The Haiku/BeOS Tip Server » Miscellaneous

Haiku on Virtualbox: getting data in

Michel Clasquin-Johnson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:01:06 +0000

With the release of Haiku R1Alpha1, VirtualBox is a great way to play around with the alpha without committing a real partition to it.

But VirtualBox tends to act like an island, entire unto itself. Your OS is sitting on a .VDI format virtual disk that no other OS or program has ever heard of. So you’ve downloaded some new apps from Haikuware while you were in your Host OS. How are you supposed to get them into Haiku? What is needed is some format that Haiku, VirtualBox and the Host OS all know and understand.

It exists. It is called .ISO (or .CDR on Mac OSX systems). If you are using Mac OSX as your Host OS, the following Terminal command will take a folder (/home/username/Binaries Storage/HAIKU – Storage in this case) and create an .ISO image that VB will accept and that should be readable by Haiku:

hdiutil makehybrid -o ~/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/Storage.iso ~/Binaries\ Storage/HAIKU\ -\ Storage/ -ov

Your pathnames will be different, of course. You can put that command in a Mac OSX shell script. You can even make a clickable app from that script using Platypus. Now inform VirtualBox that this is the image you want to use as your CD/DVD. The next time you boot into Haiku, there will be a fake CD for you to mount containing all the data that was in that folder.

Mac OSX will also mount the .ISO file. In fact, it will mount it read/write. But do not have it mounted in both Host and Guest OS simultaneously! First unmount the image in Haiku, then unmount it in VirtualBox (Devices | Unmount CD/DVD-ROM) – you do not have to exit the Haiku VM to do this. Now you can safely mount the image in the Host OS, or recreate it using the command above, then reverse the process to get it mounted in the Haiku VM again.

Hex color equivalencies

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

There are a few places in BeOS where you might find yourself wanting or needing
the hexadecimal equivalent of a given color.

If you have a copy of roColor, you can
derive hex values easily from within BeOS. If you’d like a full equivalency
chart, just search the Web — they’re all over the place. However, the vast
majority of those charts list only the 256 colors in the Netscape color
palette. The list below is far more complete, and offers more than 1,000
different colors with their hex equivalents.

