------- Readme for Version 2.44 Beta / CMD Line  June 09, 2002 -------

Beta version 2.44 combines Partition Manager GUI and command line.
It also have increased buffer size to investigate reported crushes
on some systems (laptops?) when users enter cylinder > max_cyl_value.

Command line interface options:

part.exe [disk] [/<command>|/BATCH:file [/QUIET|/VERBOSE] [/DEBUG] [/SURE]]

Commands: disk-no - hard disk number, valid values are 1..8
                  - if no command is specified GUI will run
          /Print  - Print disk and partitions information
          /Extra  - Print detailed disk and partitions information
          /MBR    - Write standard Initial Program Loader into MBR
          /ACT /P:partition-no |/PRI[:nth]
          /DEL /P:partition-no |/PRI[:nth] |/LOG[:nth] |/EXT |/ALL
          /FOR /P:partition-no |/PRI[:nth] |/LOG[:nth] [/V:label]
          /CRE [/PRI |/EXT |/LOG] [/SZ:mb|pcnt%%] [/FOR [/V:label]]
          Additional /CREATE options: /NTFAT16 /FAT16 /FAT32 /NTFS
Examples: part_cmd /print    - print information about the first disk
          part_cmd /all      - print information about all fixed disks
          part_cmd 2 /extra  - print detailed information about disk 2
          part_cmd /del /ext - delete extended partition and all logical drives
          part_cmd /cre /pri /sz:4000 /for /NTFAT16 - create 4G FAT16 partition
          part_cmd /for /log:2 /v:BACKUP - format existing second logical drive
          part_cmd /del /all /nodel:NTFS,82,83 - delete all but 0x7, 0x82, 0x83

Note: disk-no and /sure from the command line are applied to all batch commands

Mikhail

------- Readme for Version 2.43 (Beta by Muthu)  April 12, 2002 -------

Beta v2.43 fixes a bug that prevented some OSes (FreeBSD to name one)
from booting when /boot partitions was located above 8G.

   The fix will let you boot Linux or FreeBSD from partitions above 8G,
however it will not make magic and boot DOS from the end of 60G disk.

------- Readme for Version 2.42 (Beta by Muthu)  March 09, 2002 -------

    Please read this file completely before trying out anything.
This is a long one but it contains some important information
that you need to be aware of.

(As usual, this version is for EXPERIENCED USERS ONLY!

 If you are new to RPM, I suggest you read the URL 
        http://www.trombettworks.com/multi-boot.htm *completely*) 
        
While I have *tested* my changes many times except 2TiB disk limit, 
and found them *working* as expected, standard disclaimers still apply.

Beta v2.42 includes the following new features/changes:

1. A maximum of 31 primary partitions

2. Can restore RPM's MBR in case it was overwritten by some other
   program (e.g.: fdisk /mbr) or after a new OS installation (thereby
   establishing the link to the "lost" RPM partition table).

3. Check for clash/overlap of a *new* partition (found in MBR/EMBR)
   before importing the newer partition into RPM partition table
   (the table used by RPM internally to store all the partition 
   information).

4. > 128 GiB disk support but only upto 1.99 TiB - UNTESTED
   (GiB & TiB refer to the SI notation of "binary Gigabytes" & "binary 
   Terabytes" respectively. 1 binary Gigabyte (GiB) is same as
   1 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes whereas 1 Gigabyte is 1,000,000,000
   bytes. 

   Please see http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html)

5. "MBR row numbering" related changes in Partition Manager

6. Boot Manager can now support upto 32 primary partitions 

More on these features in a while.

[Though I suggested to call this version as RPM 2.41 Beta 2.0, Mikhail
chose to call this RPM 2.42 Beta to avoid any possible confusion. 
So he added "2.42 (beta) by Muthu" in Partition manager. Please note 
that Mikhail was not involved with these new changes. So please avoid 
contacting him if you find any bugs with these new features].

   I would like to suggest you keep a backup copy of the RPM partition 
table on paper. Use the command 'part -p -r > rpmpart.txt' to get the 
RPM partition table into a file. Print this file & store it in a safe 
 place. This will help *in case* you lose your RPM partition table.

