Easy2Boot website now routed via ezoic

I have now signed up with ezoic.com who will re-format the easy2boot.com pages and place ads on the pages for me automatically.

You may experience some very weird page layouts on the E2B site in the next few weeks! Ezoic will trial lots of different formats until it finds the 'best' ones - this may take several months!

Note that a cookie is saved on your first visit which determines what layout you see after that. If you delete the site cookie, you may (randomly) get a different layout on refresh (Ctrl+F5).

Ezoic is also used on the www.rmprepusb.com website. I am hoping it doesn't screw-up the easy2boot site as much as it does the rmprepusb site!

E2B v1.80 available

I have released E2B v1.80j as the release version 1.80 today.

Links on the website will still point to 1.79 for  a few days, but 1.80 is available on the Alternate Download sites (Google Drive and OneDrive).

grub2 menu system testing continues (pre-Beta2)!

I have been testing, reviewing and fixing a lot of menus in the grub2 menu system.

Here is a spreadsheet of the testing so far.

x = does not work
(blank) = not yet tested

click to enlarge

Beta2 should be coming in a day or so...

As you can see, every payload needs to be tested on 4 different VMs and on two types of partitions (NTFS and FAT32)!

Booting Dr.Web LiveDisk ISO with persistence from grub2

A DrWeb_Persistent.imgPTN23 file can be found here. It was made as follows:
1. Make a 800MB FAT32 partition on a USB drive
2. Download and run the DrWeb USB creator utility drweb-livedisk-900-usb.exe
3. Run it to extract the files to the USB drive
4. Boot the USB drive on a real system - this prepares it
5. Refresh the updates - reboot and check updates are persistent
6. Drag-and-drop the USB drive letter onto the MPI_FAT32 Desktop icon to make a .imgPTN23 file (syslinux 603, auto-convert). I modified the \syslinux\txt.cfg and the \boot\grub\grub.cfg files to add nomodeset vga=ask ignore_uuid. 

Note: Updates are not persistent even on their own flash drive!  So it obviously has a bug!

Booting from ISO

The Dr.Web ISO boots fine in MBR mode from E2B and can be booted from the ISO with persistence by adding a .mnu file.

However, during testing of the new GRUB2 menu system for E2B, I tried the Dr.Web LiveDisk ISO (drweb-livedisk-900-cd.iso - free), but it did not boot using the grub2 menu that I 'borrowed' from the 'Multiboot USB Flash drive' project here (I got a 'squashfs not found' type error).

After many attempts to get it booting from an ISO using the cheat code 'iso-scan/filename=', I finally looked at the 'casper' linux shell script file located inside the initrd file in the scripts folder (using 7Zip), and found this code...

Grub2 menu system for E2B - early Beta available

The first Beta (Beta1  v0.01) is available for testing!

Please contact me if you want a copy to test. You will need a E2B USB HDD with a second partition.

It is possible to use this system on a Removable flash drive (but it is complicated because Windows cannot access the 2nd partition!).

Details are now published (in an early form) on the easy2boot website at http://www.easy2boot.com/uefi-grub2-ptn2/

Note that most of the linux menu items have been tested, but many of the other menus have not been tested with any payload at all yet.

MBR Main Menu

Grub2 support in E2B - progress report...

I have been spending quite a while thinking about the grub2 menu structure and it seems some people put E2B on the 2nd partition of their USB drive instead of the first partition. I don't advise this because of the 137GB BIOS bug, but as long as the 2nd partition ends before 137GB, it should work OK.

For payload files to be detected by the grub2 menu system, they must have specific lower-case names (e.g. avg.iso, konbootx64.efi). Files with names such as avg_arl_cdi_all_120_150814a10442.iso or "AVG AntiVirus.iso" will NOT be detected by the default grub2 menu system.

So there will be a large list of specific payload file names which I will document at a later date. As a consequence, you can only have one version of any ISO (though you can add your own uniquely-named payloadfiles and add your own grub2 menu for it).

Coming soon! grub2 UEFI-booting from linux ISO files using E2B

Currently you cannot directly boot from an ISO file via UEFI using Easy2Boot - you have to convert the ISO to a .imgPTN file first.

However, grub2 can UEFI-boot and can run linux ISOs (some of which will run even if the ISOs do not support UEFI-booting and do not contain an \EFI folder!).

The reason E2B does not use this mechanism is that some UEFI systems will only UEFI-boot from a USB disk containing both MBR and UEFI boot files - even if the system is set to boot from Legacy/BIOS devices.

This means that if you had grub2 UEFI boot files on your FAT32 E2B drive, then you can never boot to the E2B menu on these systems!

E2B not booting on GA-73PVM-S2H PC

Samir contacted me about a problem he had with his GA-73PVM-S2H PC.

