E2B 1.62 Beta F&G with Haiku support

Beta F is now available and includes support for booting Haiku 'anyboot' images (including nightly builds). Haiku is very quick to boot, but until now, I don't think anyone has managed to add it to a multiboot USB drive!

https://easy2boot.xyz/create-your-website-with-blocks/add-payload-files/haiku/

E2B v1.62BetaE now available

There is now a .mnu file at \_ISO\MAINMENU\$$$SetDefaultMenu.mnu. This makes it easier to have different wallpapers for different menus. The website documentation has also been updated.

This version has the new 0.4.6a grub4dos which now works with exFAT drives too.

Unless there are any bug reports, this version will be released as the 'official' E2B 1.62 in a few days, so please try it out and let me know if there are any problems.

I have also added 'grab' which is a grub4dos console capture batch file - this copies a screen full of grub4dos console text to a file (grab.txt) and is only used for debugging purposes. To use it, go to the grub4dos console, type graphicsmode 3 (note: this clears the screen!) and then type in any commands you want to test. When you type grab, the text on the screen is copied to a grab.txt file ready to send off for bug reports, etc.

The two Windows scripts, E2B MNU Maker.cmd and E2B TXT Maker.cmd have been updated so that you can specify if you want the menu entry to be always displayed, or only displayed if a 32-bit or 64-bit CPU is present when E2B is booted.

Also, if you are using the latest version of RMPrepUSB v2.1.727, the Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd batch file will now install grub4dos with the 'silent' switch which causes less grub4dos boot-up  messages to be visible when E2B starts to boot.

There is now also some extra lines in the Sample MyE2B.cfg file which you can uncomment for a silent startup of the grldr stage 2 as well:

# Silent MBR boot of stage 1.5 grub4dos (works for both 0.4.5c and 0.4.6) - a reboot is required for it to take affect.
### if exist /_ISO/docs/PatchMyMBR call /_ISO/docs/PatchMyMBR > nul
# Silent startup of grub4dos - no diagnostic/info messages (only works for 0.4.6a) - permanently changes /grldr files (use \_ISO\docs\patchme for patch if not using 0.4.6)
### cat --locate=\x02 --replace=\x00 --skip=0x2073 --length=1 /grldr > nul
### if exist /%grub%/grldr_046 cat --locate=\x02 --replace=\x00 --skip=0x2073 --length=1 /%grub%/grldr_046 > nul

This means that you should not need to use the patchme file every time you update your E2B USB drive.

I hope that we can now move to grub4dos 0.4.6a as the 'default' version of grub4dos from now on as it makes little sense to develop both grub4dos 0.4.5c and 0.4.6a in tandem once the bugs have been ironed out from 0.4.6a.

P.S. by default, E2B displays the file name AND file extension in the menus. I am thinking of changing this so that the default is to not display the file extension. Does anyone object to this? Note that if you have already set EXTOFF=1 in your MyE2B.cfg file then this change would not affect anything. It just means that if you don't have a MyE2B.cfg file, file extensions would not be shown in the menu entries. Let me know...

Download Areas

OneDrive download area

Google Drive download area

What do you want to see in a new Easy2Boot video?

I would like to know if there are any topic you would like me to cover in a new E2B video.

Here is a list of the current E2B YouTube videos:

E2B v1.62 Beta D

Just a small change, as requested by Stephan.

• If a payload file extension ends in 64 then it will only appear in a menu if the system contains a 64-bit CPU. e.g. Ubuntu-14.iso64  or Win8PE.imgPTN64.
• Likewise, if a payload file extension ends in 32 then it will only appear in a menu if the system contains a 32-bit CPU. e.g. Ubuntux86.iso32 or Win8PE.imgPTN32.

All current payload file extensions can have a 32 or 64 suffix added, but you cannot use the suffix on .mnu files (e.g. myubuntu.mnu64 will not work).

Note that using a normal .txt file will negate this feature (e.g. if using Ubuntu.iso64 and Ubuntu.txt - the menu entry will be listed on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems).

To only list the file on a 64-bit system, you would need this .txt file

iftitle [checkrange 2,3 is64bit] Ubuntu\n Run Ubuntu on a 64-bit system

To only list an iso on only a 32-bit system, you would need this .txt file

iftitle [checkrange 0,1 is64bit] Linux32\n Run 32-bit linux

You must use a .mnu file if you want extra features like password protection on the file, as you cannot combine '64' or '32' with 'pwd' suffix (using a file extension of fred.isopwd64 will not work). See Password_Protect_64_32.mnu in \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files for an example.

How to test your SD card or USB Flash drive using FakeFlashTest (v2)

Same video as before but I increased the volume using Handbrake 



























Drag-and-drop video onto Source icon
Set output File pathname
Click Show in Audio tab
Set gain to 20
Click Start

I did this twice to boost the gain by 40 and re-uploaded the video to YouTube.

Easy2Boot v1.62 Beta B available

The latest version of E2B v1.62 is now available from the Alternate Downloads area (bottom of page here).
The main change is that it now uses by default, grub4dos 0.4.6a (alpha version) instead of 0.4.5c (the stable version).

grub4dos 0.4.6a is now loaded by default but you can switch to 0.4.5c

Changes from v1.61 are listed in the Version History page here. New changes since Beta A are:

• New grub4dos version 2015-01-16 as default (and new 0.4.5c version)
• Fix knoppix boot from non-contiguous ISO file in isoboot.g4b
• macpup sample .mnu file added for saving sessions on exit
• New .isomacpup file extension added

Note that if your E2B drive is formatted as exFAT - it is probably best not to use this new version (or if you do, switch to 0.4.5c using the new menu entry before using any other menu entry)! This is because there is a bug in 0.4.6a when accessing exFAT drives which has been reported here and hopefully will be fixed soon and then I can release it as v1.62.

Grub4dos v0.4.6a has a few more features than 0.4.5c (can access Joliet ISOs, includes an internal USB 2.0 rd/wr driver and better debug/message control features).

E2B will still work OK with either version of grub4dos though.

Please let me know if you find any problems with this new version or with grub4dos 0.4.6a (i.e. if 0.4.5c works but 0.4.6a does not).

Booting Macpup iso files on E2B and patching ISO files using grub4dos

Unfortunatley, the Macpup_550.iso file does not 'just work' with E2B because the menu.lst file that is used inside the ISO has specified (cd) in the file paths:

Sandisk Extreme Cruzer 64GB Removable Flash drive for £25 (save £35!)

MyMemory (UK) are offering these for just £25! They sell out as soon as they get them in, so just click Notify Me and order one as soon as you get the email before they sell out again!

The drive I got was of the Removable type (I believe they all are now) and REALLY FAST!

Boot to TrueCrypt, only by using your USB drive

If you don't want your system to boot to the TrueCrypt password entry prompt (thus making it obvious it has been encrypted using TrueCrypt), you can make it so that it is unbootable and boot the system from your grub4dos USB drive and then from the USB drive you can boot to the encrypted Windows installation on your hard drive.

There is no 'unique' data or files on the USB drive, if you lose it you can easily make another.

see http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/131truecryptusb for more details.

You can add the TrueCrypt Rescue ISO ( the one that is made when you start encryption), to your E2B USB drive, but you must rename the file extension to .iso01.

E2B v.1.62 BetaA now available

It includes the True Hide\Unhide support discussed previously and the latest version of grub4dos.
Beta Downloads are in the Alternate Download folders (link on Download page), as usual.

Note: Previous True/Hide files have been tweaked/bugfixed - this is a new Mark 4 version!