I recently wrote an article that’s also somewhat related to DOS, and I hope to exchange ideas with everyone:
“Creating Something from Nothing” Made Easy
“Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.” is the best-known Zen line from the Heart Sutra. It contains rich dialectical philosophy, showing the close connection between “nothing” and “something” in all things. So when we manage a computer lab, how can we make full use of some special techniques, “creating something from nothing,” to make lab management easier and more efficient? Below I’ll explain my three methods of turning “nothing” into “something,” and I hope to discuss them with everyone.
1. “The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth”: adding NIC remote boot code (BootROM) to the motherboard BIOS as if by “grafting one thing onto another”
Use the spare space in the BIOS to write in the NIC’s BootROM code, so that a NIC with “no” boot chip can still “have” the ability to boot the computer remotely through the server.
You need two software tools: the Yitian Sword: AwdFlash... a BIOS flashing tool. All the motherboards in my lab use Award BIOS, while for AMI you use AmiFlash; and the Dragon-Slaying Saber: CBROM... a BIOS modification tool.
After you have the Yitian Sword and the Dragon-Slaying Saber, you still need to “destroy both sword and saber” before you can obtain the “Book of Wumu” and roam the martial world with a smile, so we also need the NIC’s boot code file. It’s best if the NIC is an 8139 (I haven’t tried others, because all the NICs in my lab just happen to be 8139s); its filename is: 8139PXE.Lom;
OK, Follow me：
1. Copy these three files into a folder on the hard disk (as for the quality of floppy disks nowadays, sigh
), such as c:\BIOS.
2. Back up the motherboard BIOS. If you can find an updated version, then this step is unnecessary; just copy it into the BIOS folder. I only thought of this “extra move, creating something from nothing” because I wanted to update the BIOS, hehe. Backup method: c:\bios>Awdflash
Enter any filename, when it asks whether to save BIOS press Y, then enter the save filename: Save.Bin
3. Write the boot code into Save.Bin (or the updated BIOS upgrade file):
c:\bios>Cbrom Save.bin /pci 8139pxe.lom
4. Write the updated BIOS file into the motherboard chip:
c:\bios>Awdflash
Enter Save.bin, do not save BIOS, press Update
Restart the computer, press Shift+F10 to set the NIC boot method. I chose the RPL method, then set it to use BootROM to boot the computer. At this point, the first move of “stealing the sky and swapping the sun” to “create something from nothing” is complete.
Please note the following advice, so as not to “go astray in practice”:
1. Flashing the BIOS is a dangerous skill, and you really need some foundation. If anything goes wrong, the motherboard may become unusable; I happen to have a programmer as my protective armor, so I dare to fool around with it a bit;
2. Pay attention to the BIOS capacity. What people usually call 1M, 2M, and 4M BIOS corresponds to file sizes of: 128K, 256K, and 512K respectively. I’ve tried it, and only 2M and above can hold nearly 52KB of boot code; a 1M BIOS is simply too small, no chance at all；
3. Taking 1 and 2 together, I strongly suggest that “newbies” spend 5 yuan and buy a BootROM chip. That way there’s no need to tremble while studying any “great shift” tricks；
2. “At the lonely ferry, the boat lies crosswise by itself”... the simplest and safest management plan: diskless network
At present, diskless networks mainly use the following three methods: PXE, RPL, and remote terminals. I don’t intend to distinguish the pros and cons of the various methods. Personally I like using RPL, because I used it more when I used to play with NOVELL diskless workstations. Now I’ll explain in detail how I used the “Qimingxing RPL2.2” software to set up a diskless Win98 installation:
The server is 2000ADS, with at least one NTFS partition so that access permissions can be set, 512M RAM, an 80G hard disk, and two NICs: a 3COM 10/100M adaptive card for connecting the LAN, and a D-Link 530TX connected to ADSL for Internet access, allowing the local network to share one ADSL connection;
1. Add “Remote Boot Service” to Win2000 (actually WINXP can do it too); at this point you need to download one file: rpl2k_new.exe (3.5M); after rebooting, you can see “Remote Boot Service” in the service list. Here, I especially want to remind everyone never to use the driver program from the NIC’s bundled driver disc, remember this!
