355 replies to this topic

[Jabez Jarber]

See Tutorial #60 on my site for help with Plop.

Thanks. I've had a quick look but am struggling to make any headway. Here's my menu.1st...

title Boot to USB using Plop
kernel /plpbt.bin

title LiveXP_WIM Rescue
find --set-root /XPE/LiveXP_WIM.ISO
map /XPE/LiveXP_WIM.ISO (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
chainloader (0xff)

The flash drive boots, and I get a menu with the two options above.

If I select option 2, this leads to Loading Ramdisk and the ISO very slowly loads.

If I select option 1, this leads to a separate Plop menu, with the USB option highlighted and counting down.

This then takes me back to the first menu. I'm assuming at this point that Plod is now in control and that the USB 2.0 drivers have been installed.

However, if I now go on to select option 2, I ever so briefly get to see some text before finishing up with a black screen, without so much as a cursor

I have configured plpbt.bin precisely in accordance with the example shown within your Tutorial #60

[steve6375]

Must be an incompatibility in Plop??

[Uvais]

Newcomer's Tutorial - LiveXP, Win7PE & Portable Apps! (Updated Feb. 2012)


LiveXP is a stable, highly configurable boo


...... If you have any questions, by all means, ask!

Here's a look at some things you can do in LiveXP:


Download a project and save it to your desktop...

......

in this picture you are playing a video in vlc and i hope the sound was working too...But in you project there is no Audio drivers and vlc etc ...How you created this ? or above pic is not from your posted project

Edit : No doubt Your above picture is making my heart beat Fast

Thanks

Edited by Uvais, 31 March 2012 - 06:56 PM.

[amalux]

That script (if I was using a script) would have been this one http://www.mediafire...5kn1j3iwn3covcl

but more likely, it was a portable like one of these:
http://www.mediafire...lp1r0pn72qseg5f
http://www.mediafire...oxnlmkc2mj2y4yx

I generally prefer portables for large programs or those that require updating often.

As for the drivers, have a look in Drivers section, Drivers Import PE AE script for adding/importing your audio drivers. Use Drivers Import (on desktop) or DIPE directly to test audio driver import; if working, just add drivers to root drivers folder or add in ISO with editor to avoid re-build.


p.s. I really need to give better instruction on this in the tutorial, let me see what I can do

[Uvais]

Thanks

[pktman]

Thank you Amalux for the great tutorial.
I have a question regarding portable apps. Can I have the folder ppApps in a network drive?
I tried your Livexp project but does not generate the shortcuts in a network drive,

If I have ppApps folder in usb everything works fine.

[Hy T. Diep]

How can I change the look of the star menu? It bothers me that it's so short!

Edit: Found it

http://www.sevenforu...nge-height.html

Edited by Hy T. Diep, 01 April 2012 - 12:39 PM.

[amalux]

Can I have the folder ppApps in a network drive?

I don't know.. If the network drive is 'seen' by the PE at startup like an external hard drive would be then I don't see why this wouldn't work. The problem is probably timing which could be tweaked. Do you have to do anything before accessing the network drive in PE? Can you run ppAppsGen manually after startup, does it then see the ppApps on network drive? Walk me through the process and maybe I can help, I'm afraid I don't know much about network drives

[Uvais]

Hey amalux Why don't you upload complete Mega pack of XP/7 PE with audio /video playing support

[amalux]

Simply, the size would be prohibitive; there is a law of diminishing return at work here. Attempting to include every program and every driver results in a huge, slow, RAM-hogging mess. I've attempted to use tools that import only drivers needed on any given machine and allow programs to be added/removed as user needs dictate, without the necessity to rebuild the image or having to include every possible program in the build

[pktman]

I don't know.. If the network drive is 'seen' by the PE at startup like an external hard drive would be then I don't see why this wouldn't work. The problem is probably timing which could be tweaked. Do you have to do anything before accessing the network drive in PE? Can you run ppAppsGen manually after startup, does it then see the ppApps on network drive? Walk me through the process and maybe I can help, I'm afraid I don't know much about network drives

I can boot iso via pxe or by usb and access to the network drive through the penetwork script.
I run ppAppsGen manually after startup.
If the ppApps folder is in local drive or usb the shorcuts are generated, but if on network drive does not work.

