Detect keyboard status and hide menu entries in E2B

We can detect the status of the keyboard using grub4dos to read the BIOS Data area.
For instance, we can tell if CAPS LOCK or SCROLL LOCK was on or not.

Here is a simple grub4dos batch file which will report the keyboard status as detected by the BIOS (not all keys may be reported accurately under a VM):

Run android x86 with persistence from E2B

android-x86-4.4-r5.iso can be added to your E2B USB drive, but to get it booting with persistence, we need to create a .imgPTN file as follows:

'How to add an animated GIF' YouTube video now available

I have added a 10 minute YouTube video on how to add an animated GIF to the Easy2Boot menu.

See http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/animation/ for more info.

Let me know if you like these videos by ticking one of the Reactions boxes.
Feel free to suggest a subject for the next one!

Check the CRC of a payload file before running it in Easy2Boot

Nicolas asked me today about checking an ISO (for corruption?) before running it.

In E2B, you can hit SHIFT+CTRL+ENTER to ask E2B to calculate and display the CRC32 value of a payload file that is listed in the menu, but it is up to you to check that it is correct.

If you want to ensure that an ISO or other payload file is not corrupt (or infected?) before you allow E2B to run it, you can use this .mnu file for each payload file:


\_ISO\MAINMENU\RunMemTestCheck.mnu
==================================

# Check the CRC32 value of a payload file and run it if it is correct

iftitle [if exist /_ISO/UTILITIES_MEMTEST/MEMTEST.IMG.gz] Check and run a payload \n Get CRC32 value and run if correct
set ISO=/_ISO/UTILITIES_MEMTEST/MEMTEST.IMG.gz
# expected CRC32 must start with 0x
set EXP_CRC=0x1340BECC

echo Calculating CRC32 of %ISO% - please wait...
crc32 %ISO% > nul
set /A CRC=%@retval% & 0xFFFFFFFF > nul
pause --wait=3 %ISO% - EXPECTED CRC32=%EXP_CRC%, ACTUAL CRC32=%CRC%
if not %EXP_CRC%==%CRC% pause ERROR: CRC is not correct (%CRC% vs %EXP_CRC%)
if not %EXP_CRC%==%CRC% configfile (md)0x3000+0x50
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b %ISO%
boot

Just change the first few lines as required. If the payload file is large, it may take a while to calculate the CRC value. I will add this to the Sample mnu Files folder of the next E2B version (CheckCRC32_and_Run.mnu).

Over 1 million blog views!

I just noticed the total views counter for this blog has just passed 1 million!

Thanks for reading all my ramblings over the last few years!
Steve

Alternate German menu format

The German language files (supplied by Frettt) in E2B have been formatted so that the [hotkey] labels are right-aligned in the menus...

A few people have requested a left-aligned German menu, so Frettt has now provided an alternate STRINGS.txt file which left-aligns the hotkeys.

Petya disk encryption fix

I see on BleepingComputer.com that there is a way to decrypt a hard disk that has been encrypted with the Petya malware (actually, I think only the $MFT is encrypted by this MBR virus). Although Bleeping Computer say to remove the hard disk from the system, I don't see why we cannot just boot the infected system to WinPE from a USB drive (just be careful it does not boot from the internal hard disk!).

I copied the PetyaExtractor.exe program to my E2B USB drive and booted to a Windows 10 32-bit Install ISO. I then ran the PetyaExtractor.exe program which appeared to run OK (but I cannot be sure as I did not have an infected system). It is a 32-bit program, so you need to boot to 32-bit WinPE (or a 64-bit WinPE that has WoW64 support - e.g. ChrisR's WinPESE10).

The idea is that we could then save the sector 55 and 'Nonce' data from sector 54 to the E2B drive using NotePad, and then copy and paste it into the Petya Decrypting site page to get the decryption key.

It also would be trivial to write a grub4dos (E2B) script to save the required data (or even just use dd) and then encode it to base64 by uploading it to a website such as this one. However, it is probably just as easy to just boot to WinPE and use the PetyaExtractor tool.

