GAG, the Graphical Boot Manager

# GAG
the Graphical Boot Manager
Installation instructions

GAG is a Boot Manager program, this is, a program that is loaded when the computer is turned on and allows to choose the operating system you want to use. Its main features are:

- Allows you to boot up to 9 different operating systems.
- Can boot operating systems installed in primary and extended partitions. They can be installed on any hard disk too.
- GAG doesn't need its own partition. It installs itself in the first track of the hard disk, which is reserved for this kind of programs. It can also be installed on a floppy disk, without using the hard disk.
- Has a timer to boot a default operating system (selectable by the user).
- The configuration menu can be protected with a password. Also, each operating system can be protected with its own password.
- The program works in graphic modes (needs a VGA or better graphic card), and has a lot of icons.
- Hides the primary partitions, allowing the installation of more than one DOS and/or Windows OS on the same hard disk.
- Can exchange disk drives, allowing to boot from the second, third... hard disk operating systems such as MS-DOS.
- Has a SafeBoot system, which allows you to boot your hard disk even if GAG is accidentally overwritten.

## DISCLAIMER

GAG is a program distributed 'as is', without any warranty of any kind. The author will not be responsible if there is loss of data on your hard disk or any other problem. Use it at your own risk.

GAG is distributed under a GPL license. Here you can read it.

## BEFORE INSTALLING GAG

If you have an operating system which needs a boot loader (like Linux or BSD, which needs GRUB), you must install it in the SuperBlock of the root partition. With GRUB, just type from a command line (as root):

grub-install /dev/root_partition

Being root_partition your root partition, of course. An example: if /dev/sda7 is your root partition, just type:

grub-install /dev/sda7

With windows there's no special care.

## ABOUT THE LBA PARTITIONS SUPPORT

LBA support (for hard disks bigger than 8 Gigabytes) was added in the version 4.0. But it still relies on the BIOS, so you need a recent BIOS version that supports the INT13h extensions. Theses extensions were created in 1998, so if your BIOS was written before that year, GAG wont be able to boot operating systems located in a partition beyond the original limit of 8 Gigabytes.

Of course, all current mainboards support them, so it should not be a problem unless you install GAG in a very old computer.

## INSTALLATION PROCESS

There are two ways to install GAG: as a floppy disk image (both from a true floppy disk, or from a bootable CD-ROM), or directly from Linux.

For the first method you will need a blank 3 1/2 inch, high density, formatted floppy, or a blank CD-ROM. This allows you to install GAG without worrying about what operating system you have (if you have only windows, you must use this method).

## DIRECT INSTALLATION

This method is currently available only for Linux. Just open the Linux folder and run (as root) the script copy-files.sh. It will copy the linux installer and other needed files in /boot/gag.

Now you can use gag-install to install gag in your hard disk, passing as parameter the device where you want to install it.

Example: if /dev/sda is your boot hard disk, then you must use:

sudo gag-install /dev/sda

By default, this command install the english version and keyboard QWERTY. If you want to change it, you can specify the one you want with -k for the keyboard and -l for the language. An example:

sudo gag-install -k azerty -l french /dev/sda

To show the available keyboards, just type:

sudo gag-install -k

And to show the available languages, just type:

sudo gag-install -l

Again, don't forget to run grub-install before rebooting, or you won't be able to boot your Linux partition from GAG (if you already forgot it, just see in the FAQ how to fix it).

Now you can continue with the next section: Configuring GAG.

## INSTALLING FROM FLOPPY

First, you will need to create the floppy. That's done using the RAWRITE2.EXE program.

Starting with GAG 4.01, all language versions are distributed on one single disk, with a little installation program. You only have to create the disk (see above the instructions of how to do it), boot your computer from that disk, et voila! The instructions for using it, the FAQ and the license can be read from the installer program.

