agFM v1.13 now available

v1.13 2020-02-17 

1. File extensions of .isodef, .isodefault, .isodd, .iso01, .iso32, .iso64, .isoPE or .isoPE01 will now immediately boot the ISO (using Easy2Boot\partnew method).
2. Add diagnostic menu entry to users startup_menu.txt.
3. Support E2B-style MBR-booting of .iso* and .wim files which have spaces in their filenames.
4. Display grub2 menu icons in menu after selecting the ISO (e.g. Manjaro ISO will display Manjaro icon after selection).
5. Clear empty type 0 partitions on boot.
6. Various bug fixes in a1ives grub2 and File Manager.

Most Linux iso will boot if you give them a file extension of .isodef (or .isodefault) in both agFM and E2B menu system. If you leave them as .iso, you will need to pick the required boot method from a secondary agFM menu.

Download Area for agFM Beta here.

If you require a different language, extract and overwrite the files using one of the language .zip files from the Languages sub-folder - Note: you must update to v1.13 first.

agFM v1.12 now available

This version has a new feature to only list bootable\actionable files.

agFM Beta download folder is here.

Now, by default, files such a .XML , .BMP., .JPG., .BAK, .CMD, .GZ, .BAT, .MNU and all other non-bootable files are not shown in the agFM file menu.

This makes it much quicker to navigate the E2B folder structure.

I have also added two new .cfg files in case you want all files to be listed in the agFM menu.

• SHOW ALL FILES (agFM).cfg
• SHOW ONLY BOOT FILES (agFM).cfg

If you want your agFM system to always show all files on startup (as with previous versions of agFM), then create a \boot\grubfm\startup_menu.txt file on the agFM partition and add in this line at the top of the file:

grubfm_set --hide 0

If you do not want a startup menu to be shown, just set the timeout and default to 0.

agFM v1.11 now available

a1ive has made a small change so that we can have an initial boot menu on booting the agFM.

This means it is possible to set a default menu item + timeout.

Here is a sample menu which offers three menu choices and will default to select a Windows 10 ISO on timeout...

To configure your own menu, rename the \boot\grubfm\SAMPLE_startup_menu.txt file to startup_menu.txt.

Here is the contents of the sample menu...

\boot\grubfm\startup_menu.txt

agFM v1.10 now available

a1ive has made some changes to allow us to customise the agFM.

The main change with this version is that when you select a .cfg file, it will immediately run it as a grub2 file without needing to select the 'Open as grub2 menu' option.

Note that the 'Cancel' or 'Back' option in any existing .cfg files that you may have made will now not work correctly and will just reload the .cfg file again - you will need to edit them. Compare your .cfg file with the example files to see what lines have changed...

e.g. change lines in existing .cfg file from...

grubfm "${grubfm_file}"
to
grubfm "${grubfm_current_path}"

Similarly with .imgPTN* files - just select them and they will now immediately run.

Download Area for agFM Beta here.

To update, just extract the files from the .zip file to your FAT32 agFM volume.

Windows 10 'Print' function is now launching OneNote!!!

My Windows 10 system ran a large Windows Update today and now whenever I try to print a document, OneNote launches instead!

The solution is to set the Default Printer back to your desired printer using Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Devices and Printers.

Right-click on the printer device and choose 'Set as default printer'.

Add ESET + persistence to E2B+agFM

Recent versions of the ESET antivirus ISO have changed the way they use a persistent ext partition.

ESET will now only store the virus definition update files on an ext3 partition with a specific volume name of ESR-USB-DAT and it must be located as Primary Partition 2 (2nd partition) on the USB drive.

This change means that it won't work as a normal xxxx.imgPTN+xxxxx image pair in E2B because the persistent partition is mapped to partition 3 by Easy2Boot.

This means we need to modify the \menu.lst file inside the .imgPTN file.

If you have made an E2B multiboot USB drive with the a1ive grub2 File System on the 2nd FAT32 partition, then you can add a UEFI64-bootable (and MBR-bootable) version of ESET with persistence by using a special .cfg file.

Instructions

agFM v1.9 now available

• Few minor bugfixes
• Improve .imgPTN switching
• Reduced menu font size

Download agFM v1.9

A1ive grub2 File Manager v1.7/1.7A available (with .imgPTN support built-in)

a1ive has now added support for user-definable file extensions, so agFM v1.7A now automatically recognises the following extra file extensions:

• .imgPTN
• .imgPTN23
• .imgPTNauto
• .imgPTN23auto

E2B v1.B8A released

v1.B8 had a few bugs, so v1.B8A fixes these.
v1.B8A does not include the modifications for agFM or user-definable partition sizes as in v1.B9g Beta.

Secure Boot of large Windows Install ISOs with agFM

If your Windows Install ISO is very large and contains a 4GB+ install.wim or install.esd file, then you can still Secure Boot to the agFM then boot from an NTFS partition.

1. Make a .imgPTN23 NTFS image file using the MPI Tool Kit (drag-and-drop onto the MPI_NTFS Desktop icon).
2. Copy it to your E2B NTFS partition.
3. Copy agFM_imgPTN_NTFS_v16.cfg to your E2B NTFS partition (e.g. \agFM folder).
4. Change the name of the .cfg file to whatever you like (keep .cfg extension).
5. Edit the .cfg file to set the file path of your image file and its image type.

Now you can switch in the NTFS image file, reboot and use the F3 menu to boot to (hd0,msdos1).

Note: Later versions fix a few bugs and allow us to simply select the .imgPTN23 file so that a .cfg file is not needed.