f0f8ff aliceblue faebd7 antiquewhite ffefdb antiquewhite1 eedfcc antiquewhite2 cdc0b0 antiquewhite3 8b8378 antiquewhite4 7fffd4 aquamarine 7fffd4 aquamarine1 76eec6 aquamarine2 66cdaa aquamarine3 458b74 aquamarine4 f0ffff azure f0ffff azure1 e0eeee azure2 c1cdcd azure3 838b8b azure4 f5f5dc beige ffe4c4 bisque ffe4c4 bisque1 eed5b7 bisque2 cdb79e bisque3 8b7d6b bisque4 000000 black ffebcd blanchedalmond 0000ff blue 0000ff blue1 0000ee blue2 0000cd blue3 00008b blue4 8a2be2 blueviolet a52a2a brown ff4040 brown1 ee3b3b brown2 cd3333 brown3 8b2323 brown4 deb887 burlywood ffd39b burlywood1 eec591 burlywood2 cdaa7d burlywood3 8b7355 burlywood4 5f9ea0 cadetblue 98f5ff cadetblue1 8ee5ee cadetblue2 7ac5cd cadetblue3 53868b cadetblue4 7fff00 chartreuse 7fff00 chartreuse1 76ee00 chartreuse2 66cd00 chartreuse3 458b00 chartreuse4 d2691e chocolate ff7f24 chocolate1 ee7621 chocolate2 cd661d chocolate3 8b4513 chocolate4 ff7f50 coral ff7256 coral1 ee6a50 coral2 cd5b45 coral3 8b3e2f coral4 6495ed cornflowerblue fff8dc cornsilk fff8dc cornsilk1 eee8cd cornsilk2 cdc8b1 cornsilk3 8b8878 cornsilk4 00ffff cyan 00ffff cyan1 00eeee cyan2 00cdcd cyan3 008b8b cyan4 b8860b darkgoldenrod ffb90f darkgoldenrod1 eead0e darkgoldenrod2 cd950c darkgoldenrod3 8b6508 darkgoldenrod4 006400 darkgreen bdb76b darkkhaki 556b2f darkolivegreen caff70 darkolivegreen1 bcee68 darkolivegreen2 a2cd5a darkolivegreen3 6e8b3d darkolivegreen4 ff8c00 darkorange ff7f00 darkorange1 ee7600 darkorange2 cd6600 darkorange3 8b4500 darkorange4 9932cc darkorchid bf3eff darkorchid1 b23aee darkorchid2 9a32cd darkorchid3 68228b darkorchid4 e9967a darksalmon 8fbc8f darkseagreen c1ffc1 darkseagreen1 b4eeb4 darkseagreen2 9bcd9b darkseagreen3 698b69 darkseagreen4 483d8b darkslateblue 2f4f4f darkslategray 97ffff darkslategray1 8deeee darkslategray2 79cdcd darkslategray3 528b8b darkslategray4 2f4f4f darkslategrey 00ced1 darkturquoise 9400d3 darkviolet ff1493 deeppink ff1493 deeppink1 ee1289 deeppink2 cd1076 deeppink3 8b0a50 deeppink4 00bfff deepskyblue 00bfff deepskyblue1 00b2ee deepskyblue2 009acd deepskyblue3 00688b deepskyblue4 696969 dimgray 696969 dimgrey 1e90ff dodgerblue 1e90ff dodgerblue1 1c86ee dodgerblue2 1874cd dodgerblue3 104e8b dodgerblue4 b22222 firebrick ff3030 firebrick1 ee2c2c firebrick2 cd2626 firebrick3 8b1a1a firebrick4 fffaf0 floralwhite 228b22 forestgreen dcdcdc gainsboro f8f8ff ghostwhite ffd700 gold ffd700 gold1 eec900 gold2 cdad00 gold3 8b7500 gold4 daa520 goldenrod ffc125 goldenrod1 eeb422 goldenrod2 cd9b1d goldenrod3 8b6914 goldenrod4 00ff00 green 00ff00 green1 00ee00 green2 00cd00 green3 008b00 green4 adff2f greenyellow 000000 grey0 030303 grey1 050505 grey2 080808 grey3 1a1a1a grey10 ffffff grey100 1c1c1c grey11 1f1f1f grey12 212121 grey13 242424 grey14 262626 grey15 292929 grey16 2b2b2b grey17 2e2e2e grey18 303030 grey19 333333 grey20 363636 grey21 383838 grey22 3b3b3b grey23 3d3d3d grey24 404040 grey25 424242 grey26 454545 grey27 474747 grey28 4a4a4a grey29 4d4d4d grey30 4f4f4f grey31 525252 grey32 545454 grey33 575757 grey34 595959 grey35 