Add Kali+Persistence to agFM menu system

 I have added a post here which describes how to add a .cfg file to boot Kali with Persistence.

agFM seems to have a small problem when the findiso parameter is used. It seems to 'lock' a partition and this causes Kali to not shutdown. The persistence file seems to be saved OK, but it won't then turn off the system or restart it.

This also occurs if you just boot the Kali ISO using agFM (without persistence) and choose the 'Debian - Debian Live' boot entry (which also uses findiso=).

I cannot report the issue as a1ive's grub and grubfm project seem to be in 'archive' read-only status recently.

Add a Secure Boot partition to your E2B USB drive

 A recent Windows Update in Windows 10 has meant that the Kaspersky Microsoft-signed EFI boot file that is used by agFM on the Easy2Boot USB drive is often blocked by the target systems UEFI Firmware.

This prevents us from Secure UEFI-booting.

Apart from disabling Secure Boot in the BIOS, you can go into the BIOS Setup menu and delete/clear/reset the DBx UEFI database - or - another way around this problem is to place a version of WinPE on a new FAT32 3rd partition of the E2B USB drive.

'How to make $1000 a month from the Internet' eBook price now reduced to only $5

 

My latest eBook 'How to make $1000 a month from the Internet' has now been reduced to only $5 (was $10). It also now updated to revision v1.01.

If you want to supplement your income with some passive income from the Internet, then this book should help you.

See here for more details.

Fedora 33 live boot with persistence (fixed)

Fedora 33 with persistence

The Fedora LiveCD ISO can support persistence but the persistence file must be on a FAT32 or ext2/3/4 partition.

To boot from an Easy2Boot NTFS USB drive, we can convert the ISO to a FAT32 .imgPTN file and then add in the persistence file to the new FAT32 partition.

This process was described in a 2017 blog article here, however it seems Fedora persistence has changed slightly since then and recent versions no longer recognise the persistence file.

The blog instructions have now been updated so that you can Legacy and UEFI64-boot to a Fedora 33 .imgPTN file with a persistence file. Two folders needed to be added inside the persistence volume to fix the problem.

Latest Betas with bugfixes available and Puppy persistence

 E2B v2.09c

• Add check in various .cmd files to check for wmic command in PATH 'wbem' environment
• Remove Update E2B link from Launcher app.
• Memtest86 .imgPTN23 updated to v9 build 2020 free version
• Small text help changes to some Mainmenu .mnu files
• Bugfix - fix Puppy ISOs with .isopup extension not booting

agFM 1.71c

• Support for Strelec ISOs on UEFI32 devices with 64-bit CPUs (e.g. Asus T100).
• Memtest86 v9 build 2020 EFI files updated.
• Add DrWeb+persistence .grubfm example to \e2b\Sample agFM Menu Files folder
• Add slacko_v7.grubfm and .cfg sample file added to \e2b\Sample agFM Menu Files\Linux folder for Puppy booting.

The new Beta versions can be found in the 'Latest Betas' folder in either of the two 'Alternate Download Areas' (see sidebar).

Puppy (.isopup)

I discovered that the .isopup file extension seems to no longer work in recent versions of E2B (grub4dos seems to have changed and broken it!), so I have modified the code in QRUN.cmd to now work again. 

31st March is World Backup Day!

 So when was the last time you backed up your files?

I tend to keep most of my 'important' files in the 'Cloud' these days, but if my main Windows SSD went kaput, it would still probably take me a good day to re-install Windows and add all the applications that I use and then I would need to allow all the files to re-sync with the 'Cloud'.

Kon-Boot v3.8 is released

 Kon-Boot (#ad) is currently the only solution worldwide I am aware of that can bypass Windows 10 online passwords!

The latest release fixes issues with Win10 20H2

 Main updates:

• Updates for Windows 10 (Fixed issues and blue screen errors in newest Windows 10 releases (20H2 with newest security updates))

Kon-Boot can be added to your E2B USB drive (see previous article here). You will need to 'register' your E2B USB drive as a 'Kon-Boot' drive by first installing Kon-Boot and then wiping the USB drive and re-installing E2B (and then add back the Kon-Boot files).

