The ultimate bootable USB Stick

[just_there]

by the way,
i figured out, that it sometimes might occur, that your stick doesn't boot any longer,
but sometimes this might be only a temporary effect!!!
so, don't format it!
just turn off the pc, unplug the stick and wait a view minutes (some mainbords are still power the usb connection
even if the pc is shut down)!
the effect might have something to do with the capacitors on the stick and the mainboard and maybe also
with the read spead of your usb stick.
if it is to slow, you might get some very weird effects some times.

please keep this in mind!

[just_there]

i have bought another usb stick witch some more speed to check out the compatibility.
it has:
read: 25 - 30 MB/sec. (200x)
write: 10 - 13 MB/sec. (80x )

and now it doesn't have some weird effects as before (it always works out just fine by now, but i'm still not finished
with the tests).

anyways, it seems to be much more stabil during start up than a stick with some slow read abilities.
maybe all those weird effects could be avoided by using a faster one like this, but it sure also depends on the bios of the mainboard.

i also tried to format it in fat32 with the hp-tool to start my stuff, but that works only on a mainboard with usb-hdd abilities
and not on the older ones.
so i'm still stuck with the 2gb solution if i would like to use it on old stuff (no fat32 !!!).
 

[just_there]

hi,
i would like to outsource this project, because i might have other things to do in the future.
and i'm also stuck with it right now.

the things which still would like to be accomplished are:

--compile all the stuff i have done so far completely into english language
--there is a certain bart pe version which is very neat, but completely polluted with some viruses and trojaners
  which need to be cleaned up from the source (exchange all the polluted stuff with the real code).
--create another ntldr for 64bit systems which might be also compatible to 32bit cpu's (if possible).
--implement a driver which detects usb drives as a fixed disc into bart pe operating systems (or and reatogo xpe)
  the problem here is somehow very difficult, because of the reset of the usb drives, maybe implementing a resistend dos usb
  driver might be helpful (i don't know if this is possible).

--if somebody likes it, he also could extend the whole stuff without the compatibility to the old systems,
  which means, that we could use fat32 (a 4GB stick with a lot of stuff and also some other partitions with separated linux
  systems).


therefore i offer 6 mini usb card readers with a 2gb micro sd card to test the whole stuff.
this comes without any obligations.

just send me a pm if you are interested.




p.s.:i won't send it this time, because i know it will never arrive if i would do so!!!

[just_there]

i bought some Christmas presents for my sister lately,
also a 8GB USB Flash Drive from Maxell.
and when i took a close look on it, i was very impressed, that it showed up under xp with 2 drive letters.
one as a public drive and one as secured (there is some software installed on it on the secure partition which
called Lock v2.33).
with that software you can of course secure the second partition with a password and also change the size
of the two partitions on the stick.
i figured out, that if you choose the size from the first partition to be below than 2042MB, it automatically will be
formated in fat16 whereas the second one is fat32 of course.

after doin so, i formated both partitions with the hp-tool and made them both bootable with the boot files
from my project.
and it really worked out...which means, that stick does the trick by hardware and not by software.
if i plug it into a pc which can boot from usb-hdd, he will recognize two different partitions in the "BIOS" from which
you can choose to boot from!!!
now i can create a fat partition with 2gb for the old systems and i also can create a partition with more than 5GB for the new
ones on the same stick (i never thought this might be possible, but it is).

i have tested it already on my old pc and he really boots up the first 2gb fat partition flawlessly and on the new one i can switch the boot up to the other fat32 partition and it boots (of course i also can boot up the other one).

this brings up some quite new abilities for the whole thing... i wonder what else i could do with it hehehe.
maybe i really can boot an xp based os from the second partition now and i even could split the second one for
some more linux based operating systems.
that's exactly what i had in mind when i started the whole thing.
the only problem is, that it all depends on the hardware, but maybe, there are some more usb sticks out on the market
which have the same abilities (if somebody knows one, please let me know!).   

so, i think i can create some separated partitions now on the same stich, one for the old pc's and one for the new ones.
but the one for the new ones should be also compatible to 64bit cpu's.

if somebody is interested in this and has some spare time for the tasks, let me know (it's to much for me alone).

take care!