To be fair to Mikhail Ranish, the basic things necessary to support 
more than 4 primary partitions were already present in Beta 1.0 code 
(for that matter from 2.38 onwards). All I need to do is to build on 
these to get the support for > 4 primary partitions working. My thanks 
to him for making the source code available and also for getting the 
code compiled for this beta release to the public)

A note on Trombettworks workaround (please do read this):
Here is another person whom I would like to thank. While RPM 2.42b 
may eliminate the reliance of the paper (well, upto 31 partitions, 
it is still a worthy read for its contents (e.g.: layout of partitions,
 partition ending requirement (i.e.) 254/63 (H/S) requirement, moving &
 resizing of partitions, where to keep RPM partition etc.). I learned 
 few things from his article. 

Here are some points which you need to know (he can possibly 
incorporate into that article, that will be my request :

a.) while the RPM partition can be present in an incomplete (last) 
cylinder, I would suggest *not* to do this, the reason being linux does
 not like it. I could not get linux installation create its partitions 
 properly. So my suggestion is to use the last COMPLETE cylinder for 
 the RPM partition
(It worked when I did this and I did not have any problems seeing 
 partitions added to MBR after installation).

b.) It is strictly not necessary to have the RPM partition in the MBR 
 (no, this is not my change). But it will help if you keep it in the 
 MBR (reasons later).

c. With RPM 2.42b, please *DON'T* reinstall RPM in the case where 
 the RPM MBR was overwritten. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Instead, please follow 
 the instructions under "Restoring RPM MBR".

<End of Trombettworks workaround note>

Now let us have a look at these new features in detail. I am 
assuming here that you have some experience working with RPM.

1. Max. of 31 primary partitions

 This is self explanatory. In case you don't want to know more about 
 this feature, skip to 2, but there is something more to this.

 The actual number is 32, but only 31 is usable; as you might have 
 observed, the MBR takes one row in Partition Manager. 
 Leaving one for RPM partition, 
 you can have a maximum of 30 primary partitions.

Please make a note of the word "primary". In Partition Manager, each 
row can represent one primary partition. So, if you want to create 31 
primary partitions you can do so without issues. But this will not be 
case with extended partition (in case you have one). An extended 
partition can have multiple logical partitions inside in which each 
logical partition normally needs 2 rows in Partition Manager 
(one for the logical and the other for the extended logical partition).
So it is NOT possible that you can have 30 primary & 1 extended 
partition. You cannot have primary partitions in all those rows 
occupied by the extended partition and so the number comes down.

2. Restoring RPM MBR

In case the RPM MBR is overwritten, here are steps you need to 
follow to restore (you don't need the paper for a, b & c):

a.) Boot with the RPM 2.42b diskette & run part.exe 
    You will now see ONLY the partitions which are part of the MBR.

b. In case you have the RPM partition in the MBR: 

   i) Goto the first partition (Master Boot Record). Press <Enter>. 
      Against "MBR Executable code:", select "Boot Manager". 
      Against "Boot interface type:" select "Text 25x80". Press <Esc>. 
      You will be in the main menu. Here comes the main thing: 

   ii) Press F7. You will get a message "MBR written. Please reboot 
       the system WITHOUT saving". Yes, you read it correct. 
       Don't use the F2 key at all. Once you reboot the system without 
       saving, you will find all the partition info restored!!! 
       See, having the RPM partition in MBR helped! 

   Another reason to keep RPM partition in the MBR is that the OSes 
   will know that there is a partition existing at that location. 
   Otherwise the OS might think that it is free space and well use
   this space if you create a new partition.

c. "Oh, my GOD!!! I don't have RPM partition in MBR. What to do? 
    Am I doomed?"