IMPORTANT: once created, the disk will be seem to be empty (this is, you will not be able to read it from MS-DOS, Windows,...) but GAG is on it. Just boot your computer from it.

### FROM DOS

Insert the formatted disk in the floppy and type

INSTALL.BAT

The program will create the boot floppy.

### FROM WINDOWS 95/98/Me

Insert the formatted disk in your floppy drive.

Open the folder where you unzipped the GAG's zip file and double-click the icon INSTALL.BAT

### FROM WINDOWS NT/2000/XP/VISTA

Insert the formatted disk in your floppy drive.

Open the folder where you unzipped the GAG's zip file and double-click the icon INSTALL_XP.CMD

### FROM OS/2

Open a DOS session (it can be window or full screen) and do the same that in FROM DOS.

If the program returns a DMA error, edit the CONFIG.SYS file and modify your DOS variable, putting it as

DOS=HIGH,UMB

Default value is DOS=LOW,NOUMB.

If you prefer, you can use the native program IMAGE.EXE, that comes in the OS/2 CD-ROM.

### FROM LINUX/UNIX

Insert the formatted floppy in disk drive and type

dd if=disk.dsk of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880

If you prefer, you can do too:

cat disk.dsk > /dev/fd0

In other UNIX systems is possible you must use something different to /dev/fd0.

### OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS

You need a program that allows you to create floppies from disk images, and use it to copy the file DISK.DSK into the floppy.

## INSTALLING FROM CD-ROM

Just use your favourite CD burn program (like NERO) to burn the CD image CDROM.ISO. But remember: you have to go to the main menú and choose Burn ISO image (or simmilar). If you just burn the file in a data CD it won't work!

## BOOTING GAG

Now that you have created the floppy or CD-ROM, restart your computer and boot it with the created floppy. You will see the main menu of the GAG Installer.

Press '1' to read the instructions (are the same that you can find here), press '2' to read the FAQ (the same that you can read here), press '3' to read the license (again, you can read it here), or press '4' to start the installation. If you want to uninstall GAG, just boot with this floppy/CD-ROM and use the option '5'.

After pressing '4', you will be prompted for your keyboard type:

It's very common to name a keyboard with the six first letters in the upper row. So a QWERTY keyboard is the one that has the letters Q, W, E, R, T and Y in its upper row, just below the numbers. The QWERTY keyboard is the most common, but there are at least two variants: the QWERTZ, mainly used in germany, and the AZERTY, mainly used in france.

The DVORAK keyboard is a special one, because the position of each letter has been determined in base to the use, putting the most used letters directly under the fingers, and the less used in other positions. Some people affirms that this keyboard allows faster speeds (at least, that was the main goal when designed).

Finally, the Cyrillic keyboard is used mainly in Rusia and neighbor countries, and must be used together with the Rusian language. You MUST NOT use Cyrillic keyboard with other languages, or other keyboards with Rusian language, because GAG will not work fine.

With Cyrillic keyboard, lowercase strokes will become cyrillic characters, and uppercase strokes will be converted to lowercase latin characters.

Finally, the installer will ask you what language do you want to use:

After choosing the one you want, the installer will load GAG itself:

At this point you can continue with the next section: Configuring GAG.

## ERRORS RETURNED BY GAG'S INSTALLER WHEN IT BOOTS

When GAG's installer boots, it makes some tests. If it finds an error, it shows a number in the screen and halts the system. The errors are these ones:

- GAG: 1

  BAD SECTOR: there was a read error while trying to load GAG. If you was booting from floppy, use another floppy without bad sectors. If you was booting from hard disk, use SafeBoot to boot an operating system and reinstall GAG. If the error persists, you have bad sectors in your hard disk.

- GAG: 3

  GAG INSTALLER NOT FOUND: the code loaded from the floppy or the hard disk does not have the GAG signature. It's possible that the first track has been overwritten. Create again the floppy disk (or CD) and try again.

###### ©1999-2007 Raster Software Vigo