He could boot from this PC to a USB drive prepared using Rufus (to Elemetary OS, for example), but not if it contained E2B.

The symptom was that the PC would just hang with no keyboard response or boot messages of any kind, as soon as he tried to boot from the E2B USB drive...

ESET + persistence from ISO

I finally figured out what the problem was with the ESET SysRescue ISO+Persistence menu that I did have working but then didn't work when I retested it. I had missed out the lines in the .mnu file which set the UUID of the 'live-media' - this meant that the live-media value was invalid and so it resorted to the CD updates. Also, you need to copy the ext3 partition from a working Eset flash disk (I cannot figure out what it is in a working ext3 image that is different from a non-working image made using RMPrepUSB 'Make ext2 FS' and copying over contents)!

I have also edited the menu now in the previous post (see lines in red).

So you can now boot from ISO with persistence if you wish, instead of using a .imgPTN file.

Add ESET antivirus with persistent updates to E2B with UEFI booting (Take 2!)

The method used in the previous blog uses an ISO with an ext3 file for the updates volume.

See also: ESET SysRescue 2020 with persistent updates and agFM UEFI support

Here is a different method using a partition image. The two methods are similar but you can add UEFI 64-bit booting if you use this method.

Note: Recent 2019/2020 versions of ESET use Ptn2 (488MB) for the persistence partition. Since the persistence partition must be at Ptn2 in the partition table, the method below will not work for the new partition arrangement because the old ESET used Ptn3.
For the 2019/20 version, the persistence partition must be labelled ESR-USB-DAT and must be ext3 and must be in Ptn2 (here is casper-bottom/12fstab init script extract: 

if ! /lib/udev/cdrom_id "$boot_device" > /dev/null; then
    # boot device is not a CD, so source the blkid info
eval $(blkid -o export ${boot_device%%[0-9]*}2)
if [ "$LABEL" = "ESR-USB-DAT" -a "$TYPE" = "ext3" -a -n "$UUID" ]; then
cat >> $FSTAB <<EOF
UUID=$UUID /mnt/eset-live-rw ext3 defaults 0 0
EOF
    fi
fi

Add ESET antivirus ISO with persistent updates to E2B (revised!)

For a different method using a .imgPTN file, please see the  next post!
______________________________________________________________________________

E2B can boot the ESET System Rescue ISO easily, but each time you have to download the latest updates which can take a while.

The current ESET disk eset-sysrescue.1.0.9.0.enu.iso does not support UEFI booting, but here is how to MBR-boot with persistence for updates, direct from the .iso file:

MPI Tool Pack v0.065

MPi Tool Pack 0.065 changes

• Add extra usb driver menu entry
• New grub4dos grldr version 20160326
• MakePartImage.cmd now searches all drives from C: to Z: for the ImDisk virtual drive (previously only searched up to U:).

Boot Ubuntu 32-bit via UEFI from Easy2Boot

The current Ubuntu 32-bit 'LiveCD' Desktop ISO does not include the 32-bit grub2 UEFI boot files, but you can use the procedure below to add the required boot files to allow you to UEFI-boot..

The procedure below can be applied to other 32-bit linux ISOs that use grub2, as long as a \boot\grub\loopback.cfg file is present (or you can add the relevant entries).

E2B 'Theme' in honour of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born around the 23rd April 1564 (his baptism was registered in the church records on 26th April) and died on 23rd April 1616 (400 years ago yesterday).

Here is an Easy2Boot theme to celebrate Shakespeare. Can you spot all the changes and hidden quotations?

Hope you like it!

Each menu entry has a different quotation. Do you know them all?

Note: Copy all files to your \_ISO folder (backup your own \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file first).

The zip file contains a readme file and...

STRINGS.txt
MyE2B.cfg
Shaky.bmp

You can ignore the warning about STRINGS.txt being used for testing only. Just remember to delete it when you want to restore your own menu again.

Steve

Boot to an XP VHD from Windows 7/8/10 using bootmgr

If you have a USB-bootable Windows XP VHD, you can simply give it a .vhdboot file extension and it should boot using Easy2Boot.

But what if you want to boot an XP VHD file from a normal Windows 7/8/10 system (not grub4dos) that uses bootmgr (i.e. a standard non-UEFI Windows 7/8/10 system)?

Windows bootmgr can boot Windows 7 or later VHDs, but will not boot directly to XP VHDs.

However, you can boot automatically to an XP VHD from bootmgr, by using grub4dos as an (invisible) intermediary!

Any suggestions for E2B YouTube videos?

I am thinking of adding some more short YouTube videos on E2B.

