OS/2 Boot Interrupter - Get a menu before
the WPS starts, that allows to invoke the
command-processor or any program that you
configure. Working with timeout for auto-
matic startup.

OS/2 Boot Interrupter Version 1.0
_____________________________________



(C) 1993 by Markus Fehr, CH-8302 Kloten






Contents:
_________


1) Purpose
2) Contents of BOOTI1.ZIP
3) Installation
4) INI-File
5) Important notices
6) Credits



1) Purpose
_______


- You want to manipulate files that are used by OS/2 at run-time
- You wrote an error in your config.sys that causes some errors at boot-
time.
- ...

These are some examples why I wrote the OS/2 Boot Interrupter. The idea
is to run it before the Workplace-Shell will start. You will get a configu-
rable menu. If you don't select anything, OS/2 Boot Interrupter will time-
out after a configured amount of seconds and continue the boot-process.

There exists allready some tools that do the same, but no one supports a
menue allowing pre-defined actions.



2) Contents of BOOTI1.ZIP
______________________


The distribution-package contains the following files:

BOOTINT.EXE OS/2 Boot Interrupter
BOOTINT.INI Sample INI-File
BOOTINT.DOC This file
FILE_ID.DIZ BBS-Support-File (Description)

Feel free to distribute this utility to your friends and / or Bulletin Boards
but take care, that all 4 files are always included!



3) Installation
____________


This installation assumes that OS/2 Boot Interrupter located in
E:\OS2\BOOTINT. Enter the following line anywhere into your CONFIG.SYS:

CALL=E:\OS2\BOOTINT\BOOTINT.EXE

To configure the menu, follow the steps in chapter 4) INI-File.



4) INI-File
________


OS/2 Boot Interrupter always reads the INI-File (BOOTINT.INI) in the same
directory where the BOOTINT.EXE is stored. Referring to the installation-
chapter, it would read the file E:\OS2\BOOTINT\BOOTINT.INI. The following
parameters/entries are supported:

Menu2 Enter the menu-item followed by the command. As delimiter, you
Menu3 need to enter an exclamation mark (!). Note: Menu-item 1 cannot
... be modified. It is pre-configured as an OS/2 Shell. The related
Menu9 command accords to your COMSPEC-setting (Normally CMD.EXE).

Timeout Amount in seconds until OS/2 Boot Interrupter will terminate
itself.

Pause On / Off. If you want to pause before re-displaying the menu,
set Pause to On.


Example of my BOOTINT.INI:

Menu2=Edit CONFIG.SYS!vi E:/config.sys
Menu3=Edit STARTUP.CMD!vi E:/startup.cmd
Menu6=Create Backup of INI-Files and CONFIG.SYS!e:\cmd\makecopy.cmd
Menu7=Prepare for Backup!E:\cmd\prepback.cmd
Menu9=Edit BootInt.INI!vi E:/OS2/BOOTINT/BootInt.ini
Timeout=10
Pause=On



5) Important notices
_________________


Remember: At the moment, OS/2 Boot Interrupter is invoked, the Workplace
Shell is not yet started. Therefore you do NOT yet have access to:

- WPS-Programs *)
- MDOS-Programs
- WinOS/2-Programs
- Network-Resources
- Multitasking (a START xy.cmd will not be accepted)

The only programs that can be used are character-oriented OS/2
programs! As you can see in my BOOTINT.INI, I use VI (a unix-clone)
as my favorite editor. If you use only GUI-oriented editors, have
a look for T2.EXE (Tiny Editor; IBM-EWS). It is recommended by
different sites, especially because it does not use a lot of
disk-space (9755 bytes).

*) If you try to start a WPS-Program, such as E.EXE or EPM.EXE, the Work-
place shell tries to start. With E, I succeeded to start the editor, but
at exit, the system was hanging (it wants to get back to the calling
process and gets errors). Trying to invoke EPM.EXE, the WPS was not able
to startup. It seems to be a bug - OS/2 should not allow to start up the
WPS at this point - OR, it should be able to unload correctly.



6) Credits
_______


OS/2 Boot Interrupter is CARDWARE. If you enjoy this utility, send me a
postcard, so I can see, where it is used all over the world. Second, I am
a stamp-collector. If possible, post your letter or postcard with special
(not everyday used) stamps! Suggestions and critiques are welcome! Don't
hesitate to write, even if just to write 'Hello'.


'Snail-mail': Markus Fehr
Haldenstrasse 9

CH-8302 Kloten
Switzerland


Annother possibility is to send me a message via e-mail:

Internet: [email protected]
Compuserve: 100034,2525