Detect a 64-bit or 32-bit CPU in Easy2Boot

We can use grub4dos to detect the CPU bitness using the is64bit command.

E2B v1.56 Main  menu heading shows CPU type and total usable system memory

We can use this to make a .mnu file for the MAINMENU folder:

$$$CPU_TYPE.mnu
===============
# Display as menu item if CPU is 32-bit or 64-bit

iftitle [checkrange 2,3 is64bit]   --- INFORMATION: 64-bit CPU ---
errorcheck off


iftitle [checkrange 0,1 is64bit]   --- INFORMATION: 32-bit CPU ---
errorcheck off


To make a menu entry that will allow the user to check it use:

title Check the Processor\n Detect if CPU is 32-bit or 64-bit

checkrange 2,3 is64bit && pause Processor is 64-bit
checkrange 0,1 is64bit && pause Processor is 32-bit

errorcheck off

boot

The 64Bit_Auto_Detect_ISO.mnu file in the E2B Sample mnu folder has an example where either a 32-bit or 64-bit ISO will be automatically run depending on the system CPU:

# Change the 1st, 2nd and 3rd line as required - line 4 may be deleted if no pause required

title Run a 32-bit or 64-bit linux ISO \n Auto-Detect system type and run correct ISO

set ISO=Ubuntu32.iso

checkrange 2,3 is64bit && set ISO=Ubuntu64.iso

pause WILL BOOT %ISO% - Press ENTER key to continue...

/%grub%/qrun.g4b $HOME$/%ISO%

boot

To make a .mnu file for a 64-bit ISO that will only be visible if the system has a 64-bit CPU, we can use:

iftitle [if exist $HOME$/Ubuntu64.iso && checkrange 2,3 is64bit] Ubuntu 64-bit \n Boot from a 64-bit ISO

/%grub%/qrun.g4b $HOME$/Ubuntu64.iso

boot

Add Desinfect+Persistent Virus Updates to your Easy2Boot USB drive

Here are the steps to add the Desinfect 2014 (and 2015/2016/2017/2018/201819) ISO to you E2B USB drive and have persistent virus definition updates too ...

How to add Android x86 + Persistence to your Easy2Boot multiboot USB drive

You can run android x86 on an Intel\AMD x86 system from an ISO with persistence directly from your E2B drive.

The steps are:

1. Download a suitable version of Android x86 as an ISO file. Note that you can obtain versions to match different systems (e.g. eeePC, etc.). Using the wrong version on some systems may result in problems with the mouse or touchscreen, etc.

• android-x86-4.0-r1.1-asus_laptop.iso  for ASUS Laptops/Tablets 
• android-x86-4.0-r1-amd_brazos.iso     for AMD Brazos platform 
• android-x86-4.0-r1-eeepc.iso          for ASUS Eee PC family 
• android-x86-4.0-r1-s103t.iso          for Lenovo S10-3t tablet
• android-x86-4.0-r1-tegav2.iso         for Tega v2(Atom N455)
• android-x86-4.0-r1-thinkpad.iso       for IBM thinkpad tablet
• android-x86-4.0-r1-tx2500.iso         for HP tx2500

2. Copy the ISO file to a MNU folder on your E2B USB multiboot drive (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU or \_ISO\LINUX\MNU).

3. Copy the android_x86_Persistent.mnu file to the same folder as your Android ISO file.

Then Edit the .mnu file so that the ISO filename matches your ISO filename.

4. Create an ext2 file in the E2B root (top level folder) using the RMPrepUSB - Create ext2 FS button - the file name should be \android-rw, but the volume name and size can be whatever you like.

You can instead use Make_ext.exe which is already on the E2B drive. (\_ISO\_Make_Ext.bat).

5. Make all files contiguous using RMPrepUSB - Ctrl+F2.

You can find the android .mnu file in the Alternate Downloads area (link on this page) or in later versions of E2B in the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files folder (1.54 or later).

Note that for persistence, we must specify the linux drive name in the kernel parameters. The .mnu code tries to calculate this, but you can override it by typing in the correct letter if it guesses wrongly.