5c5c5c grey36 5e5e5e grey37 616161 grey38 636363 grey39 0a0a0a grey4 666666 grey40 696969 grey41 6b6b6b grey42 6e6e6e grey43 707070 grey44 737373 grey45 757575 grey46 787878 grey47 7a7a7a grey48 7d7d7d grey49 0d0d0d grey5 7f7f7f grey50 828282 grey51 858585 grey52 878787 grey53 8a8a8a grey54 8c8c8c grey55 8f8f8f grey56 919191 grey57 949494 grey58 969696 grey59 0f0f0f grey6 999999 grey60 9c9c9c grey61 9e9e9e grey62 a1a1a1 grey63 a3a3a3 grey64 a6a6a6 grey65 a8a8a8 grey66 ababab grey67 adadad grey68 b0b0b0 grey69 121212 grey7 b3b3b3 grey70 b5b5b5 grey71 b8b8b8 grey72 bababa grey73 bdbdbd grey74 bfbfbf grey75 c2c2c2 grey76 c4c4c4 grey77 c7c7c7 grey78 c9c9c9 grey79 141414 grey8 cccccc grey80 cfcfcf grey81 d1d1d1 grey82 d4d4d4 grey83 d6d6d6 grey84 d9d9d9 grey85 dbdbdb grey86 dedede grey87 e0e0e0 grey88 e3e3e3 grey89 171717 grey9 e5e5e5 grey90 e8e8e8 grey91 ebebeb grey92 ededed grey93 f0f0f0 grey94 f2f2f2 grey95 f5f5f5 grey96 f7f7f7 grey97 fafafa grey98 fcfcfc grey99 f0fff0 honeydew f0fff0 honeydew1 e0eee0 honeydew2 c1cdc1 honeydew3 838b83 honeydew4 ff69b4 hotpink ff6eb4 hotpink1 ee6aa7 hotpink2 cd6090 hotpink3 8b3a62 hotpink4 cd5c5c indianred ff6a6a indianred1 ee6363 indianred2 cd5555 indianred3 8b3a3a indianred4 fffff0 ivory fffff0 ivory1 eeeee0 ivory2 cdcdc1 ivory3 8b8b83 ivory4 f0e68c khaki fff68f khaki1 eee685 khaki2 cdc673 khaki3 8b864e khaki4 e6e6fa lavender fff0f5 lavenderblush fff0f5 lavenderblush1 eee0e5 lavenderblush2 cdc1c5 lavenderblush3 8b8386 lavenderblush4 7cfc00 lawngreen fffacd lemonchiffon fffacd lemonchiffon1 eee9bf lemonchiffon2 cdc9a5 lemonchiffon3 8b8970 lemonchiffon4 add8e6 lightblue bfefff lightblue1 b2dfee lightblue2 9ac0cd lightblue3 68838b lightblue4 f08080 lightcoral e0ffff lightcyan e0ffff lightcyan1 d1eeee lightcyan2 b4cdcd lightcyan3 7a8b8b lightcyan4 eedd82 lightgoldenrod ffec8b lightgoldenrod1 eedc82 lightgoldenrod2 cdbe70 lightgoldenrod3 8b814c lightgoldenrod4 fafad2 lightgoldenrodyellow d3d3d3 lightgray d3d3d3 lightgrey ffb6c1 lightpink ffaeb9 lightpink1 eea2ad lightpink2 cd8c95 lightpink3 8b5f65 lightpink4 ffa07a lightsalmon ffa07a lightsalmon1 ee9572 lightsalmon2 cd8162 lightsalmon3 8b5742 lightsalmon4 20b2aa lightseagreen 87cefa lightskyblue b0e2ff lightskyblue1 a4d3ee lightskyblue2 8db6cd lightskyblue3 607b8b lightskyblue4 8470ff lightslateblue 778899 lightslategray 778899 lightslategrey b0c4de lightsteelblue cae1ff lightsteelblue1 bcd2ee lightsteelblue2 a2b5cd lightsteelblue3 6e7b8b lightsteelblue4 ffffe0 lightyellow ffffe0 lightyellow1 eeeed1 lightyellow2 cdcdb4 lightyellow3 8b8b7a lightyellow4 32cd32 limegreen faf0e6 linen ff00ff magenta ff00ff magenta1 ee00ee magenta2 cd00cd magenta3 8b008b magenta4 b03060 maroon ff34b3 maroon1 ee30a7 maroon2 cd2990 maroon3 8b1c62 maroon4 66cdaa mediumaquamarine 0000cd mediumblue ba55d3 mediumorchid e066ff mediumorchid1 d15fee mediumorchid2 b452cd mediumorchid3 7a378b mediumorchid4 9370db mediumpurple ab82ff mediumpurple1 9f79ee mediumpurple2 8968cd mediumpurple3 5d478b mediumpurple4 3cb371 mediumseagreen 7b68ee mediumslateblue 00fa9a