10 replies to this topic

[dsolomon]

I had a thought last night - if i booted my livexp from a usb drive - would it be possible to just use the USB key in place of my ramdisk?

correct me if i am wrong, but wouldn't my livexp be more fail-proof if it didnt have to rely on the host computers RAM for its ramdisk? that way, if the host computers RAM is bad - i could still boot up to my livexp PE.

what would be the benefits?
what modifications would i have to make in my livexp build to accomplish this?
is it even possible?

i am also planning on combining PLop Boot Manager (floppy) - that way this setup would be able to boot USB from any motherboard that is able to boot to floppy.

What do you guys think?

[maanu]

define ramdisk ?
what i have understood you want to use usb (physical space) as RAM ? (not possible , but firadisk's author has been working on "pagefile on usb hdd"

also , how are you planning to incorporate PLOP ?

the closest a person to this PLOP idea is " Bean" , who is in contact with Elmar' to add some of the PLOP code into FBINST for the above purposes you have mentioned .

[Wonko the Sane]

Unfortunately you haven't discovered hot water .

There are TWO ways normally used to boot a PE 1.x:

• WITH a RAMDISK
• WITHOUT a RAMDISK (direct booting or "plain" booting)

There is nothing like a RAMDISK replaced by the USB stick (actually there is , using direct mapping of an image with firadisk or winvblock), but you are missing the point .

If you DO NOT have ENOUGH RAM, a RAMDISK boot may fail, but if you have "bad" RAM, you won't be able to boot a PE.

One of the things a PE does when booting (remember that a PE is VERY like the Windows XP setup) is to check the RAM and if it's "bad" won't boot in about 99,99% of the cases.

For the record the "normal" way to boot a PE is "plain", i.e. using the \I386 directory (renamed to \minint) on the stick.

It is strongly advised to use this trick:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=17504
to be able to use \I386 on USB stick also without needing to rename it.

JFYI:
http://www.911cd.net...o...c=23696&hl=


Wonko

[dsolomon]

define ramdisk ?
what i have understood you want to use usb (physical space) as RAM ? (not possible , but firadisk's author has been working on "pagefile on usb hdd"

also , how are you planning to incorporate PLOP ?

the closest a person to this PLOP idea is " Bean" , who is in contact with Elmar' to add some of the PLOP code into FBINST for the above purposes you have mentioned .

when i say ramdisk, im meaning anything that deals with putting files/directories in the physical ram of the host computer.

and im planning on using PLop on a floppy disc. so if a computers motherboard doesnt support USB booting - then i can boot to the Plop floppy disc and choose my USB device from that menu.

on a side note: id also like to create a livexp iso that is "Plain" or in other words - runs completely off the cd and "direct boots"
What kind of changes do i need to make to accomplish this?
(just so itll be more compatible with more computers..kind of like a fail-safe mode.)

[maanu]

when i say ramdisk, im meaning anything that deals with putting files/directories in the physical ram of the host computer.

and im planning on using PLop on a floppy disc. so if a computers motherboard doesnt support USB booting - then i can boot to the Plop floppy disc and choose my USB device from that menu.

on a side note: id also like to create a livexp iso that is "Plain" or in other words - runs completely off the cd and "direct boots"
What kind of changes do i need to make to accomplish this?
(just so itll be more compatible with more computers..kind of like a fail-safe mode.)

build with " create iso " only , do not use wimboot or BOOTSDI . also do not bother with fbwf too unless you want to use a tool like Driver Import PE.

[dsolomon]

build with " create iso " only , do not use wimboot or BOOTSDI . also do not bother with fbwf too unless you want to use a tool like Driver Import PE.

What about wimpack.script, Imdisk.script, and the handling of *.wims at the root of the iso? do i need to make changes to these too? i am also using the zPnp.script with a drivers.wim at the root of my iso.

[Lancelot]

Hi dsolomon,

'Take it easy'

1) as jaclaz previously mentioned there are 2 methods to boot

1 WITH a RAMDISK
2 WITHOUT a RAMDISK (direct booting or "plain" booting)

and as again jaclaz previously mentioned, you can NOT boot ANY of both without available Ram.

Method 2 "WITHOUT a RAMDISK" , What is ramdisk, = wimboot, bootsdiimg , so forget both.

lets say so far you boot with method 1 on your ufd,
and assuming you are now going after method 2 to boot from ufd with minimum possible usage of Ram. (and if Ram broken, go and buy one )



maanu tries to give a path to you, before asking other detailed settings, follow him .
Making a create iso build will give you available ready files to go to next step of copying all content of this iso to ufd. After copying either wait next steps from maanu or read links already provided by jaclaz

It is strongly advised to use this trick:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=17504
to be able to use \I386 on USB stick also without needing to rename it.

JFYI:
http://www.911cd.net...o...c=23696&hl=

After being able to understand and boot without a ramdisk, than we can talk on further detailed adjustments .

[Lancelot]

@maanu

As far as i remember, there is a nice trick on bootsdiimg builds, you can directly copy content of boot..img to ufd and boot (and of course with a bootable ufd making required boot menu settings).
to mount
with vdk

vdk open 0 BootSDI.pln /RW

with imdisk (i hope correct)

imdisk -a -t file -b 32256 -f bootsdi.img -o rw -m Y:

Well long time passed, I hope it works and I hope you like, see you

[maanu]

What about wimpack.script, Imdisk.script, and the handling of *.wims at the root of the iso? do i need to make changes to these too? i am also using the zPnp.script with a drivers.wim at the root of my iso.

use wimpack with CreatISO . . i hope it will work and the drivers.wim file will be mounted .

basically you need only the WIMSUPPORT .

by the way , its been a while since i am using WIMMBOOT+WIMPACK , and i have yet to see a system which caused trouble booting it ( CD\USB\HDD)

[maanu]

@maanu

As far as i remember, there is a nice trick on bootsdiimg builds, you can directly copy content of boot..img to ufd and boot (and of course with a bootable ufd making required boot menu settings).
to mount
with vdk

vdk open 0 BootSDI.pln /RW

with imdisk (i hope correct)

imdisk -a -t file -b 32256 -f bootsdi.img -o rw -m Y:

Well long time passed, I hope it works and I hope you like, see you

thank you for reminding i know this trick already , and i guess from you or Amalux in the past .

see you

[maanu]

@maanu

As far as i remember, there is a nice trick on bootsdiimg builds, you can directly copy content of boot..img to ufd and boot (and of course with a bootable ufd making required boot menu settings).
to mount
with vdk

vdk open 0 BootSDI.pln /RW

with imdisk (i hope correct)

imdisk -a -t file -b 32256 -f bootsdi.img -o rw -m Y:

Well long time passed, I hope it works and I hope you like, see you

thank you for reminding i know this trick already , and i guess from you or Amalux in the past .

see you