For instance, if you boot from your E2B USB drive on a laptop containing a single HDD, the .mnu file will guess that the USB drive will be 'sdb' once android boots - if this is incorrect, and it will actually be 'sdc' then just type c followed by the [ENTER] key when you are prompted by the E2B menu. If you don't type anything within 2-3 seconds then it will just use the calculated value. If the drive letter is wrong, you just won't get persistence!

Tip: You can tell what drive letter the E2B USB drive is as android boots.

In this case it was a  (sda)

If your mouse is not working in android x86, use the TAB, ESC and ENTER keys as well as other keys to navigate the menus and icons.

Note: I had a few problems booting some of the ISOs in 'Resident' mode on some systems, but the Guest mode seemed to work. Android_x86 also did not seem to like VBox virtual machines much!

See also this video.

UEFI-booting

It seems that the .iso files do not work well with UEFI-booting and there is a separate .img download for UEFI-booting. Simply drag-and-drop one of the EFI .img files onto the MPI_FAT32 desktop shortcut (after installing the MPI Tool Kit), and create a .imgPTN file. This should now UEFI-boot (but won't MBR boot!)

You can also try the E2B Grub2 menu system which can boot to PhoenixOS via UEFI&MBR 32&64 and remix via UEFI&MBR 64-bit.

Please tick 'funny' 'interesting' or 'cool' or add a comment to let me know which posts you most enjoy.

New Easy2Boot Forum

I have added a primitive User Forum to the Easy2Boot site.
E2B users can use this to ask for help from other E2B users or offer hints and tips, etc.

No login is required. Any 'inappropriate' posts will be removed without mercy! Please use it responsibly or I will remove the whole User Forum.

P.S. Checkout Frettts-Freeware for lists and descriptions of free software.



Please tick 'funny' 'interesting' or 'cool' or add a comment to let me know which posts you most enjoy.

Easy2Boot v1.30 Trial version available

Changes:

• New file extension .isopup supported for Puppy linux ISOs (no persistence)
• E2B can now be in a Logical partition on the USB HDD boot drive
• grub4dos 0.4.6 with USB driver menu option in Utilities menu
• Option in MyE2B.cfg to use grub4dos 0.4.6 USB driver on start-up of E2B
• If CheckAccess fails on start-up due to buggy BIOS, the grub4dos 0.4.6 USB drivers are used automatically.
• Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd script improved (Grubinst on an NTFS formatted drive didn't always work + switch to root folder). Now moved to the \_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive folder.
• Change detection code of WINHELPER.USB file on 'Helper' Flash drive
• .isoWB file extension (Easy2Boot_v1.30b_TESTONLY.zip)

This version should be considered experimental and can be found via the Alternate Download link on the Easy2Boot.com download page here.

grub4dos 0.4.6a USB driver

Using the grub4dos USB driver helps in cases where some BIOSes contain bugs in their USB driver code, and as a result you may find that one or two 'special' systems will not boot to certain payload/ISO files unless you use the new grub4dos USB driver. See my previous blog for details.

The Main menu in E2B v1.30 now has a new menu entry which has two functions. When you first boot E2B, you will see an entry to 'Switch to grub4dos v0.4.6'. If you select this, E2B will reload E2B using grub4dos 0.4.6 (the file is in \_ISO\e2b\grub\grub_46a).

When the the Main menu reloads, you will now see a Main menu entry 'Install Grub4DOS USB Driver'. If you run this the internal grub4dos USB driver will run and will replace the BIOS USB driver. The Main menu will reload and the the 'Install Grub4DOS USB Driver' menu entry will no longer be present; thus if you don't see this menu entry, it means that the grub4dos USB drivers are already loaded.

If you don't want this new menu entry, simply delete the \_ISO\MAINMENU\ZGrub_USB_046.mnu file.

I have not replaced grub4dos v0.4.5 with grub4dos v0.4.6 because there are still a few problems with it. e.g. running usb --init to load the USB drivers twice under VBox/VMWare seems to cause it to hang; does not detect USB drives on Dell Inspiron 530, does not work very well on reboot - best if run from power on.