RMPrepUSB.com change of host and a new Easy2Boot.xyz website

I have been doing a lot of work to transfer the content from the old RMPrepUSB.com website (which was hosted by Google Sites) to a WordPress website (now hosted by Hostinger). Well over 150 pages of text and about 300 images!

There was a lot of swearing, fist-banging and tears, I can tell you, because there was no easy, automated way to transfer it all! I have written up how I did it here, in case others want to move away from the 'New Google Sites' which we are being forced to do by Google because they are discontinuing the old Google Sites hosting. The New Google Sites cannot be integrated into Ezoic and it does not support Google AdSense(!). and so it is even less versatile and compatible than the old CMS version was.

I guess that's the problem with free sites and services - they can just decide to withdraw or drastically change them at any time! It wouldn't surprise me if Blogger wasn't up next for an 'improvement'. Actually this Blogger site and it's CMS is quite adequate for my needs and is free too, so they will probably muck that up soon as well!

My old rmprepusb.com site can still be found at the 'New Google Sites' 
https://sites.google.com/rmprepusb.com/www/home

But www.rmprepusb.com now points to the new WordPress site. At the moment it does not go through Ezoic however, so any ads on the site are placed there by Google AdSense automation.

New Easy2Boot.xyz site!

I have also started a new WordPress website at www.easy2boot.xyz - this is intended to be a 'simple' website for anyone who is new to E2B. The 'old' site is still at www.easy2boot.com.

Please look at the new site and let me know if there is anything I have missed out, that someone will need to get started.

At least the experience of migrating to WordPress has proved useful to me whilst writing my new eBook 'How to make $1000 a month from the Internet'!

If you are thinking of building a website, here is a tip for you - always go for a WordPress hosting site (Linux based) - never go for a host that only offers their bespoke Content Management Systems like Wix, etc. and don't be sucked-in by offers of free or very cheap rates for the first year (because the following year's rates won't be cheap)! More info in the eBook ;-).

How to make $1000 a month from the Internet

Since I retired in 2011 (actually I was made redundant, but that's another story), I have been experimenting with booting from USB drives and I first started the blog site www.rmprepusb.com to write up my experiments for others to follow (mostly the members of reboot.pro). It was also a handy way for me to learn how to make a website (which was all new to me).

Some people were grateful for the articles and ask me to set up a 'Donate' page so they could buy me a cup of coffee or two.

After a while, I placed AdSense ads on that site and so I started to get some revenue from the adverts. After that, I realised that I could actually make some money from the website and it helped to pay the website host costs which were approx. £100 a year.

Since then, I have made YouTube videos, blogs, an E2B website and written some eBooks - all of these have helped to pay my expenses as well as bring in an income.

I have chatted to friends over the years, and I even managed to convince a few of them that they also can make money from the Internet (which a few have done). 

I have now scribbled down a lot of my ideas, methods, hints, tips and mistakes into an eBook called 'How to make $1000 a month from the Internet'.

I chose the figure of $1000/month because I really do feel that it is possible for almost anyone who is willing to spend a little time and effort to achieve that figure (if not more).

eBook #3 How to install Microsoft Windows using Easy2Boot new revision available

I have now updated eBook #3

How to install Microsoft Windows using Easy2Boot_v1.8.pdf

If you want the latest version, please use link in your original Payhip email receipt to download it.

Updates are free!

How to Install Windows using Easy2Boot (v1.8 2021-02-23)

Contents

Easy2Boot v2.08 is now released

Changes from v2.07:

1. Bugfix - Windows ISO Repair option sometimes doesn't work
2. Bugfix - Fix Make_E2B cmd script aborting when XP Home used as host OS
3. Add E2B 'Disable Kaspersky shim' menu option to disable Insecure boot feature
4. Trad Chinese language improved
5. New file 'Test_file_access_speed.lua' added to UTILITIES menu for agFM menu system

If you run Make_E2B.exe and click on the Update E2B drive button, it will update both E2B and agFM to the latest release versions. 

To update Ventoy, double-click on:

\e2b\Update agFM\Update_to_latest_Ventoy_version.cmd 

which is on the 2nd partition (requires internet access)

How to UEFI64-boot to the AntiVirusLiveCD ISO

The AntiVirusLiveCD ISO only supports 64-bit CPUs and Legacy\MBR booting. MBR-booting on a system with a 32-bit CPU causes a 'not 64-bit CPU' error message to be displayed. 

