E2B v1.51a (with XP bugfix) and method for adding multiple background bitmaps to E2B

• I have had three reports from users recently complaining about the Step 2 XP Install stage not working. When I looked at the XPStep2.g4b file, I found that I had accidentally commented out the line that loads the XP ISO into memory! The bug existed in all versions between v1.32 and v1.51! This has now been fixed in v1.51a. This probably explains why there have been some complaints (it is not always necessary to load the ISO into memory, but in helps in cases where XP does not contain compatible USB drivers and so cannot access the ISO file when it boots to XP).

• I have now documented how you can have multiple wallpaper background bitmaps here.
  You can have one bitmap displayed whilst E2B is enumerating files and another for the Main menu. You can also have different bitmaps for each sub-menu. Here is a demo...

Note: MyE2B.cfg needs 'call Fn.70 3' so you can see the background during file enumeration.

\_ISO\MyE2B.cfg
=============
!BAT
call Fn.70 3

\_ISO\Mybackground.bmp.gz (first 'blue' image)

Read more: http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/multiple-backgrounds/

See the YouTube video on how to set up multiple menu backgrounds by Liu Evan here.

To update E2B, download the non-DPMS zip file and extract the files onto your E2B USB drive - you don't need to download the large DPMS zip file even if your previous version was with the DPMS drivers. Then use the \Update_E2B_Drive.cmd file to update your E2B drive.

New GEGeek Tech Toolkit released

In case you missed by previous blog about the GEGeek Tech ToolKit here, I just thought I would mention that a new version is now available from the GEGeek website.

It is a hefty 1.7GB download but worth adding to your USB Flash drive as it contains hundreds of useful Windows tools and utilities. Click on the GEGeek Tech Toolkit link to get to the download.

Easy2Boot v1.51 now available

v.1.51 2014-07-03

1. .imgPTN is now equivalent to .imgPTNLBAa (use .imgPTNna for old .imgPTN behaviour)
2. \_ISO\BACKUP_LINUX folder deleted
3. Small changes to English STRINGS.txt
4. Bugfix aroung CONTIG.ISO and source ISO file size detection (failed size check if >2GB)
5. Small code/message changes
6. English strings.txt file is now always loaded after primary language.

The main change is Item #1 - so that you do not have to rename .imgPTN files to the more compatible/reliable files extension of .imgPTNLBAa, I have now made these two file extensions both behave as .imgPTNLBAa did (i.e. both file extensions now modify the partition parameters for LBA access and set the partition as Active).

If you don't want the partition set to Active and you don't want LBA parameters to be used (i.e. the 'old' .imgPTN behaviour) then use the new file extension of .imgPTNna (na=non-active).

Change #6 - This ensures that if a $STRxxxx string is missing from the chosen language file, then the English version will be used instead. Thus, if a new $STRyyyy string is added at some later date to the ENG\STRINGS.txt file, the old Spanish strings.txt file (which will not have the new $STRyyyy string) will not report an error but will just show the English translation if the Spanish translation is missing. i.e. the 'fallback' string translation will be English as I can always keep this up to date.

Say No! to the European 'Right to be forgotten' rule

You may have read recently that the European Court of Justice passed a ruling that search engines should not return any results that are inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive (see here for the details).

Note: if someone asks for a search result to be removed because it is 'irrelevant', then surely it cannot actually be irrelevant because is it was irrelevant then they wouldn't be asking for it to be removed! i.e. Catch 22!

The original case was about a Spanish man...
1) What is the case about and what did the Court rule? 
In 2010 a Spanish citizen lodged a complaint against a Spanish newspaper with the national Data Protection Agency and against Google Spain and Google Inc. The man complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google’s search results infringed his privacy rights because the proceedings concerning him had been fully resolved for a number of years and hence the reference to these was entirely irrelevant. He requested, first, that the newspaper be required either to remove or alter the pages in question so that the personal data relating to him no longer appeared; and second, that Google Spain or Google Inc. be required to remove the personal data relating to him, so that it no longer appeared in the search results.

and their decision was...