Note, when you load the grub4dos USB driver, you will see a brief message about how many USB drives were detected. If it does not detect your USB drive, then the BIOS will still be used to access the USB drive. If you have any systems which don't detect your USB drive (always test from power on, not a reboot), please report it to chenal here. Give give details of the grub4dos version you are using as 0.4.6a Date=20140306 Size=281,839 bytes and the make and model of your system and USB drive.

Easy2Boot v1.29 now available

V1.29 changes are:

• New grldr grub4dos file - now shows the case of file names and folder names correctly on FAT32 volumes when in grub4dos console.
• New .isomemF01 and .isofira01 file extensions added (use .isomemF01 for ERD 2005 XP ISOs)
• Sample .mnu files added or modified (Porteus-v2.0-i486.mnu, FD0-konboot-v2.1.mnu, dft32_v416_b00_install.mnu, BIOS Detect and Run.mnu, Porteus-generic-persistent.mnu, Win7_8_Install_Auto64_32.mnu, RedHat.mnu, RedHat_NTFS.mnu, 64Bit_Auto_Detect_ISO.mnu, WinBuilderPE_ISO.mnu, ERD5_DPMS.mnu, ERD2005.mnu, ERD5_FIRA.mnu)
• "E2B TXT Maker" and "E2B MNU Maker" batch files available in \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities folder. See blog post here for details.

Download from Tutorial 72a here.

Add Microsoft ERD Commander and MSDart Windows Recovery ISOs to Easy2Boot

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (Microsoft DaRT) allows you diagnose and repair a Windows system that has problems starting or has other issues.

Using Easy2Boot you can even boot directly from an MSDaRT 5.0 XP PE based ISO and repair a SATA Windows XP hard disk even though the MSDaRT ISO does not contain any AHCI mass storage drivers!

You can also boot via UEFI too (see below for details).

DaRT is not available from Microsoft as an .iso file. Instead, you use a program that creates an ISO file, which is based on Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and a set of tools that DaRT provides. This boot media starts the Windows RE, from which you can start ERD Commander. ERD Commander provides a launch platform for the DaRT tools.

Note: MediCat contains Win10/8/7 MSDaRT ISOs, just copy it to your E2B USB drive (keep extension as .iso) ;-)

Typically, you use something like the ERD Commander Boot Media Wizard to create the ERD Commander ISO (although this can vary depending on the version you are trying to create). It is easiest to create the ISO on the same type of OS that it was designed for (e.g. you cannot create a Dart 5.0 ISO using a 64-bit Win7 system).

.isoPE01

DaRT 8.1 supports Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
DaRT 8.0 supports Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
DaRT 7.0 supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
DaRT 6.5 supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
DaRT 6.0 supports Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

.isomemF01 or .isomemwinv
DaRT 5.0 supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

ERD Commander 2005 supports Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 4 or later required), Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. There is also an ERD Commander 2007.

Tip: If you download an .msi file which won't run under Win x64, try extracting the .ISO file from it using 7zip.

If your ISO is based on Vista, Win7 or Win8 PE (DaRT6 and above), then simply rename the .ISO file to .isope01 and copy it to a suitable folder (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU). You can also add a .txt file if you want to define the menu entry text and help text.


XP-based ISOs

If you have an XP-based ERD/MSDaRT ISO (DaRT5 or ERD Commander 2005), try using the file extension .isomemF01 or .isomemwinv.

To determine which E2B file extension works best, rename the .ISO files to .ISOask, and then you will be able to choose from a variety of different methods (see below).

For XP-based Recovery PE ISOs, you can also try using one of the .mnu files. In E2B \_ISO\docs\Sample menu files - there are three .mnu files you can try:

1. ERD5_FIRA.mnu    - this uses FiraDisk
2. ERD2005.mnu         - this uses WinVBlock to load the ISO
3. ERD5_DPMS.mnu   - this uses FiraDisk+WinVBlock+DPMS (recommended)

Typically, #1 or #2 will work for most systems. However, if you try to boot an XP PE ISO which does not contain AHCI mass storage drivers, once the Windows Recovery OS has booted, it will not be able to see your internal hard disks or may even BSOD.

