56 replies to this topic

[pecd.net]

I thought he included the updated api in the current beta2? Not?

Can you please explain what is different?

[TheHive]

Suggestion:
VistaPE needs an easy way to add youre own Wallpaper.
Something similar to the one on XP Projects.

[pecd.net]

already added...but thanks for the idea!

[kecskebirka]

When i enable EseT script in WinBuilder, and if i have Eset Smart Security v3.0.667, then the created system freezes at bootup with BSOD stop code 0x0000007E 0xC0000005, 0x********, 0x********, 0x********) for my.
My source:Vista SP1 media

[pecd.net]

thanks for the info, i will test all scripts one by one, and some may be rewritten or removed but this still needs a lot of time...

[jprall]

First Post, hate doing those. Pardon my n00b....

I'm cranking right along with my first use of Winbuilder and VistaPE 12/3.... I'm not sure who the maintainers of the scripts are, but there have been some minor needed edits:

1) the one that has been talked about with the MMC script having spaces after the commas making that script fail

2) The Foxit PDF script's URL to download doesn't work and needed to be updated. New URL is: http://mirrors.foxit...treader_enu.zip

I have a question, I'll make it short here and see if I can find it (I have been looking). The full on VistaPE is awesome, all the other projects/addons are all goodness. I'm not sure how to take advantage of the grub fd0 part yet, but I think that is where my fix will be.

I need a big 'bootable floppy disk'. Asus in their infinite wisdom killed their windows bios updater program and said 'do it in dos'. No big, I actually have a USB floppy drive. BIOS is 2MB and it is advised to pull the old bios version out. Thx Asus.

Yadda Yadda - the HP Boot util for Flash Drive doesn't work in vista. So I managed to get all the vistaPE stuff done, but how do I make a silly big dos floppy? The dos bios loaders aren't cool with vista being loaded at all.

I'll keep looking and I'm sure this is answered but a tip would be nice (I tried to ask for help with 2 (1 known) bug reports).

thanks,
jp

[patsch]

I need a big 'bootable floppy disk'. Asus in their infinite wisdom killed their windows bios updater program and said 'do it in dos'. No big, I actually have a USB floppy drive. BIOS is 2MB and it is advised to pull the old bios version out. Thx Asus.

Why do you need this? Put your Bios-File on your USB-Stick and use EZ-Flash ... all newer ASUS-Boards have this option. Otherwise the tool winimage can handle 2.88MB floppy images

[ludovici]

suggestions: In Script "Basic configuration and tools" add option FBWF cache size 512Mo

[pecd.net]

added, but untested...unsure if fbwf can use 512MB...does anybody know?

[ludovici]

added, but untested...unsure if fbwf can use 512MB...does anybody know?

I have already tested this addition; i am sure of fbwf can use 512MB. Blog Winpe 2.1 and if you want add feature compression ram drive see blog 2 winpe 2.1

[pecd.net]

its now in the updatepack...please test it...thanks...

[jprall]

Why do you need this? Put your Bios-File on your USB-Stick and use EZ-Flash ... all newer ASUS-Boards have this option. Otherwise the tool winimage can handle 2.88MB floppy images

Yeah - hear you on this, but their docs/web site have not been 'pushing' it vs the afudos app. But, I do thank you for giving me a vote of confidence.

That said - I have been successful going down the other path you mentioned with WinImage. I think one of its best features is to take 1.4MB floppy image and convert it directly to a 2.88.

So now I have a working grub loader that includes VistaPE (awesome, love it!) and several working bootable floppy images (took me a little while to find the right grub4dos edits).

Some questions/comments:

1) Assuming dos 6.22 or the like - is 2.8 the limit for things to think it's a floppy? I see some funky formats and some very specific hand edits, but curious if the bios is to be happy, does treating the image as a floppy that 2.8 is considered generally the largest?

