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<html>
<body bgcolor=#ffffff text=#000000 link=#4f4fff vlink=#0000ff alink=#00ff00>
<h1>What's new, bugs, TODO</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#new">What's new</a>
<li><a href="#fixed">Fixed bugs</a>
<li><a href="#bugs">Bugs</a>
<li><a href="#todo">TODO</a>
</ul>
<hr>
<a name="new">
<p><h2>What's new:</h2>
<ul>
<dt><b> 0.82:</b><ul>
<li>You may now have the right brace ('{') on the next line
(may be blanks between) in addition to on the initial
line of image definition.
<li>Images with no defined position are by default positioned
below the previous image instead of under menu coordinates.
This makes it possible to start the menu in one spot and
then continue it on the other side of the screen and only
have to define the position twice.
<li><a href="config.html#mapdrive"><i>mapdrive</i></a> -option.
<li>I must've done something but I guess I've forgotten what...
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.81:</b><ul>
<li>Single-shot autoboot<br>
This feature allows one-time automagical boot of an image
and after that returning to normal behavior.
Programs like <a href="../../rebooter-0.2/docs/index.html" target=_parent>rebooter</a> may use this feature.
<li><a href="config.html#dosmenukey">dosmenukey</a> -option for bootsectors.<br>
<li>Improved linux command line editing. You can now edit the default command line or clear it by pressing <i>esc</i>.
<li>You can now set default image.
<li>'<i>fastboot</i>' -> '<i>autoboot</i>'
<li>Password support
<li>bzImage autodetection - "big_linux" is no longer needed.
<li>Improved background file support
<li>Penguin background image ;)
<li>More documentation and comments in sources
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.8:</b><ul>
<li>More documentation
<li>Minor enhancements
<li>MBR <a href="rewrite.html">rewrite</a> should now work for hda.
<li>Necessary modifications to Visual Chos.
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.73</b> (development release)<b>:</b><ul>
<li>Modularized it
<li>HD/FD swap
<li>Dos4Boot
<li>I even started documentating it in HTML !!!
<li>Configuration file:<ul>
chos.bsect + chos.loader -> bindir<br>
chos.background -> bgfile<br>
chos.map -> mapfile</ul>
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.72</b> (development release)<b>:</b><ul>
<li>A few minor bugs were fixed.
<li>Bootsector modification feature for fooling some stupid
operating systems.
<li>Visual Chos - configuration editor for X.
<li>'-view' option and 'showscreen'
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.71:</b><ul>
<li>Major bug fix. Should now work some people for whom it
didn't before. See <a href="#fixed_071">bugs that've been fixed</a>.
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.7:</b><ul>
<li>New config file image description format, which
can be extended to new options more easily.
<li>No more need to precede colons on the linux command line
with backslashes :).
<li>Emergency bootsector is no longer compiled in by default
(There's space for strings in the bootsector).
<li>See <a href="#fixed_07">Bugs that've been fixed</a>.
<li>It now sets environment variable BOOT_IMAGE automagically
<li>It now also passes "auto" on the command line if booted automagically
(i.e. not started with space and given command line manually)
<li>Let's you specify hotkey and position of each image on
screen.
<li>fastboot option
<li>bzImage (high-loaded (at 1M) kernel) support
<li>initrd (initial ramdisk) support
<li>new sample background piccy (a lot better than the old)
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.63:</b><ul>
<li>Added options to specify map file/loader/boot sector/
background file in the config. file.
<li>The map file is now written on disk when it's ready, not
sector at a time (safer).
<li>U can now have colons on the linux command line by
preceding 'em with backslashes.
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.61:</b><ul>
<li>New more portable (and smaller) map file format.
<li>After lots of whining from people 'round the world
you now get the sources too =)
<li>New installation script
</ul>
<dt><b> 0.6:</b><ul>
<li>Emergency boot sector support - Choose-OS can now be
configured to load an "emergency" boot sector if it can't
load it's own 2nd stage, map file or background.
<li>Background image support.
<li>Options to specify menu/timer position.
</ul>
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
<a name="fixed">
<p><h2>Fixed bugs:</h2>
<ul>
<dt><b>0.82:</b>
<ul>
<li>It no longer tries to read cds (and other read-only) devices
when searching for the last device on an ide interface
<li>Changed the bootsector loader to jump to address 0000:7c00
instead of 07c0:000 in order to make
<a href="http://www.freedos.org">FreeDOS</a> not hang when loaded
by chos.
<li>Use alternate way of emptying bios keyboard buffer when using
the <a href="config.html#dosmenukey">dosmenukey</a>-option.
The old way could hang the system (see a comment in
<a href="../sources/loader/loader-bsect.S">../sources/loader/loader-bsect.S</a>
for details).