[just_there]

lately i found some other usb sticks which had a manual lock switch on it.
i found it in cd-r king, they normally have 2, 4 and 8gb.
the 8gb was about 680php.

those usb sticks are hard to find nowadays (i wonder why).
anyways, ubuntu and dsl ([inappropriate] small linux) are working with the locked switch
and i think it also is possible to implement some wifi drivers first (network is already included into ubuntu and dsl).
so, happy save browsing!

anyways, if somebody includes the drivers, please let me know, because i don't have the time right now to do so.

my next goal will be to install bootitng to the maxel usb stick which provides two partitions in windows xp.
and i think, with the right setup it will be able to boot everything (just my imagination, but maybe...).

[just_there]

I am still unable to boot some windows based os from another partition than the first one,
even with BootitNG it appears to be impossible if you don't rewrite the whole stuff (there is a project
to install XP on a pen drive by implementing all the USB drivers and disable the USB reset during start up,
but it's a lot of work).

But with my Maxtor stick i mentioned before i still can install a lot on both visible HDD's .

Lately Hiren's Boot CD is upgraded to V9.7 and there is also another install method for USB sticks!
Check this out:
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk

He uses now also the grub loader to boot the stuff from USB, which is actually very neat.
Before, i had to boot a W98 or ME MBR code to start the whole stuff with an edited CONFIG.SYS
and AUTOEXEC.BAT and some other files. But now it directly fits into my own compilation and i can use his method
to boot it all (hope so, i don't have the files right now, but i will get them tomorrow from a friend).
It's such a hustle with a modem only....

Anyways, i have installed the Grub MBR on a stick and copied the files from the Grub file to it.
It boots up on both of my PC's (FDD and HDD).
I am not quite sure if there might be a problem if you have a partition on your hard drive which contains
already a grub loader, because it searches the hard drives first (and then FDD).

Here is the entry for it in the menu.lst:

title Start Hiren's BootCD
find --set-root /HBCD/boot.gz
map --mem /HBCD/boot.gz (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
map --floppies=1
boot


I wonder, why i didn't try it that way before to boot from fd0 (maybe i am to dump  ).
At least i can remove all the old DOS stuff now to boot it all up and i can use the original Master Boot Record
from the Grub loader......that's great


Next update comes soon.....hehehe

[just_there]

ok, i have got the stuff and tested it on three different PC's (2x AMI Bios, one only good for USB-FDD, the other one
boots up all and i also tested the stuff on a Phoenix Bios with an AMD 64 3500 CPU).

first of all, my point from before was right that the boot loader from the master boot record is searching first for any grub
loader on the hard drives (which means, that if you have one, it will boot up before your usb stick boots).

the other problem was with the phoenix bios, which appears not to be compatible with the grub boot loader from the
hiren files (it didn't boot anything, because it couldn't find anything, maybe there is an easy solution for it, but i didn't
search).

and of course, the hiren's stuff didn't work at all on the bios which can do only usb-fdd (can't find the stuff).

another problem was, that most of the hiren's stuff caused some problems on the pc with the phoenix bios.
the mouse was acting weird and the speaker was beeping because of some internal errors (but that was the same
with the older versions).
that was after i changed the mbr of course (before it didn't boot at all with the original).


BUT.....i think it still is a great improvement compared to the last versions, it's much more easier to implement it to any
kind of compilation and the menu works much better then before due to the fact, that it is much more compact with the
grub boot files.

  and the real exciting thing is the new so called "MINI WINDOWS XP", which really works under any kind of condition!!!
i didn't had the time right now to check it out (how it really works), but it was the first xp based system which ever
runs on my old pc who can boot only from usb-fdd (unbelievable).
after that i also tried to boot it up from a normal usb stick from a second partition (the first one is fat16 smaller than 2gb
and the second one can be everything).
it was working also, boots up normally, but after boot up, it naturally didn't see the second partition on the stick
from where it was booting before (?) which means, that all the included software was not working, but it still boots up!
i which there would be a window during boot up in which you can choose aether the normal xp usb drivers or the ones
from the "USB_MultiBoot_10 project", which allow xp to see every kind of usb stick as a fixed disk.
normally when it starts, there is a pop up window in the middle of the screen and in the upper left corner is the menu
to choose from some software to run (there is also some useful stuff to chose from).

so, to get rid of the phoenix bios problem, there is still the need to install a normal windows 98 or me mbr.