2. Install the Qimingxing system;
3. Start Qimingxing Manager and set the system root directory, user root directory, and system backup directory. Note that these directories should be placed on an NTFS partition;
4. Set the NIC, then set the users; this is the most critical part of the Qimingxing system. Different NICs or different configurations require different settings. See figure
5. The above settings are all done on the server. Then take a workstation, attach a hard disk to it, install WIN98 and the related software; after finishing, it’s best to do some optimization, then use the Qimingxing uploader to upload it to the server. See figure
6．After the upload is complete, the diskless network installation is also complete. The machines in my lab do have hard disks, so I disable the others in BIOS. Boot up, and the diskless network works.
A few key points:
1． Settings for the remote boot server;
2． Four network protocols must be installed: TCP/IP、NETBEU、IPX、DLC, not one can be missing;
3． Try to use the same hardware specs, and even keep the card slot positions as consistent as possible; BIOS settings should also be the same, otherwise there may be trouble;
4． The workstation must log in as Administrator, otherwise it cannot upload to the server;
5． Qimingxing Manager is a very powerful remote boot manager. With it, there’s no need to do any further settings on the remote boot server, and this is also an important reason why I chose Qimingxing.
3. “Secretly crossing into Chencang”... broad-minded enough to tolerate what others cannot: hiding hard disk partitions
Now it’s time for the partitioning Thousand-Buddha Palm, SPFDISK, to appear. Today it will perform Huang Feihong’s “Shadowless Kick” for us, and I hope everyone will support it (for an explanation of SPFDISK, you can see my article “The Seven Weapons for Enhancing DOS” in issue 3 of this magazine, 2003):
1. “Openly repairing the plank road” by partitioning: enter the main SPFDISK interface, select P.Hard Disk Partition Tool, press Y, and enter the partition window. Select the hard disk and partition to work on, press Enter, and a menu appears. If there is already data on the hard disk, press “4.Delete Partition” to delete some partitions. Now I’ll use a new hard disk as an example:
1) Select “1.Create Partition”, then select “1.Create Primary Partition”. In the dialog box that pops up, select No, do not allocate all the hard disk space, because we still need to create another primary partition. This is also a reason why I strongly recommend SPFDISK: it can create as many as 4 primary partitions! (See figure)
2) Then select the remaining space, and use the above method to create another primary partition; again, do not allocate all the hard disk space;
3) Select the remaining space and press Enter to create a partition, choose “2.Create Extended Partition”, choose Y to give all remaining space to the extended partition, then press Y to create logical partitions. If you only want one logical drive, then in the next dialog choose Y; if you want more than one, choose N
4) Press the Tab key, select “9.Save Partition” in the menu, and save the partitioning result. Then press Enter on each partition, choose “0.DOS Tools”-->“2.Quick Format”, and quickly format each partition. SPFDISK formats quite fast!
At this point, the hard disk partitions have been created!
2. Press Esc to return to the main menu, select “A.Add Boot Option”, and choose the appropriate partition on the appropriate hard disk. My first primary partition is to install the Win98 system, so after selecting it, in the menu description I enter: “Student's Win98”; then press A again, choose the second primary partition, which will be assigned to the teachers, and enter in the menu description: “Teacher's Win98”. Speaking of which, if you want to install multiple systems, you can put 98 on one primary partition and XP on another. My own computer has four systems installed: 98, 2000, XP, and Redhat Linux, hehe
3. “Secretly crossing into Chencang” by hiding partitions: in the main interface select “O.Advanced Settings (Not Necessary)”; “T.Set Default Boot” can be used to set which system starts automatically. Here I chose “Studnet's Win98”, with the time set to 5 seconds, because the lab is still used more by students; for “Techer's Win98”
choose “W.Set Access Password” to set its individual password, and only the teachers need to know that password; in addition, the “H.(Un)Hide Same-Type Primary Partition” item is also quite useful, as it allows the systems to mutually “hide” from each other or cancel the “hide,” so that after entering one system you cannot see, or can see, the data of another system, while the extended partition can be used to share data; this is a very useful feature when different types of people use the machine.
Since I use a diskless setup to manage the computer lab, the third method is only a temporary emergency plan. It will only be used if there is a problem with the network, and you can even hide both partitions from the very beginning, so that when booting diskless Win98 over the network only the extended partition can be seen, giving even better confidentiality and security.