While the Court ordered Google to delete access to the information deemed irrelevant by the Spanish citizen, it also emphasised that the content of the underlying newspaper archive should not be changed in the name of data protection (paragraph 88 of the Court’s ruling). The Spanish citizens’ data is still accessible but is no longer ubiquitous. This is enough for the citizen’s privacy to be respected. 

So a Citizen can deem some piece of information about himself is 'irrelevant', it is perfectly OK for the information to be present as an article on the web, it is not breaking any law, but we (the public) are not allowed to search for it! Because of the data protection act, the source should not be changed, but the Search sites which can find the source sites should be changed. Surely this is circumventing the data protection act?

Recently a British journalist queried why some of his article 'hit results'  were removed by Google after receiving a letter from Google telling him that they would be omitted in future due to the ECJ ruling and a request from 'some 3rd party' to do so. In other words, someone just filled in a form provided by Google and they removed the search results. They recently reversed this decision (see here).

I simply cannot understand why the entire world internet population (and Google) has not objected to this? The ruling says that even if the 3rd party provider (e.g. Google) has servers outside Europe, the rule still applies as long as the 'service' is made available to Europeans.

The fine for not removing these results is pretty massive (up to 2% of annual worldwide turnover - note the word turnover - not profit or net income but turnover!). And that is just for 1 result being returned when it shouldn't be.

So Google 'detects' a European I.P address and censors our results (if using google.co.uk for instance). So we can look forward to loads of non-European server sites acting as Google proxies for Europeans who want to do Google searches and see ALL results. Apparently, Google have had over 50,000 'please forget me' requests so far!

Note: There is a way around this, use Google.com instead of your default Google (e.g. google.co.uk). If you go to the main Google page, the URL will be changed to your local country page automatically - however you can use google.com by clicking on the bottom-right 'Use Google.com' link:


OR just use DuckDuckGo which is also anonymous and does not take into account who you are or what you have been searching for recently.

Here is another more local case of why this ruling is insidious (and doesn't even achieve it's objective anyway) from my local press! So you can get past crimes that you committed just 8 years ago 'expunged'.

Hypothetical Example:

If a man was taken to Court in 1979 for child abuse but was found innocent (or even guilty!), could he later (how much later?) get the search results for that Court case removed? What if 20 different children or adults accused that same person of abusing them over a 20 year period between 1978 and 1998 but no further action was taken due to lack of evidence - could he also get these results removed by Google and the other search engines? According to the ECJ, he could as they are 'irrelevant'.

Now what if your child accused that man of abusing them yesterday and you did an internet search and either,
a) found nothing
or
b) found dozens of articles about the same man involved in similar situations

How would that affect your decision about whether to believe your child and whether your child and other children were in danger from this man and whether to go to the Police?

What message is this sending to society? Go out into the world and commit crimes, disappear for a year or so, get the crimes removed from all the search engines and no one will know. You are then free to commit more crimes and only when you are caught by the Police (or your employer bothers to do a Criminal Records Bureau check) will they realise you had former convictions.

Surely this ECJ ruling has been taken too far? If it is allowed to go on, then we can no longer rely on Google to give us accurate web search results. In that case, maybe we should start using a different search engine that doesn't respect the ECJ ruling (or rather, is not afraid of being fined by it)?

If a web site is hosting some dubious content, and it is proved to be breaking the law, then the host site should be prosecuted not the search site - i.e. 'don't shoot the messenger'!

Add AntiX + Persistence to your E2B USB drive

The following allows you to boot from an ISO with root persistence (or home persistence) for AntiX 13 and 14 (not tested on 15). For Antix 15 with Root+Home persistence see blog post here.

If you download an Antix LiveCD ISO file, you can add persistence as follows:

1. Copy the ISO file e.g. antiX-13.2_x64-full.iso, to a sub-folder under one of the E2B menu folders - e.g. \_ISO\LINUX\MNU.

