Subject: Boot manager review request
To: None <port-i386@NetBSD.ORG>
From: VaX#n8 <vax@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>
List: port-i386
Date: 12/16/1994 02:52:53
I want a comparison of boot managers.  They're kind of a pain to install
(if you lose your part. table, for example), and I use it every day.

Here's my two:
1) pboot (I think) - pretty hard to install, easy to screw up the command
line.  Blows away your partition table in sector 0.  Once you've installed it
(read the command line carefully; no arguments are optional!) then it's not
hard to do it again.  Will boot any of the four hard partitions on my machine.
When I had a second scsi disk, it would display the four partitions from it,
too, but I couldn't get it to boot from them.  Shows what kind of partitions
they are, too.  Hit a numeric key, and it boots.

2) Coherent bootstrap.  Haven't used it in 2+ years, but it's the best
one I've seen.  The installation process sucks big rocks (you basically
have to install coherent, last time I checked, which was a while ago),
but it has a timeout to a default partition (probably the active one),
which is VERY nice for unattended machines.  I never booted anything
but DOS/Coh under it.

Are they any others that have a timeout?
Your reviews welcome.
-- 
VaX#n8 (vak-sa-nate) - n, CS senior++ and Unix junkie - vax@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Just the vax-man.  Read my MIPS, no new VAXes!        - PGP key on request