mediumspringgreen 48d1cc mediumturquoise c71585 mediumvioletred 191970 midnightblue f5fffa mintcream ffe4e1 mistyrose ffe4e1 mistyrose1 eed5d2 mistyrose2 cdb7b5 mistyrose3 8b7d7b mistyrose4 ffe4b5 moccasin ffdead navajowhite ffdead navajowhite1 eecfa1 navajowhite2 cdb38b navajowhite3 8b795e navajowhite4 000080 navy 000080 navyblue fdf5e6 oldlace 6b8e23 olivedrab c0ff3e olivedrab1 b3ee3a olivedrab2 9acd32 olivedrab3 698b22 olivedrab4 ffa500 orange ffa500 orange1 ee9a00 orange2 cd8500 orange3 8b5a00 orange4 ff4500 orangered ff4500 orangered1 ee4000 orangered2 cd3700 orangered3 8b2500 orangered4 da70d6 orchid ff83fa orchid1 ee7ae9 orchid2 cd69c9 orchid3 8b4789 orchid4 eee8aa palegoldenrod 98fb98 palegreen 9aff9a palegreen1 90ee90 palegreen2 7ccd7c palegreen3 548b54 palegreen4 afeeee paleturquoise bbffff paleturquoise1 aeeeee paleturquoise2 96cdcd paleturquoise3 668b8b paleturquoise4 db7093 palevioletred ff82ab palevioletred1 ee799f palevioletred2 cd6889 palevioletred3 8b475d palevioletred4 ffefd5 papayawhip ffdab9 peachpuff ffdab9 peachpuff1 eecbad peachpuff2 cdaf95 peachpuff3 8b7765 peachpuff4 cd853f peru ffc0cb pink ffb5c5 pink1 eea9b8 pink2 cd919e pink3 8b636c pink4 dda0dd plum ffbbff plum1 eeaeee plum2 cd96cd plum3 8b668b plum4 b0e0e6 powderblue a020f0 purple 9b30ff purple1 912cee purple2 7d26cd purple3 551a8b purple4 ff0000 red ff0000 red1 ee0000 red2 cd0000 red3 8b0000 red4 bc8f8f rosybrown ffc1c1 rosybrown1 eeb4b4 rosybrown2 cd9b9b rosybrown3 8b6969 rosybrown4 4169e1 royalblue 4876ff royalblue1 436eee royalblue2 3a5fcd royalblue3 27408b royalblue4 8b4513 saddlebrown fa8072 salmon ff8c69 salmon1 ee8262 salmon2 cd7054 salmon3 8b4c39 salmon4 f4a460 sandybrown 2e8b57 seagreen 54ff9f seagreen1 4eee94 seagreen2 43cd80 seagreen3 2e8b57 seagreen4 fff5ee seashell fff5ee seashell1 eee5de seashell2 cdc5bf seashell3 8b8682 seashell4 a0522d sienna ff8247 sienna1 ee7942 sienna2 cd6839 sienna3 8b4726 sienna4 87ceeb skyblue 87ceff skyblue1 7ec0ee skyblue2 6ca6cd skyblue3 4a708b skyblue4 6a5acd slateblue 836fff slateblue1 7a67ee slateblue2 6959cd slateblue3 473c8b slateblue4 708090 slategray c6e2ff slategray1 b9d3ee slategray2 9fb6cd slategray3 6c7b8b slategray4 708090 slategrey fffafa snow fffafa snow1 eee9e9 snow2 cdc9c9 snow3 8b8989 snow4 00ff7f springgreen 00ff7f springgreen1 00ee76 springgreen2 00cd66 springgreen3 008b45 springgreen4 4682b4 steelblue 63b8ff steelblue1 5cacee steelblue2 4f94cd steelblue3 36648b steelblue4 d2b48c tan ffa54f tan1 ee9a49 tan2 cd853f tan3 8b5a2b tan4 d8bfd8 thistle ffe1ff thistle1 eed2ee thistle2 cdb5cd thistle3 8b7b8b thistle4 ff6347 tomato ff6347 tomato1 ee5c42 tomato2 cd4f39 tomato3 8b3626 tomato4 40e0d0 turquoise 00f5ff turquoise1 00e5ee turquoise2 00c5cd turquoise3 00868b turquoise4 ee82ee violet d02090 violetred ff3e96 violetred1 ee3a8c violetred2 cd3278 violetred3 8b2252 violetred4 f5deb3 wheat ffe7ba wheat1 eed8ae wheat2 cdba96 wheat3 8b7e66 wheat4 ffffff white f5f5f5 whitesmoke ffff00 yellow ffff00 yellow1 eeee00 yellow2 cdcd00 yellow3 8b8b00 yellow4 9acd32 yellowgreen

