Easy2Boot and XBMCBuntu

I have added a new .mnu file that can be used with an XMBCBuntu 12.2 ISO file to allow you to run XBMCBuntu with persistence. Please read the text in the .mnu file for details. The .mnu file is at the bottom of the Tutorial 72a page.

Puppy linux for E2B with persistence

If you want the 'Save on Exit' feature to work for Puppy Linux ISOs, you will need to add a .mnu file.

I have added two .mnu files to the bottom of the Tutorial 72a E2B page. One is for E2B USB HDDs and the other is for E2B USB Flash drives.

The .mnu file is for Puppy 5.4.3 but you can easily edit it for any other version just by changing the ISO filename.

For USB HDDs the cheat code pmedia=usbhd is required. For USB Flash drives the cheat code pmedia=usbflash is required. These codes are already in the .mnu file.

Puppy seems to work well on my Acer 7741G notebook. Audio, Video, trackpad scroll bar support and WiFi all worked on first boot.

RMPrepUSB v2.1.708 - Change partition type menu option added

V2.1.708 is now available. It has the latest grub4dos version (compatible with E2B v1.04) and also has a new menu option to change the primary partition type number.

This new option was added primarily to allow people to format a USB drive with a FAT32 partition and then use the new menu option to change the type to EEh which is the partition type number for EFI partitions. This means you can now create an EFI FAT32 partition which will boot to grub4dos if you install grub4dos, and boot to an EFI OS or secondary bootloader if you install rEFInd or gummiboot.

Easy2Boot v1.04 (minor changes)

The new version has only minor changes (not worth updating if you already have E2B working OK).

1. DPMS2 - minor changes to fix some issues with some drivers.
2. Improved grldr version warning
3. XP Installs Step 2 now allows user to press D or A to debug or abort

P.S. new version RMPrepUSB 2.1.708 installs the same version of grub4dos as used by E2B.

E2B v1.03 available (includes DPMS2)

Easy2Boot v1.03 can now be downloaded here.

It is essentially v1.01 of E2B + DPMS2 + small changes/bugfixes:

1. DPMS2 added (but not the mass storage drivers - you must download and add these files yourself)
2. New grub4dos version - files/folders can now be sorted alphabetically and are NOT case sensitive (bugfix in grub4dos).
3. Bugfix for large HDDs (>1TB) - E2B reported bad BIOS when it wasn't!
4. Change to XP Step 1 install code - now correct choice is automatically made for the user for most questions.

DPMS 2 Update Package now available!

Update: You can now download Easy2Boot+DPMS2 in one download - see Tutorial 72a for the link.

Using E2B and a vanilla unmodified XP ISO, you can now install to any SATA/RAID/SCSI system without needing to integrate the mass storage drivers into the ISO!

Auto-F6 SRS floppies made. Adds [Config.xxx] sections to txtsetup.oem so should work with scsi drives too.

If using an E2B USB-HDD and FiraDisk then you need to load the ISO into memory (answer Y to the question just after DPMS2 runs).

If using an E2B USB-flash drive and FiraDisk then you don't need to load the ISO into memory (just press Enter or let it timeout).

Includes improved alphabetical menu sort code for E2B.

Instructions on how to use it here.

You can disable alphabetical sorting of menus (if you find it too slow), by adding

set NOSORT=1

to your MyE2B.cfg file.

DPMS 2 coming soon!