Why not add the tool and a .txt file with the web links to your 'Swiss-army E2B drive' so that you will have the tool handy if you need to fix someone's system?

30 things I bet you didn't know about Easy2Boot (or were too afraid to ask)!

1. E2B can directly boot from Vista/7/8/10 WindowsToGo .VHD files - just copy them over (requires a copy of Win8.1 bootmgr to be added to the E2B drive - no BCD file is required!).

FASTLOAD bug in E2B v1.79

If you use Windows Install ISOs with E2B v1.79 and have FASTLOAD enabled, you may find that the Windows Install menu options are not present in the Main menu. This is caused by a missing line in the \_ISO\e2b\grub\menu.lst file (it somehow got accidentally removed!).

Please try E2B v1.80h or later if this problem affects you.

I don't use FASTLOAD much because I prefer to use fast USB 3.0 drives (well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!).   ;-)

Find that file!

If you boot to WinPE or WindowsToGo from E2B to try to fix a Windows system, it is really very useful to keep a copy of SwiftSearch.exe on the E2B USB drive.

SwiftSearch.exe is a standalone 32-bit Windows executable which will very quickly find any file (you can use wildcards in any combination) on any NTFS volume in the whole system (including NTFS USB drives). And when I say 'quick', I mean really quick, like a few seconds for a full 2TB drive, because it directly accesses the $MFT of the NTFS drive! It only works on NTFS volumes however and will not search FAT or exFAT volumes.

5 volumes (approx. 2TB) searched in 0.41 seconds (including my NTFS USB drives)!

Using E2B with the Netac U618 Encrypted USB 2.0 Flash drive

The Netac U618 is similar to the iStorage datAshur USB flash drives in that it has a PIN keypad and stores it's data in an encrypted form.

I believe the 16GB version is split as 4GB Public + 10GB Secure, however, I tested the 32GB version. You can obtain them from Amazon or eBay (approx $30 or £23 for the 32GB version).

E2B v1.79 available (and now officially released)

v1.79 is now released.

Changes from v1.78C are:

• New NOWINXP parameter to suppress some menu items in the Windows Install menu.
• Small bugfix in AUTOMN.g4b (sometimes listed files with no extension)
• Improved Protect.cmd to show more file info. 
• Bug fixes for bad error handling in QRUN.g4b (did not abort if error). 
• E2B_Editor.exe v1.0.85 (NOSUG and NOWINXP options added). 
• Improve robocopy detection for XP systems in UPDATE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd.

Note: Small bug in v1.79 - if you use FASTLOAD and Win Install ISOs, use v1.80!

Add PepperMint 6 + persistence to E2B

PepperMint 6 can be booted as a 'LiveCD' from ISO with persistence.
Britec has a YouTube video on how to install it as an OS.

However, we can run it from an ISO file with persistence from E2B too using a .mnu file.
It is based on Ubuntu and so uses a casper-rw persistence file.

How to increase the spacing between all E2B menu entries

grub4dos allows you to adjust the character and line spacing of text.

One of the template .cfg files in E2B demonstrates this:(\_ISO\docs\Templates\StripedFlat_pwd_is_fred)

The Sample_MyE2B.cfg file shows you how you can alter these, using the lnspace and wdspace parameters:

The default value is 'n' (or 0) for lnspace and wdspace.

Here is a 14-entry menu using the default spacing:

E2B v.79f available and 'E2B.cfg is MISSING!' error

I found some error handling issues in QRUN.g4b (v1.77 and 1.78C). The problem centres around this kind of grub4dos code...

if not "%X%"="1" pause ERROR && configfile (md)0xa000+0x50

Easy2Boot v1.78C available

E2B version 1.78C has today's version of grub4dos (20160326) which fixes the bug a user found if you set 'tophelp' to a high number so that the menu help text is not displayed.

v1.79d also has the new grub4dos 20160326 version.

Despite not being officially released, I see some download sites have copied the buggy v1.78!

