MORE INFORMATION
Typically, you will never need to edit a boot block configuration file.
However, you may need to allocate more memory for a specific
driver, or for OEM's, make changes so that their network drivers
work with RPL.
The general format of a line in a boot block configuration file
consists of four fields: TYPE, FILENAME, PARAMETER(s), and MOVEABLE.
All valid TYPES are described below, along with their expected
FILENAMEs and PARAMETERs (where applicable).
Fields are separated with spaces; spaces within a field are
represented with tilde (~). The maximum line length is 512 characters.
Comments are given by lines where the first non-space character is
';'. The MOVEABLE field is only valid for device drivers, and M
indicates that the device driver can be moved after initialization to
reclaim memory it doesn't need; ~, M indicates the device driver
cannot be moved. The MOVEABLE field is new with LAN Manager 2.1.
RPL Type
The RPL entry specifes the first (initialization) program that runs on
the workstation. The filename specified is relative to rpldir. There
are no parameters. There may be only a single RPL entry. The
initialization program for both DOS and OS/2 is rplboot.
ORG Type
ORG entries bind files to specific addresses in memory. Since all
files are in a continuous memory block, there can be only one ORG
entry. For ORG entries, the filename field has a special meaning; it
specifies the hexadecimal segment number used as the address to bind
to. There are no parameters.
DAT Type
DAT entries specify data files which are included in the boot block.
The filename specified is relative to rpldir. There are no parameters.
LDR Type
The LDR entry specifies the loader to use on the workstation, which is
the program that rplboot will pass control to. There can be only one
LDR entry. The filename specified is relative to rpldir.
The parameters specified depend on the operating system being booted.
For MS-DOS the filename and parameters are:
BBLOCK\RPLSTART.COM ~
For OS/2 1.21 the filename and parameters are:
BBLOCK\OS2121\OS2LDR ~ OS2LDR OS2KRNL RPLMFSD.SYS
For OS/2 1.3 the filename and parameters are:
BBLOCK\OS213\OS2LDR ~ OS2LDR OS2KRNL RPLMFSD.SYS
DRV Type
DRV entries specify which device drivers should be used to form the
boot block. The filename field specifies the name of the device
driver; it is relative to rpldir. The first parameter field specifies
parameters used by the device driver. The second parameter field
specifies any additional memory used by the device driver (in decimal
K).
The MOVEABLE field must be either M or ~. M indicates that the driver
is moveable after initialization. If the driver can be moved after
initialization, and its memory requirements are less than for the
original driver image, rplboot moves the driver to reclaim the unused
memory, and adjusts all interrupt vectors that point into the driver's
memory area. Some drivers cannot be moved, because they record segment
addresses that are correct during initialization, but not after the
driver has been moved. This field is new in LAN Manager 2.1.
EXE Type
EXE entries specify executables (.EXEs and .COMs) that are run during
the boot process. The filename is the name of the executable, and the
parameters field specifies arguments passed to the executable. As
mentioned above, EXEs must be specified in reverse order (the last one
listed in the boot block configuration file is the first one
executed). The DRVs and EXEs of boot block configuration files must be
specified in the reverse of the order they would normally occur in
config.sys.
BASE Type
The BASE entry specifies the base address of the boot block. The
filename is actually a hexadecimal segment number (paragraph). There
are no parameter fields. There can be only one BASE entry; if none is
specified, 00C0h is used as the default base address.
Boot Block Config File Examples
Example DOS boot block config files:
; DOS on IBM Token Ring
BASE D0H
RPL BBLOCK\RPLBOOT.SYS
LDR BBLOCK\RPLSTART.COM ~
DAT BBLOCK\NETBEUI\IBMTOK\PROTOCOL.INI
DRV BBLOCK\RPLDISK.SYS ~ 4 M
EXE BBLOCK\RPLPRO1.COM ~ 2 ~
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND2.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\PROTMAN.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND1.EXE ~ ~
DRV BBLOCK\TCPDRV.DOS /I:C:\LANMAN.DOS ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\NETBEUI\NETBEUI.EXE ~ 10 ~
DRV BBLOCK\NDIS\IBMTOK.DOS ~ 2 M
DRV BBLOCK\PROTMAN.DOS /I:C:\LANMAN.DOS ~ M
; DOS on Western Digital Ethernet
BASE D0H
RPL BBLOCK\RPLBOOT.SYS
LDR BBLOCK\RPLSTART.COM ~
DAT BBLOCK\NETBEUI\MACWD\PROTOCOL.INI
DRV BBLOCK\RPLDISK.SYS ~ 4 M
EXE BBLOCK\RPLPRO1.COM ~ 2 ~
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND2.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\PROTMAN.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND1.EXE ~ ~
DRV BBLOCK\TCPDRV.DOS /I:C:\LANMAN.DOS ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\NETBEUI\NETBEUI.EXE ~ 10 ~
DRV BBLOCK\NDIS\MACWD.DOS ~ 4 ~
DRV BBLOCK\PROTMAN.DOS /I:C:\LANMAN.DOS ~ M
Example OS/2 1.3 boot block config files:
; OS/2 1.3 on IBM Token Ring
RPL BBLOCK\RPLBOOT.SYS
DAT BBLOCK\RPLMFSD.SYS
ORG 1000H
DAT BBLOCK\OS213\OS2KRNL
LDR BBLOCK\OS213\OS2LDR ~ OS2LDR OS2KRNL RPLMFSD.SYS
DAT BBLOCK\NETBEUI\IBMTOK\PROTOCOL.INI
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND2.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\PROTMAN.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND1.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\NETBEUI\NETBEUI.EXE ~ 10 ~
DRV BBLOCK\NDIS\IBMTOK.DOS ~ 2 M
DRV BBLOCK\PROTMAN.DOS /I: ~ M
; OS/2 1.3 on Western Digital Ethernet
RPL BBLOCK\RPLBOOT.SYS
DAT BBLOCK\RPLMFSD.SYS
ORG 1000H
DAT BBLOCK\OS213\OS2KRNL
LDR BBLOCK\OS213\OS2LDR ~ OS2LDR OS2KRNL RPLMFSD.SYS
DAT BBLOCK\NETBEUI\MACWD\OS2\PROTOCOL.INI
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND2.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\PROTMAN.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\RPLBIND1.EXE ~ ~
EXE BBLOCK\NETBEUI\NETBEUI.EXE ~ 10 ~
DRV BBLOCK\NDIS\MACWD.DOS ~ 4 ~
DRV BBLOCK\PROTMAN.DOS /I: ~ M
OS/2 1.21 boot block config files are almost exactly the same as OS/2
1.3 boot block config files. The only difference is that they specify
bblock\os121 as the location to find os2ldr and os2krnl. They even use
the same rplmfsd.sys.