4 replies to this topic

[Zanaffer]

I'm currently creating a multi-installer for myself using AeroStudio 2008 (with the latest updates found on the forum here) and everything is perfect except for I cannot get a "Press any key to boot from CD" at boot time no matter what I do. This would be fine, except the copies of XP will stop at the reboot point(s) if I walk away from the computer when it is booted from this disk. How do I fix this?

[Wonko the Sane]

I am not sure to get it.

How are you loading the .iso? (if you are using a .iso)
Which AERO command are you using to load the *whatever*?
Are you sure that you have bootfix.bin in the .iso?



Wonko

[Zanaffer]

I followed this guide, using the commands from that guide as well, so no, I'm not loading an ISO, but rather it seems like it's using the boot loaders for the XP. This part works fine.

http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=7756

The problem is, if I burn it to a disk, and start the computer with it, it does not give a "Press any key to boot from CD" style countdown, so if I were to install XP off this disk, when XP reboots the install during the middle, I would have to go back to to the computer and click the "boot from hard drive" button that I have added. Basically, I want to simply add a timeout so that the computer will continue booting from the hard drive if I don't press a key to tell it to boot from CD.

[Wonko the Sane]

Still, there must be a misunderstanding of some kind.

The tutorial you linked to is about making a multiboot DVD.

The DVD loads AERO that loads your given directory (\I386\ renamed) by using the "standard" XP CD bootable CD/.iso bootsector (which is edited replacing \I386\ with the name you chose) the tutorial uses" \XPEN\" and "xpen.bin".

This is NOT unlikely the classical Multiboot guide:
http://flyakite.msfn.org/
http://flyakite.msfn.org/xpprosp1.htm

So, unless you removed the bootfix.bin file, you should have the message, once the actual xpen.bin is loaded.

But unless you set AERO to default to it, you never get there.

So, you should set a timeout in AERO to boot from hard disk if no key is pressed or button pressed.

This should corrispond to point #4_in "Step_03.Making boot menu" in the tutorial at:
http://www.boot-land...?...ic=5275&hl=

I.e. you need to default to "boot from hard disk" instead of any of the entries of DVD you currently have, and this will need that you will be there to press a key when booitng the first time or set as "default" any of the multi-boot choice that has a bootfix.bin working, since noone will be ther, nothing will be pressed and it should work normally.


Wonko

[Zanaffer]

Ah, I get it now, control ID 0 is the default item that gets pressed if nobody makes a choice, and the timeout will trigger that.

I was confused because I figured (the way the description for the button looked) that the "press any key" would come up BEFORE the Aero menus, not timeout from WITHIN the menus, so it is functioning normally. I will just need to rebuild my ISO using imgburn and the new menus, but it looks solid.

Also, wow at the Imgburn magic... it MD5 hashed all the files on the disk and only copied one file (assuming there's up to 6 copies of the same file on my disk) and brought the size of the ISO from 3.6GB down to 900MB. I wonder how many more editions of XP I can fit on a single DVD-R at this rate.