Tuesday 29 October 2013

Easy2Boot v1.16 + DPMS2 now available

E2B v1.16 is the same code as 1.15e. Just an extra demo theme added for 'beep' and keeping the background displayed has been added to the \_ISO\docs folder.
I have also updated the link in Tutorial 72a for E2Bv1.16+DPMS2 mass storage drivers.
If you already have v1.15e there is no need to update.

Saturday 26 October 2013

How to make your USB drive Write-protected under Windows

Many of you may be aware that recent versions of Diskpart (after WinXP) have the ability to set 'Read-Only' attributes on a disk or volume. I decided to investigate this feature a bit more thoroughly and this is what I have found. If you already know about this feature then don't stop reading, what I discovered may surprise you!

First, we have to distinguish between the two types that Windows separates 'disks' into - namely 'Removable' and 'Fixed'.

Now in the case of USB Flash Drives (UFDs), most of these are classed as 'Removable'. In the case of USB Hard Disks (UHDs) these are all (??) classed as 'Fixed' (or 'Local' in Explorer). RMPrepUSB will indicate which type of disk it is when you select it. Diskpart will list the types if you use the 'LIST VOLUME' command - you will see either 'Removable' or 'Partition'...

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 1     I                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 2     G                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 3     D   HDD DRIVE_D  NTFS   Partition     10 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4     C   HDD DRIVE_C  NTFS   Partition    222 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 5     Z   HDD1_500GB   NTFS   Partition    465 GB  Healthy    Pagefile
  Volume 6     F   SSD HARD DI  NTFS   Partition    111 GB  Healthy    Pagefile
  Volume 7     H   LEXAR JD     FAT    Partition     15 MB  Healthy
  Volume 8     J   USBPEN       FAT32  Removable   1992 MB  Healthy


We can list disks in Diskpart using;
LIST DISK
We can list volumes in Diskpart using:
LIST VOL
We can select a disk or volume using:
SEL VOL 8   or    SEL VOL J   or
SEL DISK 3
We can see what the RO status is using
DETAIL DISK or DETAIL VOL

Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only  : Yes

Note that the Current Read-only State signifies the current state in Windows and not the state of the disk - for instance, if there is a physical write-protect switch on the USB drive which is set to 'Lock', then the Current Read-only State may be Yes, even if the actual disk state is write-enabled (Read-only : No).

Once we have selected a disk or volume, we can set or clear the Readonly attribute.

Attribute disk set readonly
Attribute disk clear readonly
Attribute vol set readonly
Attribute vol clear readonly

So under Diskpart we have two options when setting 'ReadOnly' status and we have two types of 'disk'.

Here is what happens in each of these 4 cases:

1. Type=Removable, Set Disk=RO
Diskpart makes a change to the Windows Registry - no change is made to any sectors on the disk.

2. Type=Removable, Set Volume=RO
N/A - Diskpart will refuse to run as the disk is removable.

3. Type=Fixed, Set Disk=RO
Diskpart makes a change to the Windows Registry - no change is made to any sectors on the disk.

4. Type=Fixed, Set Volume=RO
Diskpart makes a change to the Windows Registry AND changes the disk contents.
If the drive is an MBR type (not GPT) then all volumes are marked as write-protected.
The MBR and all sectors up to the Partition Boot Record are not protected by Windows however.
If you connect the USB drive to a different Windows system (even a WinXP system), you will not be able to copy files to any volume on the drive. This also applies to UFDs that appear as 'Fixed' disks to Windows.

Now you may be already aware of this behaviour. However, I decided to investigate what disk contents were changed in Scenario 4 above. This was quite easy using RMPrepUSB. I simply made a single 20MB FAT16 partition on a Lexar Jumpdrive UFD that had it's Removable Media bit flipped using the Lexar BooIt.exe utility so that appeared as a Fixed Disk, and then used the RMPrepUSB - Drive->File button to save an image of all sectors up to the end of the partition. I then used Diskpart to set the Volume to Read-only and saved another image and then compared the two images.

