Thursday 15 March 2018

Spanish YouTube E2B videos - Lesson 4 now available from Decomputo

Even if you don't speak Spanish, you might like to watch the YouTube course on E2B by Decomputo.

The latest one has just been uploaded here.


Tuesday 13 March 2018

Boot Eset Rescue using UEFI from E2B

To legacy\MBR boot, you can simply directly boot from the Eset system rescue ISO file (or to add persistence for updates - see previous blog articles).
See also: ESET SysRescue 2020 with persistent updates and agFM UEFI support
To UEFI-boot (64-bit UEFI) or MBR-boot from recent versions (no persistent updates):

1. Drag-and-drop the eset-sysrescue-live_enu.iso file onto the MPI_FAT32 Desktop shortcut
2. Add 5MB to the suggested size
3. Copy the .imgPTN file to the E2B drive \_ISO\ANTIVIRUS folder, make it contiguous and 'Switch' to the .imgPTN file using the E2B MBR menu or \_ISO\Switch_E2B.exe.
4. Extract the contents of \boot\grub\efi.img to the root of the E2B volume, so that you now have a \efi\boot folder containing two .efi files

However, here is a way to 32-bit and 64-bit UEFI-boot by using the E2B grub2 menu system.

You will need to be familiar with the E2B grub2 menu system first.

Tuesday 6 March 2018

Warning: Do NOT update to VirtualBox v5.2.8!

The latest VirtualBox v5.2.8 version crashes your host system (i.e. BSOD on your Windows system) when booting to an E2B USB drive.

If you use VBox to test booting of E2B then please install v5.2.4 or 5.2.6 instead, but do not update to 5.2.8.

I discovered this several days ago (I thought it may have been just my system), but it has now been confirmed by another user.

http://www.easy2boot.com/forum/

[Edit: I have re-released E2B v1.98 2018-03-09 which should prevent the BSOD with VBOX from occurring. Please download the latest version of E2B and update your E2B drives if you want to use VBOX 5.2.8]

Monday 5 March 2018

E2B v1.98 released

v1.98 2018-03-03 - changes from v1.97A
  1. Patchme grub4dos script now removes 'If hangup , use 'geometry --lba1sector (128)' grub4dos startup message
  2. Variables SIZE_E2B and SIZE_HD1 can now be used in MyE2B.cfg files in menu HEADING and FOOTER (for sizes of drives in GB)
  3. 'GodMode' folder added to \_ISO\docs\Download URLs for easy access to Windows GodMode list of utilities (just doubel-click on it within Windows)
  4. DrWeb900_Persistent.mnu sample added
  5. Support for *NCQ.iso suffix
  6. Support for isopersist file extension so can easily add persistence files to Ubuntu-based ISOs
  7. Add text tip to use .isopersist for Ubuntu-based files +persistence
  8. Add .isoBF option to 'ISOASK' menu list
  9. Add text tip to use .isopup for files with 'pup' in their name for puppy linux ISOs
  10. Change FreeDos floppy image to increase amount of conventional memory from 310K to 530K and add mem.exe utility + extended memory driver for DPMI support, add mouse.com DOS mouse driver, increase floppy disk size to 7.6MB so more files can be added by user, update KERNEL version
  11. Add support for TESTPLOP variable for booting Plop! with VMWare
  12. Use Inno Setup as the Self Extractor engine for less AV false positives (E2B .zip file is also available for linux users)
  13. Changes to many of the Sample .mnu files to clarify instructions
  14. Bugfix for EXTOFF=1 not being set in MyE2B.cfg when using Make_E2B to make the USB drive (EXTOFF suppresses file extensions being listed in menus).
As usual, the new versions are available from the Alternate Download Areas first so you can try it out and feedback any issues before I release it on the E2B website.

A .zip version of E2B v1.98 is also available for linux users.

Note: E2B v1.98 was re-released (2018-03-09) with a small bugfix which should prevent VBOX v5.2.8 from BSOD'ing your system when using it to boot an E2B USB drive.

Friday 2 March 2018

Testing Inno Setup for making Self-Extracting files

I have been using WinRaR to package up the Easy2Boot files into a self-extracting executable (SFX) file. When the user runs this, it unpacks the E2B files to a temporary folder and then runs Make_E2B.exe as Administrator.

However, the WinRaR package seems to trigger false positive alerts with several Anti-Virus packages such a Windows Defender (depending on what day it is!), Avast and Norton Symantec, etc.