Mimic second mouse button

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

If you want to duplicate an item rather than move it, and you’ve got a single-button mouse, hold down CTRL while you drag the icon to it’s destination. This brings up a context-sensitive menu which, among other things, allows you to place a symlink in the target folder.

Kill apps with the Vulcan death grip

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

Killing apps from the command line will just axe threads one at a time. Since the BeOS is aggressively multithreaded, you might have to do a lot of killing before the app finally dies.

Easier is the “Vulcan Death Grip” Tracker technique. Hold down the right Cmd,opt,ctrl, and shift keys and then click on the App’s icon in the DeskBar. The offending app should die a swift death.

[Editor's note: On PC keyboard, use Ctrl+Alt+Shift.]

Taking screen shots

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

To take a screen grab in BeOS, hit the PrintScreen key on your keyboard. This will create a bitmap dump of the current screen contents in /boot/home called screen1.tga. You can then open this file in any targa-capable image editor, such as ShowImage, for further editing, cropping, etc.

Show memory usage

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

Pulling down the Be menu and selecting About BeOS will show you a few basic factoids about the hardware and operating system version you’re running.

But if you hold down Command+Control or Alt+Control and pull down About BeOS you’ll get a graphical display of the amount of RAM currently being used by the system.

The important thing to remember here is that you shouldn’t be alarmed if you see most of your RAM being used by BeOS — this doesn’t mean it’s a memory hog, it means the system is taking full advantage of the RAM you’ve got. In other words, this is a good thing, not a bad thing. This, in fact, is why accessing this panel is not as obvious as it might be. People are so accustomed to thinking that low memory usage equates with greater efficiency that people consistently thought the panel was in error, or misunderstood what Be was doing here. Memory readouts in BeOS are inherently misleading because of the BeOS memory model. So to avoid confusion, Be hid the panel.

Find the new easter egg in R4.5

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

It’s not too hard to find the secret list of scrolling credits in R4.5’s About box (hint: mess around with key combinations and mouse clicks). But if you want to locate the hacked version of the credits, you’ll have to dig a little deeper (hint: think media). I know where it is, but I’m not telling…

The secret scrolling credits.

The “hacked” super-secret scrolling credits.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can find the same data by opening the Tracker (/boot/beos/system/Tracker) in DiskProbe at block 0×776.

Launch BeOS x86 from DOS/Win

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

The BeOS x86 install CD includes a directory called BeLaunch which allows you to launch BeOS by clicking an icon. Even better, it includes a DOS batch file called beos.bat which lets you launch BeOS without having to wait for Windows to load first.

Copy the BeLaunch folder to you hard drive, CD to that folder, and type beos. If everything is set up properly, you should boot straight into BeOS. The included notes say it doesn’t work on dual-processor machines, but it works fine on mine. If it works properly, you’re all set to boot into BeOS without launching Windows.

As your machine is booting, keep your finger on the F8 key. When you see the line “Starting Windows 95,” hit F8 and choose Command Line Only from the menu to arrive at a DOS prompt. You can now CD to the BeLaunch directory and type beos.

To make it even easier, rename beos.bat to b.bat and move or copy the file into your C: root so you don’t have to CD to the right directory first. Alternatively, add the BeLaunch directory to your path.

To automate all of this even more, see the tip Create a Win95/BeOS Boot Menu.

Create a Win95/BeOS Boot Menu

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

[Editor's note: It's far easier and slicker to use BeOS' bootman to manage a multi-boot system than it is to do it through Windows, which isn't friendly to multiple operating systems. This tip is here for the curious or masochistic user only.]

Win95 includes a menu of boot options that you can access by hitting F8 when you see “Starting Windows 95″ during startup. However, it’s not hard to create a custom menu that will let you choose between DOS, Windows 95, and BeOS. Your custom menu can also be set to boot straight into any of these choices after a given number of seconds. Note that many parts of this process can be done with TweakUI, which you can download for free from Microsoft. I think it’s useful to know what’s going on though, so here are instructions for doing it manually. You’ll also get a much higher degree of customization if you do it manually.

To make this work, you’ll need to get three DOS files all talking to each other: autoexec.bat, which specifies what processes to launch automatically; config.sys, which specifies things about your system configuration (such as loading CD-ROM drivers), and msdos.sys, which specifies things about how to launch Windows95 before the GUI comes up. The first two go all the way back to the earliest versions of DOS, while msdos.sys was added when 95 came along.

Make backup copies of these three files before modifying them, just to be safe. Since msdos.sys is a hidden, read-only system file, you need to turn off these attributes before you can save any changes to it. If you’re working in DOS, type ATTRIB -H -S -R MSDOS.SYS. If you’re in Win, right-click it and choose Properties, then uncheck those attribute boxes. When you’re done editing this file, you need to turn these attributes back on, or the file will be ignored at boot time. From DOS, type ATTRIB +H +S +R MSDOS.SYS, or recheck the boxes in the Property sheet.