2. Use RMPrepUSB's Create ext2 FS button to create a file on your E2B USB drive - name=antix, volume name=antix, size=128 (or 256 or 500 or whatever you like)

3. Copy the AntiX_13.2_Persistent.mnu file (available in the E2B site Download area or in E2B v1.51 and later in the usual place under \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files) to the same folder as the ISO file. You should now have these files on the E2B drive:

Easy2Boot v1.50 Beta available

• All sub menus headings, menu entries, user information and prompts in a single STRINGS.txt file
• Compatible with previous versions (except for user added .mnu files)
• 500MB CONTIG.ISO included in download (compressed)
• Memtest86+ updated
• If running an .imgPTN file, just press [ENTER] (no need to type Y)
• Few minor display positioning issues fixed
• Sample_MyE2B.cfg updated
• Sample .mnu files updated
• Many files in the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG folder now moved up into grub folder
• \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG now just contains STRINGS.TXT file
• User can add \_ISO\STRINGS.txt file to override any other strings.txt file
• Small changes to Theme Templates

This is a very new version and there has been a lot of 'behind the scenes' changes due to the use of the new STRINGS.txt feature.

• Download v1.50 DPMS BETA version from here (30.6MB)
• Download v1.50 non-DPMS BETA version from here (7.2MB)

This new E2B version uses a STRINGS.txt file to define menu headings, help text, user prompts, etc.

About 90% of  all text is now in the STRINGS.txt file and so you can easily modify these or translate them to a different language. STRINGS.txt is a UTF-8 file and so will support non-ASCII languages.

Most strings are now replaced by $$STRxxxx keywords (where xxxx can be any four characters) - these keywords are replaced with the correct string automatically by E2B when the menu is loaded into memory.

So to change any of the text, messages, headings, etc. in E2B, this is what you do:

1. Copy the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG folder contents to a new folder - e.g. \_ISO\e2b\grub\STEVE
2. Add a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (you can copy the \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file)
3. Edit the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file to set the new 'language' - e.g. set LANG=STEVE
4. Add a \_ISO\MyBackground.bmp.gz bitmap (optional)

e.g. a simple \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file could be:

!BAT
set LANG=STEVE
set pwd=steve
set HEADING=\x20                       STEVE'S MENU  (%VER%)                       \x20
set HELPTEXT=HDD0 [F7]   Back [F8]   Reboot [F9]   Power Off [F10] www.steve.com

Now you can edit the \_ISO\e2b\grub\STEVE\STRINGS.txt file to change anything you like - here are a few lines from the STRINGS.txt file:

$$STRm004=\x20                  Windows Boot Menu                     \x20      

$$STRm019=\x20                       DOS Menu                         \x20

You may notice that .mnu and .txt files now use these new $$STRxxxx strings - e.g.

iftitle [if "%GFX%"==""] $$STRh0F8

debug 0

if exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst 

if not exist (bd)/_ISO/e2b/grub/menu.lst set MFOLDER=/_ISO/MAINMENU && configfile (md)0xA000+0x50

boot

If you want to create new .mnu files, you don't use $$STRxxxx keywords (unless you want to), just use normal text in place of the $$STRxxx keyword.

Note: If you have already updated your E2B drive and have an old MyE2B.cfg file which defined new menu headings, you may find that it no longer works, add this line to your MyE2B.cfg file and it should work as before:

set ASTRINGS=

Also, if you used any of the .mnu files from the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files folder, they may need updating with the new version from the docs folder in E2B v1.50 (basically remove the /%LANG% portion wherever it is used in a .mnu file).

It is also possible to modify the MyE2B.cfg file so you can ask the user which language he wants to use.

If you place the STRINGS.txt file in the \_ISO folder, it will override any LANG settings and will always be used.

This means that to have a 'Chinese Skin' or 'Spanish Skin', you can apply it simply by copying it to the \_ISO folder, e.g.:

• \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg
• \_ISO\STRINGS.txt
• \_ISO\NewWallpaper.bmp.gz

In the future, I hope that we can build up a library of STRINGS.txt files in different languages.

To test it, it is best to make a new (reformatted) USB drive - you can add it to your existing E2B drive by overwriting the existing version, but there may be old (unused) copies of various files left on the USB drive.

