E2B v1.A4a Beta available (with bugfix for SWITCH_E2B.exe sometimes not listing the E2B drive)

Download here (unpack and run Make_E2B.exe - Update E2B Drive).

Changes from v1.A3 are:

• New file extension suffixes recognised ('4GB'=only lists file in E2B menu if RAM >4GB, '3GB'=only listed in menu if RAM size <4GB) - e.g. Ubuntu_amd64.iso4GB, Ubuntu_i386.iso3GB.
• New grub4dos variable %GB4% now in E2B environment, so can be used to test for systems which have more or less than 4GB RAM (e.g. 'if exist GB4 pause This system has more than 4GB RAM').
• File extensions suffixes can now be in any order and not case sensitive (pwd, 32, 64, 4GB, 3GB, AUTO). 
• File suffixes for .iso and .imgptn files in \_ISO\WINDOWS folders (except XP folder) also recognised. e.g. .isopwd4GB64, .imgPTN3GBAUTO. 
• SnipStr.g4b grub4dos subroutine added which can remove a sub-string from a variable,
• SWITCH_E2B.exe v1.0.20 has bugfix for sometimes E2B drive not listed.
• Txt_Maker.exe v1.0.9 now has option for > or < 4GB RAM detection.

Notes:

1. I only found the bug in SWITCH_E2B.exe by accident. After running an ISO file, I found that SWITCH_E2B would not list the E2B drive in SWITCH_E2B any more! The problem turned out to be caused by the byte 0x4D appearing in the MBR partition table which caused SWITCH_E2B to throw an unhandled exception and exit out of a subroutine without any error message. This would explain why one user (many months ago) found that SWITCH_E2B.exe would not list his particular E2B drive, even though we could not find anything wrong with his drive!

2. The E2B grub4dos code to recognise file extension suffixes in any order is new and there may be bugs, so if you are using any of the file extension suffixes (pwd, 32, 64, 4GB, 3GB, AUTO) and see a problem, please let me know.

How to add Dell EFI Diagnostic files to E2B

Some Dell Diagnostics and Tools are provided as bootable ISO files (e.g. Dell PowerEdge Support Live Image 3.0 here). It is easy to convert this to a .imgPTN file using the MPI Tool Kit so that you can MBR- and UEFI-boot from these ISOs.

EFI boot under VirtualBox of Dell Live Image 3.0

Some Dell systems have a UEFI pre-boot diagnostic already on the hard disk and provided that the hard disk is not completely corrupt or dead, you can use the Dell BIOS boot option to run these tests and check the hardware.

However, if you cannot boot from the diagnostic software on the hard disk, it is sometimes difficult to know if it is because of a corrupt/wiped hard disk, hardware fault in the hard disk itself, a BIOS configuration issue or a different hardware issue. In this case it is often useful to be able to boot from an E2B USB drive and run the same pre-boot diagnostic.

Here is a way to add as many different Dell pre-boot diagnostic EFI files as you want (using Clover you can also try them on non-Dell/non-UEFI systems too)...

Easy2Boot v1.A3 release now available

Due to v1.A2.exe giving false-positives with some AV software and causing users problems, I have decided to release v1.A3 early which I hope will give less trouble!

The changes from v1.A2 are:

• New \grdlr grub4dos 2018-09-19 (no bug fixes, just extra functionality).
• Bugfix QRUN.g4b for .jpg/,bmp wallpaper file extension - if an animation was running then selecting a .bmp or .jpg file did not change the wallpaper.
• Warning added if Windows 7 .imgptn file has the bootx64.efi boot file missing.
• \_ISO\docs\Make_Ext\Make_Ext.exe utility added - allows you to make persistence files without needing RMPrepUSB.
• QRUN now displays contents of the \.disk\info file just before running an ISO (if it exists).
• SWITCH_E2B.exe re-packaged so will not trigger false-positives with AV software and file sync.exe removed.
• Comments changed in Sample .mnu files to add a mention of the Make_Ext.exe utility which is now available as well as RMPrepUSB.

Let me know if this version gives you any problems. I will put it on the main website in a day or two as soon as I get some feedback.

E2B v1.A3b Beta includes new Make_Ext.exe utility

The latest Beta version now includes the new Make_Ext.exe utility which will make linux persistence files on your E2B USB drive for you. This means you do not need to have RMPrepUSB on your PC or the USB drive.

The \_ISO\docs\Make_Ext folder contains the utility + support files.