[amalux]

Like I said, I don't know enough to give an intelligent answer. I assume you need to log in with something like:

net use <drive>: "<server><path>" <password> /USER:"<user>"

which can be done automatically in startup batch but then how is net drive seen by computer? if you open explorer, do you see the drive as a normal D: or E: etc. or is it different? Do you know how to write a simple batch? Can you give me a script that opens a text doc on the net drive?

[pktman]

Like I said, I don't know enough to give an intelligent answer. I assume you need to log in with something like:

net use <drive>: "\\<server>\<path>" <password> /USER:"<user>"

which can be done automatically in startup batch but then how is net drive seen by computer? if you open explorer, do you see the drive as a normal D:\ or E:\ etc. or is it different? Do you know how to write a simple batch? Can you give me a script that opens a text doc on the net drive?

Thanks Amalux. I've solved the problem.
If mapping the network drive with the letter Z, does not work, but it works with any other letter.
Thanks for your help.

[amalux]

Great! Glad it's working

[dirtyrobinson]

I downloaded each version of Win7PE and like stated, I didn't make any changes so I could create the first version successfully. Well, they all created "successfully" but when it closes the .wim file it just disappears leaving the final ISO 1/10th of the size. Every folder is in the ISO except for the Windows folder and there isn't anything in the Source folder. There isn't even a .wim file in the target directory. I've been watching the folder to monitor the changes and the Windows folder disappears during the PostConfig I'm assuming its unmounting using imagex but where is the unmounted .wim file at?

I downloaded W7.041212.exe and installed it directly on the C: directory like stated. I copied my untouched Windows 7 32 bit disk to the C: drive as well and used that as the source directory. Not sure if it matters but the directory is about 700mb until it gets to the PostConfig portion when the .wim is unmounted then the folder and final ISO size ranged from 17mb on the basic version of Win7PE to 74mb version with portable addons and tweaks.

Edited by dirtyrobinson, 17 April 2012 - 04:27 AM.

[amalux]

I downloaded W7.041212.exe and installed it directly on the C:\ directory like stated. I copied my untouched Windows 7 32 bit disk to the C:\ drive as well and used that as the source directory.

Sounds good so far, your source folder is about 2.4GB in size and looks like this? It's a retail image, not OEM, right?
 sp1src-2.4.png   19.05K   2 downloads

How much free space is available on the drive where you're building the project? How much RAM?

Not sure if it matters but the directory is about 700mb until it gets to the PostConfig portion when the .wim is unmounted then the folder and final ISO size ranged from 17mb on the basic version of Win7PE to 74mb version with portable addons and tweaks.

I don't understand most of this, let's just start clean; here is a lite, simple test project:
http://www.mediafire...gabrg8we99m5dfb

Install the package to your C: drive (Winbuilder starts automatically).

Choose the folder, where you've copied the contents of your Windows 7 installation disc to, in the Source tab of Winbuilder.

Disable any realtime anti-virus or similar that could interfere with the build and make sure UAC is disabled.

Click the blue play button and leave it to finish in peace. Make note of any pop-ups or errors (should be none).

When done, if you have VM installed, the ISO should boot in that; if not, try burning to DVD-R and see if it boots your machine.

If troubles, upload the archived log in <build directory>\logs to any free site (MediaFire) and post the link here for me to look at.