After my changes to the lab, I didn’t spend much, and the operation isn’t complicated either. All 60 machines can work normally, and most importantly, they’re very convenient to manage. It’s no longer like before, always guarding against this and worrying about that. It seems the one who became relaxed by “creating something from nothing” is really myself, hehe
“Creating Something from Nothing” Made Easy
“Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.” is the best-known Zen line from the Heart Sutra. It contains rich dialectical philosophy, showing the close connection between “nothing” and “something” in all things. So when we manage a computer lab, how can we make full use of some special techniques, “creating something from nothing,” to make lab management easier and more efficient? Below I’ll explain my three methods of turning “nothing” into “something,” and I hope to discuss them with everyone.
1. “The Great Shift of Heaven and Earth”: adding NIC remote boot code (BootROM) to the motherboard BIOS as if by “grafting one thing onto another”
Use the spare space in the BIOS to write in the NIC’s BootROM code, so that a NIC with “no” boot chip can still “have” the ability to boot the computer remotely through the server.
You need two software tools: the Yitian Sword: AwdFlash... a BIOS flashing tool. All the motherboards in my lab use Award BIOS, while for AMI you use AmiFlash; and the Dragon-Slaying Saber: CBROM... a BIOS modification tool.
After you have the Yitian Sword and the Dragon-Slaying Saber, you still need to “destroy both sword and saber” before you can obtain the “Book of Wumu” and roam the martial world with a smile, so we also need the NIC’s boot code file. It’s best if the NIC is an 8139 (I haven’t tried others, because all the NICs in my lab just happen to be 8139s); its filename is: 8139PXE.Lom;
OK, Follow me：
1. Copy these three files into a folder on the hard disk (as for the quality of floppy disks nowadays, sigh
), such as c:\BIOS.2. Back up the motherboard BIOS. If you can find an updated version, then this step is unnecessary; just copy it into the BIOS folder. I only thought of this “extra move, creating something from nothing” because I wanted to update the BIOS, hehe. Backup method: c:\bios>Awdflash
Enter any filename, when it asks whether to save BIOS press Y, then enter the save filename: Save.Bin
3. Write the boot code into Save.Bin (or the updated BIOS upgrade file):
c:\bios>Cbrom Save.bin /pci 8139pxe.lom
4. Write the updated BIOS file into the motherboard chip:
c:\bios>Awdflash
Enter Save.bin, do not save BIOS, press Update
Restart the computer, press Shift+F10 to set the NIC boot method. I chose the RPL method, then set it to use BootROM to boot the computer. At this point, the first move of “stealing the sky and swapping the sun” to “create something from nothing” is complete.
Please note the following advice, so as not to “go astray in practice”:
1. Flashing the BIOS is a dangerous skill, and you really need some foundation. If anything goes wrong, the motherboard may become unusable; I happen to have a programmer as my protective armor, so I dare to fool around with it a bit;
2. Pay attention to the BIOS capacity. What people usually call 1M, 2M, and 4M BIOS corresponds to file sizes of: 128K, 256K, and 512K respectively. I’ve tried it, and only 2M and above can hold nearly 52KB of boot code; a 1M BIOS is simply too small, no chance at all
；3. Taking 1 and 2 together, I strongly suggest that “newbies” spend 5 yuan and buy a BootROM chip. That way there’s no need to tremble while studying any “great shift” tricks；
2. “At the lonely ferry, the boat lies crosswise by itself”... the simplest and safest management plan: diskless network
At present, diskless networks mainly use the following three methods: PXE, RPL, and remote terminals. I don’t intend to distinguish the pros and cons of the various methods. Personally I like using RPL, because I used it more when I used to play with NOVELL diskless workstations. Now I’ll explain in detail how I used the “Qimingxing RPL2.2” software to set up a diskless Win98 installation:
The server is 2000ADS, with at least one NTFS partition so that access permissions can be set, 512M RAM, an 80G hard disk, and two NICs: a 3COM 10/100M adaptive card for connecting the LAN, and a D-Link 530TX connected to ADSL for Internet access, allowing the local network to share one ADSL connection;
1. Add “Remote Boot Service” to Win2000 (actually WINXP can do it too); at this point you need to download one file: rpl2k_new.exe (3.5M); after rebooting, you can see “Remote Boot Service” in the service list. Here, I especially want to remind everyone never to use the driver program from the NIC’s bundled driver disc, remember this!
