Why not start a 'side-hustle' during the holidays?

Instead of watching your favourite box-set again during the holidays, why not use the time to set up a 'side-hustle' or two instead? With the Omicron virus around, you won't be going out much anyway...

Get this T-shirt here. Try the coupon code FINISHLINE and you may get 25% off this week!

So with a little bit of effort why not earn extra income from the internet. In many cases, this can be set up as a 'passive income' source - i.e. once you set it up, it will continue to earn you money for many years and you don't have to do anything else except count the money every month!

For instance, I set up a RedBubble 'shop' in just one day yesterday (and I have ZERO skills when it comes to graphics design as you can probably tell!). RedBubble will sell your designs for you. Your designs are printed onto a wide range of their products on demand and it costs nothing to start.

E2B sticker for your laptop/PC from as little as £1

E2B Classic Mug from £8-ish with coupon code.

Can you work out the message on my plain black T-shirt below (for maths geeks only - and it is for sale -  tip: try the coupon code FINISHLINE before Dec 8th and you may get 25% off!;-)?

eBook 'Getting started with Ventoy' v1.05 now available

My PDF-based eBook 'Getting started with Ventoy' v1.05 has now been updated for the latest version of Ventoy.

Ventoy v1.0.62 now includes the new VentoyPlugson web-based app so you can easily make and tweak your ventoy.json file.

You can get the updated eBook for free using the link that was previously in your confirmation email from Payhip when you first bought the book.

If you haven't already purchased the eBook then please visit my store here (multibuy discount will be applied at checkout if you buy more than one).

Ventoy v1.0.62

1. VentoyPlugson —— A GUI plugin configurator. Notes
2. Add default_file option in theme plugin. Notes
3. Add F5 Tools --> Theme Select menu to switch between themes. Notes
4. Automatically fix volume abnormal status when do non-destructive install in Windows.
5. Optimization for FreeBSD boot process.
6. Optimization for Ventoy2Disk.sh
7. languages.json update

agFM v1.75 released (bugfix for Windows ISOs not booting in Legacy mode)

I accidentally introduced a Legacy Windows ISO problem in agFM v1.73 and v1.74.

In an attempt to fix a grub2 bug involving the loopback command which caused a problem on some PCs, I changed the windows iso code to load some required uncompressed files instead of compressed .xz files. Unfortunately, although this worked for UEFI mode, it seems it does not work for Legacy mode (for some strange reason - must be a grub2 bug?).

I have therefore changed back the grub2 code to load the compressed .xz files if grubfm is booted in Legacy mode. 

i.e this code

loopback wimboot (${user})/boot/grubfm/wimbootxz;

loopback install (${user})/boot/grubfm/installxz;

works in UEFI mode but for some strange reason not in MBR\Legacy mode!

eBook 'Getting started with Ventoy' v1.04 now available

 I have made some small updates to my eBook 'Getting started with Ventoy'.

You can get the new version by using the original link in the confirmation email that was sent to you when you first purchased it.

If you haven't got it yet, it is available here (with 10% discount on total if you buy more than one).

E2B v2.11c Beta is now available (but needs some English strings translated)

The latest Beta of E2B is now available: v2.11c.

Some of the .mnu files for UEFI/agFM/Ventoy support in \_ISO\MAINMENU folder were 'hard-coded' to English. In the new Beta 2.11c I have now put the menu titles into each of the language files (however they are still in English):

E2B UEFI File Manager agFM v1.74c Beta.zip with new Ventoy partition image support available

It was previously possible to make partition images of Ventoy and then replace Partition 2 of the E2B USB drive with the Ventoy partition image, however in Ventoy v1.0.57 onwards, extra checks have been added into Ventoy and it now checks for Ventoy grub2 boot code in the MBR of the drive. This means that new versions will no longer work as partition images. :-(

However, I have modified the script and .cfg files so that it now also replaces the grub4dos boot code with the Ventoy grub2 boot code. The result is that we can now make Ventoy partition images again and boot to them and Ventoy still thinks the drive is an 'official' Ventoy USB stick.

Note that this exercise is only for someone who knows where their towel is and don't try it if you have not made a backup of your E2B drive just in case something goes wrong!

Instructions

New Beta version of E2B with bugfix and latest E2B+grub4efi Beta

 I found a bug in the latest release version of E2B v2.10 - file extension overrides no longer work.

e.g. a filename of Ubuntu_.isodef.iso should automatically use the .isodef extension, or  win10pe_.isope01.iso should use the extension of .isope01 but in the latest version it doesn't work.

The new Beta version of E2B with a bugfix for this is v2.11a.

The Beta download folder is here.

Note that the latest grub4dos releases are not used by E2B. Some new bugs and incompatibilities have been introduced and also the old grub4dos utilities such as wenv and fat and hotkey no longer work with the new grub4dos versions and you have to replace them with new compatible versions. So although the latest grub4dos versions have a few new features (e.g. allowing menu titles and menu help text to be in multiple colours), I still use a February 2020 version of grub4dos in E2B.

E2B for UEFI

I have also updated the E2B+grub4efi experimental version which uses the latest version of 'grub4dos for UEFI'. It is now version v2.10i. For instructions on how to use this grub4efi version see the previous blog article here.

Note that grub4efi (grub4dos for uefi) is still buggy. It crashes if you try to use the map command on iso files too often and it does not support wimboot so I have to use grub2\agFM to boot to WinPE and wim files! Because of this, I don't see grub4efi as being very useful so this Beta is for experimental use only and is just for the curious.

'Ventoy for Easy2Boot' v1.0.57 available

You can find the latest 'Ventoy for Easy2Boot' v1.0.57 here.

P.S. v1.0.57 is now live and will be downloaded when you make a new drive or update your drive.

After downloading it, drag-and-drop the file onto the \e2b\Update agFM\Add_Ventoy.cmd file on the 2nd partition.

It seems to work OK but please let me know if you find any problems.

P.S. Seems to be a problem with h and m (help and checksum) menus in the first release! If you have already downloaded the 1.0.57 version, please download the new 1.0.57b version which has a fix (ventoy-1.0.57b-windows.zip).

Please do NOT report any issues to the Ventoy github or ventoy.net forum unless you can also reproduce the problem on an 'official' Ventoy drive - an E2B drive is not totally 100% compatible with an official Ventoy drive!

Ventoy rev.1.02 eBook is now available (for Ventoy 1.0.57)

I have revised the 'Getting started with Ventoy' user guide/manual for the small changes in the menu system in the latest version of Ventoy. Just use the link in the confirmation email that you were sent to download the latest version for free!

If you haven't got it yet, then you can get the PDF file from my eBook Store.

P.S. You can now get 10% off the total basket when you buy more than one eBook ;-)

See https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_news.html for more details of latest Ventoy version changes.

Add Easy2Boot to your Ventoy USB drive

It seems that LongPanda has now put extra checks into Ventoy so that it now checks the MBR for grub2 boot code. This means that being able to make and add 'Official Ventoy' images as described here has now been updated! You can also use 'Ventoy for Easy2Boot' which is included in E2B.

Add E2B to Ventoy

Ventoy is improving all the time and it is now pretty good at booting most payloads, however it does not support Legacy installs of  Windows 95/98/Me/XP/2000 and it's DOS and legacy ISO support is a bit weak. You may also find that E2B may work with some Linux payloads where Ventoy fails (but make sure the ISO files are contiguous as required by E2B!).

The good news is that you can easily add legacy E2B (not agFM) to an existing Ventoy USB drive as follows: