Microsoft KB Archive/99249

= Boot Block Configuration File Format =

Article ID: 99249

Article Last Modified on 10/31/2006



This article was previously published under Q99249



SUMMARY
The boot block configuration file specifies the contents of the boot block sent to the workstation by the RPL service. For MS-DOS, the boot block is named dosbb.cnf.

For OS/2 1.21 and OS/2 1.3, the boot block configuration file is named os2121bb.cnf and os213bb.cnf respectively. The files can be found under:

\RPL\BBLOCK\NETBEUI\ \

The file normally contains rplboot, and the real mode network drivers and support programs. For MS-DOS it also contains rplstart and rpldisk; for OS/2 it also contains os2ldr, os2krnl, and rplmfsd.sys.



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

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
 * DOS 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.
 * OS/2 1.3 on Western Digital Ethernet

Additional query words: 2.10 rpl remoteboot boot block dosbb.cnf

Keywords: KB99249

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