2. Install the Qimingxing system;
3. Start Qimingxing Manager and set the system root directory, user root directory, and system backup directory. Note that these directories should be placed on an NTFS partition;
4. Set the NIC, then set the users; this is the most critical part of the Qimingxing system. Different NICs or different configurations require different settings. See figure
5. The above settings are all done on the server. Then take a workstation, attach a hard disk to it, install WIN98 and the related software; after finishing, it’s best to do some optimization, then use the Qimingxing uploader to upload it to the server. See figure
6．After the upload is complete, the diskless network installation is also complete. The machines in my lab do have hard disks, so I disable the others in BIOS. Boot up, and the diskless network works.
A few key points:
1． Settings for the remote boot server;
2． Four network protocols must be installed: TCP/IP、NETBEU、IPX、DLC, not one can be missing;
3． Try to use the same hardware specs, and even keep the card slot positions as consistent as possible; BIOS settings should also be the same, otherwise there may be trouble;
4． The workstation must log in as Administrator, otherwise it cannot upload to the server;
5． Qimingxing Manager is a very powerful remote boot manager. With it, there’s no need to do any further settings on the remote boot server, and this is also an important reason why I chose Qimingxing.
3. “Secretly crossing into Chencang”... broad-minded enough to tolerate what others cannot: hiding hard disk partitions
Now it’s time for the partitioning Thousand-Buddha Palm, SPFDISK, to appear. Today it will perform Huang Feihong’s “Shadowless Kick” for us, and I hope everyone will support it (for an explanation of SPFDISK, you can see my article “The Seven Weapons for Enhancing DOS” in issue 3 of this magazine, 2003):
1. “Openly repairing the plank road” by partitioning: enter the main SPFDISK interface, select P.Hard Disk Partition Tool, press Y, and enter the partition window. Select the hard disk and partition to work on, press Enter, and a menu appears. If there is already data on the hard disk, press “4.Delete Partition” to delete some partitions. Now I’ll use a new hard disk as an example:
1) Select “1.Create Partition”, then select “1.Create Primary Partition”. In the dialog box that pops up, select No, do not allocate all the hard disk space, because we still need to create another primary partition. This is also a reason why I strongly recommend SPFDISK: it can create as many as 4 primary partitions! (See figure)
2) Then select the remaining space, and use the above method to create another primary partition; again, do not allocate all the hard disk space;
3) Select the remaining space and press Enter to create a partition, choose “2.Create Extended Partition”, choose Y to give all remaining space to the extended partition, then press Y to create logical partitions. If you only want one logical drive, then in the next dialog choose Y; if you want more than one, choose N
4) Press the Tab key, select “9.Save Partition” in the menu, and save the partitioning result. Then press Enter on each partition, choose “0.DOS Tools”-->“2.Quick Format”, and quickly format each partition. SPFDISK formats quite fast!
At this point, the hard disk partitions have been created!
2. Press Esc to return to the main menu, select “A.Add Boot Option”, and choose the appropriate partition on the appropriate hard disk. My first primary partition is to install the Win98 system, so after selecting it, in the menu description I enter: “Student's Win98”; then press A again, choose the second primary partition, which will be assigned to the teachers, and enter in the menu description: “Teacher's Win98”. Speaking of which, if you want to install multiple systems, you can put 98 on one primary partition and XP on another. My own computer has four systems installed: 98, 2000, XP, and Redhat Linux, hehe
3. “Secretly crossing into Chencang” by hiding partitions: in the main interface select “O.Advanced Settings (Not Necessary)”; “T.Set Default Boot” can be used to set which system starts automatically. Here I chose “Studnet's Win98”, with the time set to 5 seconds, because the lab is still used more by students; for “Techer's Win98”
choose “W.Set Access Password” to set its individual password, and only the teachers need to know that password; in addition, the “H.(Un)Hide Same-Type Primary Partition” item is also quite useful, as it allows the systems to mutually “hide” from each other or cancel the “hide,” so that after entering one system you cannot see, or can see, the data of another system, while the extended partition can be used to share data; this is a very useful feature when different types of people use the machine.
Since I use a diskless setup to manage the computer lab, the third method is only a temporary emergency plan. It will only be used if there is a problem with the network, and you can even hide both partitions from the very beginning, so that when booting diskless Win98 over the network only the extended partition can be seen, giving even better confidentiality and security.
After my changes to the lab, I didn’t spend much, and the operation isn’t complicated either. All 60 machines can work normally, and most importantly, they’re very convenient to manage. It’s no longer like before, always guarding against this and worrying about that. It seems the one who became relaxed by “creating something from nothing” is really myself, hehe