my autoexec.bat:
@echo off
if "%config%"=="1" GOTO 1
if "%config%"=="2" GOTO 2
if "%config%"=="3" GOTO 3

:1
GOTO END

:2
rem LH MSCDEX /D:USBCD001
MSCDEX.EXE  /D:banana /L:R
cd \dosapps\VC
VC
GOTO END

:3
GOTO END


:END


the config.sys:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off
FILES=50
BUFFERS=30
dos=high,umb

[menu]
menuitem=1,Start GRUB4DOS
menuitem=2,Load CD-ROM Driver and start Volkov Commander
menuitem=3,go on and boot something???
menudefault=1
menucolor=7,0

[1]
rem load grub.exe before emm386.exe
device=grub.exe --config-file=MENU.LST
rem --bypass --time-out=20

[2]
DEVICEHIGH=cd1.SYS /D:banana

rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1f0,14
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,15
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,10
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1e8,12
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1e8,11
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,10
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,9

[3]

[COMMON]
DEVICEHIGH=\emm386.exe
LASTDRIVE=Z


the menu.lst:
#
# Grub4Dos boot menu
#

find --set-root /just_there.txt

splashimage /splash/The_Moon.xpm.gz
foreground = F0F000
background = 0000CA
#color black/cyan yellow/cyan
#timeout 30
default /default

title Start Hiren's BootCD
find --set-root /HBCD/boot.gz
map --mem /HBCD/boot.gz (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
map --floppies=1
boot

title DSL ([inappropriate] Small Linux) -NTFS Read Only- Knoppix
find --set-root /grldr
kernel /dsl/linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic qemu quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix frugal
initrd /dsl/minirt24.gz

title puppy-4.00-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey
find --set-root /grldr
kernel /puppy/vmlinuz pfix=usbcard root=/dev/ram0 initrd=initrd.gz PMEDIA=usbflash PKEYS=de
initrd /puppy/initrd.gz
boot

title Ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386
find --set-root /grldr
kernel /casper/vmlinuz boot=casper root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=1048576 rw locale=de_DE
initrd /casper/initrd.gz
boot

title ERD Commander 2007
find --set-root /GRLDR
chainloader /NTLD1

title PLOP Bootmanager
find --set-root /grldr
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/plop.img 

title BootitNG
find --set-root /grldr
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/BOOTITNG.IMA

title FreeDOS Boot
find --set-root /grldr
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/FreeBoot.img

title Launch "The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows"
fallback 1
find --set-root /minint/setupldr.bin
chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin

title Mini Windows Xp
find --set-root /HBCD/XPLOADER.BIN
chainloader /HBCD/XPLOADER.BIN

title reboot
savedefault --wait=2
reboot

title halt
savedefault --wait=2
halt


some entries in the autoexec.bat and config.sys are not needed, i just let remain them in case...

[just_there]

i have posted before some statement about a usb stick which doesn't boot any longer (even so you didn't
do any changes to it).
somehow, there is a interactive reaction to some old bios versions (i still don't know how to trigger it).
but by now, i know how to recover the bios ability to boot from it again.

--just boot a floppy disk or cd with bootitng
--cancel the install
--go to setup and mark the usb 2.0 function (that works only with usb 2.0)
--go to partition work (then your usb stick will be recognized)
--go back and chose reboot
--during the reboot, go into the bios and you will se, that you can chose the usb stick again as a bootable device.

maybe if you just boot up some operating system which is capable to recognize the stick will also do the trick,
just reboot (don't turn off the pc) and after reboot press what ever is needed to go to your bios to change the boot device.

i think this is a very helpful information for people which also have an old pc (which boots only from usb-fdd).

[just_there]

regarding to my last post,
now i know how to trigger the bios failure!

you can trigger it with hiren's boot cd (at least if you have it on a usb stick).

but anyways, i have posted before how to redo the failure on the old bios usb-fdd mainboards (hope it also works
for all of them).

during the tests i figured out a way to use hiren's boot cd also on the old systems (only 9.7 tested):


for example:
--choose 2. Disk Clone Tools
--Then 3. Acronis True Image
--Go quickly to "USB" and press enter
--choose whatever you need until the USB Option Menu appears
--then choose "1" for the USB drivers
--in the USB Configuration, choose "EHCI USB 2.0" with space and go to "ok"--enter
--press enter until "R:\" appears
--type M and press enter again
--type LOADCD and press enter
--type M again and press enter
--choose what you like in the menu and press enter to start it.

most likely it will work and acronis will also show all the usb devices to choose from.

but remember, if the usb stick doesn't boot afterwards, use the method i posted before!!!