Open up msdos.sys in any text editor (from DOS, type EDIT MSDOS.SYS), scroll down to the [Options] section, and set BootGUI to 0 (zero). If you hate the insipid Windows 95 startup screen, add a line reading Logo=0. Make sure BootMulti is set to 1. Add BootMulti=1 if it doesn’t already exist. If you don’t want the default boot menu to appear (and you probably don’t, since we’re going to replace it), add a line reading BootMenu=0. Save the file and restore its attributes as above.

Open up config.sys and add information about the custom menu you want to create. Just paste this text at the top of the file:

[Menu] MenuItem = Win95 MenuItem = DOS MenuItem = BeOS MenuDefault BeOS,10 MenuColor 15,1


[Win95]

DEVICE=DEVTAISATAP.SYS /D:MSCD000 /N:1

[DOS] DEVICE=DEVTAISATAP.SYS /D:MSCD000 /N:1

[BeOS]

Note that any information that was already in config.sys will need to be moved to appropriate areas of the file. For instance, in this example the CD-ROM driver info is added to both DOS and Win sections so that the CD will be available either way. The BeOS section is empty because Be doesn’t need anything special passed to it from DOS (obviously).

The MenuDefault line says that if you don’t do anything, BeOS will be automatically booted in 10 seconds. Season to taste. The MenuColor line gives you white text on a blue background.

Finally, open up autoexec.bat, where we’ll tell it to run different things depending on what was chosen during the config.sys step. Paste in the example below, then customize to suit your own needs:

@ECHO OFF SET PATH=C:;C:WINDOWS;C:WINDOWSCOMMAND


GoTo %CONFIG%
@ECHO ON
:WIN95

C:WINDOWSCOMMANDMSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000

win

goto end
:DOS

C:WINDOWSCOMMANDMSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000

goto end
:BeOS

SET PATH=

beos.bat

:end

Note that :beos section loads the beos.bat file specified in the tip Launch Beos x86 from DOS/Win.

You should be all set. If you got everything right, your machine should boot normally, briefly say “Starting Windows 95,” then thrown up a blue and white screen giving you a list of operating system choices. You can choose one by choosing its number, or wait ten seconds to boot straight into BeOS (in this example).

And of course you can extend this to add an option for loadlin, if you’re running Linux.

Many thanks to JoshB (joshb@techie.com) and Braden McGrath (dilbert@lightstream.net) for helping to really dial in this process.

Add BeOS to NT’s boot menu

shacker — Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:36:29 +0000

If you look at the BeOS installation CD from within WindowsNT, you’ll find a folder called “NT.” Within it is a file called addbeos.exe.

Open an NT shell, change directories to your CD-ROM drive’s NT folder, and type addbeos. This will make changes to your boot.ini and drop a file called BeOS.bs in the root of your boot drive. The next time you boot, BeOS will appear on your NT boot menu.

If this does not work for you for some reason, Mark Yen (bemyen@bemail.org) adds the following information:

Requirements

A working Windows NT (I had 2000 Pro)
A working Win9x or DOS dualbooting under NT’s boot menu (I had 98SE),
loadbeos.com and related files (e.g., from PE)
Not currently triple-booting NT, 9x, and DOS

Procedure

Back up everything under C:
Copy the following files:
If you have Win9x:

BOOTSECT.DOS to BOOTSECT.W40
IO.SYS to IO.DOS
MSDOS.SYS to MSDOS.DOS

If you have DOS:

BOOTSECT.DOS to BOOTSECT.W40
IO.SYS to WINBOOT.SYS
MSDOS.SYS to MSDOS.W40

Edit Boot.ini in C: to have something like:[operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect C:BOOTSECT.W40="Microsoft Windows 98" /WIN95
C:BOOTSECT.DOS="BeOS Personal Edition" /WIN95DOS
The first 2 OSes were put in by NT on install for me (to dualboot Win98 and NT).
Be sure to have the /WIN95 and /WIN95DOS switches (even for another Win9x).

Make AUTOEXEC.DOS (or AUTOEXEC.W40 if you had DOS
instead) to something like:
@C: @CDBEOS @LOADBEOS

Reboot and hope.

If you started with Win9x, you might want to edit MSDOS.DOS to
include Logo=0 under [Options] to turn off the Win9x
logo when booting BeOS.