Differences between v1.78C and v1.79d:

Using E2B with the datAshur Pro encrypted USB flash drive

Easy2Boot allows you to boot literally hundreds of Windows-based, linux-based and other bootable software all from one USB drive. You can also keep all of your personal files and Windows\linux utilities on the same drive and carry it with you, on your keychain, wherever you go. But what if you lose it?

Does your Easy2Boot USB drive contain licensed software, company volume licence Product Keys or confidential files? Perhaps it contains a WindowsToGo VHD  or linux already set up with your Chrome/FireFox passwords, etc. The best way to keep it secure is to use one of the PIN-entry types of USB drives that are available.

After my previous blog about the (slow) datAshur Personal encrypted USB 2.0 drive and the problems I had booting from it, iStorage (the makers of the drive) sent me a datAshur Pro for testing and review.

datAshur Pro USB 3.0

iStorage have four models in their current range. Here are the basic points that concern E2B users including the price and advertised read/write speeds:

Changing language strings in E2B

E2B uses the STRINGS.txt file as a lookup file.
Menu headings, menu entries and many of the batch files in E2B use keywords, e.g.

iftitle [if exist STALE && cat --locate=YES ()/FASTLOAD.YES > nul] $$STRmFS1
if not "%GFX%"=="" configfile (md)0xa000+0x50
root ()

where $$STRmFS1 is a keyword (always $$STR followed by exactly four characters) that is substituted by E2B for a line of text taken from a language file.

Small bug found in grub4dos 0.4.6a 20160322

A small bug has been found in some grub4dos 0.4.6a versions between approx. Feb 2016 and 2016-03-22. If you set tophelp variable to a large number (e.g. 70) then it should move the menu help text off the screen (to line 70). This was a way to hide the help text that was normally seen below the menu box. With these grub4dos versions, this did not work. v1.78 and v1.79a used these versions and so I have re-uploaded them as v1.78A and v.1.79b and they now have the latest 20160324 version of grub4dos 0.4.6a + small change to some of the $$$Guestxxx.mnu files to support F8 reload.

Note that v1.78A still displays it's version number as 1.78 (because it can affect the formatting of the Main Menu heading for some users due to the extra character).

P.S. There was still a small bug in 1.78A and 1.78B, so I have removed 1.78 until grub4dos is fixed. I will then release 1.78C!

E2B v1.79a Beta already!

Yes, yet another version even before 1.78 is officially released!

This version has an even newer grub4dos (which supports being able to use echo -e \X00FC to print unicode characters, but this is not actually used by E2B anyway), and also support for a new NOWINXP variable.

Easy2Boot v1.78 - List of all changes

E2B Version 1.78

Note: 1.78A uses grub4dos 0.4.6a 20160324 - which has a small bugfix (when using the tophelp E2B variable). Also the $$$Guestxxx.mnu files have been tweaked (F8 reload does not prompt for password).

Note2: There is still a bug in 20160324, so I have withdrawn v1.78A! 1.78C has best version of grub4dos.

Changes from v1.77A include:

E2B v1.78C available (was 1.78)

I have uploaded E2B v1.78C to the OneDrive Alternate Downloads area.

[Edit] Note: 1.78C will not be officially released now. Please use 1.79.

There has been a bit of tidying up since 1.78o, a new grub4dos 0.4.6a (2016-03-22) and some guest menu .mnu files added to the Sample mnu Files folder.

Also, the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd script now checks the website to find the latest version and the script displays the current E2B version that you are installing and the latest released version from the website (it uses wget.exe to get a version file from the website).

After a few days, if there are no problems reported, I will upload v1.78 to the main E2B site together with the DPMS version.

Let me know if you have tested it and it is OK by ticking the Reactions 'cool' box.
If you find a problem, please report it ASAP.

List of changes from v1.77A in this blog post.

Note: Pre-release versions 1.78, 1.78A and 1.78B had grub4dos 0.4.6a versions which had a small bug.

Thanks
Steve

E2B v1.78o Beta available

• Latest grub4dos
• Sample menu files for Guest Menu added
• xxx.f24 font files improved

I now consider this a Release Candidate and fit for release as v1.78.

