Found a bug!
If you run a Win8 install and then abort it and then run a Win7 install, you may get a 'bad unattend.xml' error from Win7 Setup before you can choose an OS. This was caused by the AutoUnattend.xml file on the flash drive not being wiped before the new Win7 text was added in. This left some old text at the end of the file and so the xml format was invalid (it had extra <> sections at the end which were not properly closed with a > symbol).
This is now fixed in BETA26.
BETA26v2 Win7_32_sp0 bugfix!
BETA26v5 - speeded up file enumeration - mainmenu should load faster now!
BETA26v6 - no functional change that you will notice, but now you can set a password in mymenu.lst to prevent users from being able to edit the menu entries in grub4dos by pressing 'e' or getting to the grub4dos command line by pressing 'c'. This avoids users getting confused if they accidentally hit e or c. More details here.
If you run a Win8 install and then abort it and then run a Win7 install, you may get a 'bad unattend.xml' error from Win7 Setup before you can choose an OS. This was caused by the AutoUnattend.xml file on the flash drive not being wiped before the new Win7 text was added in. This left some old text at the end of the file and so the xml format was invalid (it had extra <> sections at the end which were not properly closed with a > symbol).
This is now fixed in BETA26.
BETA26v2 Win7_32_sp0 bugfix!
BETA26v5 - speeded up file enumeration - mainmenu should load faster now!
BETA26v6 - no functional change that you will notice, but now you can set a password in mymenu.lst to prevent users from being able to edit the menu entries in grub4dos by pressing 'e' or getting to the grub4dos command line by pressing 'c'. This avoids users getting confused if they accidentally hit e or c. More details here.
I don't know if anyone else is having this same problem but no matter what version of Easy2Boot I use I get the following error.
ReplyDeleteFatal! Inconsistent data read from (0x80)61767593+127
Prior to beta 20 I would at least get a menu and a background. From there I would go to the windows 7 iso and then when it says Booting 'INSTALL Windows 7 ENTERPRISE SP1 32-bit' it hangs for a little bit then I get the error above.
Using from beta 20 - 26 I get the error at the start up during the position where it says it is wiping the autoattend and unattend XML files. Any ideas? Is this a bug in relation to hardware? I am using a USB 3.0 Patriot XT 32gb flash drive. It is formatted in NTFS with RMPrepUSB. I am trying to boot it on a USB 2.0 laptop, specifically a Dell Inspiron 1300. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
is inconsistent read error from a real system or VM?
ReplyDeleteSuggest reformatting the drive.
I saw same errors at 'wiping unattend' point, but errors went after reformat.
It is on a real system. A Dell Inspirion 1300. Not a VM. I reformatted several times using RMPrepUSB without success following the posted guide. No matter what I still get the same error.
ReplyDeleteThe two files in the root, AutoUnattend.xml and Unattend.xml are overwritten by the \_ISO\E2B\Firadisk\spaces.txt file.
ReplyDeleteThe wiping is now also done on first boot to make sure that these files are empty and don't cause any trouble with any WinPE ISOs that the user might boot.
The files are overwritten using grub4dos dd command.
I did see this issue and it only happened on one USB Flash drive.
Strangely, I only got the error on every alternate boot!
When I reformatted the flash drive, the problem went away.
Its been working pretty good steve. Because you are putting on a feature freeze, i had a few last suggestions. The other forum seems to be down for me.
ReplyDeleteWhen you offer the option for recovery, you should also add the option to select recovery, startup repair, and dart (if they happened to add it to X:\sources\recovery\tools\MSDartTools.exe).
If it also exists, you could have the option for using a custom xml for setup. Something like
if exist _iso\Windows\Win7.xml for Win7.
Someone was asking about colors. Something simple i added was to the different menu sections as they load like this. It makes it solid blue.
echo $[0113] Booting Easy2Boot - counting files - please wait...
I personally have to deal with laptops that sometimes only boot USB 1. I wonder if its possible to add the 43kb plbt.bin and silently load usb2 drivers if not active. Its an especially handy feature if you are booting 3 gig isos. All i know of is this.
/%GRUB%/bios int=0x13 eax=0x504c6f50 ebp=0x43484b44 > (md)0x300+1 && cat --locate="EAX=79657320" (md)0x300+1 || kernel %GRUB%/plpbt.bin hiddenusb
I noticed with friends ive given E2B too that a common annoyance is the naming of the Windows isos. People often like to have the original name of the iso, or a custom name. That led me to examine your code, and i think it makes more sense to just list the different Windows isos per section (ie: _\ISO\Windows\Win8) and have the user select them that way and use a %MYISO% for the installation. Its less code too.
The serials in Win8 are for Consumer Preview and Proffessional. It would make more sense to have Proffessional and Core (Win 8) that are what comes on a retail DVD. For that matter, alot of people on other forums also add the ProffessionalWMC (windows media centre edition) as there was a loophole for activation and it is an SKU people add to their ISOs. For that matter, you could also add Enterprise in case they made an all in one.
I looked for refences to unattend.xml and didn't see any. Does it even do anything? WINHELPER.USB can also go in _iso\E2B\firadisk for less clutter too.
The Autounattends you use are often the same. They are all the same and the only difference is the need for a key or not. These 2 batches work with each other.
1 - Win8 , win8e , Win7 , Win7E , Vista , VistaE , and auSVR2012
2 - auwinnt , au2k8r2 and au
You can simply name 1 KEY.xml and 2 NOKEY.xml and it should be less things to change and less files. At this point if you want, you could dd a copy of (or create) an xml to the root named autounattend.xml, add key (the only thing disrupting a permanent autounattend.xml in root) and then have mysetup.cmd erase it after the PE boots.
The above was Halikus btw.
ReplyDelete@Halikus
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for your feedback and comments which are much appreciated.
>>>When you offer the option for recovery, you should also add the option to select recovery, startup repair, and dart (if they happened to add it to X:\sources\recovery\tools\MSDartTools.exe).
I will add this in - thanks!
>>>>If it also exists, you could have the option for using a custom xml for setup. Something like
if exist _iso\Windows\Win7.xml for Win7.
What I propose is that I allow for 3 user XML files per OS
\_ISo\Windows\Win7\MyWin7.xml - used for 32 and 64-bit Win7 ISOs from menu
\_ISo\Windows\Win7\MyWin7E.xml - used for 32 and 64-bit Win7 Enterprise ISOs from menu
\_ISo\Windows\Win7\MyWin7Ch.xml - used for 32 and 64-bit Win7 ISOs using the 'Choose an ISO' menu
and a MyWin8NoKey.xml
Would this be OK? The xmls would need to contain both 32 and 64-bit sections.
>>>>Someone was asking about colors. Something simple i added was to the different menu sections as they load like this. It makes it solid blue.
echo $[0113] Booting Easy2Boot - counting files - please wait...
This depends on what background the user has chosen. Solid blue would not show up well on a blue sky.
The heading colour is definable in mymenu.lst (a copy of menu.lst).
re Plop - Plop isa read-only driver and would prevent Easy2Boot from writing files to the USB drive. You can easily add Plop to your menu.
re. ISO selection - this is already done - just use 'Choose an ISO'
re. Serial KEYs - these are set in MyMenu.lst now (user must copy menu.lst to MyMenu.lst)
\unattend.xml is used by WinPE for installing XP via WinPE - see the XP menu
>>>The Autounattends you use are often the same. They are all the same and the only difference is the need for a key or not. These 2 batches work with each other.
1 - Win8 , win8e , Win7 , Win7E , Vista , VistaE , and auSVR2012
2 - auwinnt , au2k8r2 and au
If I use MyWinxxx.xml as above, I can delete these and just use one or two xmls and let the user add his own. The idea was that the user could just edit the xml files in firadisk if they needed to. That is why they are different.
In grub4dos, files cannot be copied to an NTFS drive, so I have to use dd (and the destination file must be as big as the input file)
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteJust had a thought, is there any way to detect that the resolution is wrong?
For instance, I'd quite like to set the default menu res to 1024, however as netbooks are usually below 1024*768, wouldn't this cause a problem?
Thanks,
Weedy / Weidass