Note: v1.0.0 had a bug and did not always format the file to ext format (you can tell because it runs very quickly!). Please use v1.1.0 which can be found in E2B v1.A4 and later versions.

The symptom is that if you attempt to mount the ext file, linux will complain about a bad superblock, etc.

How to directly install from Windows Install ISOs using UEFI with E2B

E2B allows you to boot Windows Installers via UEFI. However, you must first convert the Windows Install ISO to a .imgPTN file if you wish to UEFI-boot from it as well as MBR-boot.

This means that you must convert each Windows Install ISO to separate .imgPTN files.

However, there are ways to perform UEFI installs directly from Windows ISOs.

If you first MBR- or UEFI-boot to a Windows PE .imgPTN file and your Windows ISOs are on a second partition, you can use WinNTSetup or Windows Setup.exe to install Windows.

The WinNTSetup process has the advantage that you can boot to either a 32-bit or 64-bit WinPE and install either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows to the target hard disk. The Windows Setup.exe process is simpler, but you must boot to WinPE32 to install 32-bit Windows or WinPE64 to install 64-bit Windows.

Here is an outline of the Windows Setup.exe process:

E2B v1.A3a Beta

Apparently, the new self-extracting Switch_E2B.exe in v1.A2 is triggering false-positives on some AV engines.

I have re-packaged it in 1.A3a Beta and hopefully it will cause less false-positives.

Changes from v1.A2 are:

• New grdlr grub4dos 2018-09-19 (additional function added, no bug fixes)
• Fix QRUN.g4b for .jpg/,bmp wallpaper file extension (if an animation was running on menu then selecting a .bmp or .jpg file did not change wallpaper)
• Warning added if win 7 .imgptn has the bootx64.efi boot file missing
• Repackage Switch_E2B.exe for less false-positives with AV software (same v1.0.18)

Please let me know if this new version of Switch_E2B.exe is any better if you had problems with the v1.A2 E2B version. I will update 1.A2 to 1.A3 if it fixes the false-positive issue.

New MPI Tool Kit 0.085Beta2 available with German language file

I think that this version has all the changes required now, so please try it.

If you make a .\CUSTOM\MyCSM.cfg file with the following contents:

!BAT
set LANG=GERMAN

Then any .imgPTN file that you make should have a German menu.

Example of MyCSM.cfg file set to GERMAN language (based on Sample_MyCSM.cfg file)

I think one line still requires translation though.

http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/csm-menu-changes/ has details of how to modify the MyCSM.cfg file further if you wish to change the menu appearance.

See the previous blog for more details.

The CUSTOM folder contains a Sample_MyCSM.cfg to help you.

If you want to make a language file in a different language, please feel free to try adding a new language.

Note that you should not change or add any files under .\csm in the MPI download folder, instead always add  extra files to the .\CUSTOM folder - these will overwrite any other files of the same name and will be added into any new .imgPTN file.

Let me know if you have tested this and any comments too.

Thanks
Steve

MPI Tool Kit v0.085 Beta1 with language support is now available

This is an experimental version for testing.

I have modified the menu.lst file so that the CSM menu will support other languages.

At the moment however only English is available.

You can test it like this:

Beware! Windows Explorer's handling of .zip files is buggy!

Tim contacted me today to make me aware of a problem with Windows 10 Explorer's handling of .zip file extraction.

He told me that he had a problem when using WSUS Offline Update. He downloaded the .zip file onto the \_ISO\WINDOWS\installs\ folder but when he tried to use WSUS, he  found it would not work correctly because Windows Explorer had changed the modification date of all the extracted files.

I checked this out by downloading the WSUS Offline Update download file wsusoffline114.zip and this is what I discovered...

Easy2Boot v1.A2 released

This v1.A2 version fixes a few small bugs in v1.A1 and previous versions.

• Bug fix for SUB_MENU_Maker.cmd adding space to .mnu file and prevents background wallpaper from being loaded for new user-made menu folders. 
• Special characters now should work and a UTF-8 .mnu file is written when using .cmd files (E2B MNU Maker.cmd, E2B SUBMENU Maker.cmd, E2B TXT Maker.cmd, SUB_MENU_Maker.cmd).
• If the MFOLDER value has extra spaces on the end, these will be automatically removed.
• Small tweaks to F1.cfg help files.
• Add DOS menu to FreeDOS disk image so can boot it in different configurations.