When I downloaded the AntivirusLiveCD-36.0-0.103.0.iso file, I found by using 7Zip, that it did not contain a \EFI folder or any boot image which contained any .efi boot files. So the ISO does not support UEFI-booting. 

Even though the ISO does not contain UEFI64 boot files, it is possible to first UEFI64-boot to grub2 and then load the linux kernel and initrd ramdrive files under grub2. As long as the kernel does not rely on any Legacy BIOS calls, it should still boot OK.

I examined the AntivirusLiveCD-36.0-0.103.0.iso's \boot\isolinux\isolinux.cfg file:

How to fix a website browser display problem

When using a web browser, you can sometimes find that the browser is not displaying a particular website 'correctly'.

I quite often find that Chrome will sometimes insist on displaying a website page on my PC as if it was a mobile device and insists on using the mobile  'm.xxx' URL site address rather than the desktop site URL. It can also display a dark theme (which I personally don't find easy to read) or display the site using a different theme or layout than is displayed on other devices or browsers. 

If I am browsing on a mobile device, the Chrome hamburger menu icon will often give me the option for 'Desktop site', but when using a desktop PC/notebook, this option is not available even if the mobile version of the website is being displayed by the browser.

Here are some things that I try:

• Try a different browser
• Try the Incognito tab
• Delete/edit cookies for site
• Deep-dive using F12

My first attempt to fix this is to try a different browser such as Windows Edge or Opera.

Ventoy for Easy2Boot v1.0.35 now available

 1. Download the modified version from here

2. Drag-and-drop the .zip file onto the USB Partition2 \e2b\Update agFM\Add_Ventoy.cmd file.

Allow the new files to overwrite the old version of Ventoy.

If there is a problem and you want to go back to the latest release version, run \e2b\Update agFM\Update_to_latest_Ventoy_version.cmd.

Ventoy for Easy2Boot

Please note: This is NOT the official Ventoy - it has been modified to work with E2B, so please don't report problems to Ventoy/LongPanda unless you can reproduce the problem on a real official Ventoy USB drive made with the Ventoy2Disk application provided.

If you have downloaded and tested the new version (UEFI and Legacy) please tick the 'It worked for me' checkbox.

agFM v1.70 available plus eBook #4 updated rev. 1.20

 I have now updated agFM to v1.70. It is available from the Alternate Downloads sites and should also be live if you run the \e2b\Update agFM\Download and update agFM_v2.cmd script. 

The PDF eBook #4 for agFM has also been updated to rev. 1.20 to match agFM v1.70 (contents list below). Later revisions of all E2B eBooks can be downloaded for free using the original download link that you received in the email when you first purchased it from Payhip.

agFM v1.70 2021-02-14

• Recognise the .binacpi file extension (e.g. to run DSDT.bin files).
• Add Enable\Disable Kaspersky shim EFI menu entry.
• rEFInd EFI booloader/manager by Rod Smith added (EFI boot manager) added.
• SAMPLE startup menu files now include new entries to run rEFInd.

The latest Beta version of Easy2Boot is v2.08e. The Beta history for v2.08e is:

2.08a - add \_ISO\MAINMENU\DisableKasperskyShim.mnu
2.08b - bugfix in Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd drive creation script due to XP Home not having tasklist.exe
2.08c and d - bugfix for Win7 Repair option (did not swap hd0 with hd1), did not wait 3 secs on wimboot prompt on Dell PC - thanks to Jose C for reporting the issue
2.08e - improve Trad Chinese language file, E2B ignores .lua files, Test_file_access_speed.lua added to UTILITIES folder for agFM menu system (test file access speeds under agFM)

and I suggest you also update your E2B files to this latest version too as it adds new features and bugfixes.

eBook #4: UEFI multi-boot using the a1ive grub2 File Manager

Contents:

How to fix intermittent errors when booting from a USB drive

Around 1998 we got introduced to USB 1.0. The pure data bit rate could reach an amazing 12Mbits/s (approx 1MByte/s in real life). Then we got USB 2 at the start of the new Millenium which gave us up to 60MBytes/s (much faster than slow-spinning CDs!). 

