkish coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso88599.cpf
Turkish coding as in ISO8859-9
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1256.cpf
Arabic coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp864.cpf
Arabic coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso88596.cpf
Arabic coding as in ISO8859-6
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp1255.cpf
Hebrew coding Windows
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp862.cpf
Hebrew coding DOS
\BCDW\CHARSETS\iso88598.cpf
Hebrew coding as in ISO8859-8
\BCDW\CHARSETS\cp437.cpf
Standard (cp437) coding IBM PC
RootMenu
By default, BCDW is looking for the settings of the
bootloader in a file \BootCat.Ini.
You can change the name and location of this file (e.g. to \BCDW\BootCat.Ini).
The keyword RootMenu tells BCDW name and location of this file.
The configuration
file \BootCat.Ini
The file \BootCat.Ini (and any other bootloader
description files)
has two parts:
The list of the boot options -
at
the beginning of the file before the section [Options] (or at the end if there
are no sections present)
:restart ; Switch
to
English ; note4 ; \BCDW\bcdw_eng.ini
; *** Appearance settings
[Options]
; *** Background settings
BGColors =
00, 80, 80, 80
BGSymbol =
32
TopText =
BottomText =
; *** Settings of the window "Boot options"
MenuPosition = 02,
05, 76, 13
MenuColors =
f9, 9f, 1f, f0, 0f, fd, f9
MenuBorderStyle = 5
MenuShadowStyle = 2
MenuTitle =
Boot options
MenuDefault =
0
MenuTimerLabel = Remaining time:
MenuTimer =
30
; *** Settings of the window "About a boot option"
HelpPosition = 02,
19, 76, 05
HelpColors =
e0, 9f, 1f, e0, 0f, e0
HelpBorderStyle = 5
HelpShadowStyle = 2
HelpTabSkip =
0
HelpTitle =
About this boot option
; *** Settings of the window "About this CD"
AboutPosition = 02, 01,
76, 03
AboutColors =
e0, 9f, 1f, e0, 0f, e0
AboutBorderStyle = 5
AboutShadowStyle = 2
AboutTabSkip = 0
AboutTitle =
About this CD
AboutText =
~
Emergency rescue bootdisk
~
; *** Settings of the window "Running line"
ScrollPosition = 00, 00, 80, 01
ScrollColors = 87,
87, 87, 87, 0f, 87
ScrollBorderStyle = 0
ScrollShadowStyle = 0
ScrollTabSkip = 1
ScrollMode =
0
ScrollTitle =
ScrollText =
~
Text of a running line
~
; *** Comments to the list of boot options
note1 =
~
BCDW permits to start a DOS program from CD
(special boot image dos4bcdw.ima is required)
~
note2 =
~
BCDW can start ISOLinux, CD Shell,
BootScriptor,
diskem1x.bin and transfer command options to them for
performance
~
note3 =
~
BCDW uses some internal commands to operate
~
note4 =
~
The command :restart makes it possible to restart BCDW
with different settings
(e.g. to switch interface language)
~
The list of
bootoptions in \BootCat.Ini
The list of boot options consists of a set of lines, each of
one representing one boot option. Each line has several parts (in
current version of BCDW four parts) separated by ';' (semicolon):
All descriptions, except for the bootoption title, are optional.
Format of entries
that lead to a submenu
Files with a submenu configuration can have any name on *.ini.
Their format is identical to the one of \BootCat.Ini.
Format of entries for bootoptions
Bootimages can have any name but must not end on *.ini.
BCDW supports the following formats of boot images:
Images of floppies or logical disk of any size (up to
8Gb) with the file system FAT(12/16/32), e.g. *.ima files
created by .
(example)
Floppy images with capacity of 160Kb, 180Kb, 320Kb, 360Kb,
720Kb,
820Kb, 1.2Mb, 1.44Mb, 1.68Mb, 1.72Mb, 2.88Mb with a file system
different of FAT
Images of harddisks with any number of sectors (example)
Programs with the loading address 07c0:0000 (e.g.
bootsector of the Microsoft Windows XP/2000/NT floppies nt5boot.bin, nt4boot.bin,
w2ksect.bin, xpboot.bin etc.)
