VBoot version 1.1 is available for download.

www.vmlite.com/index.php/download/38-vboot

Instructions:

www.vmlite.com/vboot/instructions.html

Change Logs:

(1) All features are available, current trial version expires on May 15-2011

(2) add floppy_b= option to add 2nd floppy disk emulation, this should be very useful to load a 3rd party SCSI floppy for XP/2003 installation.

(3) add recover_mbr option to delete VBoot mbr after VBoot Loader is loaded once.

(4) fix a bug that displays only two snapshots in boot menu

(5) fix a bug that original MBR is replaced when installing Vista/Windows 7/2008

(6) many other misc fixes.

Update the current virtual disk files:

13. Updating VBoot

If you already have a working virtual disk file and want to update to the latest VBoot drivers, you only need to update one driver file (vbootdsk.sys, vbootsmp.sys or vbootstor.sys).

There are two ways of doing this, automatic or by hand.

Update by command
The first and recommended way is to use "vbootctl update" command, as described below:

vbootctl update current
vbootctl update virtual_disk_file

The first is used to update the current running Windows instance if it's booted from a virtual disk file, whereas the 2nd is used to update a virtual disk file that is offline.

Update by hand
The second way is to do it manually. If your computer is currently booted using the virtual disk file that you want to update, you can simply copy the driver to overwrite the current version, for example,

copy D:\vboot\tools\x86\drivers\vbootdsk\vbootdsk.sys c:\windows\system32\drivers

If your virtual disk file is not current running, you will have to mount it first, then copy the driver file, for example,
D:\vboot\tools\x86\vbootctl mount c:\path\your.vhd
copy D:\vboot\tools\x86\drivers\vbootdsk\vbootdsk.sys Z:\windows\system32\drivers
D:\vboot\tools\x86\vbootctl umount Z:


On Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008, you may get a message complaining device driver not installed successfully after updating, you can get rid of this message by running the following command after booting to the virtual disk file.

D:\vboot\tools\x86\vbootctl dp_add default


The above examples assume Windows XP 32-bit is installed inside the virtual disk file, so vbootdsk.sys is copied. For other operating systems, you need to copy different driver files:


Windows 2000 (32-bit) uses \vboot\tools\x86\drivers\vbootdsk-w2k\vbootdsk.sys
Windows XP (32-bit) uses \vboot\tools\x86\drivers\vbootdsk\vbootdsk.sys
Windows 2003 (32-bit) uses \vboot\tools\x86\drivers\vbootsmp\vbootsmp.sys
Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 (32-bit) use \vboot\tools\x86\drivers\vbootstor\vbootstor.sys
Windows XP, Windows 2003 (64-bit) uses \vboot\tools\amd64\drivers\vbootsmp\vbootsmp.sys
Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 (64-bit) use \vboot\tools\amd64\drivers\vbootstor\vbootstor.sys

Does this version have added support for linux? I remember you saying that it would. If it does is it any different from using it before?

Rochey

Hi,

I'm very interested in vBoot. I just installed it on the HDD of my old Laptop, I just connected it with my new Laptop.
So I'm just having the vBoot installation on it.
It's very good, that I can make Snapshots very easily and Backups are just Drag&Drop. So all in all, I'm very, very, very happy!
So, I'm having the trail version for now, but I'm interested in buying your Software.
Where can I buy it and is there any promotion for students? I could send you a valid copy of my student-card.

Thanks a lot,

Niklas

PS: Sorry for my Englisch...

Hello,

Here is my VBoot V1.1 test report.

Trying to install Windows 2000 SP4 on a raw ( .img ) image file, I got a BSOD displayin the error 7B : INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE :



Installing Windows XP with the appropriate grub.cfg file on the same raw image is fine but the vboot loader displays always this error message before booting XP : "error: biosdisk read error" The virtual XP installation boots and operates correctly. I got the same biosdisk error during the Windows 2000 installation test.

testhd.img created with the command vbootctl.exe createhd ( /format raw specified )

Linux and Windows shares the same vboot loader, so the loader portion is ready, we will roll out the Linux kernels in coming weeks.

Rochey wrote:
Does this version have added support for linux? I remember you saying that it would. If it does is it any different from using it before?

Rochey

for those of you who wants to read some technical overview, here it is:

www.vmlite.com/index.php/products/vboot/technical-background