The results were rather surprising. Diskpart had completely overwritten the contents of LBA2 (the 3rd sector) of the UFD! It had written 24 bytes of data followed by 488 bytes of 0's to fill the sector. Even if you have boot manager code in this sector, it is overwritten by Diskpart! Luckily this does not seem to stop grub4dos from booting if it was already installed to the MBR and pre-PBR disk sectors.

The bytes that were written were: 
0000 A2 A0 D0 EB E5 B9 33 44 - 87 C0 68 B6 B7 26 99 C7  ¢ Ðëå¹3D ‡Àh¶·&™Ç
0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ....... ........
0's etc. etc.

These bytes don't seem to vary, even when Diskpart sets Volume RO status on a 2TB NTFS multi-partition UHD.

However, I found that if you write-protected a 'Fixed' disk Lexar UFD in this way and then 'flipped' the Removable Media Bit to make it a 'Removable' drive again, Windows XP-Win8 no longer treats the volume as write-protected. So this special read-only marker sector only works on 'Fixed' disks and not on 'Removable' disks. :-(

So what if we format a 'Fixed Disk' UFD with RMPrepUSB, install grub4dos to the MBR, and then 'blat' LBA2 with the 'write-protect' sector data... Yep - works fine! The volume is write protected and we cannot copy files to it. If you try to format it in Windows then it won't format it:



However, as the MBR and early sectors are not protected by Windows, we get a strange result if you try to re-partition it using RMPrepUSB. RMPrepUSB erases the early sectors, but then Windows prevents it from erasing the Partition Boot Record and RMPrepUSB returns an error. The volume, PBR and all files are still present. However, if you unplug the USB drive and re-connect it, because LBA2 is now wiped by RMPrepUSB, the USB drive is no longer 'Read-only' and so we can partition and format it using any utility.
You get similar strange results in Disk Manager, which can seem to unformat the partition and return it to 'RAW' status, but not re-format it until the Read-only status has been removed using Diskpart!

So it seems we cannot use this Diskpart Attribute feature to write-protect Removable UFDs... what a pity! If however, you have a UFD that is of the 'Fixed' disk type or you 'flip-the-RMB-bit' using a utility like BootIt (which only works on some Lexar and Netac UFDs and a few other types), then you can have a protected volume using this feature.

P.S. If you have a 'Removable' USB drive, you can hide a partition containing your files by making a drive with two Primary partitions using Easeus Partition Master and then use the RMPrepUSB - Ctrl-O feature to swap Windows access between the two partitions. This does not stop someone from re-partitioning it however and modern Win10 systems can now access all partitions on a Removable drive anyway.

You can write-protect some SD cards and Flash drives if you use the correct special factory utility to reprogram it. This process is not without risk however, and you could end up 'bricking' your flash drive or SD card. You must always use the correct tool. See here.

File Permissions (NTFS)

To protect all files from alteration under Windows, you can change the Windows file permissions on all files on a USB drive.

First select the USB drive in Windows Explorer - right-click and select Properties and then the Security tab. Now click the Edit button and untick the Full Control, Modify and Write boxes - then click on OK. All files on the drive will have their permissions changed. Windows can still add new files but cannot modify or delete any of the existing files. Unfortunately, these permissions are ignored by (most?) linux distros and grub4dos.



Note: If you have a USB HDD with multiple partitions, you can hide any of them from Windows (not linux) by using BootIce - Manage Part - select partition - Hide. When you next connect the USB drive the partition will be hidden. if you unhide it with BootIce, it will immediately be unhidden.

Further reading: 'How to fix Write-protected Read-only drives and SD cards'


Write-Protect NTFS drives

NTFS Drive Protection is  small Windows executable that can change the NTFS permissions on an NTFS volume. You can use this to write-protect a USB drive, but it also allows for some folders on the drive to be read/write whilst all others are read-only.