2) back on VistaPE -

a) So my virus program (trend micro) is being a total pain about wget.web, WGDLL.web, ServicesPE.exe, and MHTUnp.wcx - Is this a common problem? Trend Micro gets *very* grumpy about programs like john the ripper so I thinking it's more like this, but curious if I should be worried about the downloads/distros coming down with the winbuilder process

changing the default shell back to BS Explorer (anything else is not very fun) doesn't seem to be sticking after I re-play the build.

c) I've made edits in the scripts mentioned in my previous post, but if I want to re-download selections in the project, will I need to re-edit the source of scripts again?

d) I'm making changes to the grub list/menu on the flash disk (to deal with my floppy stuff) - but why doesn't grub4dos re-run when I re-play the project build and essentially smoke my changes?

e) What do people do in terms of managing multiple projects - just create multiple winbuilder base folders and such? Seems like it would be cool to manage projects into a meta doc that keep track of information such as locally edited source scripts vs one that can be re-downloaded (i.e. 'lock' a modded script)

f) The mkiso process at the end has had problems making a new iso on several occassions. No big, just a bug, ctrl-c and re run.

g) I'm also not quite sure how to 'slipstream' additional drivers - I have a machine that has a 3ware 9650SE RAID card and it needs a driver disk even during a normal vista install - how do I get these included in my build? Integral/External, etc. Probably need to keep digging, but just curious how this process works.

So I'm a n00b, and while I know a fair amount of unix, I cut my teeth on solaris(really SunOS) and I am comfortable in linux, it hasn't been my app/os of choice. I am very much a windows dude with things like Subsystem for Unix Applications making me happy.

I offer this info from 2 sides - if the VistaPE projects wants feedback from being a windows app/process, and hiding a l lot of linux stuff - it's doing well. There are areas that are a still gray and put you into a 'what am I supposed to do now?' - editing source scripts, working with grub, the lack of standard file/save/new on overall projects, a lack of clarity when things are going to be redownloaded/changed, and not being able to change the default shell on build. On the other side, it does allow pretty decent access to customizations and a scripting env that is pretty clear on the surface. It does show it's colors of people that are uber comfortable in both linux/open source/and windows.

With that - this project rocks it. I have used BartPE and Knoppix on many occasions but I've got to say that we are now 'cooking with gas'.

Hopefully this helps and is received in the spriti inteded. I'm digging it, and to have what I have on a 4GB flash disk is very very nice.

thx
jp

[amalux]

Just starting out with VistaPE, never been much interested in it till now. Thanks to ctmag's efforts of late, improving and updating; this project has really caught my attention. I'm now able to consistently build and boot VPE without errors and I must say, the builds work very well indeed

My biggest gripe right now is this PE Loader thing, it can't be normal that it takes over 10 minutes to load!? (and that's 'fast mode' ) Is there something I'm missing or setting up incorrectly?

I don't generally like builds 'auto-downloading' required files. I prefer to supply the files myself and run the build offline. Can something similar to %GlobalTemplates% be used here or an option to browse to the required files on your HDD from the script UI? I got around this by editing 01-preconfig and 07-config to find the devcon and uictl files I placed in Temp.

Don't like the BS Explorer at all, should default to Explorer.exe (imho). BS Explorer is buggy, no rt-click functions; artifacts in the skin etc. (maybe due to my source sp0?)

I need to supply drivers for my 3Com EtherLink XL 10_100 PCI TX NIC and various Intel Pro cards not supported by the Drivers - LAN script in VPE. Is there a similar tool to MyNIC for VPE or can LiveXP driver scripts be easily 'converted'? This, along with tracking down scripts for better tools and programs is my immediate challenge.

Again, a BIG thanks to ctmag for his work here; keep those updates/improvements coming; you might just get an old LiveXP man excited about VPE yet

[pecd.net]

well the vpeldr.exe has many problems and i am working on it, but this will take some more time...nightman was so kind to provide sourcode to me so i am confident that everything can be improved...

i posted somewhere a driver include script some time ago...search for it...

The autodownload feature has pros and cons, but as my work is aimed at the newbie who might not be able to find, download, unpack and put the files in the right folder i will keep it that way...
If you want to enhance the scripts so that they can offer both (something like: if the file is not found the user is asked if he wants to autodownload the file or if he want to put it in a specified folder) i would be very happy with this:-))

Thanks for the feedback...