If this test works, it will be easy to add back all the goodies

[dirtyrobinson]

My disk is 2.4gb in size, exactly like the picture, retail version. The drive its on has about 160gb of free space. I have 6gb of RAM, no programs running when I run winbuilder so plenty of RAM. I disabled AV software and UAC has also been disabled. I ran the test and it finished successfully like the others but when it boots VirtualBox it immediately gives off the windows boot error, 0xc0000000f: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible. Just like the other builds, there isn't a .wim file in the target directory. It mounted one and unmounted it but there aren't any new .wim files on my HD.

Here is the log file:
http://www.mediafire...tniqx30dp3ce1tf

Edited by dirtyrobinson, 17 April 2012 - 05:58 PM.

[amalux]

Strange, give me a little time... my guess is VirtualBox in x64, can you test in other (VM) or real boot to confirm? Running some tests...

[pscEx]

I'm not familar with the internals of the Win7PE project, but in my projects I have bad experience with NTFS hard links, e.g. when using mkisofs.
The result is sometimes ok., sometimes one or more files are missing.

Are there hard links used in order to save disk space or speed up?

Peter

[dirtyrobinson]

I burned the ISO to try booting it directly but same issue. I see in the log during the PostConfig script it creates the sources directory and it tells imagex to /capture boot.tmp to create boot.wim then deletes the boot.tmp directory but boot.wim isn't created in the target directory files.

Here is the finished ISO if it will help (16mb):
http://www.mediafire...t4reo76t0kmqysg

Thank you so much for looking at this, I really appreciate your help!

[pscEx]

I burned the ISO to try booting it directly but same issue. I see in the log during the PostConfig script it creates the sources directory and it tells imagex to /capture boot.tmp to create boot.wim then deletes the boot.tmp directory but boot.wim isn't created in the target directory files.

Catch the ImageX command line from the log, replace %BaseDir% by your actual path, and start <full path>ImageX.exe with that parameter in a cmd window.

IMPORTANT: Before the next (Test) build edit the script starting ImageX and comment out to delete boot.tmp

If there is an issue, ImageX will tell you.

BTW: What I really do not like: I'm asking a question (in this case about hard link) and the next post tells something very different.
That usually brings me to "Forget this user's issue".
@Amalux: Do you remember the beginning ???


Peter

[dirtyrobinson]

BTW: What I really do not like: I'm asking a question (in this case about hard link) and the next post tells something very different

I'm sorry, I didn't see your post until just now, but I'm not really sure what you mean by hard link.

I started imagex from the directory and it seems to be functioning fine, no errors when I mount or unmount other wim files.

Edited by dirtyrobinson, 17 April 2012 - 07:13 PM.

[pscEx]

I'm sorry, I didn't see your post until just now, but I'm not really sure what you mean by hard link.

Do not worry about short time crossing!
Hard links are not easily to detect.
They make a "Copy" of something by just creating a link, rather than physically copying the file / directory.

In UNIX / LINUX this is very well known / used / functioning, but the trial of Billy The Door to clone this behaviour, IMO is not 100% successful.

Peter

[amalux]

Here is the finished ISO if it will help (16mb):

Ahh, here's your problem, your missing the BOOT.WIM!

No, seriously, I've been busy at work; give me a little time to build and test on Win 7 x64 host. I've been testing on XP SP2 x86 with NO WAIK installed so I don't think it's the WAIK version but something similar... a little more time.

@Amalux: Do you remember the beginning ???

Please, I'm trying to forget

[dirtyrobinson]

They make a "Copy" of something by just creating a link, rather than physically copying the file / directory.

I see what you're saying, that kinda sounds like it might be doing that. I personally feel the issue is in the PostConfig script so I'm running winbuilder right now without using that script, to see if I get new results. Should be done in the next 10 minutes.

Ahh, here's your problem, your missing the BOOT.WIM!

No, seriously, I've been busy at work; give me a little time to build and test on Win 7 x64 host. I've been testing on XP SP2 x86 with NO WAIK installed so I don't think it's the WAIK version but something similar... a little more time.

I actually uninstalled my WAIK and ran the build again but got the same results.