I have heavily modified chenalls DPMS script during the last week and have been testing it on both virtual and real hardware.
In VBOX I have tested in IDE, SATA(AHCI ICH8) and SCSI systems. These all install XP correctly in text-mode and GUI Mode.
I also tested on a real ICH8 notebook in IDE and SATA mode with success.
I have had to test using Firadisk and WinVBlock drivers so this doubled the testing.
I have also added code to copy the PnpInstances section over to the txtsetup.oem file, so it should work with most SCSI systems.
I have got to the stage now where it all works but the code is not pretty!
I should be able to make the early package for E2B available for anyone who has made donations soon.
I will then be making some YouTube videos demonstrating E2B and the DPMS auto-detection feature and after a month or so I will release the DPMS Update package for everyone.
It has been a hard week and there have been lots of frustrations (twice I 'broke' the code without realising it until later and then spent a day on each problem trying to find out what had gone wrong!) - really frustrating!
David B's VM Starter app has certainly helped as I can boot from my USB on VBox and have full read/write access to the USB stick.

The new DPMS 2 batch file also copies the F6 floppy txtsetup.oem's and directory listings to some log files on the USB stick. This will help in the event of any problems found by users as they can just send me these 'log' files.

Here is the DPMS output on a VBOX SCSI system.

Description of txtsetup.oem files for F6 floppy disks for Windows XP Mass Storage drivers

When you make your own txtsetup.oem file, you can just combine several txtsetup.oem files by simply joining them in Notepad.

There are some rules for txtsetup.oem and I will explain the syntax by highlighting the bits that need to match:

KEY
DriverKey - different Config sections can be defined for each driver
Service      - matches the driver name (convention that drivers use)
ID              - ID of the device which may have more than one PCI ID

So in the txtsetup.oem file below, the keys which are the same colour need to match each other. You may find that in some txtsetup.oem files, both the ID and the DriverKey are the same, but they don't need to be!
[Disks]
d1="DPMS Installation Disk by chenall(diskd)",\disk1,\

[scsi]
iastor7="Intel ICH9/ICH10 SATA AHCI/RAID RST 11.2"

[Files.scsi.iastor7]
inf=d1,iaAHCI.inf
catalog=d1,iaAHCI.cat
driver=d1,iastor.sys,iastor6

[HardwareIds.scsi.iastor7]
id="PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3B29&CC_0106","iastor"

[Config.iastor6]
value = parameters\PnpInterface,5,REG_DWORD,1

[Defaults]
scsi=iastor7

If you want to specify a default driver, just have one entry (as shown) in the [Defaults] section and only have one [Defaults] section in the whole file.

\disk1 is a file that must be on the source F6 floppy disk. XP will identify which floppy the driver is on by looking for this file.

The PCI IDs used in txtsetup.oem is NOT checked by Setup - whatever driver you tell it to load is loaded by Setup - if the driver reports that if failed to load or recognise your hardware, Setup will report a problem.

If you want to add more txtsetup.oem files, just add them on to the existing txtsetup.oem file, one after the other (but just have one [Defaults] section).

Note that the driver.sys name MUST match the 'service' name used in the HardwareID driver line.

You can only have one driver= line (any others will be ignored).

Note that the (single) driver.sys file specified in the driver= line will be the one copied over to the hard disk. Therefore, this needs to be the one that is mentioned in the INF file, otherwise XP GUI Mode setup will complain about a driver missing from C:\Windows\OEMDir at about the 34 minute mark!

However, if you want to copy across more driver files than just the one allowed per section (or any type and number of extra files), just add more 'catalog=d1,fred.sys' lines, as many as you like! The files specified will then be copied across to the hard disk C:\Windows\OEMDir folder.

For FiraDisk:

[Disks]

d1="DPMS Installation Disk by chenall(diskf)",\disk1,\ 

[scsi]

firadisk=FiraDisk_Driver

[HardwareIds.scsi.firadisk]

id="PCI\firadisk","firadisk"

[Files.scsi.firadisk]

inf=d1,firadisk.inf

catalog=d1,firadisk.cat

driver=d1,firadisk.sys,firadisk

[Defaults]

scsi=firadisk

Loading two drivers automatically (without pressing F6)

You can get XP to automatically load by default both an AHCI driver AND FiraDisk by having almost IDENTICAL floppy disks each containing ALL of the files needed by both the AHCI driver and the FiraDisk driver. Both disks should have the same identifying disk tag file (e.g. disk1 in this case).

