Recently I needed to edit some PNG files which were used in a grub2 theme (tutorial).
Many grub2 themes use a semi-transparent 'styled box' as a grey background on which the grub2 menu text entries are displayed.
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In this example, menu_s.png, menu_sw.png and menu_se.png have been changed and so the bottom of the box is a slightly different colour and is opaque. You can see the clouds in the background wallpaper underneath the centre section.
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If you have read my eBook 'How to make $1000 a month from the Internet' you will see that I recommend that you set up your own website and/or blog and that you do not use the free hosts .
I also strongly recommend that you always use a WordPress (Linux-based) host server and that you do not go for any host which attempts to suck you in with free offers or very cheap deals. The reason is that after a year , when you come to renew your subscription, you will realise that their full annual rate is much more expensive than the others. Also, you will realise that in order to get certain features working on your site, you will need to purchase a more costly 'premium plan' and that you are now 'locked in' (having spent hundreds of hours on the design and content of your website).
Also, with a free host site, you are not in control. They can easily turn round one day and say 'we are sorry to announce that from next month we are closing this service' and you are stuffed!
Whether you have purchased my ebook 'How to make $1000 a month from the Internet' and made some money from a side hustle for very little initial cost or you have some savings sitting in a bank account which is earning a paltry 0.7% interest at best (or 0.01% as some banks like Barclays and NatWest are offering - wow - thanks guys!) - why not invest it in stocks and shares?
Even if your savings are earning 2% a year, you are losing money when you take inflation and the rising cost of living into account!
Due to the Ukraine crisis, now is a perfect time to invest in the stock market as prices are low.
ETF screener to help you pick the right ones for you out of the 1000+ available.
I recommend a USA or Global ETF. For instance the SWDA ETF currently at 5925p (top global companies only) charges 0.2% annually and has almost tripled in value in 10 years (+75% in last 5 years). Quite a difference from the bank rate, isn't it?
As with all shares, the trick is to buy low.
The people on reputable job market sites like fiverr will agree to do a specific task for a specific price. Payment is made up front to fiverr by the customer so that you will always receive the agreed amount from fiverr on satisfactory completion of the work.
A recent BBC Radio 4 and BBC 3 TV program detailed a scammer who took advantage of the Covid lockdown to entice people to work for him from their own homes for up to 6 months for free (just empty promises). Although his company was registered at UK Companies house (something which anyone can do for less than £20), the company Madbird&Co. appears to comprise of just one man and a bedroom!
I have added an extra section to the chapter on booting from payloads that are situated on Partition 3 of a Ventoy USB drive. The examples included are for a Linux-based StorageCraft ISO and a Ubuntu 64-bit ISO and it uses the F6 Extended grub2 menu facility of Ventoy.
As usual, all my eBook updates are free - just use the link that was sent to you in the original Payhip purchase confirmation email.
Amazon Ventoy Kindle version.
Getting started with Ventoy (v1.07 - 2022-02-02)
The current Medicat download is designed to make a Ventoy USB drive and you can just extract the contents of the large MediCat.USB.v21.12.7z onto your E2B USB drive and use 'Ventoy for Easy2Boot' to boot the files or agFM menu system.
However, if you want to use the payloads with the E2B menu system then you will need to extract each of the .iso and .wim files from the .7z package and individually copy them to the E2B menu folders (or use a .cmd script - see below).
The 'Getting started with Ventoy' eBook has now been updated to version 1.06.
Since the new VentoyPlugson.exe configuration application will not recognise a standard Easy2Boot USB drive, if you want to use the new browser-based application to make or change your ventoy.json configuration file, you can only use it on an E2B USB drive if you first 'convert' the E2B USB drive to an 'official' Ventoy USB drive.
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| The VentoyPlugson web app is for configuring Ventoy. |
All my eBook updates are free - just use the email link that was sent to you by Payhip when you made the original purchase.
I have added instructions here on how to add the rEFInd image file to agFM and/or Ventoy so that you can UEFI64-boot from any EFI file on any partition in the system (not just the Ventoy main USB partition).
Note that using the 'Install rEFInd' icon (dark blue square with down-arrow), you can install rEFInd onto any disk in the system.
v2.11 is now released. It is the same as v2.11d Beta.
v2.11 2021-12-19If you have switched over to using Ventoy as your main USB multiboot tool but you still need your trusty E2B USB drive for some Legacy boot tasks such as to boot to DOS images, Legacy booting some Linux ISOs which Ventoy doesn't support, install Win98/Win2K/XP, auto-install Windows legacy with drivers+apps (SDI_CHOCO), run PassPass, etc. then why not add E2B to your Ventoy USB drive as well?
It is very easy to do and I have added a new page with instructions here.
Tip: Use E2B v2.14 or later.
Note that .imgPTN files are not supported when using a Ventoy USB drive.
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...
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.
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!;-)?
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).
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;works in UEFI mode but for some strange reason not in MBR\Legacy mode!
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).
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):
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!
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.
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.
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).
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.