To overcome this, use E2B+DPMS which has lots of internal mass storage drivers and use the ERD5_DPMS.mnu file (read the instructions inside it) . This mimics the same process as if you were booting from an XP Install ISO file and it will try to identify and load the correct mass-storage driver for the system. This will allow you to boot from an ERD v5 ISO on a SATA/RAID Windows XP 32-bit system and then repair it.

I would recommend that you use the ERD5_DPMS.mnu for any XP-based Recovery ISOs. You can modify the .mnu file as required.

# Use for MSDaRT 5 XP-based ISOs (use DPMS2 version of Easy2Boot for AHCI drivers)

# Make new empty folder, e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU\MSDART5

# Copy this .mnu file and the single ERD or PE ISO file to the empty folder (one .iso file per folder)

title XP MSDart ERD (DPMS)\n If DPMS is not installed\n Remember to select an AHCI driver\n AND the FiraDisk driver (using F6).

set MFOLDER=$HOME$

pause --wait=3 Press ENTER 3 times to boot...

/%grub%/XPStep1.g4b

boot

Note: E2B v1.A7 and later versions support the .isoDPMS file extension so you don't need to use this .mnu file.

Note that Easy2Boot+DPMS only contains Windows XP 32-bit mass storage drivers (which may or may not work for Windows 2003). If your DaRT is XP 64-bit based, then DPMS will not work. You can still use F6 to load the FiraDisk 64-bit driver for IDE systems (note: the ISO file name must contain the characters '64' so that E2B will not automatically use 32-bit DPMS drivers).

UEFI booting

You can add any number of MSDaRT (or other) images to an E2B drive and boot from each image in both MBR\CSM mode and UEFI mode (if the image supports UEFI booting - so not XP or Vista 32-bit!). The process is as follows:

1. Run MakePartImage.cmd to make a FAT32 partition image file from your DaRT ISO (or from a working MSDaRT USB Flash drive if you have already made one). It is easiest to just drag-and-drop the ISO onto the Windows MPI_FAT32 Desktop shortcut.
2. Copy the .imgPTN file to your E2B USB drive (ensure it has the .imgPTN file extension or try .imgPTNLBAa for better 'bootability')
3. Run WinContig to make sure the file is contiguous (e.g. \Make_this_drive_contiguous.cmd)

For more details visit the www.easy2boot.com site and look for MakePartImage.

How to quickly make Easy2Boot .txt and .mnu files

The next version of E2B will be v1.29. and will include two script (.cmd) files in the \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities folder:

E2B TXT Maker.cmd    - generates an Easy2Boot .txt file
E2B MNU Maker.cmd  - generates an Easy2Boot .mnu file
Make SubMenu.cmd     - generates a SubMenu .mnu file

New! E2B v1.78 now includes \_ISO\TXT_Maker.exe.

This may prove useful if you want to make .txt files or .mnu files for all your payload files.

The easiest way to use these files is to first copy them to your Windows Desktop.

Now to make a .txt file or .mnu file for any payload file on your E2B USB drive, simply Drag-and-Drop the payload file onto the E2B TXT Maker.cmd icon or the E2B MNU Maker.cmd icon on your Windows Desktop.

The script will then ask you what menu text and help text you want and then make a new .mnu or .txt file (in the same folder as the payload file) on your E2B USB drive.

You can specify a hotkey key by using ^^ before the keyname (^^ will be translated into ^ when the file is made).

Here are some screenshots of them in action:

E2B TXT Maker (red boxes show user entries)

E2B MNU Maker (no help text was entered in this example)

The E2B MNU Maker assumes that the payload (ISO) file will always be in the same folder as the .mnu file. You can edit the .mnu file after it has been generated. By default, the .mnu file simply runs QRUN and forces the file extension to be the same as it already is, using this line of grub4dos code:

      /%grub%/qrun.g4b force.iso $HOME$/rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.iso 

However, you can change this to force the file extension to be something different, e.g. to run a Microsoft Windows 7 Recovery ISO as if it had an .ISO01 file extension, use:

      /%grub%/qrun.g4b force.iso01 $HOME$/ERD6.iso

Or you can add in your own grub4dos menu.