Keep this on yout USB drive and run it just before you connect the USB drive to an infected system.



E2B v1.15d

In v1.15c, if you reloaded the main menu, then the hotkey codes like ^Ctrl+B etc were displayed in the Menus and hotkeys didn't work. This is now fixed in v1.1d.
Also I found FASTLOAD was not working. This also now fixed in v1.1d

Thanks to Krishna for reporting the bug.

v1.15e will also beep when the FASTLOAD Main menu loads if beep is set.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Easy2Boot v1.15c

v1.15c includes a few tweaks for people who don't like the grub4dos messages during E2B boot-up.

patchme has been revised so that you can now optionally disable the grub4dos version header at the top of the screen which briefly appears whenever grub4dos loads a new menu file - previously, for a brief few milliseconds, you may have noticed this text at the top of the screen (or part of it).

GRUB4DOS 0.4.5c 2013-10-17, Mem: 636K/1022M/0M, End: 34C2AB

The new version of patchme will remove (optionally) this message and all of the other grub4dos startup messages. This means that a system can boot to E2B with no text messages at all once you have patched it with patchme.

The other changes are to do with startup messages too. Using settings in your MyE2B.cfg file, you can enable the background image to be displayed as soon as it is loaded - any progress messages will be displayed over the top of the background (the only drawback is that the screen won't scroll properly if the cursor gets to the bottom of the screen - so if you have lots of files, set redir=> nul to prevent them all from being listed). An example is shown below (the console text has been set to white in the MyE2B.cfg file in this case):


Alternatively, you can just have a pure blank screen (of whatever colour you have set the standard console background colour too, default=black) right up until the Main menu is displayed. Except for the first few milliseconds, no cursor is displayed either.

As usual the Sample_MyE2B.cfg file contains all the settings details. Here are a few of the relevant lines from it:

#Examples
### Use this line for a blank screen startup with no progress messages
### Tip: use patchme to prevent grub4dos messages (see \_ISO\docs\PatchMe_readMe.txt)
#call Fn.70 0 ;; clear ;; call Fn.5 0 128 ;; set redirp=> nul ;; set redir=> nul
#
### Use this line to display the background image as early as possible with a few progress messages
#call Fn.70 3 ;; set redir=> nul 
#
### Use this line to display the background image as early as possible with no startup messages except an initial quick 'Please wait...' message
#call Fn.70 3 ;; set redir=> nul ;; set redirp=> nul ;; debug -1 ;; pause --wait=1 Please wait... ;; debug 0

Experiment with any one of these three options to see which one you like the best for your E2B project.

Note that you need v1.15c for these to work properly - it can be found at the bottom of Tutorial 72a as usual.



Wednesday 23 October 2013

bump - please update to E2B v1.15b

Just in case you subscribe to this blog, E2B v1.15 has been updated a few times since yesterday and is now at 1.15b. It includes a bugfix for FASTLOAD which was broken in v1.15.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Easy2Boot v1.15b available (bugfixes)


  • bugfix - Krishna reported that it no longer works if you have 2 partitions and swap them over. Now fixed.
  • bugfix - payload files in the \_ISO\AUTO folder were not enumerated below the first folder level. Now fixed.
  • feature - Menus should now not show the menu item number at the top right of each menu when using the cursor keys.
  • bugfix - PTN2_Menu.mnu in \_ISO\docs\Sample Menu files now checks for the non-E2B partition even if you have swapped partitions over using E2B_PTN_SWAP.mnu to change over the two partitions.
Please update to the new version. Sorry for the bugs!

Few more bugs found - 1.15b is now the latest!