Programs with the loading address 07c0:0000 and the "Boot
Info Table" (e.g. isolinux.bin)
Bootsector files of Microsoft Windows XP/2000/NT
(files \i386\setupldr.bin)
Internal
operating commands BCDW
Instead of a boot image file you can pass internal operating
commands to BCDW. The current version of BCDW accepts the following
commands:
A:\
Start from physical floppy drive. Command does not
require options.
C:\
Start from physical harddisk. Command does not require
options.
:Reboot
Reboot the computer. Command does not require options.
:Restart
Restart BCDW with different setting. Command requires
option -a name of a configuration file (name of another \BCDW\bcdw.ini).
:Return
Return from submenu. Command does not require options.
:Nop
Do nothing. Command does not require options.
:
Similar to :nop, but makes this line inaccessible (item
cannot be chosen). Command does not require options.
Parameters for bootimages
Bootimages usually do not support receiving parameters,
but BCDW enables you to pass options to some bootimage files, namely:
The special boot image dos4bcdw.ima (how to create this image?) - the DOS-program to
start from the CD
Appearance
settings of the interface windows in \BootCat.Ini
The BCDW interface consitis of four windows, the
"Boot options" window in which the different boot options can be
chosen,
the "About this boot option" window that displays information about the
selected boot option, "About this CD" window that gives information
about the Bootdisk and the "Running line" in which any text can be
displayed. All windows except the "Boot options" window are optional.
The settings for the windows is adjusted with the help of keywords in
the section [Options]:
*** Background colour below the windows
BGColors
Colour of the background below the windows
= C1, C2, C3, C4
C1 - Screen border colour
C2 - Background colour
C3 - Top line colour
C4 - Bottom line colour
BGSymbol
Decimal code of a symbol filled background.
The most common symbols: 32, 176, 177, 178
Transparent background: 0
TopText
Text of the top line
BottomText
Text of the bottom line
*** Window "Boot options"
MenuPosition
Location and size of the window
= X, Y, W, H
X - From the left border
Y - From the top border
W - Width
H - Heigth
MenuColors
Colour of window elements
= C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7
C1 - Frame colour
C2 - Window active colour
C3 - Window inactive colour
C4 - Colour of menu items
C5 - Colour of currently selected item when window active
C6 - Colour of currently selected item when window inactive
C7 - Colour of inaccessible items
MenuBorderStyle
Style of window frame: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (0 - no frame)
MenuShadowStyle
Style of window shadow: 0, 1, 2 (0 - no shadow)
MenuTitle
Text of window title
MenuDefault
Default menuitem index: 0-255
MenuTimerLabel
Text of timer entry
MenuTimer
Delay in seconds before automatic load
*** Window "About this boot option"
HelpPosition
Location and size of the window
= X, Y, W, H
X - From the left border
Y - From the top border
W - Width
H - Height
HelpColors
Colours of the window elements
= C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6
C1 - Frame colour
C2 - Window active colour
C3 - Window inactive colour
C4 - Lines colour
C5 - Colour of current line when window active
C6 - Colour of current line when window inactive
HelpBorderStyle
Style of window frame: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (0 - no frame)
HelpShadowStyle
Style of window shadow: 0, 1, 2 (0 - no shadow)
HelpTabSkip
Skip help window when switching with Tab: 0 - off., 1 -
on.
HelpTitle
Text of window title
*** Window "About this CD"
AboutPosition
Location and size of the window
= X, Y, W, H
X - From the left border
Y - From the top border
W - Width
H - Height
AboutColors
Colours of the window elements
= C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6
C1 - Frame colour
C2 - Window active colour
C3 - Window inactive colour
C4 - Lines colour
C5 - Colour of current line when window active
C6 - Colour of current line when window inactive
AboutBorderStyle
Style of window frame: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (0 - no frame)
AboutShadowStyle
Style of window shadow: 0, 1, 2 (0 - no shadow)
AboutTabSkip
Skip about window when switching with Tab: 0 - off., 1
-
on.