As there will probably be a few small bugs, don't start trying to translate ALL the STRINGS.txt file strings immediately but please report any problems you find ASAP. Also if you have used it a lot and have found no bugs, please also let me know so that I can 'officially' release it and remove the 'beta' status from it.

Improved language support for E2B is coming!

I am working on a new version of E2B that will have a STRINGS.TXT file which will contain all the words displayed by E2B batch files and menus, etc.

This will mean that to change language, you just need to add the one language folder to your E2B drive and add a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file

e.g. To convert E2B to Spanish you would
Add a \_ISO\e2b\grub\SPANISH folder (which contains a STRINGS.txt text file)
Add a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (which sets the language and the Main heading, etc.)

There will be no need to change the standard grub4dos batch files or .mnu files or .txt files that are already in E2B.

This will make it much easier for anyone to translate E2B into other languages as they just need to edit the file in a new language folder + create a MyE2B.cfg file.

This will take a week to do and test, but then I hope to encourage people to submit new language STRINGS.txt files to me, so I can add them to E2B.

It will support Chinese and other non-ASCII languages.

e.g. The STRINGS.TXT file will contain lines of words/phrases displayed to the user by E2B. You would just need to change these into your own language - e.g.

$$STRb001=XP INSTALL - STEP 1\n===================\n\nIMPORTANT: You must boot from USB drive again and run STEP 2 after this!\n

$$STRb002=64-bit XP ISO detected!\nYou will need to press F6 to load 64-bit Firadisk driver

$$STRb003=ISO detected as Windows %OSTYPE% (use 'XP', '2K3' or '2K' in ISO filename if incorrect)

$$STRb004=If this is incorrect, please type xp 2k or 2k3 now: 

$$STRb005=Will look for Windows %OSTYPE% drivers only

$$STRb006=DPMS2 Options (32-bit only)\n===========================\n1=SRS Driver+FiraDisk            - default=FiraDisk  + OEM drivers\n2=SRS Driver+FiraDisk+WinVBlock  - default=FiraDisk  + OEM drivers

$$STRb007=3=SRS Driver+WinVBlock+FiraDisk  - default=WinVBlock + OEM drivers (>512MB only)

$$STRb008=Auto-Detect SATA/AHCI/RAID 32-bit Mass Storage Drivers ([Y=2]/N/1/2/3) : 

$$STRb009=Auto-Detect SATA/AHCI/RAID 32-bit Mass Storage Drivers ([Y=2]/N/1/2) : 

$$STRb010=PLEASE NOTE: If booting from a USB-HDD, say YES to the next question....

$$STRb011=Load XP ISO into memory (recommended) ([Y]/N) : 

Easy2Boot 1.42a now in Chinese!

Thanks to 'Mr Lin', we now have a version of E2B in Chinese!

Mr Lin's Megasystem Setup!

Once you have made your E2B USB drive, simply download and extract the E2B_LANGUAGE_ZH_CN_1.42a.zip file and overwrite the English E2B files.

Note that this download contains a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file which will replace your MyE2B.cfg file (if you have made one). The MyE2B.cfg file ensures that the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ZH_CN folder is used.

The download is now available from the Downloads page.

Add multiple Hirens ISOs to Easy2Boot

Introduction

Because Hirens/UBCD4WIN ISOs (e.g. HBCD, DLCD, FalconFour, etc.) contain a mix of DOS applications, linux and Windows, they can be difficult to add to a multiboot USB drive.

Note: E2B v1.90+ includes support for WinBuilder-based ISOs - just keep the file extension as .ISO.

FalconFour's UBCD 4.61 MiniXP Desktop

There are instructions on the Easy2Boot website for adding the ISOs and also some sample .mnu files.

If you just want to boot to Mini-XP, you can try just renaming the Hirens ISO with a .isowinvh file extension. E2B v1.78 also supports the .isoHW file extension. This can be used for DLC\DLCD versions which have XP and Mini7/8/10. For Mini7/8/10 the E2B USB drive must be a removable type (or use a Helper USB flash drive).