Monday 21 October 2013

Easy2Boot v1.14 available


  • Just some extra variable tweaks added for those of you that really want to play around with the menu structure!
  • Also added a 'beep' feature - when the Main menu loads, you can make it beep 1 to 3 times by setting the beep variable in your MyE2B.cfg file.
  • If only one XP ISO, or only one Vista/7/SVR2K8 xml file is found, then it will now be automatically selected for you so you are not presented with a choice of 1 thing!
  • Menu numbering can be turned off (AUTONUM=0)
  • more global hotkey examples added to Sample_MyE2B.cfg
  • New WinInstMain theme template example added to docs folder
As always, look in the Sample_MyE2B.cfg file for all the new tweaks and settings.
The web page for E2B (72a) has been updated to match v 1.14 features.

Let me know if you find any bugs!

P.S. Some bugs were found. Now v1.15 is available!

cheers
Steve

Sample_MyE2B.cfg  v1.14


!BAT
# IMPORTANT: This file MUST begin with !BAT

# PLEASE READ www.rmprepusb.com - Tutorial #72a for full details

# --- THIS FILE CAN BE COPIED TO \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg and then edited to change E2B ---

#      To use your own settings, change the language, words, startup behaviour, etc.
#      copy this file to MyE2B.cfg
#
#
# HELP USING THIS .CFG FILE
#   # symbols comment out a line - do not remove!
#   ### means you can uncomment and use ### lines - they should contain a command
#
#   e.g.
#       #  Auto menu      - this should not be uncommented - do not delete the # symbol
#       ###set DEFM_MNU=0 - this can be uncommented and changed by the user


# If you want to get rid of any early startup messages displayed by E2B use clear
### clear

# set cursor off the screen so no text or cursor is seen for a while (cursor set to column 0  row 128!)
### call Fn.5 0 128

### AUTONUM=0x0000   sets autonumbering off, 0x2001 sets numbering on with a space (default), use 0x2d01 for hyphen 
#set AUTONUM=0x2001

#If you really want to use a gfxmenu then specify the 'message' file here
#There are many gfxmenu limitations include (if error goes to text mode, no timeout or default option, number of isos cannot be displayed)
#Place your gfxmenu file in the /_ISO folder - see Tut 72a for details.
set GFX=
###set GFX=message

# Text-mode menu (no wallpaper) - suppresses graphicsmode (must use 'none')
# Try these settings if using text mode - set HBTM=2301 set HCOLOUR=0104 set FCOLOUR=0104
# Try these text colours - color normal=0x%lgrey%%%lcyan%   highlight=0x%cyan%%%red%  helptext=0x%lgrey%%%yellow%  standard=0x%black%%%lcyan% border=0x%red%
###set GFX=none

#Turn off alphabetical sorting of menu entries (speeds up enumeration of menus slightly)
###set NOSORT=1

# ------------ HEADING AND FOOTER TEXT COLOUR ---------

# HCOLOUR sets the colour of the HEADING and FOOTER TEXT text 
# HCOLOUR=ABCD specifies the text colour  [BLINK|BRIGHT|BACKGROUND|FOREGROUND]
# A=0/1 1 = BLINK text (does not work under VM)
# B=0/1 1 = BRIGHT colour for foreground text
# C=0-7 = BACKGROUND colour - transparent if graphics mode so has no effect!
# D=0-7 = FOREGROUND menu text colour
# Colours parameters are: 0=black/grey 1=dark blue, 2=green, 3=aqua, 4=dark red, 5=pink, 6=yellow/brown, 7=grey/white.
# e.g. 0133 is non-blinking bright aqua text (on a dark aqua background if not in graphics mode)
set HCOLOUR=0133
set FCOLOUR=0133

# set the version number (is set by E2B already) - used in HEADING (see %VER% below)
###set VER=

#                  --------- MENU HEADINGS -----
#
# Headings must be between two \x20 and between 58 and 78 characters long - but not more than 78 or will get line wrapover if in 640x480 mode
#                          1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8
#              \x202345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890\x20
#                                                                           XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  <- text must end in this area!
#
set    HEADING=\x20              EASY2BOOT V1 - MAIN MENU  (%VER%)                       \x20

#Heading and Help for DIRECT AUTO menu
set HDRAUTO=DIRECT BOOT Menu  [D] (\_ISO\AUTO) 
set HDRAUTOH=Boot any file in the \_ISO\AUTO folder and below.
if not "%GFX%"=="" set HDRAUTO=DIRECT BOOT Menu      (\_ISO\AUTO)

# WINDOWS INSTALL menu
set   HDG_WIN=\x20            --- INSTALL WINDOWS FROM AN ISO ---             \x20
# set the Default menu entry to be pre-selected in the Windows menu
set  DEFM_WIN=0
# OTHER WINDOWS MENU HEADINGS
set HDG_VISTA=\x20                --- Windows Vista install ---               \x20
set   HDG_2K8=\x20               --- Server 2008 R2 install ---               \x20
set     HDG_7=\x20                   --- Windows 7 install ---                \x20 
set     HDG_8=\x20                   --- Windows 8 install ---                \x20
set  HDG_2012=\x20                  --- Server 2012 Install ---               \x20

# HELP TEXT AT BOTTOM OF MOST MENUs
# use \x20 for no text at the bottom of the menus - e.g. set HELPTEXT=\x20
set HELPTEXT=HDD0 [F7]   Back [F8]   Reboot [F9]   Power Off [F10] www.RMPrepUSB.com

#  ----- GRAPHICS MODE AND WALLPAPER -----
# set graphics mode - use 640, or 800 or 1024 - or specify full mode - e.g. 800 600 24
# 640 and 800 is supported by the default background bitmap
set GMODE=800
set MYWBMP=/_ISO/mybackground.bmp
set MYWBMPGZ=/_ISO/mybackground.bmp.gz

# -------- MENU COLOURS -------

# Colour pairs are Text/Background - i.e cyan/blue = cyan text on blue background
# Use black if a transparent background is required for menu highlight background - e.g. highlight=red/black
# Valid colours are: black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, brown, light-gray, dark-gray, light-blue, light-green, light-cyan, light-red, light-magenta, yellow and white.
#  normal    = normal menu text
#  highlight = highlighted menu text when a menu entry is selected
#  helptext  = the colour of the title help text shown just below the menu box
#  standard  = the console background and text colours (e.g. when listing files)
#  border    = the colour of the border of the menu box

color normal=light-cyan/black highlight=red/cyan helptext=yellow/black standard=light-cyan/black border=light-gray/black

# You can also set a full colour value 24-bit as 0xRRGGBB, the value must be larger than 0xFF to work correctly however
# the background colour will be set to black (transparent in graphics mode menus)
# See http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm
# Red=0xFF0000   Green=0x00FF00   Blue=0x0100FF  (must be larger than FF so add 01 to red!), Yellow=0xFFFF00, White=0xffffff, Brown=0x994c00
### color border=0xFF0000
### color normal=0x777700
### color highlight=0xffffff

# ----- MENU POSITION ---

# If using 640 or 800 x-resolution - the settings below will change automatically depending on GMODE value set above
# word_spacing line_spacing border_width top_help number_of_items_in_menu top_start menu_width right_start_pos_of_menu
# use tophelp=topstart+noitems for menu help text just under menu box
set wdspace=0
set lnspace=0
set topstart=2
set rstart=3
set noitems=18
set menuw=62
set bdwidth=1
set tophelp=20

# -- FOOTER HELP TEXT POSITION ---
#Bottom Easy2Boot HELPTEXT position YYXX
set HBTM=2800

# --- AUTOMATICALLY CHANGE border parameters if 800x600 set, else don't change -----
if "%GMODE%"=="800" set noitems=24
if "%GMODE%"=="800" set tophelp=26
# if in 800 hres set, put bottom help text lower down - 36 lines if 800 mode
if "%GMODE%"=="800" set HBTM=3501

#   ---- PASSWORD PROTECTION -----

#The line below will set a password of 'easy2boot' to stop users editing the menus accidentally (encrypted)
#You can use en encrypted md5 value or a plain text value (see Tutorial 72a for details)
#If YOU want to edit the menus, press p and then enter the password (you can use an unencypted password like this: 'set pwd=fred')
set pwd=--md5 $1$1$okAQ3AJUdhqf3TVrwKvJP1
###set pwd=fred

:mpwd
#If you want to set a Master password for Easy2Boot to prevent anyone from using it 
#(e.g. 'fred') uncomment and edit the following 2 lines (you can use --md5 format if you wish)
###password fred || echo -e \x20WRONG PASSWORD! && goto :mpwd
###echo

#To reboot if the password is wrong, change        goto :mpwd    to     reboot

#Tip: For better security, use 7Zip to compress this file to GZip format (keep the filename as MyE2B.cfg) or use lzma.exe (See Tut 72a for details)
# and set it's file attribute to 'Hidden'.

# ---- KEYBOARD TYPE -----
#set which keyboard you are using (one only!) - see the KBD_xxxx.g4b files in the grub folder if you want to modify the key mapping
###set KBD=KBD_AZERTY.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_FRENCH.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_GERMAN.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_ITALIANO.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_JAPAN_106.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_QWERTY_UK.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_QWERTZ.g4b
###set KBD=KBD_SPANISH.G4B
###set KBD=KBD_QWERTY_UK.g4b

#  ----- REDUCE MEMORY USAGE -----
#This disables the loading of batch file modules into memory for faster execution (so MOD=1 may slower)
#if too many files or variables cause grub4dos to crash then uncomment the line
###set MOD=1

# SUPPRESS STARTUP FILE ENUMERATION MESSAGES from AD2FMM.g4b, AUTOMN.g4b, etc.
###set redir=> nul

# SUPPRESS E2B MENU.LST STARTUP MESSAGES (not recommended)
###set redirp=> nul

# If file extension is .ISO ask user how to run it (e.g. run as if .ISOPE or .ISOWINVH, etc.)
# Use if you have a Zalman Virtual CD USB HDD caddy and you want to keep all .iso files as .iso (tip: use a .txt file with a help entry to remind you which one works best!)
### set ISOASK=1

# If DEFMENU=0 then the '0 Set default menu entry' menu item in the Main menu will not be listed
### set DEFMENU=0

# If NOUNIFONT=1 then the unifont font file is not loaded (to save time) but only ASCII characters will be displayed
# You can then delete the 1MB \_ISO\e2b\grub\unifont.hex.gz file if you wish
### set NOUNIFONT=1

# If NOF7HD is set then the Boot from HDD0 F7 menu entry is suppressed in all menus (delete MAINMENU\ZZZF7BootHdd.mnu if not wanted in Main menu)
### set NOF7HD=0

# If the NOF8B is set then the Windows menu will not display F8 Back to Main Menu (delete MAINMENU\ZZZF8ReloadMenu.mnu if not wanted in Main menu)
### set NOF8B=0

# If NOF9R is set then the F9 Reboot menu item will not be listed in any menu (remember to change HELPTEXT too)
### set NOF9R=1

# If NOF10H is set then the F10 Power Off/Halt menu item will not be listed in any menu (remember to change HELPTEXT too)
### set NOF10H=1

# If NOFLMENU is set then the Refresh FASTLOAD cache Main menu entry will be suppressed
### set NOFLMENU=1

# NOWMENU causes a Windows Install sub-sub menu to return back to the Main menu rather than return to the Windows Install menu
### set NOWMENU=1

# ---- GLOBAL HOTKEYS (applies to all menus) ------

# clear all global hotkeys and reload the hotkey program (only really useful in other menus) 
### ()/%grub%/hotkey -u > nul ;; ()/%grub%/hotkey > nul

# Program hotkeys to work in ALL menus - no menu entry is required. Some examples below
# add global hotkeys - examples only - use ;; or && to separate commands
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [F9] "reboot" > nul
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [F10] "halt" > nul
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [Ctrl+F9] "clear ;; echo \nLoading Windows menu... ;; configfile /_ISO/e2b/grub/menuwininstall.lst" > nul
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [ctrl+f7] "clear && echo $[0004] \n\nPress a key to reboot\n && pause && reboot" > nul
# Set hotkey for FASTLOAD Refresh - only use if /FASTLOAD.YES is present
### if exist (bd)/FASTLOAD.YES ()/%grub%/hotkey [Ctrl+R] "clear && echo REFRESH > /FASTLOAD.YES && configfile /%grub%/menu.lst" > nul
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [F8] "configfile (md)0xa000+0x50" > nul
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [F8] "configfile (bd)/%grub%/menu.lst" > nul

### clear only one global hotkey setting (can be used in .mnu files or .hdr and .lst files - e.g. MenuWininstall.lst)
### ()/%grub%/hotkey [F9] > nul

# Information: \_ISO\menu_defaults.txt will fix which initial main menu default entry will be highlighted and the timeout in seconds.
# Only use if you set DEFMENU to suppress the 'Set default menu entry'
# e.g. use these 3 lines for the first menu item as default and no timeout 
#      (to prevent the menu number being displayed at the top of the screen add debug 0 to the file)
### # fix the default entry and timeout (debug 0 prevents menu item number at top right from being displayed)
### default 0
### timeout -1
### debug 0

# Beep when Main menu loads, values 1, 2 or 3 only (only works if internal speaker fitted to system)
### set beep=3


Joke: 
Q: What did John McEnroe say to Padfoot at the Hogwarts tennis courts?
A: 'You cannot be Sirius!'



Sunday 20 October 2013

beep! beep! (in grub4dos)

I had a request today from a blind person who wanted the grub4dos menu to beep when it loaded so that he would know when the countdown timer had begun. He was following my 'Tutorial 89 - Automated Windows partition backup\restore boot menu using CloneZilla' and wanted to be able to hit F4 and automatically restore his system.

Unfortunately not all hardware is fitted with a small internal speaker or internal 'beeper'. Most PCs are however - this is the thing that you may hear beep when you switch on your PC or it may beep several times if you have dislodged the DIMM memory cards!

Assuming that your PC does have an internal beeper, we can make it beep by sending a Ctrl-G character to the 'console'.

In grub4dos, we can use the internal function Fn.2 to send Ctrl-G to the 'display' as follows:

call Fn.2 7

This will work if you place it at the top of your menu before any graphicsmode or splashimage calls are made, because the display must be in low-res text mode (CGA) for this to work. So if you want to try this make sure you type graphicsmode 3 first if you are already in hi-res mode after loading a hi-res background bitmap! Of course, as this is a hardware 'beep', it won't work in an emulator or VM either.

We can flash the screen white and beep 3 times using the code below, as long as it is at the start of our menu.lst file (all one line).

color standard 0xF1 && clear && call Fn.2 7 && call Fn.2 7 && call Fn.2 7 && pause --wait=3 > nul && color standard 0xf && clear

If you don't want to see a flashing cursor use:
call Fn.5 0 128 
after the first 'clear' command, this sends the cursor off the screen to row 128! It will also mean that if the calls to Fn.2 produces any odd characters, they won't be seen.

However, once we have switched to a hi-res graphics mode, this trick of sending Ctrl-G to the 'display' will no longer work. Instead we will have to call the BIOS directly to output Ctrl-G to the console.

We can do this using the nice little grub4dos executable 'bios' from Chenall (download the bios.zip from here).