AboutTitle
Text of window tilte
AboutText
Contents of this window
*** Window "Running line"
ScrollPosition
Location and size of the window
= X, Y, W, H
X - From the left border
Y - From the top border
W - Width
H - Height
ScrollColors
Colours of the window elements
= C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6
C1 - Frame colour
C2 - Window active colour
C3 - Window inactive colour
C4 - Lines colour
C5 - Colour of current line when window active
C6 - Colour of current line when window inactive
ScrollBorderStyle
Style of window frame: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (0 - no frame)
ScrollShadowStyle
Style of window shadow: 0, 1, 2 (0 - no shadow)
ScrollTabSkip
Skip running line window when switching with Tab: 0 -
off., 1 -
on.
ScrollMode
Window mode: 0 - Running line, 1 - window with the text
ScrollTitle
Text of window title
ScrollText
Contents of the window
*** Colours
C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7
The colours are set by a combination of two
placeholders. First placeholder - background colour, second placeholder
- foreground colour. The values of the placeholders as follows:
0 - Black
1 - Blue
2 - Green
3 - Cyan
4 - Red
5 - Magenta
6 - Brown
7 - LGrey
8 - DGrey
9 - LBlue
A - LGreen
B - LCyan
C - LRed
D - LMagenta
E - Yellow
F - White
How to add a
program from a bootable CD to a CD with BCDW?
Some programs are able to create a bootable CD (e.g. the Acronis
programs).
To add such programs to a CD with BCDW
do the following:
Copy all the files and folders of the bootable CD to your
CD with BCDW (the Acronis BootCDs put everything in the bootsector, so
no need to copy anything)
Using
create an *.iso image of the bootbale CD (select "Make
ISO from CDROM" from the menu "Actions")
Open the just created *.iso image (select "Open"
from the menu
"File")
Save the boot information to a *.wbt file
(select "Save boot information to file..." from the menu "Bootable CD")
Put the *.wbt file on your CD with
BCDW
Add an entry in \BootCat.ini for this boot option
similar to the following:
Add an entry in \BootCat.ini for this boot option
similar to the following:
\dos4bcdw.ima ; Volkov Commander ; ; \VC\vc.com
How to create the
special boot image dos4bcdw.ima?
Create the emergeny rescue floppy Microsoft Windows 98SE
(My Computer - Contol Panel - Add/remove programs - Startdisk)
Copy the files bcdw_cl.com, autoexec.bat
and config.sys from the BCDW archive to this floppy
Create an image of this floppy with the name dos4bcdw.ima
(how to do this?)
If you want to use a different DOS version (PC-DOS, DR-DOS,
FreeDOS ? ?.?.), copy only the file bcdw_cl.com to your floppy
and add the following lines to the autoexec.bat
on your DOS floppy:
echo Looking for bootable CD...
BCDW_CL.COM
if errorlevel 1 goto NO_BCDW_CL
echo Loading DOS-program...
%BCDW_CDROM%:
call %BCDW_CL%
:NO_BCDW_CL
How to create an
image of a floppy or a logical disk?
Start
Choose floppy or logical disk from the menu "Disk"
Read a floppy or logical disk selecting "Read
Disk" from the menu "Disk"
Save a *.ima image of the disk selecting
"Save as..." from the menu "File"
For a detailed description with screenshots see here.
How to create an image of custom size
(e.g. more than 2.88Mb)?
Create a logical volume of the desired size on your
harddisk with filesystem FAT16 (e.g. with the help of Acronis
PartitionExpert or
PowerQuest Partition Magic)
If you want the message "Press any key to boot from CD..." to
appear before BCDW is starting copy the file bootfix.bin
from Microsoft Windows XP/2000 to the BCDW folder on your CD.
How to skip BCDW
on startup
BCDW listens at startup for the left ALT key. If it is
pressed, the PC starts from harddisk without any messages or prompts.
Copyright (c)2004 by reanimatolog. English translation by Wolfgang Brinkmann
