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<html>
<body bgcolor=#ffffff text=#000000 link=#4f4fff vlink=#0000ff alink=#00ff00>
<h1>Miscalleneous information</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#background">Background images</a>
<li><a href="#samples">Sample configurations</a>
<li><a href="#recompile">Recompiling</a>
</ul>
<a name="background">
<p><h2>Background images</h2>
Choose-OS allows you to have your own ansi art (or any text)
as background in the bootup menu.<br>
The file to be used as background is
defined with the <i><b>background=</b>type<b>:</b> filename</i> directive.
<i>Type</i> is either '<i>ascii</i>', '<i>cp437</i>' or '<i>dump</i>'.
<i>Ascii</i> is for normal latin1 text file. <i>Pc437</i> is for
text file that uses codepage 437. <i>Dump</i> is for
binary screendump files. The file doesn't have to be 80x25.
Screendump files are in the format as they're in
video memory: character first, then the attribute.<p>
There are plenty of programs for creating ansi graphics.
Most of them are for DOS <b>:(</b>.
I used SHMANSi to make the sample files.
For Linux there are a few ansi paint programs but the DOS
ones are still better.
<p>
<a name="samples">
<p><h2>Sample configurations</h2>
There are some sample configurations in the <i><CHOSPATH>/samples</i> directory.
Here's a short description of all the sample files.
<p>
You can view the <i>.bin</i> background files with <i>utils/showscreen</i>.<br>
<i>.asc</i> files can simply be viewed with '<i>cat</i>' (some of them might need
codepage 437 be set, though (Type <i>echo -e '\033(K'</i> to set it and <i>echo -e '\033(B'</i> to
switch back to Latin1).
<p>
<table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=2 cols=3 NOSAVE width=100% bgcolor=#58d1ce>
<tr bgcolor=black>
<td><font color=white><b>Name/Screenshot</b></font></td>
<td><font color=white><b>Files</b></font></td>
<td><font color=white><b>Description</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<td>Traditional<p><div align=right><a href="scr-trad.html">screenshot</a></div></td>
<td><a href=../samples/chos.conf.example>chos.conf.example</a></td>
<td>This creates a traditional (version 0.41 and earlier) looking configuration with no extra background image and stuff.</td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<td>dump #1<p><div align=right><a href="scr-dump1.html">screenshot</a></div></td>
<td><a href=../samples/chos.conf.dump>chos.conf.dump</a><br>chos.bin</td>
<td>Uses a background image which with fat letters says '<i>Choose-OS</i>'.</td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<td>dump #2<p><div align=right><a href="scr-dump2.html">screenshot</a></div></td>
<td><a href=../samples/chos08.conf>chos08.conf</a><br>chos08.bin</td>
<td>Another one which uses a background image. Weird looking. (Hmm... It's actually modified shamansi exit screen... I hope no one minds)</td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<td>ascii #1<p><div align=right><a href="scr-ascii.html">screenshot</a></div></td>
<td><a href=../samples/chos.conf.ascii>chos.conf.ascii</a><br>chos.asc<br> or<br> be.asc</td>
<td>Configuration that uses plain a ascii text file as background.</td>
</tr>
<tr valign=top>
<td>penguin<p><div align=right><a href="scr-penguin.html">screenshot</a></div></td>
<td><a href=../samples/penguin.conf>penguin.conf</a><br>penguin.bin<br></td>
<td>Configuration with Linux penguin logo</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a name="recompile">
<p><h2>Recompiling</h2>
You might need to recompile Choose-OS if you need some feature that is not compiled in by default
(for safety) or if you're still using an old 1.x kernel.<br>
To do this,
<ul>
<li><i>cd <chospath>/sources</i>
<li><i>joe Makefile</i> and setup necessary options:<br>
(those marked with a <font color=blue><b>*</b></font> are compiled in by default.)
<dl>
<dt><b>-DBUG_HARDWARE</b> <font color=blue><b>*</b></font>
<dd>When this option is used the background image is not loaded directly into
video memory but via a buffer. That's because on some systems there's "noise"
in the image if loaded directly.
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_EMERGENCY</b>
<dd>Include support for emergency bootsector.<br>
(config option: <b><i>emergency=</b></i>)
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_BZIMAGE</b> <font color=blue><b>*</b></font>
<dd>Compile with support for bzImages (high-loaded kernels).<br>
(config option: <i><b>big_linux</b></i>)
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_INITRD</b> <font color=blue><b>*</b></font>
<dd>Support initial ramdisks.<br>
(config option: <i><b>linux</b>::<b>initrd=</b></i>)
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_REWRITE</b>
<dd>Support <a href="rewrite.html">bootsector rewrite</a> feature.<br>
(config option: <i><b>bootsect</b>::<b>rewrite=</b></i>)
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_DRIVESWAP</b>
<dd>Compile with support for drive swapping (<i>fd0</i> with <i>fd1</i> and <i>hda</i> with <i>hdb</i>).<br>
(config option: <i><b>bootsect</b>::<b>swaphd=</b></i> and <i><b>bootsect</b>::<b>swapfd</b></i>)
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_DOS4BOOT</b>
<dd>Compile with support for telling dos4+ (and OS/2?) to boot of <i>/dev/hdb</i>.<br>
(config option: <i><b>bootsect</b>::<b>dos4boot=</b></i>)
<dt><b>-DSUPPORT_DOSMENUKEY</b> <font color=blue><b>*</b></font>
<dd>Support <a href="config.html#dosmenukey">dosmenukey</a> -option
<dt><b>-DCHECK_CYLINDER</b>
<dd>Check for cylinder number being in range when loading.
<dt><b>-DNO_BEEP</b>
<dd>Define this if you don't want it to beep when rewriting
MBR/1st mapfile sector (when doing single-shot autoboot).
<dt><b>-DNO_BACKUP</b>
<dd>Don't create bootsector backup file <i>/boot/bsect-backup.<device_name></i> .
</dl>
<li><i>make clean; make depend; make</i><br>
The resulting binaries will be placed in <i>chospath<b>/</b></i> and <i>chospath<b>/bin</b></i>.
</body>
</html>
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