Would you be interested in an eBook for Easy2Boot?

I have started to write an eBook for Easy2Boot  (with pictures!) as several people have requested one.

Currently it has a working title of  'Getting started with Easy2Boot (or how to create a useful multiboot USB drive)'.

The content in the eBook will not be as detailed as on the E2B website (but it will not have all the repetitive text that is on the website pages either!). The eBook is intended to be followed as a 'Course'. It will be aimed at the intermediate Windows user who knows how to copy files and use Windows applications, but is not very familiar with Easy2Boot or using multiboot USB drives.

It starts with a few basic Chapters on E2B and how to make an E2B USB drive, but then has Chapters on:

Add BlackArch LiveCD (MBR+UEFI) to E2B

The BlackArch Linux LiveCD ISO can simply be added to the E2B USB drive (e.g. \_ISO\LINUX\blackarchlinux-live-2017.12.11-x86_64.iso).

Because the file is larger than 4GB, your E2B USB drive will need to be formatted as NTFS.

This will allow us to Legacy\MBR boot, but what about UEFI-booting to BlackArch Linux?

Well, the E2B grub2 menu system will UEFI-boot from the ISO, but what if we want to use a .imgPTN file instead?

We cannot simply drag-n-drop the blackarchlinux-live-2017.12.11-x86_64.iso file onto the MPI_FAT32 Desktop shortcut to make a .imgPTN file, because there is a large (>4GB) .sfs file inside the ISO.

Here is how to add BlackArch Linux to your E2B USB drive (preferably a large E2B USB HDD) and both UEFI and MBR boot to it.

Instructions

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.

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.

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]

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.

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

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.

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