OpenBSD Journal

BlowFish bootloader

Contributed by jose on from the multiboot dept.

Ed White writes:
"I'm pleased to announce the release of GAG 4.1 by Sergio Costas. ( http://www.rastersoft.com/gageng.htm

This release has the BlowFish icon and recognize OpenBSD A6 partitions! Look here for a screenshot: http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/gag/gagn3.gif "

"GAG main features are:
  • Allows boot of up to 9 different operating systems.
  • It can boot operating systems installed in primary and extended partitions on any available hard disk.
  • Can be installed from nearly all operating systems.
  • GAG doesn't need its own partition. It installs itself in the first track of the hard disk, wich is reserved for these kinds of programs. It can also be instaled on a floppy disk, without using the hard disk.
  • It has a timer to boot a default operating system (selectable by the user).
  • The configuration menu can be protected with a password.
  • The program works in graphic mode (needs a VGA or better graphic card), and has a lot of icons.
  • Hides the primary partitions which allows the user to have installed more than one DOS and/or Windows in the same hard disk.
  • Allows a password to be put on each operating system, denying access to non-authorized people.
  • Allows the boot manager text to be translated to all languages.
  • Can exchange disk drives, allowing to boot from the second, third... hard disk operating systems such as MS-DOS.
  • Has the SafeBoot system, that allows to boot your hard disk even if GAG is accidentally overwriten.
  • Supports a great variety of keyboards (QWERTY, AZERTY and QWERTZ keyboards).
  • Fully support for hard disks up to 4 terabytes (4096 gigabytes).
  • Full version and free software (distributed under GPL licence, with source code)

    Download: http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/gag/downeng.html

    Enjoy ;-)"

Wow. That's a lot of features! I still use os-bs, but this looks really cool. I may have to switch.

(Comments are closed)

Comments

  1. By Chris () on

    This is much less painless than using GRUB or LILO. I have used LILO for a long time and GRUB more recently. Booting OpenBSD and Gentoo Linux is a little difficult to setup on one hardisk to say the least. This bootloader automagically found all my partitions and the blowfish icon just rocks.

    -Chris

  2. By Ben Goren () ben@trumpetpower.com on http://www.trumpetpower.com/

    Just out of curiosity...how many people out there really do boot OpenBSD and at least one other operating system outside of a testing environment?

    I mean, let's face it: OpenBSD isn't exactly the operating system of choice for workstations (even if it is my operating system of choice for workstations), and it's usually workstations that draw all the multiple-boot systems. Further, I'd think that those people (like me) crazy enough to use OpenBSD on the desktop are also crazy enough to go whole-hog. I use OpenBSD as much because Linux leaves a bad taste in my mouth as anything else--I have no interest in polluting my system with herring-lovers.

    So, if you wouldn't mind humoring me: if you dual- (or more) boot with OpenBSD as one of the choices, why? What do you do with the one that you don't with the other(s)?

    Cheers,

    b&

  3. By RC () on

  4. By RC () on

    Had me excited up until the GPL part. Oh well, I guess that's better than nothing.

  5. By César Yáńez Fernández () cesar@openbsd.org.mx on http://www.openbsd.org.mx/~cesar

    http://www.xosl.org now is in comma, but have really nice feautures, more flexible, and more pretty, just need a little partition (just 512kb of kind of FAT is enough), mouse, VESA and that's all, can boot ANY operating system, just a little bit of more work in some OSes, I use it for boot Slackware/OpenBSD/NetBSD/WinMe/VSTa/floppy/Minix/DOS and no problems with this tool

  6. By Pete () on

    I use the Win2k boot manager to multiboot Win2k,OpenBSD and Linux on my Compaq N600c laptop. It works fine, and is pretty easy to setup. I use BSD 90% of the time. But Windoze is useful for supporting Windoze network, and I also use Visio for documentation... (Windoze also supports the builtin bluetooth interface)

  7. By Anonymous Whiner () on

    GAG ?

    That acronym is awful. Even in Spanish.

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