Booting a CrunchBang ISO from a grub4dos USB drive

I had not heard of CrunchBang before (why are there are so many linux distros? .If only these developers would collaborate, I am sure linux could easily beat Windows!).

Anyway, here is a menu which will boot to the Live desktop from a CrunchBang 11 ISO file

title CRUNCHBANG
set ISO=/crunchbang-11-20130506-i686.iso
uuid () > nul
set UUID=%?%
echo %UUID%
map ()%ISO% (0xff) || map --mem ()%ISO% (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /live/vmlinuz boot=live fromiso=/dev/disk/by-uuid/%UUID%%ISO% live-media-path=/live config splash noeject
initrd /live/initrd.img

Of course, as usual, you can boot the ISO to the Live OS just by adding the ISO to your Easy2Boot \_ISO\MAINMENU folder (no need to edit a menu).

Installing CrunchBang! from a USB drive

If you wish to boot from the CrunchBang ISO using E2B and then select the 'Install' option to install it onto another disk, you will need to use the same 'mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/sdb4 /cdrom' shell command that I detailed in my previous 'kali' blog post.
If using a .imgPTN file (no real need as not UEFI?) then you will need to use the 'mount -t vfat -o ro /dev/sdb1 /cdrom' shell command.

Easy2Boot .mnu files

Usually, when adding payload files to Easy2Boot, you just need to copy the file over and make sure it is contiguous. In some cases you may need to modify the file extension slightly too. However, for some 'special' payload files or if you want persistence when booting from linux ISOs, we need to use a .mnu file.

Below is a list of some of the .mnu files that can be found in the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files folder of the Easy2Boot download in v1.25. More may be added to later versions, so always check for new examples!
Instructions on how to use .mnu files can be found by opening them in Notepad and reading the instructions within.

Easy2Boot v1.61Beta3 available (adds direct boot from non-contiguous linux ISOs)

For Beta2 changes see here.

Beta3 additions are:

1. When installing directly from a Windows Install ISO (Vista or later), the cfadisk device driver is now loaded automatically. This means that by the time Windows Vista/7/8/10 Setup GUI is displayed, all partitions on a Removable USB drive are accessible to WinPE\Setup. Normally, Windows will only mount and make accessible the first partition of a Removable drive.
This means that, in theory, (not yet tested!), if you use a special .mnu file, you can locate your Windows Install ISO files (and whatever .xml and .key files too) on a different partition on a Flash drive.

Note: Now removed in Beta4 because the driver causes problems with Win 8.1 64-bit Install ISOs!

If you would like to be able to treat Removable USB drives as a Hard Disk for Windows installs, you can add the cfadisk driver to the boot.wim file using 'devadevs' method, described here.

2. More direct ISO booting support for more linux non-contiguous ISO, list is now:

Easy2Boot v1.61 released

Changes from v1.60 are:

• .mnu files for Windows Install ISOs menu entries in the Main menu can now be added by the user which can specify both the .ISO file AND the .XML file to use. See the $$AddWin2Main.mnu sample menu. This means a Windows Install ISO will boot without the user needing to choose a specific XML or Key file.
• New grub4dos version
• Menu heading positions have been altered - menu headings are now left-aligned instead of being centred. STRINGS.txt files updated.
• HEADPOS variable is now easier to use (can place the menu heading on any line just by changing HEADPOS). See here for details.
• Help Footer text at the bottom of the screen is no longer padded out by HPAD, so now HBTM determines it's absolute position in the menu. See here for details.
• \_ISO\docs\mythemes and \_ISO\docs\Templates files updated
• \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file updated (for HEADPOS, HBTM)
• Italian language files added (thanks to Fabrizio)
• German language STRINGS.txt improved (thanks to Frettt).
• FreeDOS bootable floppy disk image changed (some FreeDOS utilities added)
• Some superfluous files deleted from \_ISO\e2b\firadisk folder
• Support for .isonousb and .imgnousb/.imanousb file extensions added - see here for details
• Sample .mnu files added: DOS_ISONoUSB.mnu and DOS_IMAnoUSB.mnu, CentOS7_FAT32_ISO.mnu, Fedora20_FAT32_ISO.mnu
• isoboot.g4b added to boot some non-contiguous linux ISOs, See here for details.

If you are using a MyE2B.cfg file and your own background, you may find you need to change the HEADPOS and HBTM values in your MyE2B.cfg file.

isoboot.g4b

If an ISO is not contiguous, E2B will try to copy the contents of the ISO to \_ISO\CONTIG.ISO which is 500MB in size by default. If this fails for some reason (e.g. CONTIG.ISO has been deleted to save space or the ISO is bigger than the size of CONTIG.ISO) then E2B will now use the isoboot.g4b batch script to attempt to boot directly from the linux ISO file by loading it into memory and using linux 'cheat codes' to boot it. This may not work for all versions of linux and it will only boot to the default 'live' version (no full boot menu is displayed).

Netac U335 write-protected USB 3.0 flash drive for E2B

Today I got my new 32GB Netac U335 USB 3.0 Flash drive with a write-protect switch.

The write-protect slide switch is ringed in red.

The drive is not the fastest USB 3.0 drive I have ever seen (33MB/s read, 14MB/s write on a USB 3.0 port), but if you need a reasonably cheap USB drive with a write-protect switch then this would fit the bill.