Please test it out by updating your existing E2B USB drive using \UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd and let me know if you find any problems.

You can easily roll-back to v1.77 by running the \UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd file from v1.77.

P.S. Have you tried out the Guest Menu setup described in my previous blog post yet?

Make a 'Guest Mode' menu

Krishna asked me how to get E2B to display either the full E2B MAIN MAINMENU, or a single Guest Menu, with only the items in it that he wanted to allow a guest user to use.

After a lot of thought, I ended up with this and it is really quite cool!

So cool, I had to make a video!

Once you make the changes, if you boot E2B normally, it enumerates all files in the MAINMENU folder as usual (or if you have FASTLOAD enabled it will use the cached menu) and then it will always load the GUEST Menu by default. The Guest Menu can also have sub-menus if you create them.

The Guest Menu (you can change the folder name and heading) can load a different background if you like (or not).

Default Guest Menu (use whatever wallpaper you like or keep the default wallpaper)

E2B v1.78 demo video on YouTube

A quick demo showing off the new graphics stamp, animation and large font features in E2B v1.78!

Many thanks to the grub4dos developer yaya for making all this possible and Wonko from reboot.pro for his help with creating the hex files needed for the large fonts!

E2B v1.78n Beta available (at last!)

Latest version 2016-03-16 of grub4dos included (seems stable)!

Default appearance, if you say 'Yes' to the Animation prompt when you make a
new E2B USB drive using MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd.
E2B Boilerplate + rotating E2B icon will overlay the menu.

New Templates

The new MyE2B.cfg template files can be found in the \_ISO\docs\Templates\Animate and LargeFont folders.

LargeFont MyE2B.cfg demo (set to GMODE=1024)

The E2B icon rotates + 4 stamps!

Protecting your E2B USB drive from being cloned

I added this section to the E2B 'Passwords and Security' page today because I was asked how to protect an E2B USB drive from being cloned:

Someone could make a byte-for-byte copy of your E2B USB drive. Each USB drive should have a unique device serial number, however we cannot read this using grub4dos (and also many USB drives do not have unique serial numbers!).

Save all your passwords to a text file with one click!

Tutorial 59 on my RMPrepUSB.com site explains how to set up a script file to collect and save all your passwords into text files with just one click.

The Tutorial was a bit out of date and needs tweaking (I will update it in a day or two). Nirsoft had put some of the command line utility versions in a separate, password-protected download because they were being detected as a virus and it was causing the nirsoft site to be blacklisted!

Here is the new cmd script I ended up with:

Add a fully-installed Zorin OS to E2B

To run Zorin as a fully-installed OS from an E2B USB drive, just follow the instructions in my previous blog for Kali using VirtualBox.

Tips

Make sure your large partition image file (e.g. Zorin.) is large enough for the OS and any swap file you might want to create later + data storage (minimum approx 5GB).

• Be sure to choose  /   (root) for the /dev/sda3 mount point choice (ext3) where sda is the USB drive
• IMPORTANT! Set the 'Device for boot loader installation' to /dev/sda3 where sda is the USB drive..

If you are installing to an internal hard drive, make sure to pick the correct boot loader partition!

   Use ext3 (not fat32) for the sda3 partition.

The Virtual Machine will also need an internet connection to download packages.

You will be warned about not having a Swap partition, but just continue anyway.

You can create a swap file later (follow the instructions in the blog and it should work).

You should now have a fully working Zorin installation on your E2B drive.

Note:
If installing to an internal hard drive and you accidentally install grub to the E2B drive, you can use RMPrepUSB - Install grub4dos - MBR=Yes to re-install grub4dos boot code.

Protecting animated E2B menus with passwords

I have found a way to password-protect menus on E2B and still have the animation playing in the background.

The DNA animation starts once the menu has been built by E2B and it then prompts you for a password with the animation still rotating on the display. A large 24-pixel high font has been used with the E2B default 800x600 background in this example.