A question? or advice! for PE builds

Chinadragon over at 911CD board has proved experimentally that copying files in a given order greatly shortens boot-time of PE builds from slow media (USB stick or possibly CD):
http://www.911cd.net...o...40&start=40

I don't know if current Winbuilder projects use this approach or not.

If not, it is something that should be taken into account IMNSHO.



jaclaz

BUMP!

Noone willing to experiment/comment?

Approach is working.
http://www.911cd.net...o...21702&st=63

Rudimental batch here:
http://www.911cd.net...o...21702&st=70

jaclaz

BUMP!

Noone willing to experiment/comment?

Approach is working.
http://www.911cd.net...o...21702&st=63

Rudimental batch here:
http://www.911cd.net...o...21702&st=70

jaclaz

Thanks for the BOMB BUMP. In any way I did not recognize the first post.

The overall rule is hard to follow because a lot of scripts copy at different times.
Therefore the only way would be:

• Copy files into a temp directory structure
• Just before finally building the ISO / USB etc sort them into the target dir.
  For me it seems to be a bit complicated, but doable.

BTW: Currently the files with the highest priority

BOOTSECT.BIN 8000
I386/SETUPLDR.BIN 7990
I386/BOOTFIX.BIN 7980

are copied last, when the ISO / USB is build

Peter

If i remember correctly eighter cdimage or mkisofs can be run with a file that includes the order in which the files should be put into the iso.
Read about it ages ago in some thread about optimizing boot speed for live CDs. I think the poster even offered the file for download.

For me it seems to be a bit complicated, but doable.

Sure, using a "weight scale" similar to the pe_sort.txt one it should not be a problem.
If we follow the given pe_sort.txt, there are 151 entries in it, of which a few can be removed (but probably we would need their space for grldr and menu.lst or other boot loaders), so I guess it's easily manageable.
In my poorman's way, to experiment, I simply import the pe_sort.txt into a spreadsheet, change the given "weights" and re-sort the data.

BTW: Currently the files with the highest priority

BOOTSECT.BIN 8000
I386/SETUPLDR.BIN 7990
I386/BOOTFIX.BIN 7980

are copied last, when the ISO / USB is build

This is definitely NOT recommended, you could go beyond reach of the MBR or bootsector capabilities with REALLY "big builds", or with "peculiar" setups or BIOSes:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5884

If i remember correctly eighter cdimage or mkisofs can be run with a file that includes the order in which the files should be put into the iso.
Read about it ages ago in some thread about optimizing boot speed for live CDs. I think the poster even offered the file for download.

Yes, you are remembering correctly , and completely failed to read the linked thread , the point is EXACTLY that the same order used with mkisofs for CD's does also reduces greatly booting times on USB.

jaclaz

Yes, you are remembering correctly , and completely failed to read the linked thread , the point is EXACTLY that the same order used with mkisofs for CD's does also reduces greatly booting times on USB.

I did read the thread, well at least the page you linked to. And it talked just about copying things around with a bat file.
Something Peter and i see as too cumbersome for iso building. Hence my post.

@jaclaz
After reading the whole thread, one thing struck me strange.

[DOS-Format with DOS shell and Robocopy the PE source to the stick]
[MBR-Format with Grub MBR and Robocopy the PE source to the stick]
[MBR2-Format with Grub MBR and copy the PE source to the stick by PEtoUSB.exe]
[MBR3-Format with Grub MBR and xcopy the PE source to the stick]
[MBR4-Format with Grub MBR and scopy.cmd + Robocopy the PE source to the stick]
[MBR5-Format with Grub MBR and copy drivers folder (I have 90.2M) then xcopy the remaining PE source (395.8M) and programs files (239M) to the stick]

Machine B : DELL OPTIPLEX 160L (2.2GHz with 1024M RAM)
Grub started from [MBR] : Whole process take 13 mins
Grub started from [DOS] : Whole process take 5 mins
Grub started from [MBR2] : Whole process take 5 mins
Grub started from [MBR3] : Whole process take 11 mins 20 sec
Grub started from [MBR4] : Whole process take 5 mins 12 sec
Grub started from [MBR5] : Whole process take 5 mins 6 sec

If plain 'MBR booting' takes 13 min and 'DOS boot' takes only 5min, why is so much time invested into speeding up the slow 'MBR boot', but non in speeding up the fast 'DOS boot'?
If the sppedup would yield the same good results, PE could be booted under 2 min!

@ Jaclaz , MedEvil , all

My mistake , it make something confusing...... I'm sorry ,

it is a correction for the meaning of [DOS] that it should be

[DOS-Format with DOS shell and copy the PE source to the stick by PEtoUSB.exe]

not

[DOS-Format with DOS shell and Robocopy the PE source to the stick]

It is prove that no matter what is the boot loader used to but when you are copy the DRIVERS directory to the stick first, the bootup speed will be fast, it is shorter the process time for the hardware detection phase.


Sorry for my bad English

[DOS-Format with DOS shell and copy the PE source to the stick by PEtoUSB.exe]

not

[DOS-Format with DOS shell and Robocopy the PE source to the stick]

OK, that's a completely different cup of tea.
Thanks for clearing this up!