So, as an experiment, I have packaged up E2B v1.98g BETA using the free Inno QuickStart Setup package from here.

This Inno Setup version is similar to the WinRaR version (it only extracts the files - it does not install anything).

Please try the above link and let me know the results (i.e. what your AV solution is and if it runs OK or gives a virus alert).

I have noticed that if you run it with Avast AV installed, you get an error pop-up box, however if you click past this it runs OK. This is apparently a known issue with Avast when running a 'strange' exe for the first time.

P.S. If the above link no longer works (becomes outdated), look for a more recent E2B_v1.98+ file in the Alternate Downloads Areas.

Tick 'funny' if it gave no problems, otherwise please let me know what AV gave a false-positive

Thursday 1 March 2018

How to add older versions of the Hirens Boot CD to E2B

Older versions of the Hirens boot CD earlier than version 9.7 were based on DOS and designed to run from a CD only.

Here is how I converted HBCD v8.1 to run from E2B.

MPI Tool Pack v0.081 fixes 'ERROR: Please install Grub4dos to the MBR' error!


If you are getting this error a lot when trying to switch to .imgPTN files, the reason is that you are probably using RMPrepUSB v2.1.740 or later to install grub4dos or BootIce+grub4dos 0.4.6a.

To fix this, you can either use an older version of RMPrepUSB, or use v 0.081 or later of the MPI Tool Pack and remake your .imgPTN file.

The problem is due to the grub4dos boot code changing. The code in the menu.lst file looks for 'Missing MBR-helper' but the code has now changed with 0.4.6a to be 'Missing helper' and so it does not restore the original grub4dos MBR sector when you switch back to the E2B MBR, but restores the backup sector from LBA 1 instead (which usually does not contain the grub4dos boot code).

The new \menu.lst in MPI v0.081 will work with either version of the grub4dos boot code.

Monday 19 February 2018

Add AROS AspireOS Titan to E2B

The AspireOS ISO seems to have a problem booting if we just try to add the ISO to E2B.

Here is how to add it to E2B as a .imgPTN file for MBR and UEFI-32-bit booting.

References

Amiga Board forum

Instructions

Thursday 15 February 2018

Boot from an E2B USB drive using VMWare

You can test install Windows (7/8/10 etc.) from an E2B drive to a virtual hard disk using VMWare.
The advantage of this process is that a Removable-type USB flash drive will appear in the VM as a Removable drive and thus will load the 'LOADISO.cmd' file in the same way as it runs on a real system. This means you can test E2B with Windows ISOs+Unattend XML files without using a real system.

There is also new page on the E2B site here which describes the process.

This process works using VMWare Player (free) or VMWare WorkStation...

Tuesday 13 February 2018

E2B v1.98f/g BETA

E2B v1.98f BETA (in Alternate Download Area) now has a revised version of the FreeDOS boot image.

The disk image (\_ISO\DOS\MNU\ FreeDos288.ima.gz) is now actually a 7.6MB FAT32 disk image containing FreeDOS.FreeDOS now loads an NTFS driver, EMM386 and a DOS mouse driver. It also contains a selection of FreeDOS utilities.

This means you can just copy a mouse-enabled DOS utility, such as the DOS version of Ghost.exe to your E2B drive, boot to E2B, and then boot to the FreeDOS floppy image from the DOS menu and directly run C:\Ghost.exe directly from your NTFS or FAT32 E2B drive.

Because the FreeDOS image is over 7MB in size and has 5MB of free space available, you can also extract the .ima file and then add your own DOS utilities into the image. See the E2B DOS page for more details.

Wednesday 7 February 2018

Adding Dos programs and utilities to E2B

If you have a DOS (FreeDOS or MS-DOS, etc.) floppy disk image (.ima or .img), you can just directly add it to the E2B drive and it should boot correctly.

If you want to be able to modify the contents, you can use a program like WinImage, or you could convert the image to a FAT32 .imgPTN file.

Using the E2B FreeDos image

E2B includes a FreeDOS disk image as \_ISO\DOS\MNU\Freedos288.IMA.gz.

If you boot to this, you can access and run small DOS programs directly from the E2B drive because the FreeDOS image also loads an NTFS driver and support (sort of!) for long-filename for FAT32.

Sunday 4 February 2018

My YouTube channel has just reached new dizzy heights!


Wow! It seems I am well on the way to making my first $million (not!).
Strange, as it says I have 2500 subscribers on the videos???