Another way to run a single Hirens ISO with the minimum amount of issues and workarounds is to extract some or all of the files from the ISO file and run it as a 'flat file' installation directly from the USB drive.

If your E2B USB drive is formatted as NTFS then you will need to select the DOS NTFS driver when running the DOS applications. As the NTFS driver uses DOS memory, some of the DOS applications won't run if the NTFS driver is also loaded into memory, so even if you extract the ISO files, it does not run very well on an NTFS USB drive and, of course, you can't extract multiple versions to the same E2B USB drive, because they will overwrite each other!

Note: E2B includes special instructions for extracting FalconFours's F4UBCD ISO file - see the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files folder for a special F4  .mnu file.

Here is a table for some of the most common Hirens ISOs when using both Removable USB flash drives and Fixed-disk type USB drives and running as an ISO file or as a FAT32 partition image:

DLC.Boot.2015.iso is also 64-bit UEFI bootable if converted to FAT32 .imgPTN (for Mini Windows 8 64-bit).

Strelec ISOs

For ISO use .isofira01 for 32-bit x86 WinPE and apps - or convert the ISO to a FAT32 .imgPTN file for MBR32/64 and UEFI64-booting.

x64 WinPE booting from ISO can be made to work as follows:

1. Find the Strelec ISO on the E2B drive once you have booted to Strelec x64 Desktop (ignore errors)
2. Right-click on ISO - mount with ImDisk as any drive letter
3. Run Start Menu - MinstAll
4. Run X:\Windows\System32\MInstLink.exe to add all Desktop icons and a fully populated Start Menu.

Strelec .imgPTN

If you get a 'Windows cannot find \SSTR\Mist\Minst.exe' error when using a .imgPTN file - use the Disk Management Desktop shortcut on the Strelec desktop to add a drive letter to the Easy2Boot USB drive volume.

For UEFI32 booting see here

Recommended method - use a FAT32 .imgPTN file

If you use the Windows E2B MakePartImage tool, making multiple Hirens/DLCD/FalconFour, etc. payload files to add to your (FAT32, NTFS, exFAT or ext2/3/4) E2B USB drive is very easy:

1. Drag and drop the .ISO file onto the Windows Desktop MPI_FAT32 shortcut (or MakePartImage shortcut).
2. (if prompted) Answer Y to merge\combine the menu.lst file with the E2B CSM menu.lst file.
3. Copy the new .imgPTN file to your E2B USB drive menu folder (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU).
4. Run WinContig or \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd to make the .imgPTN file contiguous.

If you are not prompted to merge the menu.lst files by the MPI tool, then you will probably get an extra CSM menu item which will then load the HBCD menu.

If you find any problems with linux menu entries, try converting the ISO using the MakePartImage Desktop shortcut instead of the MPI_FAT32 shortcut and do NOT auto-correct the menu entries when prompted. If the ISO was designed to be run from a USB drive, the menu entries will not require any 'corrections' to be applied.

In the case of FalconFour's 4.6 ISO, the MPI tool will merge the \menu.lst menu into the CSM menu. I then changed the \menu.lst file after the image was switched in E2B to make the menu box larger by changing a few lines in \menu.lst as shown in red below:

# ----- MENU POSITION ---
# wordspacing linespacing borderwidth tophelp numberofitemsinmenu topstart menuwidth rightstartposofmenu
# tophelp=topstart+noitems for menuhelp text just under menu box
set wdspace=0
set lnspace=0
set topstart=5
set rstart=4
set noitems=22
set menuw=66
set bdwidth=1
set tophelp=27

Some versions of Hirens have a problem with KonBoot in that it only works from a CD but not if booted from a USB drive (it just reboots back to the USB drive again), it can be made to work correctly if you modify the Hirens menu.lst file however (add the lines in red).

title Kon-Boot v1.1 (32/64-bit)\n\nLog into Windows XP with blank password; bypass login without breaking it
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --mem /F4UBCD/Images/konboot.img (fd0)
map --floppies=1
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
boot

Kon-Boot 1.1 was the free version that only works for XP. The latest version works with Windows XP through to Win 8.1 and is just $15 to buy. OR you can add the free PassPass software to your E2B drive and get into any Windows local user account without needing a password for free!