   Don't despair! All you need to do:

   i) just recreate the RPM partition and you may assign it an MBR row 
   (say 4, though it is not strictly needed).
   As the RPM partition existed on the last COMPLETE cylinder before, 
   it should NOT be a problem for you to recreate. If you have 
   placed it elsewhere, you have no other go other than remembering it.

   ii) Goto the first partition (Master Boot Record). Press <Enter>. 
       Against "MBR Executable code:", select "Boot Manager". 
       Against "Boot interface type:" select "Text 25x80". Press <Esc>.
       You will be in the main menu. Here comes the main thing: 

   iii) Press F7. You will get "MBR written. Please reboot the system
       WITHOUT saving". Yes, you read it correct. Don't use the F2 key
       at all. Once you reboot the system without saving, you will find 
       all the partition info restored!

d. "I pressed F2 by mistake" or 
   "I don't know where my RPM partition was"

   You require the paper now. If you have pressed F2, You need to 
   create entire RPM partition table by entering the data from the 
   paper (a painful process). If you don't know the location of RPM
   partition, get this information from the paper and follow the
   steps in c.
	   
e. "I don't have a backup copy"

   Sorry. you are out of luck.

3. Check for clash/overlap

If a new partition is found in MBR/EMBR but not part of RPM partition 
table, then the new partition info is checked for overlapping with the 
existing partitions. If it is found to be overlapping, 
the new partition will not be inserted and you will get a message 
in this regard. Otherwise, the new partition will be imported. 

4. > 128GiB disk support

While we cannot last another 36 years with this beta version of RPM, 
I hope we can last for a few years 
(at least till we get disks <= 1.99TiB). 

This is NOT TESTED as I have no way of checking this out at this 
point of time. All I did was change the limits, 
and I am "expecting" it to work!!!

5. "MBR row numbering" in partition manager

a. If you have a partition with a number representing its MBR row
   and you give another partition the same number, the previous 
   partition's number will be reset unless the previous partition is 
   a bootable (active) one.

b. If you have an active partition, then another partition cannot
   have the same number as that of the active partition. You will be
   getting a message in Red (MBR row in use by an active partition)

c. If you make an unnumbered partition active ('B'), in addition to
   becoming active, this partition will also become the 1st row in
   MBR (but you will get a message telling you to change if you wish).
   If there was an active partition earlier, that partition's number
   as well as the active status will be reset.

You can understand this much easily when you try out.

6. Boot Manager can support upto 32 partitions

You would not have encountered the previous limitation of 16 since you 
could not have had more than 4 primary partitions. 
Now you can select & boot from 32 items.

RPM 2.42b is not tested with other bootmanager like xosl etc. 

General tips (not necessarily related to RPM)

a. If you already have more than one OS on your system and you don't 
want to disturb the setup, please remember the order in which the OS'es
 appear in MBR when you first install RPM. You don't want to make the 
 OS (you want to boot) always the first partition in this case. 
 If you make it the first partition, the OS may not boot properly 
 (e.g. I had FreeBSD as the 3rd partition. 
 When I made it the first, it did not boot failing to change the 
 root device to partition 3. May be I needed to make to device files 
 once again but is this not a pain booting with CDROM/floppy 
 and do all the administration?)

b. Please note that in RPM, the first cylinder is numbered from 
   zero. But in linux fdisk, the first cylinder is numbered from one. 
 So be aware of this offset between RPM & linux fdisk cylinder numbers.

c. If you are installing any OS above 8GB, it is a good idea to 
   check whether the OS can boot. For example, if I remember correctly,
   only solaris 8 can boot from above 8GB 
   (previous solaris versions cannot).

I have no problems installing linux above 8 GB.

 It might still be a problem as in the case of FreeBSD. 
 FreeBSD can boot from > 8GB, 
 but when I installed it together with RPM, it cannot boot.
 (This was the same case when FreeBSD was activated thru fdisk also).  
 This is neither due to RPM nor due to FreeBSD 
 (as they work fine individually).
 But I am not able to figure out yet the interaction between these two. 
 I had to work around this problem by using LILO 
 (i.e.) RPM boots Linux (LILO) which can then boot FreeBSD!!!!

In case you want to know, 
I used the following OSes for testing on a 20GB HDD:

Windows 98 (command prompt)
FreeBSD 4.4
RedHat Linux 7.1

Availability: http://www.ranish.com/part/

I guess you are tired reading upto this point. So am I writing till
this point :-).

Regards,
Muthu