N.B. For the MNU Maker script to work, the E2B payload file name must not contain spaces!


If you want to make a new SubMenu folder:
1. Create a new folder under \_ISO (spaces not allowed) - e.g.  \_ISO\RESCUE_WIN
2. Drag-and-drop the new \_ISO\RESCUE_WIN folder onto the Make SubMenu.cmd file and answer the questions.

This will make a new .mnu file in the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder for \_ISO\RESCUE_WIN.
Now put your ISO files, etc. in \_ISO\RESCUE_WIN and you will see the new menu entry in the Main Menu.

Adding WinBuilder PE and WinFE ISOs to Easy2Boot

WinFE ISO

Today I made a WinFE ISO based on a Win7PESE WinBuilder Project. To make the ISO, I followed the instructions on the Hacking Exposed website here.

Because I wanted to add lots of WinBuilder Win7SEPE ISOs to my E2B USB drive, I added the ISO file to my Easy2Boot NTFS Flash drive using this .mnu file.

title WinFE \n Note: Mount the E2B boot drive to use all applications
/%grub%/qrun.g4b force.iso01 /Win7PE_x86.iso
boot

The WinBuilder ISO file must NOT be renamed and must be copied the root of the E2B drive so that the MountPEmedia.exe utility will find it and mount it as drive Y:. The name and path of the ISO file is pre-defined in the \Windows\System32\MountPEmedia.ini. This is written by WinBuilder when the ISO is created (the .ini file is inside the \sources\boot.wim file image).

It is important to ensure there is no \Win7PESE.ini file or \CdUSB.y file (which you may have extracted from a WinBuilder ISO previously) in the root of any drive as this could 'confuse' the MountPEmedia utility.

When the WinFE Write Protect Tool automatically launches after WinFE boots, you need to select the E2B USB drive and click the Mount button, otherwise the Y: drive (the mounted ISO file) will be inaccessible and you won't be able to run many of the utilities from the Desktop.

Other ways of adding WinBuilder PE ISOs and other PE ISOs to E2B can be found in the E2B Tutorial here.

Adding RedHat Install ISOs to Easy2Boot

[Edit] To install RedHat from an ISO, it is easier to just convert the ISO file to a .imgPTN file using the MPI_FAT32 Desktop shortcut. The notes below are now outdated...[/Edit]

I tried to add the RedHat ISO rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.iso today to my Easy2Boot NTFS USB drive, so that I could install RedHat to the 2nd partition of my notebook, but found that the RedHat installer failed to find any source 'packages'. The ISO was mounted on /dev/sdb4 as a CDFS filesystem by E2B, but it couldn't access it for some reason! This was odd, as it must have used it to boot in protected mode, but once booted to linux, the installer does not seem to find it (not even on /dev/sdb4).
The next thing I tried was to specify the source of the packages as a HDD and point it to /dev/sdb1  (the USB drive) and the /_ISO/MAINMENU folder. This worked, but only if the Easy2Boot USB drive was formatted as a FAT32 volume! It seems the RedHat installer environment cannot read NTFS volumes.
The next problem I hit was that the installer wanted to install RedHat linux to my hard disk (which I wanted) but only gave me the option of installing the grub bootloader to the /dev/sdb MBR (i.e. the E2B USB drive) or, using advanced options, it would install grub to the partition sectors of /dev/sda2  (the partition I was installing RedHat to). I wanted to install grub to the MBR of my hard disk (/dev/sda) but this choice was not offered! It seems I needed to swap over the USB boot disk with the internal hard disk.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, here is how to add RedHat to E2B:

