Thursday 31 March 2016

E2B v1.79 available (and now officially released)

v1.79 is now released.

Changes from v1.78C are:
  • New NOWINXP parameter to suppress some menu items in the Windows Install menu.
  • Small bugfix in AUTOMN.g4b (sometimes listed files with no extension)
  • Improved Protect.cmd to show more file info. 
  • Bug fixes for bad error handling in QRUN.g4b (did not abort if error). 
  • E2B_Editor.exe v1.0.85 (NOSUG and NOWINXP options added). 
  • Improve robocopy detection for XP systems in UPDATE_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd.
Note: Small bug in v1.79 - if you use FASTLOAD and Win Install ISOs, use v1.80!

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Add PepperMint 6 + persistence to E2B

PepperMint 6 can be booted as a 'LiveCD' from ISO with persistence.
Britec has a YouTube video on how to install it as an OS.

However, we can run it from an ISO file with persistence from E2B too using a .mnu file.
It is based on Ubuntu and so uses a casper-rw persistence file.

How to increase the spacing between all E2B menu entries

grub4dos allows you to adjust the character and line spacing of text.

One of the template .cfg files in E2B demonstrates this:(\_ISO\docs\Templates\StripedFlat_pwd_is_fred)

The Sample_MyE2B.cfg file shows you how you can alter these, using the lnspace and wdspace parameters:

The default value is 'n' (or 0) for lnspace and wdspace.

Here is a 14-entry menu using the default spacing:

Monday 28 March 2016

E2B v.79f available and 'E2B.cfg is MISSING!' error

I found some error handling issues in QRUN.g4b (v1.77 and 1.78C). The problem centres around this kind of grub4dos code...

if not "%X%"="1" pause ERROR && configfile (md)0xa000+0x50


Saturday 26 March 2016

Easy2Boot v1.78C available

E2B version 1.78C has today's version of grub4dos (20160326) which fixes the bug a user found if you set 'tophelp' to a high number so that the menu help text is not displayed.

v1.79d also has the new grub4dos 20160326 version.

Despite not being officially released, I see some download sites have copied the buggy v1.78!

Differences between v1.78C and v1.79d:

Friday 25 March 2016

Using E2B with the datAshur Pro encrypted USB flash drive

Easy2Boot allows you to boot literally hundreds of Windows-based, linux-based and other bootable software all from one USB drive. You can also keep all of your personal files and Windows\linux utilities on the same drive and carry it with you, on your keychain, wherever you go. But what if you lose it?

Does your Easy2Boot USB drive contain licensed software, company volume licence Product Keys or confidential files? Perhaps it contains a WindowsToGo VHD  or linux already set up with your Chrome/FireFox passwords, etc. The best way to keep it secure is to use one of the PIN-entry types of USB drives that are available.

After my previous blog about the (slow) datAshur Personal encrypted USB 2.0 drive and the problems I had booting from it, iStorage (the makers of the drive) sent me a datAshur Pro for testing and review.
datAshur Pro USB 3.0

iStorage have four models in their current range. Here are the basic points that concern E2B users including the price and advertised read/write speeds:

Changing language strings in E2B

E2B uses the STRINGS.txt file as a lookup file.
Menu headings, menu entries and many of the batch files in E2B use keywords, e.g.

iftitle [if exist STALE && cat --locate=YES ()/FASTLOAD.YES > nul] $$STRmFS1
if not "%GFX%"=="" configfile (md)0xa000+0x50
root ()

where $$STRmFS1 is a keyword (always $$STR followed by exactly four characters) that is substituted by E2B for a line of text taken from a language file.

Thursday 24 March 2016

Small bug found in grub4dos 0.4.6a 20160322

A small bug has been found in some grub4dos 0.4.6a versions between approx. Feb 2016 and 2016-03-22. If you set tophelp variable to a large number (e.g. 70) then it should move the menu help text off the screen (to line 70). This was a way to hide the help text that was normally seen below the menu box. With these grub4dos versions, this did not work. v1.78 and v1.79a used these versions and so I have re-uploaded them as v1.78A and v.1.79b and they now have the latest 20160324 version of grub4dos 0.4.6a + small change to some of the $$$Guestxxx.mnu files to support F8 reload.

Note that v1.78A still displays it's version number as 1.78 (because it can affect the formatting of the Main Menu heading for some users due to the extra character).

P.S. There was still a small bug in 1.78A and 1.78B, so I have removed 1.78 until grub4dos is fixed. I will then release 1.78C!

Wednesday 23 March 2016

E2B v1.79a Beta already!

Yes, yet another version even before 1.78 is officially released!

This version has an even newer grub4dos (which supports being able to use echo -e \X00FC to print unicode characters, but this is not actually used by E2B anyway), and also support for a new NOWINXP variable.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Easy2Boot v1.78 - List of all changes

E2B Version 1.78

Note: 1.78A uses grub4dos 0.4.6a 20160324 - which has a small bugfix (when using the tophelp E2B variable). Also the $$$Guestxxx.mnu files have been tweaked (F8 reload does not prompt for password).

Note2: There is still a bug in 20160324, so I have withdrawn v1.78A! 1.78C has best version of grub4dos.

Changes from v1.77A include: