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Diffstat (limited to 'includes/etch/install.386/install/README.sbm')
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1 files changed, 43 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/includes/etch/install.386/install/README.sbm b/includes/etch/install.386/install/README.sbm new file mode 100644 index 000000000..40876703e --- /dev/null +++ b/includes/etch/install.386/install/README.sbm @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +About the Smart Boot Manager image +---------------------------------- + + The file `sbm.bin' that is available in this directory may be useful + to you if you are not able to directly boot the first CD because your + BIOS may be too old and may not support ISOLINUX. + + Then, instead of booting on the CD directly, you create a Smart Boot + Manager floppy image by using the sbm.bin disk image. You can create this + floppy with rawrite (under DOS) or with dd (under Linux). Now you can + boot on this floppy disk and it will detect your CDROM and let you boot + on it bypassing any BIOS limitation. + +What is SBM ? + + Smart Boot Manager or briefly SmartBtmgr (SBM), is an OS independent + Boot Manager - a program that is loaded by the bios before any + operating system and allows you to choose which operating system to + boot. + + SBM is included in Debian in two ways, the package bmconf allows us to + install and configure an old version of SBM and sbm wich is the latest + version of SBM with an installer. + +What's the use of SBM on the CD then ? + + SBM includes an IDE driver that allows us to boot the cds even on + machines with a BIOS that wouldn't support booting from CD, provided our + CDROM is an IDE one, that is, so you can make a SBM floppy and boot from + it and then tell it to boot from your CDROM. + + Also, there are some cases where the BIOS would allow booting from the CD + but isolinux fails to boot from there, in this case you can either boot + using a CD other than the first, as the others don't use isolinux, or you + can make a SBM floppy and boot from this floppy and then tell SBM to boot + your CDROM. + +How do you make a SBM floppy ? + + If you have SBM installed on a box you can run sbminst. Otherwise you can + put the sbm.bin floppy image that we provide with our cds onto a floppy + just like you would do with a rescue image. + |