Here is the list of potential videos that I am thinking about (in no particular order):

1. Adding different Hirens ISO to E2B
2. Adding VHDs to E2B
3. Tips and Tricks - Using VBOX and RMPrepUSB-QEMU without dismounting drive,  pwd 32 and 64 and AUTO extensions, menupwd and pwd - using md5, different background for menus, stopping suggestions - .isodefault, NOSUG AUTOCSM, ISOBOOT  SHIFT-ENTER, CRC32, pausing enumeration with SPACEBAR, silent boot (reduce grub4dos messages), global hotkeys, use unattend.txt or winnt.sif files with XP ISOs set PICKAUTO=YES, slow booting - use text mode, add option to text-mode boot for faster booting on slow systems, add STAMPs to E2B
4. MyE2B cfg - Reduce messages, Display background during enumeration
5. How to use E2B_Editor - heading and footer, centre headings, etc.
6. Using large fonts with E2B - set FONTH=24  - rows\cols, alternate fonts, 800 and 1024 modes
7. Set up E2B for single menu
8. How to auto-run Windows ISOs from a menu
9. How to make XML files to auto-install Windows ISOs.
10. How to remove Windows XP menus from E2B  NOWINXP
11. Setting up a language and keyboard in E2B - change language mnu, add choice in MyE2B.cfg
12. Protecting E2B  - .pwd, md5 encrypted passwords, menupwd, using pwd in extensions, master pwd in MyE2B.cfg, monthly PIN code, set expiry date, clone protection, Protect.cmd
13. Configuring CSM menu - set a default timeout, delete unwanted entries, use your own menu and background CUSTOM folder
14. Tips for speeding up E2B - reduce files, text mode, etc.
15. How to add STAMPs to E2B
16. How to make and use E2B under linux
17. Using .key and .xml files with Windows ISOs on E2B

If you have any suggestions for Easy2Boot YouTube videos or want to vote for some of these, please use this link to anonymously send me your requests (no login or personal details needed) or add a comment below.

For a list of all my current YouTube videos, click here.

E2B v1.80h Beta available

A few changes in 1.80h (g had a bug!):

1. FASTLOAD can now be used with $$$$CONFIG .mnu files (\_ISO\e2b\grub\menu.lst changed).

2. I have added the \_ISO\e2b\grub\checkdate.g4b batch file. It can be used in a MyE2B.cfg batch file as follows:

# set 14 day expiry date from 28th March 2016
call /_ISO/e2b/grub/checkdate.g4b 2016 03 28 14 SILENT
if not "%CHECKDAT%"=="OK" echo E2B EXPIRED! && halt
set CHECKDAT=

If used with a blank \_ISO\e2b\grub\SDATE.txt file (should be approx 1K in size) then you can set a time limit from the day that E2B was first booted as follows by just calling \_ISO\Expire.g4b:

Install Debian from the DVD1 ISO using Easy2Boot

I previously described a method of installing Debian from a CD ISO file here. You can also use the LiveCD to install Debian or the net-installer ISO.

debian 8.4.0 Cinnamon

However, this method appears not to work when using a DVD-1 ISO because it cannot find the 'CD' to install the packages which are kept on the DVD after installing the base files.

Hurry - less than 100 days to go before the free Windows 10 upgrade expires!

There are now less than 100 days to go before  the free upgrade offer from Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 expires.

If you don't want to install Windows 10 just yet, why not just boot to a Windows10ToGo VHD from your E2B USB drive.

If you are repairing or re-installing Windows 7/8/8.1 systems, why not offer the customer a free Win10 upgrade activation so he/she is registered for free, even if they don't want to install Windows 10 just yet?

Using the latest version of Windows10ToGo (TH2 version), boot on any Win7/8/8.1 system, start the activation wizard and enter the Win7/8 Product Key that was used to activate that same system previously (you can use ProduKey or Magical Jelly Bean key finder on the system first, to display the old Windows 7/8/8/1 Product Key, if it is not on the COA label).

Windows 10 should then 'phone home' (internet access is needed) and activate the Windows 10 ToGo OS. If you have no internet connection, you can phone Microsoft to ask for an activation key (you will need to quote the long number displayed by the activation wizard).

Once this is done, then that system will be registered with Microsoft for Windows 10 and you can then install Windows 10 on it at a later date.

It does not matter if you use a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 10, but you will need both 'Core' and 'Pro' versions so that you can activate the matching version on each of your systems.

To create WinToGo VHDs, see my previous blog post.
For details on obtaining Windows 10, and for ISO- and UEFI-booting, see here.

Various Hirens ISOs and Gandalf PE with Easy2Boot

I have been experimenting with various Hirens ISOs with E2B and came up with this table which you may find useful:

If Windows PE boots and loads all the Desktop icons correctly, you should get the number noted in the last column.