To make 3 beeps, each one second apart in any resolution screen mode, we can use this (assuming the bios executable is in the root of the drive):

/bios int=0x10 eax=0xe07 ebx=0x0 > nul
pause --wait=1 > nul
/bios int=0x10 eax=0xe07 ebx=0x0 > nul
pause --wait=1 > nul
/bios int=0x10 eax=0xe07 ebx=0x0 > nul

Most notebooks and many 'All-in-One' PCs are not fitted with an internal speaker though, so we can't make an annoying noise on every system that we boot from...



Friday 18 October 2013

Easy2Boot - How to add specific Win7/8 Install ISO entries to the E2B Main Menu

Recently, I was asked if E2B could just jump straight to the Windows menu as he just wanted to use an E2B USB Flash drive for Windows installs. He also wanted to have the different individual ISOs listed in the Main menu.

The best way to just show a 'Windows Install' menu is to de-populate the Main menu by removing all the \_ISO\MAINMENU\*.mnu files that you don't want to be listed in the Main menu, and then add one or more .mnu files for your specific Vista/7/8 Windows Install ISO files using the type of menu entry described in my E2B Tutorial page here (or see below for an example). You can also add the Win XP options too.

You can also specify an XML file using a .mnu file.

In this way we avoid the Windows sub-menus and just use the Main menu. The \_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZWindowsInstall.mnu file is the one responsible for the Windows sub-menu entry in the Main menu, so this can be removed if you don't want it in the Main menu.

If you remove the files and folders in the other \_ISO\xxxx folders, then the DOS, BACKUP and UTILITIES, etc. menus won't be listed in the Main menu as only populated folders are listed. Other entries in the Main menu (set default, F8-10) can be disabled by using a MyE2B.cfg file (see the Sample_MyE2B.cfg file for the available options - use v1.13 or later!).

An example of a .mnu file is shown below:

# Use this for Vista/SVR2K8R2/Win7 ISOs
iftitle [if exist /_ISO/WINDOWS/Win7/Win7_32_SP1.iso] Install Win7 SP1 32-bit \n Install from the ISO
set MFOLDER=/_ISO/WINDOWS/Win7
set ISO=Win7_32_SP1.iso
/%grub%/RunVista.g4b  Win7
boot

# use this for Win8/8.1/SVR2012 ISOs
iftitle [if exist /_ISO/WINDOWS/Win8/Win8.1_32.iso] Install Win8.1 32-bit \n Install from the ISO
set MFOLDER=/_ISO/WINDOWS/Win8
set ISO=Win8.1_32.iso
/%grub%/RunWin8.g4b  Win8
boot

iftitle [if exist /_ISO/WINDOWS/Win8/Windows_8.1_EN-US_x86.ISO] Install Win8.1 32-bit \n Install from the ISO
set MFOLDER=/_ISO/WINDOWS/WIN8
set ISO=Windows_8.1_EN-US_x86.ISO
set XML=
# Specify XML file in MFOLDER folder (e.g. Win8\ has\ spaces\ in\ name.xml)
# OR to choose XML or Product Key, comment out next line
set XML=Sample.xml
set NOWMENU=1
/%grub%/RunWin8.g4b  %MFOLDER% %XML%
boot


Read more: http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/add-windows-install-isos-to-the-main-menu/

Have you tried WinMerge?

WinMerge is great for comparing source code and other text-based files (like E2B files!). It is similar to WinDiff but better, IMHO!

If you have two different versions of a bunch of files and folders, WinMerge will list all the different files for you. Then double-click on the file and it will display the two versions of the file in two side-by-side Windows and highlight the differences. You can copy individual lines from one file to the other or just copy the whole file to the other folder. It works on all files and so will show non-identical binary files too.

It is great for comparing two versions of E2B (or any text-based files).
If you download the latest version of E2B to a folder and then compare that folder with your E2B USB drive, it will highlight the changes and you can decide what to update and what to leave alone (or just copy over a few lines inside a file).

A must-have for anyone who works with code source files or wants to compare two different versions of a bunch of files!