Note: Some Hirens ISOs may support UEFI booting but most do not. I recommend the Strelec builds which are updated regularly (see this blog for adding UEFI32).

Remember, it is illegal to use some of the OS's and apps in HBCD unless you own a licence for them.

Tip: www.rmprepusb.com has a list of useful external links (see the 'Useful External Links' page).

Cheap 'upgraded' USB Flash drives for sale on eBay - again!

Why do eBay allow this ad?

TITLE: 64gb Pink Crystal USB Flash Mermory Stick with FREE Keyring

So it says  (with my highlighting and colouring of the text)...

_________________________

64GB Reformatted/Upgraded USB Flash Memory Stick
The product is labelled based on the memory chip(s) it contains.
It is also marked as a reformatted/upgraded USB stick so they may vary in speed and capacity (4GB to 64GB), though they are able to store up to 64GB of data hence the low and competitive price.
These USB sticks vary in capacity and this is explained in the second paragraph of this listing which has been taken exactly as it is printed on the rear of the packaging.

THESE USB STICKS HAVE BEEN UPGRADED USING THE VERY LATEST COMPRESSION TECHNOLOGY. THIS MEANS THAT EVEN THOUGH IT MAY SHOW 64GB AVAILABLE THE ACTUAL CAPACITY WILL VARY AND CAN RANGE FROM 4GB RIGHT THROUGH TO 64GB AND ONCE THIS LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED OLD DATA WILL BE OVERWRITTEN OR NEW DATA WILL NOT BE SAVED. THIS IS THE SAME WILL ALL CHEAPER MEMORY STICK ON EBAY BUT MANY SELLERS DO NOT TELL YOU THIS HENCE THE VERY LOW PRICE. THESE ARE ADVERTISED AS 64GB AS THIS IS WHAT WILL SHOW AS THE AVAILABLE MEMORY WHEN IN USE.

THESE ARE BEING SOLD AS UPGRADED USB STICKS HENCE THE VERY LOW PRICE.

_________________________

Why do they allow this seller to sell these suspect sticks as 64GB when he states in the small print that they may not be? Why does he say it has a 'very low price' when it is in an auction!

There is a 14-day refund on these USB drives with 'buyer pays return postage' - but how many people will realise they are buying defective USB drives within 14 days of using them?

He mentions a compression technology???? Well if he has a compression technology that can store 64GB of all kinds of data on just 4GB, why is he wasting his time selling dodgy USB drives on eBay when he could make a fortune selling the compression technology!

'The product is labelled based on the memory chip(s) it contains.' - so therefore it MUST contain 64GB of chips right?
He says 'they are able to store up to 64GB of data' and 'Minimum consumer-usable memory capacity is approximately 62.2GB.'  These are clear, unambigous statements - but then he says 'ONCE THIS LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED OLD DATA WILL BE OVERWRITTEN OR NEW DATA WILL NOT BE SAVED'!!!!!

How about I sell a '22 carat 40g Gold ring' on eBay and then say in the small print that 'it looks like gold, smells like gold and has 22ct stamped on it but may be 0.001 carat gold or may be gold-plated or may be just brass - hence it is advertised as 22 carat gold'

If you buy any USB flash drives or SD cards, please test them with FakeFlashTest and then H2TESTW before you use it!

More...

I emailed the seller
You say in your ad that 'The product is labelled based on the memory chip(s) it contains'. From the picture, it is labelled as 64GB - so does it contain 64GB of memory chips?

Their reply was:
No its has been previosly 64gb (62.4gb) but due to its reformatting it has a different capacity depending on the uses software or device, the sticks have to be formatted using exfat and can hold anything between 8 and 64, they have to be filled using 4gb transfers at a time but depending on how they are used it is possible to get max capacity, i cannot stress though this isnt always the case hense the low price. i hope the information was useful.