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 :
No, because the internal format is radically different. But you can easily do the conversion by yourself:
unzipreg
utility and replace them
by the adequate patch
commands (it is very easy, see
the detailed instructions below)mrzip
program to create a new-style disk imageVersion 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 Bootix 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 detailed information on server-side setup and the PXE booting process.
Version 3.13 added Advanced Power Management support (PowerOff command).
Version 3.14 added minor enhancements and some corrections. We fixed a problem with the terminal under RedHat 5.1, and another problem in the syntax of the "if" command. We added some features suggested by the Laboratori de Cālcul de la Facultat d'Informātica de Barcelona (LCFIB) :
Version 3.15 added full VESA support. BpBatch now support several video modes, to accomodate old computers not being able to display 800x600 graphics. A new parameter has been added to InitGraph to specify the video mode, and a list of detected video modes can be retrieved from the new VESA-Modes variable.
Version 3.16 fixes the following bugs:
Version 3.17 adds some minor features and fixes bugs:
Version 3.18 fixes a bug with the IncrUnzip function. Thanks to Gary Pike for its collaboration.
Version 3.19 fixed a bug in the error handling of the delete
command
on ext2fs, as well as the inappropriate handling of names starting with
A: under Linux. The following new features were also added:
if valid disk:partition
syntax can be used to check
if a partition has been formatted.CacheNever
to "ON"
. This might be
useful for a unique installation, but is not recommended in
general as it results in a high network load.Version 3.20 : we added a link to Peter Schmitt's documentation.
Version 3.21 : we have modified some sections of this documentation to match the changes introduced by the PXE 2.0 specification. The most important change is that the BpBatch command-line DHCP option is now 135 instead of 155 (155 is still supported, for backward compability).
Version 3.22 introduces a new licensing conditions. Please read these conditions very carefully before using BpBatch.
Version 3.24 : Watchdog card support added by Tellurian Pty Ltd, www.tellurian.com.au. We also modified the loader name semantic to allow the use of Intel and Bootware TFTP servers. See the what's new file for details.
Version 3.25 : We added a few tips (filters to set for Windows 98 and how to disable password encryption) sent by BpBatch fans.
Version 3.26 : Many typos fixed, thanks to an extended review contributed by Herman Bruninckx. We also added a section on Solaris TFTP server.