Boot Manager - MultiBoot Options

[eulenspiegel]

Hi, its me again

Dropping my old Operating System in favor of niX flavor.
But I still need to use Windoze from time to time.
So I'm looking for a good multiboot/bootmanager tool.
My current one is tailored to my old Operating System and I want more features now that I can have them.

Among those are:
A high rez GUI interface (not essential, but desired)
The ability to boot from removable devices like USB drives and CD-ROMS (w/o having to change BIOS settings first)
And security features like password locking and/or hiding partitions from sight

And if its one of those Boot Managers that sneaks itself into the MBR, can I be sure it survives life on a Windoze partition?

[gogalthorp]

If you have no need for high speed games the best solution is to run Windows in a virtual machine via VMware Server (free). Nothing like seeing Windoz boot inside a Linux window.

I do recommend at least 2 Gig. It runs in 1 Gig or less but there is a bit of disk tharshing sometimes. 2Gigs and it is smooth as silk.

[devils casper]

Hi,

you can use default boot loader ( GRUB ) of SuSe. SuSe's installer will detect all other installed Windows/Linux distros and set up dual/multiboot for you.
its easy to set boot password.

do you want to hide boot up option for other distros in Boot Loader or access of other partitions in SuSe?
i have set CDDRIVE as first boot device in BIOS. if i dont insert any bootable CD at startup, system boots up from harddisk only. i am not sure about USB though.

[eulenspiegel]

Its not for "games", but I need this system for work and certain client/server tools I have to use don't work well with NATs, so I can't run them right inside a VM.
And then there's always the occassional HW driver that you just can't get working inside a VM as well.
And last not least there are clients out there that won't let you through the door if you don't run Windoze (and their flavor of it).
I can't afford to argue about this with the client.
Their policy is always right, even if it isn't.

So I need a Boot Manager.
What I want from the options is mostly access security.
I have important data on my machine and e.g. allowing to boot from USB devices via the BIOS would also enable a hacker to bypass any security checks via using a special boot CD (I myself got one to crack any Windoze system out there).

So I want a Boot Manager who can boot from removable devices, even if the BIOS boot option says you can't.
And I want only those partitions to show up in the boot options which I chose.
So that any hacker looking over my shoulder won't even know what's all there.

And finally I want that Boot Manager to have its own password security options.
Based on the right password you can only boot, you can change things or you can do nothing at all

I had that for my old OpSys, but that Bmgr won't work no more with my new SATA drives.
Is there anything like that out there for Linux?

[gogalthorp]

Just a guess have you looked at the distro the NSA did?? I think it is calles Secure Linux???

[gogalthorp]

Did a google came up with this

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-do...ot-loader.html

May be what you need.

[eulenspiegel]

Just a guess have you looked at the distro the NSA did?? I think it is calles Secure Linux???

Not realy interested.
I (finally) want 100% HW support for my OpSys/laptop combination.
And I get that with SLED, right down to the Biometric features.