mbldr (Master Boot LoaDeR)

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 1.46

Notes:
Chainload feature, fix of hanging with timer interrupt, Czech translation, "restore from backup" changes

Changes:
Changes for version 1.46
Date: December 12, 2008

Boot loader:
 - The timer interrupt handler now invokes old body only for system
   timer (08h), but not for user interrupt. The first byte of PUSH
   opcode is replaced with IRET to do this. This modification takes
   place because it has been reported that mbldr 1.45 hangs for both
   system and user interrupts on certain configurations while 1.44
   works fine.

Installation/configuration program:
 - Czech translation has been added (created by Ondrej Muller)
 - Ability to customize the behavior of boot loader - whether to
   mark the partition (being booted) with "active" flag (all other
   primary partitions have this flag reset) or not at the time of
   boot attempt. This can be used for "chainload" feature
   when all primary partitions may mistakenly have this flag reset.
 - Ability to manually change the offset of bootable partitions
   (double-click on it in GUI version). This may be useful if user
   wants to chain-load a copy of another MBR located somewhere. This
   is an expert feature, unexperienced users should never modify
   these values.
 - Spin control is now used for timeout value field in GUI version
 - Ability to make backup, restore from backup and save new
   configuration of mbldr either to file or to chosen sector. It can
   be used for chainloading.
 - All sectors on a first track are now marked as "chainload" in the
   list of bootable partitions.
 - Minor modification in GUI appearance: the warnings, questions and
   notification dialogs will appear in the center on the parent window
 - Functionality of "restore from backup" is improved in a way to
   intelligently detect cases when existing partitions are hidden,
   new partitions appear or old disappear. User is allowed to do
   only partial restore keeping desired modified fields in MBR with
   no changes.