Please feel free to subscribe (before it goes back below 1000 again!).

Sunday 28 January 2018

E2B v1.98b/c BETA available

v1.98b BETA is available
v1.98c BETA (small change to QRUN to add NCQ tip message)
v1.98d BETA (small change to QRUN for .isopersist tip messages)
v1.98e BETA FreeDOS floppy image now has increased conventional memory (was 300K, now 530K) so can run larger programs

Download here - if you have problems with Windows Defender, download the .zip version or E2B instead - extract the files and run Make_E2B.exe.

Changes from v1.98a BETA
  • Support for .iso filenames ending in new NCQ suffix (e.g. WinPEx64_ncq.iso)
  • Other v. small changes

About the *NCQ filename suffix

Friday 26 January 2018

Bob Omb's WinPE v1.5 (2018-01-14)

Bob Omb's latest release is v1.5. You can just add the .iso file to E2B as it is a WinBulder-based ISO.

Once at the Desktop, you can use CTRL+TAB to change languages. For a UK keyboard, pick the American flag which is shown immediately after the French flag (there is no UK flag available!). The second American flag shown is for USA (default).

Bob Omb's default desktop

It also works with PEStartup, so you can easily modify the default wallpaper, add your own desktop shortcuts to your own portable apps, drivers and auto-start any applications - see here for more details about PEStartup and how to add it to any WinPE. Note that it may take about a minute or two before PEStartup auto-runs, so be patient.

Sunday 21 January 2018

E2B v1.98a BETA available (with new .isopersist file extension for ubuntu-based ISOs)

v1.98a Beta changes are:
  • patchme script now removes the grub4dos startup message 'If hangup, use 'geometry --lba1sector (128)'
  • Variables SIZE_E2B and SIZE_HD1 can now be used in MyE2B.cfg files in HEADING and FOOTER (size of drive in GB)
  • 'GodMode' folder added to \_ISO\docs\Download URLs for easy access to Windows GodMode list
  • DrWeb900_Persistent.mnu added
  • .isopersist ubuntu file extension supported (no .mnu file required for persistence)

.isopersist file exension details

Thursday 18 January 2018

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Set up a different E2B wallpaper for each menu

It is possible to configure E2B so that each menu loads a different background wallpaper.

For the AUTO and WINDOWS menus, we just need to add these 800x600 files:
  • \_ISO\AUTO.bmp
  • \_ISO\SVR2K8R2.bmp
  • \_ISO\SVR2012.bmp
  • \_ISO\VISTA.bmp
  • \_ISO\WIN7.bmp
  • \_ISO\WIN8.bmp
  • \_ISO\WIN10.bmp
  • \_ISO\SVR2016.bmp
  • \_ISO\WINMENU.bmp (background for the Windows Install Menu - if any of the other Windows .bmp are used, this should also exist)
Note that the file extension should be .bmp, even if the actual contents are .jpg files or .gz or LZMA compressed .bmp files. For instance, you can just rename VISTA.jpg to VISTA.bmp, etc.


For the other 9 menu folders (MAINMENU, DOS, ANTIVIRUS, etc.), we can add a .mnu file to each of the menu folders as described at http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/multiple-backgrounds/

However, I have added an alternative method now which may be easier for you to change and update...

Saturday 13 January 2018

RMPrepUSB v2.1.740 released

v2.1.740 has better support for grub4dos when installing to an exFAT drive and also has the most recent version of WinContig.

Sunday 7 January 2018

MPI Tool Pack v0.079/0.080 released

Just a few small bugs and tidy-ups.

MPI Tool Pack v0.079
  1. Fix CreateDesktopShortcuts.cmd so it now works with Windows systems with a non-standard Desktop path.
  2. Small change to menu.lst for clover boot patch (should have no discernible affect).
  3. Fix menu.lst for detection of 3rd ptn for FreeBSD images when Switch_E2B.exe is used.
Update by downloading and unpacking to your Desktop and then running CreateDesktopShortcuts.cmd again.

MPI Tool Pack v0.080

  1. Update with latest SWITCH_E2B.exe version
  2. Bugfix for when syslinux\isolinux is in root of drive

Thursday 4 January 2018

How to add an animated GIF to your E2B menu

Here is an example of how to add the 'TeaTime' optical illusion animated GIF to E2B.

It takes about 2 minutes!


Adding animation is really quite easy now...