Boot menu?

[neofree]

Hello, is there a multi-OS boot menu for Amiga? I'd like to have 2-3 seperate partitions with say OS1.3, OS3.9 and perhaps Linux and have a boot menu when I reboot to choose one.  Does such a program exist?  I'd need it to default to one of the options if one is not selected after some time.

Thanks,

Neofree

[blobrana]

Well,
i suppose that you could  make three or more partitions bootable and put a different version of OS onto each, and make/set the main one (dh0:) a higher priority.

TheN all you need to do, is hold down the mouse buttons at boot to disable  DH0:  and  activate/deactivate the partition/OS you need...

[billt]

I agree with blobrana. I have such a setup even between OS3.9 and OS4beta partitions on one machine. I also have bootable ZIP disks with system restore stuff on them, which boot at a higher priority than any of my HD partitions do, so they take over when placed in the drive at boot time. This has come in handy like crazy a number of times. Why use a boot program when you can kickstart's early-boot-menu to choose which partition to boot from?

[neofree]

Sounds like a plan to me.    I just didn't know this functionality already existed in the way I need it.  What about Softkick? Been a little while since I used that.  Can I configure Softkick to boot 1.3 ROMS by selecting the 1.3 partition in boot?  Will that make it have to reboot and reselect the part again?  What about BlizKick since I have a BlizzardPPC?  Does it work any better then softkick?

Thanks,

Neofree

[Ilwrath]

Can I configure Softkick to boot 1.3 ROMS by selecting the 1.3 partition in boot? Will that make it have to reboot and reselect the part again?

Nope.  You'll lose access to both the menu, and probably your HD, because you will have just kicked a 1.3 ROM image onto an A1200.  ;-)  Remember, when you kick a ROM image, you only have the functionality of that ROM image available.  There never was a 1.3 for A1200, therefore you lose the A1200 features, such as the IDE controller, the PCMCIA port, etc.  The Blizzard SCSI MAY still work, if you have that.  I doubt it, though.  I've never heard of anyone trying it.  In fact, the 1.3 ROM may not work at all on a BlizzardPPC.

What about BlizKick since I have a BlizzardPPC? Does it work any better then softkick?

I don't think BlizKick can kick anything below a 3.0 image, can it?

[neofree]

I softkick'd to 1.3 all the time on my old A1200...

It had a GVP 030 with SCSI.  The HD booted fine.

I may just have to have a SCSI HD for 1.3 games...

Will UAE run in a 200mhz PPC?

[tomekm]

i remember some a500 hd controller project found on aminet. i don`t remember exact name.. There were device drivers which I found working with A1200 IDE after rekiciking OS 1.3 or 2.0 without scsi.device. I think you should take a look at this. AFAIR the driver name was ide.device or similar.

[Doobrey]

Ilwrath wrote:
I don't think BlizKick can kick anything below a 3.0 image, can it?

AFAIK, it should be able to load anything since it relies on the the maprom hardware of an accelerator card to do it`s magic.
 As long as the startup code in the eariler roms doesn`t do anything silly, it should work fine.

[Stew]

  I had a ROM switcher on an A2000. It would read the ROM version and boot the corresponding WB off the HD. I had 1.3 and 3.1 on it. I don't remember how I had set it up. It is probably still on one of the HD's that I gave Kent. There maybe some info on c.s.a.h as we discussed it there a time or two.

[Brian]

That would be so much easier if it was made on a machine supporting older kickstarts such as the A2000... just install a kickstart switch and make a cleaver startup sequence that feel the kickstart version and boot the correct WB accordingly to that.

With the A1200 it's a bigger problem... on my old machine I had the startupsequence boot into clean CLI if I pressed right button during boot or start ReloKick if I pressed left button during boot, but that's childsplay compared to what you want.

A thought... have OS3.9 installed on a HD on the internal IDE controller, have startup sequence feel for pressed and let BlizKick load 2.0 or 1.3 depending on what button is pressed (if any). Then setup a HD on the SCSI controller to feel for kickstart version and boot the correct WB according to that.

There's probably other ways of doing it but it's late at night and I'm out of ideas.

[Stew]

   There is some way as I had it on a 3000 with 3.1 roms. I was disappointed in loosing the superkickstart boot menu when I went from the alpha roms to 3.1. I found the program on Aminet maybe. Kickswitch? I could softboot into 1.3 and it would load 1.3 wb. If I booted normaly into 3.1 it would load 3.1 I eventually found it easier to have two machins with a manual kvm.