The ONLY difference is that in one txtsetup.oem you set the [Defaults] section to your AHCI driver, and on the other txtsetup.oem file you set the [Default] to Firadisk.

(in fact, the txtsetup.oems don't have to have the non-default sections - e.g. on the FiraDisk default txtsetup.oem you can remove all the AHCI driver sections if you want to).

XP text-mode setup will get confused if you don't use the same disk name tag file for both disks and have the same files on both disks, so you need to have all the driver files on both disks so that 'Drive A:' (which is whatever it accessed last just before the 'copyfiles' stage) will always contain the correct files when it tries to copy them from the F6 floppy just after formatting the internal hard disk. (It is just possible to have different disk tag files but you will still need both sets of drivers on each disk and you have to swap over the disk tags (i.e. disk0 oemsetup has 'disk1' as a tag and disk1 oemsetup has 'disk0' as a tag). It is MUCH easier just to use the same tag file and same contents on both disks!

For more details about txtsetup.oem syntax, see here - but it does not mention the fact that the driver.sys name must be the same as the SERVICE name.

I hope this saves someone hours of work!

cheers


Steve

E2B DPMS package available for testing

Easy2Boot Upgrade DPMS package (BETA) now available for BETA testers only!

News - July 2013: New DPMS2 is now integrated in Easy2Boot and it is automatic - no need to press F6!

This enhances the current XP install from ISO menu. If you add the updated E2B files and download and add the DriverPack Mass Storage driver package (approx. 8MB download but 50MB when unzipped) you will have the option to autodetect the correct AHCI/SATA/RAID driver.

The DPMS package from chenall (and heavily modified by me) will auto-generate the F6 floppy disk image with the correct driver files. This MassStorage download seems the most bug free at the moment...

DP_MassStorage_wnt5_x86-32_1306202.7z - 9.18 MB a9922b31453aec34d46bdea5eb5a916f4f03589c

Or try Chenalls latest DPMS and just extract the D folder and DriverPack.ini (not dpms.bat!).

The installation method is still the same - you must manually use F6 and select the AHCI driver + Firadisk driver ( + WinVBlock driver (optional)) - however usually there will only be one AHCI driver present in the F6 list, so you will not have to guess which one to pick! Also, as the DriverPack contains non-Intel drivers, E2B XP installs from ISO should now work on non-Intel AHCI platforms.

Instructions are in the ReadMe.txt file.

News: After hours of hair pulling and midnight oil, I have a DPMS version now which loads firadisk AND the AHCI driver automatically (no F6 press required)! It is integrated in the Easy2Boot v1 download.

cheers
Steve

E2B Upgrade Package available

If anyone has made a PayPal donation to me for E2B or has contributed to its development, I would like to reward them with the E2B Upgrade Package. This is currently at v1.01 and the idea is that any further developments of E2B will go into this Upgrade Package.
The first version is v1.01 and will modify E2B so it lists the menus in alphabetical (alphanumeric) order.
So all you need to do is rename your ISOs to re-arrange the listing order, e.g.

_1fred.iso
_2doris.iso
_3george.iso
_4debian.iso
_5plop.iso

etc.

To have nice titles, just make a .txt file for them, e.g.:

_1fred.txt
=======

title This runs fred direct from the iso \n This is help text for fred

If you have any .mnu files, you can also cause their entries to be listed in sequence too, just by changing the name of the .mnu file - e.g. _1Ubuntu_with_Persistence.mnu  would be listed before the other .mnu entries. You can even rename the SubMenuxxxxx.mnu files in the MainMenu folder to change the order they are listed in.

Depending on the MNUFIRST setting in your MyE2B.cfg config file, either all payload (ISO) files will be listed alphanumerically first in the main menu or all .mnu file entries will be listed first. You cannot have .iso files interspersed with .mnu files in a menu.