Later still (after 2008) we got USB 3, 3.1 and 3.2 with up to 2.4GBytes/s and very recently we have USB 4 (based on Thunderbolt 3) and are promised speeds of up to a staggering 40GBytes/s.

The names which were given to these different technologies (and seem have been randomly assigned with little forethought) are:

• USB 1 - Low Speed
• USB 1 - Full Speed
• USB 2 - High Speed
• USB 3 - Super Speed
• USB 3.1 Gen 1 Super Speed
• USB 3.1 Gen 2 Super Speed+
• USB 3.2 Gen 1x1
• USB 3.2 Gen 2x1
• USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
• USB 4 Gen 2x2
• USB 4 Gen 3x2 - USB4 routing for tunnelling of USB3.x, DisplayPort 1.4a and PCI Express traffic and host-to-host transfers, based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol

So what started out as 1MB/s wired protocol has ended up as having a 40+GB/s Input/Output transfer protocol zipping along at radio frequencies!

Now when considering booting from a PC or Notebook, the BIOS/Firmware driver is responsible for USB I/O communication. Most computers which have USB 3 ports, have both USB 3 and USB 2 drivers embedded in the firmware. However, these BIOS drivers will probably not be fully featured like full-blown Windows or Linux drivers. Hence, they may not fully implement the Super Speed protocols and error handling may be limited.

The transfer protocols used by the driver will determine how fast I/O access is and thus how fast we can boot from the USB drive. Moving large blocks of data using a high-speed USB block-transfer protocol under Windows can give us those high speeds, but the BIOS firmware is probably using a more primitive and slower protocol to access the USB drive.

Another point to keep in mind is what BIOS code is used. If we Legacy\MBR-boot from the USB drive it will use the real-mode IBM-compatible BIOS USB driver, but if we UEFI-boot then a completely different UEFI USB driver will be used by the BIOS.

Because the BIOS\Firmware knows what USB chipset is present, it is possible for the BIOS developers to make sure that the USB speeds are optimized. However, most BIOS developers just use generic USB 2/3 drivers to add into their Firmware whilst others may spend some time and effort tweaking the USB BIOS code (e.g. Apple).

Gotcha's

11 useful Antivirus ISOs all in one downloads

 In a fairly recent article, Jayro (the developer of Medicat) has provided a separate 7GB .zip file download of useful antivirus ISOs.

You can extract the contents to a Ventoy USB drive or to the root of an E2B USB drive (except for the two autorun files).

If you don't want to use Ventoy (because it will overwrite the \ventoy\ventoy.json file) then just copy the ISO files to the \_ISO\ANTIVIRUS folder.

Note that some of the ISOs do not support UEFI (Avast, Sophos,AVG and Comodo do not even contain EFI boot files). Jayro has disabled UEFI boot in the Ventoy configuration file because many of the others are problematic when attempting to UEFI-boot from them. Only DrWeb, Eset and MalwareBytes seem to UEFI64 boot using agFM.

Updated:

~ I actually downgraded the 2018 Malwarebytes Bootable WinPE to a 2016 version for added stability, it boots up WAY faster, uses much less RAM, and has a smaller file size. Has a startup sound with audio instructions to get you started. This older version is only temporary, until I have the time to build a proper one that's more up to date.

~ Minimum memory requirements have been reduced at the bottom of this changelog, to better reflect the memory needs of the included WinPE WIM files. Minimum RAM requirements below has dropped from 3GB down to 2GB, but you'll still want 4GB or more for comfortable usage. Luckily most modern PCs and laptops come with no less than 4GB these days.

~ Malwarebytes virus definitions to v2020.12.08.03

Add Medicat v21.01 to your E2B USB drive

 Medicat 21.01 is in the form of zip files for use with 7Zip and Ventoy. You are supposed to extract the contents to the first partition of a previously-made Ventoy USB disk. Instead, you can just copy all the files (except \autorun.inf and \autorun.ico) to the root of your E2B first NTFS partition and only use Ventoy to boot to Medicat. This will add lots of folders to the root however and you may overwrite the contents of your \ventoy folder which will affect your existing Ventoy theme and menu settings (if you have any).

See also: https://rmprepusb.blogspot.com/2022/01/quickly-add-medicat-2112-to-easy2boot.html

Remember to disable your AntiVirus first (and check that it does not 'quarantine' any files on the USB drive once you have completed the copy and re-enabled your AV).