[just_there]

about my latest update...

due to the fact that i dislike the new windows os more and more, i decided to switch
to the ububtu loader for the project.
which means i use the implemented function from the current ubuntu version to install the main
master boot record (and the latest ubuntu as well) to the usb device.

if you download the latest ubunto desktop version and create a bootable cd out of it, you can
install ubuntu to your usb device (just boot it and choose.....uhhm...it's quite some time since i worked on it,
but there is an option in the menu where you can create a bootable usb stick...hehehe.

the very good thing with it is, that you can choose not to delete the contend of the stick during installation.
so, if you messed up your mbr on the stick, you will be able to fix it easily that way without a big hustle..
sure there is some other easy way to do so, but the ububtu installer works like a charm.

the other reason why i chosed it is to get all the benefits out of the pure linux boot loader regarding all
the other linux systems i have installed like puppy or dsl.
that way it is much more easy to configure those systems during boot up with their native setups.

the other point is, that i could implement the grub loader into the ububtu boot menu and also puppy and dsl.

now it is possible to boot up everything with its own native settings (grub is a little bit difficult though, but feasible).
if grub doesn't boot from the ubuntu menu (bios with usb fdd support mainly, than you can edit it to do so).
i will explain that later on in another mail (to tired right now).

anyways, it is possible to boot everything that way.
you even can boot into dos mode and vice versa after you boot up grub from the ubuntu menu.

for the hard core cracks, here are the settings in my boot files:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
config.sys:

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off
FILES=50
BUFFERS=30
dos=high,umb

[menu]
menuitem=1,Start GRUB4DOS
menuitem=2,Load CD-ROM Driver and start Volkov Commander
menuitem=3,go on and boot something???
menudefault=1
menucolor=3,F

[1]
rem load grub.exe before emm386.exe
device=grub.exe --config-file=MENU.LST
rem --bypass --time-out=20

[2]
DEVICEHIGH=cd1.SYS /D:banana

rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1f0,14
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,15
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:170,10
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1e8,12
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:1e8,11
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,10
rem DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana /P:168,9

[3]

[COMMON]
DEVICEHIGH=\emm386.exe
LASTDRIVE=Z
----------------------------------------
the rem files are only old remainings from some tests, the main thing is only there for some future updates
if necessary (like implementing some usb drivers in dos mode). right now it has only the function to show a menu.
----------------------------------------


autoexec.bat:

@echo off
if "%config%"=="1" GOTO 1
if "%config%"=="2" GOTO 2
if "%config%"=="3" GOTO 3

:1
GOTO END

:2
rem LH MSCDEX /D:USBCD001
MSCDEX.EXE  /D:banana /L:R
cd \dosapps\VC
VC
GOTO END

:3
GOTO END


:END
--------------------------------------------------------
same as config.sys, just there for future updates.
--------------------------------------------------------

menu.lst:

#
# Grub4Dos boot menu
#

find --set-root /just_there1.txt

splashimage /splash/The_Moon.xpm.gz
foreground = F0F000
background = 0000CA
#color black/cyan yellow/cyan
#timeout 30
default /default

#title puppy-4.00-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey
#find --set-root /puppy/initrd.gz
#kernel /puppy/vmlinuz pfix=usbcard root=/dev/ram0 initrd=initrd.gz PMEDIA=usbflash PKEYS=de
#initrd /puppy/initrd.gz
#boot

title Start Hiren's BootCD
find --set-root /HBCD/boot.gz
map --mem /HBCD/boot.gz (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
map --floppies=1
boot

title ERD Commander 2007
find --set-root /NTLD1
chainloader /NTLD1

title Mini Windows Xp
find --set-root /HBCD/XPLOADER.BIN
chainloader /HBCD/XPLOADER.BIN

title BootitNG v1.86
find --set-root /images/BootitNG.imz
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/BootitNG.imz

title Boot into the DOS Menu
find --set-root /dosio.sys
chainloader /dosio.sys

#title DSL ([inappropriate] Small Linux) -NTFS Read Only- Knoppix
#find --set-root /minirt24.gz
#kernel /linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic qemu quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix frugal
#initrd /minirt24.gz
#boot

title Launch UBCD "The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows"
fallback 1
find --set-root /minint/setupldr.bin
chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin

#title GEPARTED LIVE
#find --set-root /live/initrd1.img
#kernel /live/vmlinuz1 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788 ip=frommedia
#initrd /live/initrd1.img
#boot

title Boot a Nuke  (Erase all Hard Drives!!!)
find --set-root /images/bootanuke.ima.gz
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/bootanuke.ima.gz

title Bootup and configure DSL ([inappropriate] Small Linux)
find --set-root /images/bootflousb.img.gz
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/bootflousb.img.gz

#title GOBACK (repair MBR)
#find --set-root /images/GOBACK.IMA.gz
#kernel /memdisk
#initrd /images/GOBACK.IMA.gz

title PLOP Bootmanager
find --set-root /images/PLOP.IMG.gz
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/PLOP.IMG.gz

title Smart Boot Manager (SBM)
find --set-root /images/SBM2.img.gz
kernel /memdisk
initrd /images/SBM2.img.gz

#title Boot DOS with USB Support
#find --set-root /images/DosBootima.IMA.gz
#kernel /memdisk
#initrd /images/DosBootima.IMA.gz

title Reboot
savedefault --wait=2
reboot

title Shut Down
savedefault --wait=2
halt
-----------------------------------------------------
of course the stuff with the "#" is disabled (i just keep it in case).
now it mostly is in the ububto setup file.
-----------------------------------------------------

TEXT.CFG:

default live
label live
  menu label ^Run Ubuntu Persistently
  kernel /casper/vmlinuz
  append  noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistend file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash --
label live-install
  menu label ^Install Ubuntu
  kernel /casper/vmlinuz
  append  noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash --
label memtest
  menu label Test ^memory
  kernel /install/mt86plus
label hd
  menu label ^Boot from first hard disk
  localboot 0x80
label Puppy
  menu label ^Puppy Linux Seamonkey
  kernel /puppy/vmlinuz
  append  noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true initrd=/puppy/initrd.gz pmedia=usbflash pfix=copy nosmp
label GRUB4DOS
  menu label ^Boot GRUB4DOS for all the other stuff
  kernel /GRUB1.exe
  append config-file=menu.lst
label DSL
  menu label ^Boot DSL ([inappropriate] Small Linux)
  kernel /linux24
  APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=/minirt24.gz nomce noapic qemu quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix frugal

--------------------------------------------------------
that's the config file for ubuntu.
--------------------------------------------------------



i was a little bit more advanced a couple of month ago, but unfortunately i messed up my late work completely during
some tests (without a backup).
the biggest problem is still to convert the whole stuff to different usb devices.
also the different bios versions of the mainboards are giving me headaches .
they all try to calculate the chs conversation their own way.
and i still have no clue about it.
(uhh well, that has nothing to do with the setup files i posted right now).

hopefully somebody can call this helpful at all without the real edited stuff.
i will see forward to post a link some day somewhere....

[just_there]

In order to start the most stuff also from old PC's, i had to edit the Grub loader itself.
I forgot to mention this before.
There are some lines in the loader which disable the search for the config file from FDD.
So i needed to erase those lines in order to let it search also from FDD1 and FDD2.
I erased all of the entries to do so and now the Floppy drive is searching for about 5 seconds to find the config file on FDD1.
It makes some weird noises though, but after that it will boot properly from the UBUNTU menu.
Maybe if i spend more time i also could find the needed entries to delete, so i can eliminate this side effect, but i have no time right now.
The other problem is, hat if i boot into DOS from GRUB and go back, the background picture doesn't show up again,
but there should be also a solution.
Anyways, right now i don't use the dos mode, it is only implemented for future updates (like USB DOS drivers to start).

[just_there]

Right now, everything is no longer up to date (but it's still good for old PC's).
I am not working on the project since a long time, but now i've got some new input.
Maybe i will continue and merge something else with it

By the way, there is somebody here who has an old version.