2. What has changed...

2.1 ...since version 2.x ?

To say it frankly, almost everything. The underlying concepts are the same, but the software part has been completly redesigned to overcome the limitations of previous versions and to make it easier to use. An highlight of the new features :

• All functions (bpmenu, bpclean, bpunzip) are encompassed in a single program.
• The program can run not only from the boot rom, but also under DOS, Windows 95 and Linux.
• The program can now restore images of FAT16, FAT32 and EXT2FS partitions. If someone want to write NTFS support, let me know... For now, NT users still have to stick to FAT16.
• The program can not only restore disk images but also add and patch individual files in order to customize the client behaviour.
• Disk images are not any more bound to 87 MB. They are now file-system independant archives.
• We provide a mean for automatically downloading a disk image to an arbitrary big number of clients at the same time (broadcast).
• You can now write your own secure boot script, that will determine the behaviour of the machine before the real boot.
• You can now boot any Linux kernel, without applying any patch. Its is also possible to provide a command line and a ramdisk image.
• You can authenticate users at boot time using a Unix, NT or Radius server and deny them any access to the machine.
• Full national language support is included.
• And many, many other new features...

Is there a program for converting old archives to the new format ?

No, because the internal format is radically different. But you can easily do the conversion by yourself:

1. Boot an old image (unzip it to your disk)
2. Remove calls to the old unzipreg utility and replace them by the adequate patch commands (it is very easy, see the detailed instructions below)
3. Run the new mrzip program to create a new-style disk image

2.2 ...since version 3.0 ?

Version 3.0 was the beta-release. A dozen of sites around the world have tested it during a month and given much of their time to help us finding bugs and to suggest enhancements. Thanks to all of them for their patience, and in particular to Maciek Uhlig, Dick Velders and Jeff Teeters.

A few minor features have been added since 3.01, such as support for diskless Linux boot (by disabling the cache).

Version 3.10 introduced compatibility with Intel's Wired for Management 1.1a NetPC standard. The tools now work with any PXE-compliant boot ROM (as are most on-board boot ROMs) available today. Thanks to InCom GmbH for giving us the PXE bootprom that permitted this developpment. We also succesfully tested the tools with the PXE Boot ROM that I found incidentally in my Dell computer with onboard network card (called LanDesk Service Agent).

Version 3.11 to 3.12 added UNIX server-side tools (a PXE Proxy DHCP server for Solaris and Linux, and an enhanced TFTP server for Linux), as well as detailled informations on server-side setup and the PXE booting process.

Version 3.13 added Advanced Power Management support (PowerOff command).