What is that little Plop Boot Manager, that you see on so many Linux Live CD's - DVD's and USB Distro's? Well, I'm glad you asked!;)

I decided to check out Plop a little more today. I've messed around with it some over the years. But never did any reading on it or tried seriously to figure out what Plop's best uses were. But today, I was looking for a way to Boot to a USB Stick on a PC that Doesn't Support Booting from USB. I remembered that one of the Boot Menus that I have seen over the years on Live Linux Rescue or Multi Boot OS's, had Boot to USB in their Menus. Enter Plop. And yes it does and yes it can Boot my old P3 to a USB Stick. Pretty Cool!:) Now, several of the OS's on my Multi Boot USB failed to Boot, after Plop Started the Boot Process for me. But, that seems to do with the way they are written. I kept getting an error about the Medium having to be on one continuous Partition. I didn't mess around with them. Since, I was just wanting to see if Plop could Boot a USB OS on an older Computer. It did and now I'm thinking about installing Plop Boot Manager on my old PC's...

Don

Plop - Documentation / Manual / Examples - Free Boot Manager, built in usb driver, native usb, boot different operating systems, cdrom, usb, freeware, option rom bios

Plop Boot Manager v5.0

page update: 08/Dec/2011
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Boot Manager News

6. Harddisk installation

7. Start the boot manager from Floppy, CD, Windows boot menu, Syslinux, LILO, GRUB or network

8. The Boot Manager

9. Configure the Boot Manager binary plpbt.bin with plpcfgbt

10. Create your own ISO file with your modfied plpbt.bin

11. Configure the Boot Manager binary plpbt.bin with parameters (Linux Kernel Command Line)

12. Create a PCI boot manager option ROM (save in bios)

13. plpbt4win

14. PCMCIA CardBus - USB PC-Card

15. Disable the USB driver under DOS

16. Detect the USB driver under DOS

17. Detect the USB driver with syslinux

18. Hidden partition / Cleared partition

19. Hide a partition

20. USB info

21. Video dual boot install Windows XP and Windows XP

22. Windows XP and Windows Vista dual boot with hidden (cleared) partitions

23. Dualboot Windows XP and Windows 7

24. Using the Boot Manager as USB harddisk driver for DOS

25. NOD32 Virus report

26. FAQ's - Frequently asked questions

1. Introduction

The Plop Boot Manager is a small program to boot different operating systems. The boot manager has a builtin ide cdrom and usb driver to access those hardware without the help/need of a bios. You can boot the operating systems from harddisk, floppy, CD/DVD or from USB. You can start the boot manager from floppy, CD, network and there are many more ways to start the boot manager. You can install the boot manager on your harddisk. There is no extra partition required for the boot manager.

The Plop Boot Manager was written by Elmar Hanlhofer.

The current version is plpbt-5.0.13.zip.

Overview of install/start modes

Hard disk installation	The boot manager will be installed as primary boot manager to your hard disk. No extra partition and required. The boot manager will be in the first sectors of your hard disk before the first partition begins.
Start from external media Floppy CDROM/DVD USB drive	Its not required to install the boot manager to your hard disk. You can start it from those media and use the boot manager with some limitations.
Start from other boot managers LiLo Syslinux Grub Grub4Dos Grub2 Windows boot.ini Windows BCD	You can still use your prefered boot manager and additionally use features from the Plop Boot Manager (like boot the usb drive,...). The boot manager can run in hidden mode, so you have for example an entry in your prefered boot manager to boot the usb drive and when you use this entry then it starts immediately without any additional menu. This can be useful for the usb boot function.
Start from network	With help of pxelinux its possible to start the boot manager from the network.
Start from your bios as option rom	You can store the boot manager as option rom in your bios. There is no need for any hard disk or anything else to start the boot manager. It can be used as PNP part of your bios or the boot manager can hook the INT19 to take control as first boot device.

2. Features

USB boot without BIOS support (UHCI, OHCI and EHCI)
CD/DVD boot without BIOS support (IDE)
PCMCIA CardBus support to enable boot from USB PC-Cards
Floppy boot
Different profiles for operating systems
Define up to 16 partitions
No extra partition for the boot manager
Hidden boot, maybe you have a rescue system installed and the user should not see that there is another system installed
Boot countdown
Hide partitions
Password protection for the computer and the boot manager setup
Backup of partition table data
Textmode user interface 80x50
Graphical user interface 640x480, 800x600, 1024x786, 1280x1024
MBR partition table edit
Start of the boot manager from harddisk, floppy, USB, CD, DVD
Starting from Windows boot menu
Starting from LILO, GRUB, Syslinux, Isolinux, Pxelinux (network)
It can be used as PCI option ROM in your BIOS
Access the whole USB hard disk (up to 2TB) even when the bios has a 128 GiB limit
You can run the boot manager over the network
Start the networkcard bootrom from the boot manager to boot from the network

3. Screenshots

Main menu

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Main menu (textmode)

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Profile partitions

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MBR partition edit

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4. Licence

The Plop Boot Manager licence conditions for personal and non-commercial use:

This licence conditions are also used for the boot manager tools that are written by Elmar Hanlhofer and not released under the GPL.

The programs are free to use for personal and non-commercial use.
The programs are NOT free to use for commercial use.
The programs may not be sold.
The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

The Plop Boot Manager licence conditions for commercial use:

This licence conditions are also used for the boot manager tools that are written by Elmar Hanlhofer and not released under the GPL.

The program may not be sold.
The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Commercial use licence price per computer / virtual machine: € 5.- excl. VAT. Order with the contact form.

5. Download

Go there...
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#intro

6. Harddisk installation

There are many ways to install the boot manager to the harddisk. If you want run the boot manager without harddisk installation then see Start the boot manager from Floppy, CD, Windows boot menu, Syslinux, LILO, GRUB or network.

Warning Linux users: Install LILO or GRUB to the boot sector of your Linux instead of the Master Boot Record (MBR). The Plop Boot Manager is not a Linux loader and cannot start Linux without LILO, GRUB, Syslinux and similar!

The install program

Install program menu

Harddisk install using Floppy with a disk image

Harddisk install using CD with an ISO file

Harddisk install using DOS

Harddisk install using Windows boot menu (NT, 2K, XP, VISTA, Win7)

Harddisk install using Syslinux, Isolinux, Pxelinux (Network)

Harddisk install using LILO

Harddisk install using GRUB

The install program

There are 2 versions of the install program. Basically both versions do the same. The only difference is that plpinst.com creates a backup file plpback.bin to restore harddisk sectors for a complete boot manager uninstall. The second version plpinstc.com skips the backup part. You have to use the second version for installation from write protected media like CD's or if you install from network or any other boot manager.

The install programs are installing the boot manager always on the first harddisk of your computer.