Reading this description of using the MSCONFIG utility to troubleshoot boot problems <http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=22138>, I just had to
chuckle. Somebody at Microsoft is pulling your leg, and you don't even realize it.
I mean honestly, to take lines like
[386enh]
woafont=dosapp.FON
EGA80WOA.FON=EGA80WOA.FON
stick checkboxes next to them, and call the result a "GUI", is just farcical.
Not to mention the funniest joke of all, which is that you have to have successfully booted in order to run MSCONFIG in the first place.
So how do you use it to troubleshoot _real_ boot problems?
For criticism to be constructive, it should offer a better way of doing things. So for comparison I will mention how the Linux
bootloader, GRUB, handles this. If you're having trouble with your boot configuration, you can troubleshoot it directly at boot time,
editing lines in the file on the fly. It even helps you by displaying a synopsis of what to do:
Press 'b' to boot, 'e' to edit the selected command in the
boot sequence, 'c' for a command-line, 'o' to open a new line
after ('O' for before) the selected line, 'd' to remove the
selected line, or escape to go back to the main menu.
And as for the boot config file itself, it contains snippets like
## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 5
# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue
#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#
That's right--you can have explanatory comments! These not only tell you what to do, you can add ones to explain to yourself, for future
reference, why you set things up the way you did. For some reason, GUI tools don't seem to provide this capability. So if what you're
doing with them isn't "intuitive" and "obvious", you're guaranteeing hours of bafflement for those who have to come after you, or even
for you yourself in the future.
|
Similar Threads