</ul>
<dt><b>0.81:</b>
<ul>
<li>When emergency bootsector feature was used, the chos bootsector
was copied over interrupt table at 0000:0000. (This was because
it used to move itself at second stage loader address at 0x9b000 but
since version 0.81 this address has been 0x00000. Now it will move itself at 0x10000)
<li>Fixed a typo in <i>sources/loader/loader-bsect.S</i> : <i>jne</i> -> <i>je</i>.<br>
If you had dos4boot support compiled in the loader set a flag in dos bootsector when
it shouldn't have and vice versa.
<li>Lots of minor bugs fixed.
</ul>
<dt><b>0.8:</b>
<ul>
<li>Removed cylinder check in <i>read_linear</i> (<i>sources/loader/int13.S</i>).<br>
That is because some bioses seem to return too small cylinder counts while
bigger values still being valid.
(It returns 765 when it should return 766 and actual cylinder count is 767 (LBA)).<br>
If you want the check, add <b>-DCHECK_CYLINDER</b> in <i>sources/Makefile</i>.
</ul>
<dt><b>0.72:</b>
<ul>
<li> There was a typo in bg.c
<li>It didn't compile with <b>-DHAVE_EMERGENCY</b>. That's 'cos I
never tried the feature after changing chos a lot.
</ul>
<a name="fixed_071">
<dt><b>0.71:</b>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a bug that could result in '<b>DIVIDE OVERFLOW</b>' if
linear sector address was creater than 65535 * sectors_per_cylinder.
(e.g. with 63 sectors/cylinder
linear address was creater than 63*65535=4128705, which
is about 2Gb). I changed to using 64-bit arithmetic
and now it seems to work...
</ul>
<a name="fixed_07">
<dt><b>0.7:</b>
<ul><li> With some hardware configurations noise was displayed
in the background image when directly loaded disk->video
memory. Compile with -DBUG_HARDWARE to use a buffer to
prevent this problem.
</ul>
<dt><b>0.62:</b>
<ul><li>
Fixed a typo (there was 'x' where there should've been 'y'),
which didn't let you have menu x pos>30 or something...
</ul>
<dt><b>0.41:</b>
<ul><li> When you booted to DOS, system time was set to 00:00:00 !!!
Fixed that. (It was set zero when you booted to Linux
too, but as linux is wiser, it reads time from CMOS and
everything worked ok.)
</ul>
<dt><b>0.4:</b>
<ul><li> U can no longer fool Choose-OS to use loader and/or
boot sector of previous incompatible version of Choose-OS.
</ul>
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
<a name="bugs">
<p><h2>Bugs</h2>
<ul>
<li>It miscalculates bios device number for an ide slave device if there is
no master (yes, it is possible to have only slave (at least on some
systems) but usually this is not the case).
<p>
<li>This is a weird bug. I experienced it after having installed windog95
(hey, I wanted to play a few games!) and a friend experienced it when
installing chos (and Linux) for the first time. The problem is that after having
installed chos, with no errors, the old MBR still is there instead
of chos's. Don't ask me why. After installing chos once again it worked
as it should. If anyone knows why this happens please let me know.
<p>
<li>Trouble with SCSI disks (that's not a surprise and not all scsi disk should even work... ;)
<p>
<li>The config file parsing routines are a bit too strict in some cases,
but I'm too lazy to write better - writing parsers sucks anyway...
<p>
<li> If you have spaces in the name of an image, BOOT_IMAGE= will be
the first word, not the whole name. Even quotes won't help since the
kernel doesn't seem to check for 'em.
<p>
<li> On some bioses (at least my Award) it may hang sometimes if
you press a key at a certain moment when loading... A friend told
me that the same problem can occur in dos multi-config menu too but
I haven't tested... I had no problems with AmiBios on my old system
and therefore I consider that a bios bug... Bios patch might
even fix it... unless it is a chos bug...
<p>
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
<a name="todo">
<p><h3>Todo</h3>
<ul>
<li>User interface module support. This feature would allow one to, for example, choose between
traditional Choose-OS interface, LILOish interface or even a <b>graphical menu =-)</b>
<font size=-1>(and I ain't talkin' 'bout du... er... ANSI graphics this time)</font>... and how about mouse interface?
<li>Font and 80x50 textmode support
<li>Fix bugs
<li>Enhancements to rewrite: extended partitions and multiple simultaneous partition tables in addition to just <i>/dev/hda</i>.
<li>New features (What can <b>you</b> think of or do?)
<li>Should do some optimization and remove duplicated/unused code<br>(I did much of the work done while modularizing, but there still must be something...)
</ul>
<p>
</body>
</html>
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