1. Ensure that you E2B drive is formatted as FAT32
2. Copy the rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.iso file to the \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU folder
3. Make a new rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.mnu text file in the \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU folder with the following contents:
title REDHAT Installer ISO \n When prompted, specify Hard Disk, /dev/sdb1\n and $HOME$ for the path
set ISO=rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.iso
/%grub%/qrun.g4b force.iso01 $HOME$/%ISO%
boot
4. Boot from the E2B USB drive on the target system and run RedHat from the menu entry
5. When prompted for a Package source, choose Hard Drive option and then use:
/dev/sdb1                                       - the E2B USB drive
/_ISO/MAINMENU/MNU                  - the path to the ISO file

Using an NTFS E2B USB drive

OK, but what if my E2B drive is formatted as NTFS? Well, I haven't found a nice way round this. There is no point extracting the files from the ISO if RedHat cannot read the E2B NTFS volume!
One solution is that you make a 2nd FAT32 partition on your E2B USB drive and copy the rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.iso file to a new\_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU folder on that partition.

Then you can then modify the .mnu file like this:
/%grub%/qrun.g4b force.iso01 (hd0,1)$HOME$/%ISO%
and point the installer at /dev/sdb2 which will be the USB drive's 2nd FAT32 volume, instead of /dev/sdb1. This worked for me :-)

# FOR NTFS E2B USB DRIVE - e.g.
# PTN0 = NTFS    /_ISO/MAINMENU/MNU  contains .mnu file
# PTN1 = FAT32  /_ISO/MAINMENU/MNU  contains the iso file

Another way to get round the problem is to make a hard disk image of a FAT32 partition which contains the ISO file and then map that FAT32 volume to a partition on the E2B USB drive - the .mnu file for this is shown below (it requires a spare USB flash drive just to make the image file):

# This can be used if your E2B drive is NTFS (or FAT32)
# Format a spare USB Flash/HDD as FAT32, 1 partition, SIZE=(size of Redhat ISO) + 100MB (e.g. if ISO is 3149MB, format USB flash drive as 3250) - Use RMPrepUSB for this.
# Copy redhat ISO onto the root of the FAT32 USB drive
# Use RMPrepUSB - Drive->File, Filename=REDHATPTN.IMG, start=P1, size=P1, filestart=0 to make an image of the USB drive partition
# Copy REDHATPTN.IMG and this .mnu file to \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU folder (or any \_ISO\xxxxxx\MNU folder) on E2B NTFS drive
# change rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd to match your ISO filename
# See http://rmprepusb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/adding-redhat-install-isos-to-easy2boot.html for more info

title REDHAT FOR NTFS\n To install, choose Hard Drive, sdb4 and /
set IMG=REDHATPTN.IMG
set ISO=/rhel-server-5.7-i386-dvd.iso
if "%E2BDEV%"=="" set E2BDEV=hd0 && pause E2BDEV forced to hd0!
if exist CD echo WARNING: Cannot use partnew command! && pause && configfile (bd)/menu.lst
debug on
parttype (%E2BDEV%,3) | set check=
debug off
set check=%check:~-5,4%
if "%check%"=="0x00" partnew (%E2BDEV%,3) 0 0 0
if not "%check%"=="0x00" echo WARNING: PARTITION TABLE 4 IS ALREADY IN USE! (%E2BDEV%,3)=%check% && pause && configfile (bd)/menu.lst
debug 1
if "%check%"=="0x00" partnew (%E2BDEV%,3) 0x0 $HOME$/%IMG% || pause ERROR: $HOME$/%IMG% NOT CONTIGUOUS? && configfile (bd)/menu.lst
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
# set root as new FAT32 partition on E2B drive
root (hd1,3)
map %ISO% (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
chainloader (0xff)
# replace FAT32 partition number C or B with 0 as linux doesn't need it (E2B USB drive is hd1 now)
cat --locate=\x0c --number=1 --length=1 --skip=0x1f2 --replace=\x00 (hd1)+1
cat --locate=\x0b --number=1 --length=1 --skip=0x1f2 --replace=\x00 (hd1)+1

I have added Tutorial #120 which includes these details.

This will only work if the ISO file is <4GB in size however. You could format the spare USB Flash drive as ext2/3 instead of FAT32, but the last two lines of the mnu file would need to be changed to match the ext2/3 partition type number and the ISO file would need to be made contiguous.

Any other suggestions are welcome...