RISC OS 3 Multiple Boot Sequences
by Richard G. Hallas

The Boot application lets you define multiple start-up sequences which are activated by holding down a letter key while you switch on or reset the computer.

You could have separate boot files for business and personal correspondence, and another for accounts; or you could set up one boot file for games, another for Basic and another for C; or you could have different boot files for each of several different people who use the computer for different purposes.

In each of these boot files, you might open and position relevant Filer windows, show different backdrops, boot different applications (spreadsheet, spell-checker and thesaurus, language utilities, printer driver, database, calculator etc.), stick different files on the pinboard, give the computer's beep a different tone or pitch, or start up the Alarm application with alarms set for specific projects, or only for the particular person who has just started up the machine. The possibilities are endless!

Although a little setting up and adjusting will be necessary for your computer, it will all be well worth the effort. To get best results, it is worth briefly reading the appropriate sections of the User Guide concerning Desktop Boot files and the Pinboard.



Setting Up
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Double-clicking on the !Boot icon in the root directory of the RISC User disc, or running the item from the RISC User menu, opens a directory viewer containing the !Boot application.

To begin with, transfer the !Boot application to the root directory of your hard disc or working floppy disc.

Before doing so, copy or rename your old !Boot file, in case of difficulty. Your original !Boot can then be restored to its original state if something goes wrong during setting up. Just a worthwhile precaution!

After you have copied the new !Boot application to your root directory, a file called !DeskBoot in the !Boot application is obeyed whenever you boot your machine. This file should be edited to contain all those actions which are to be performed no matter which of several boot sequences you are using. It might, for example, load a basic set of fonts, or anti-virus software.

This !Deskboot file will be referred to from now on as the "generic boot sequence". As well as performing essential functions, !DeskBoot must always have as its last line the following:

Run <Boot$Dir>.OneKeyBoot

This line runs the crucial program, OneKeyBoot, that redirects the computer to one of your several alternative boot sequences, depending on which key was held down at reset or power-on.

All the alternative boot sequences, which you will set up for yourself, are saved inside the new !Boot application, and will be executed after the generic boot file (see above). To set up a boot sequence for a particular letter key, save a boot file with filename "Boot-Up" + a letter (e.g. "Boot-UpA", "Boot-UpG"). The letter you choose should be the letter that you wish to hold down to obey this boot sequence.

To find out more about setting up your own boot sequences, it is worth reading the chapter in the RISC OS 3 User Guide about Desktop boot files. A good deal can be learnt by generating Desktop boot files using RISC OS 3's Desktop boot facility (see below), and by referring to the article "Multiple Desktop Boots" in the May 1993 issue of RISC User (Volume 6 Issue 6).


Example Multiple Boot Sequences
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The !Boot application contains two example boot files, "Boot-Up" and "Boot-UpO".

Boot-UpO will be executed if "O" (capital Oh) is held down during reset or power-on. It loads fonts, the Desktop calculator, Ovation the DTP package and the Chars application (as a tiny directory). The AcornPic backdrop will also be loaded. Boot-UpO will need to be changed for your own particular system if you wish to use it, since you may not have the applications it loads (Ovation, for example), or may store them in different places.

Boot-Up will be used if no key is pressed, or if a key is pressed for which no boot file exists. It loads fonts, and the Help, Draw and Edit applications. The RubberMat backdrop is loaded.


A Note to SCSI, IDEFS and Floppy Disc users
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On the assumption that most users of this application will be using the ADFS filing system, the boot files are initially set up to use ADFS. If another filing system is used, the !Boot and !Run files within the !Boot application should be changed to reflect the details of your own system. The line in both these files presently reads:

Set BootFS$Dir ADFS

This should be changed (in both files) to:

Set BootFS$Dir SCSI

(or whatever).

Floppy disc users should alter all references to drive :4 to :0 in !DeskBoot, Boot-Up and Boot-UpO.



RISC OS 3 Desktop Boot Facility
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The "Desktop Boot" facility in RISC OS 3 is a great help, since for each configuration you can set up the computer the way you want it, then use "Desktop Boot" from the icon bar menu of the task manager (the Acorn icon) to generate boot files for you. Refer to the RISC OS 3 User Guide, chapter 7 ("Desktop Boot Files") for more details. The boot file generated may be edited manually to take out those actions which are already performed by your generic boot sequence. For example, if you always load Draw, you would put Draw in the generic boot sequence and edit it out of all the "Boot-UpX" files.



BackDrops
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Two backdrops, RubberMat and AcornPic, can also be found in the application. Different backdrops for each type of boot sequence can genuinely help to differentiate similar set-ups at a glance, or they can simply make a refreshing change!

The Basic program "OneKeyBoot" in the !Boot application contains two lines beginning "*BackDrop...". These load different backdrops for the two example boot sequences, as described in "Multiple Boot Sequences" (above). It may sometimes be better to load backdrops from your own boot sequences rather than from OneKeyBoot. If this is the case, comment out the "*BackDrop" lines in OneKeyBoot, by putting REM in front of each *BackDrop command. Then put lines in your "Boot-UpX" files similar to the following:

BackDrop <Boot$Dir>.RubberMat -Tile

This loads the sprite file "RubberMat" from the !Boot directory. You could of course use other sprite files as backdrops by altering the filename in the line above.




 RISC User 1993