Medicat v21.01 zip file contents

Then simply boot to Ventoy from the E2B USB drive.

Note that copying the Medicat files will also add the \ventoy folder to the first E2B NTFS partition which includes a ventoy.json file. This will change the Ventoy theme and also change the menu entry names. You may find it educational to look at the ventoy.json to see what it does because a few ISO mey require special settings.

I found that quite a few of the menu entries had problems UEFI-booting on my Lenovo IdeaPad - maybe you will have better luck...

The alternative would be to selectively pick only the ISO or WIM files that you want, and add them into the existing E2B menu folders. This means you don't need to boot to Ventoy.

In most cases you do not need to add any of the other files (some may require the ventoy.json if anything 'special' needs to be done to run the ISO using Ventoy - so you may need that too).

Medicat Mini Windows

To add the Medicat WinPE, we need the file:

\Boot_an_Operating_System\[UEFI]_Mini_Windows_10.iso

Copy the ISO file to the \_ISO\WINPE folder (for instance). 

You will also need to copy the following files and folders to the root of the E2B NTFS partition #1 as they are required by Medicat Mini Windows 10 too (the Mini_Windows_10.iso only contains boot files and the boot.wim file):

\Start.exe

\CdUsb.Y

\autorun.cmd (optional)

\PortableApps

\Programs

\System (optional)

To save a key press or two in the E2B and agFM menus, you can rename the extension to _.isodef.iso.

Issues?

• AntiVirus - MalwareBytes: UEFI64 does not seem to boot using Ventoy. Boots OK using agFM menu system and choosing .isowin or .isomap options however.
• Some other Windows ISOs also seem to have problems. Try .isomap option in agFM.
• Ventoy has problems with some payloads if testing using VirtualBox+VMUB but on a real system it usually works OK.
• If you have intermittent problems when booting large ISOs, etc. then try a USB 2 port or connect a USB 2 extension cable to the E2B USB drive so that only USB 2 speeds are used instead of USB 3 speeds.
• If you are using a USB 3 SSD device and experience problems, try using a USB Flash drive or USB spinning Hard Drive instead - I have seen some issues when booting some Linux distros (e.g. Slax) from a USB SSD (the USB drive is not detected by the kernel and  fdisk -l does not list the USB drive)!
• To boot using agFM, you may require > 4GB of RAM in the system.

Recommended for E2B: SanDisk Extreme Pro 3.1 (#ad)

Latest Windows update KB4535680 blocks agFM Secure Boot!

You can Secure UEFI64-boot to agFM on the E2B USB drive because it uses the Kaspersky bootx64.efi signed grub2 shim file. This boot file originated from Kaspersky and was signed by Microsoft as being 'Secure'. However, it contained a loophole which allowed us (via some clever programming) to load unsigned modules and hence an unsigned version of grub2 (e.g. grubfm or agFM or Ventoy, etc.).

A year or so ago, Microsoft released a KB Update which added a 'blacklist' entry into the UEFI BIOS non-volatile RAM of the Windows system UEFI firmware. This is called the DBx (or dbx) list and it can usually be found in your UEFI BIOS settings.

The DBx list was specifically intended for this purpose - to blacklist boot files which Microsoft had signed as 'Secure' but later turn out to be not as 'secure' as they thought!

The update provided by Microsoft immediately caused a lot of issues on certain Secure Boot OEM systems which also used this same EFI boot file (Lenovo?, HP?) and thus the update prevented them from booting after it was installed! Microsoft quickly withdrew the Windows Update and left their victims to try to rescue their secure but unbootable systems.

Now it seems Microsoft have tried again (KB4535680 2021-01-12) but the new Windows update is only applied to certain systems (and probably only those that boot via UEFI and have GPT partitions on the boot disk):

Add rEFInd to agFM

Clover identifies EFI files on all partitions.
You can also add your own menu entries if you wish.

If you want to add rEFInd to your Easy2Boot USB drive, then you can download the current rEFInd files to the \EFI\refind folder, rename the bootx64 and bootia32 .efi files and then simply add all the files to the 2nd FAT32 partition (agFM partition) of your E2B USB drive.

You can configure the rEFInd menu by editing the \EFI\refind\refind.conf text file.

Instructions