[jprall]

well the vpeldr.exe has many problems and i am working on it, but this will take some more time...nightman was so kind to provide sourcode to me so i am confident that everything can be improved...

i posted somewhere a driver include script some time ago...search for it...

The autodownload feature has pros and cons, but as my work is aimed at the newbie who might not be able to find, download, unpack and put the files in the right folder i will keep it that way...
If you want to enhance the scripts so that they can offer both (something like: if the file is not found the user is asked if he wants to autodownload the file or if he want to put it in a specified folder) i would be very happy with this:-))

Thanks for the feedback...

The auto download is *very* cool. And, you are correct it enables newbies (uh, like me) to be able to quickly build robust tools.

Each script has the ability to offer configuration options. I think it would be good to add some basics to each:

1) Keep existing downloaded files?
2) If downloads unavailable (like sysinternals was a couple days ago) - use existing, stop build, or continue with no warning dialog?
3) Download new script or leave existing?
4) Download new script?
5) Backup existing script? (can use checkbox if existing script gets named Script (1)
6) Save entire 'play' project?

A lot of the basics options should be in each script although it would be nice to have a top level configuration mangement. Regardless, if there is a way to do this in the scripts and I get a little help to figure out/implement, I'm happy to do some gruntwork and change individual scripts where applicable.

thanks again,
jp

[CAB]

Have you been able to fix the Control Panel problems (i.e. when you click on Control Panel, nothing shows)?

[amalux]

I was fiddling with the 07-config script to allow manual downloading and kept getting this annoying error


It took me awhile to figure out it wasn't me - I get this with the untouched script from last updatepack (online during build) and can't seem to track down the source . It's also hard to tell if this is the only error since the build stops here, even though that option is unchecked in Tools.
 log.zip   39.03KB   293 downloads

--
Added - probably unrelated and nbd but, after run, VPE build folder can't be deleted wout reboot...

[pecd.net]

@cab

no, see first post...

@amalux

the reboot issue is due to an unmounted WIM file...psc an me are working on a new feature in WB to handle such errors better, but for now it just can happen when a build fails...

the uictl.exe bug is a typo in the script, please redwonload

[amalux]

Thanks for that, working good now

I added an option to download the files prior to running the build here, feel free to use it or not; I just like getting files ahead of time so 'net connection not required for build

I couldn't find your script for adding drivers, do you have a link (or at least an exact name)? I did find others which I'm testing now like Mustang's AddDrivers script.

--
Update: AddDrivers seems to have trouble adding my NIC

I guess I don't understand what it's trying to do so hard to know how to fix, any ideas? May be a bit off topic but all in the spirit of getting VPE working nicely for people; it's important to be able to add drivers like this to the build. I'm gonna keep trying new things, any help appreciated

--
Final: Above error fixed by checking Debug -> Mount WIM files from source

Everything seems to be working good now, just gotta work on that 10 minute load time (and Control Panel)

Thanks again ct for the great updates and support, VPE is really looking good now as a result of your efforts.

[pecd.net]

i will take a look at you updated script...

controlpanel will probably never work...i have read something that lets me assume it has to do with activiation. In an unactivated state after the grace period timed out controlpanel is also empty in a real vista...so maybe this can not be fixed


For me the load time is about 5 minutes on most systems i tested it on...

my driver add script is here

[ludovici]

controlpanel will probably never work...i have read something that lets me assume it has to do with activiation. In an unactivated state after the grace period timed out controlpanel is also empty in a real vista...so maybe this can not be fixed

I have the control panel but no in start menu, in explorer vista... It missed Miscellaneous file in Sys32 Directory and Sys32\%lang%; i will post this night my screen capture of this... ( I have the modules for adding display settings into the control panel and modules for configure Power...see http://www.boot-land...showtopic=5666)

[ludovici]

The pictures here : ; ;

[ireneuszp]

PersDesk.cmd

@echo off

start %WinDir%\explorer.exe /root,::{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

exit

or simple Win+R
%WinDir%\explorer.exe /root,::{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

[pecd.net]

i do not understand: did you change something in pe to get this owrking or did you just call

start %WinDir%\explorer.exe /root,::{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

di get this?

[ireneuszp]

I just call

%WinDir%\explorer.exe /root,::{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}\::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}