11 replies to this topic

[Shirin Zaban]

=============================================================================
Run Image from HDD in RAM step by step (01_LiveXP)
=============================================================================

Hi

There are a lot of sites talking about running image from Ram.I should say some notes about
befor continuing tutorial:

1.They mostly talk about BaretPE ,Linux,and other OS's.almost no one say about liveXP.

2.By most of these tutors,as they mention,the user should work in special conditions,for
example in making bartpe image to run from Ram,you have to make your original image,just
by selecting NO plugins,if you don't,it will not run.Atleast in my exprements (more than
50 tests),I was succesful just in few conditions.

3.I have not find enough information about this subject,to use that information in other
environments too.

4.I have tried winbuilder livexp BootSDI progect to do this work.but i could do the work
successfully (may be I do not have enough information to make that ?!!).

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Finally:
When working by Winbuilder BartPECore project,I found A way to do the work.i tried to know
how the RamPE-Nt5x.Script works and after understanding it,I tried the result by BartPE
(with most plugins selected),and also with liveXP with most application selected,several
times and it worked OK.

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And now it is time to begin the tutor.just note that:

1.This tutor differs from RamPE-Nt5x.Script ,just idea is from this script.

2.In this tutor ,i just use basic easy understanding batch files to do the work.

3.I have placed most needed files to do this exprement in attachment,download it befor
starting work.

4.I have tested tutor by BartPE (236M image) and two different LiveXP images (134M image)
all worked OK.Hope you will exprement and inform me about others too.

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step_1.Getting ready :
=============================

Because we need to make Disk images During tutor and load them and ...So we should select
a program to do this job for us.I used FileDisk (i have placed it in attachment).Do as:

1.Copy FileDisk folder from attachment to C:\

2.Copy the driver C:\filedisk\filedisk.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers\ directory.

3.Run C:\filedisk\filedisk.reg .

4.Reboot your computer (File disk will not work befor reboot,ofcourse you need to restart
just one time and after that for using filedisk you do not need to restart again.

====================================
Step_2.Making LiveXP needed files :
====================================

1.Run WinBuilder,select livexp ,accept default output pathes ,and make your favorite
LiveXP.After a few minutes you will have:

....\Iso\LiveXP.iso
and
....\Target\livexp\ (here you will have files needed for making livexp.iso


2.Copy ...\livexp directory to c:\ (you will have C:\LiveXP).


3.Copy RAMDISK.SYS from attachment and place that in:
C:\livexp\I386\system32\ driver\

4.Open C:\LiveXP\I386\TXTSETUP.SIF by notepad,find [ScsiClass.Load] section and add
line below at end of that section:

ramdisk = ramdisk.sys

so you will have some thing like:

[ScsiClass.Load]
cdrom=cdrom.sys
disk=disk.sys
ramdisk=ramdisk.sys
=====================================
Step_3.Creating an Disk Image :
=====================================

1.I have made empty disk image (LiveXP.ima in attachment) by winimage, Copy that to c:\
(If you want to make Empty image yourselfe refer to my tutor in link below:)

http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=4949

2.Copy sleep.exe from attachment to your ..\system32 directory.it is needed for batch file
that we are going to use it.

2.Run Make.bat (You can find that in attachment).this batch file is very easy (I am not good
batch witer).it will do workes below:

a.will run c:\filedisk\filedisk.exe and will load C:\LiveXP.ima as virtual drive R: ,will
format R: (NTFS format).

b.Will Copy Contents of C:\Livexp\ to virtual drive R:

c.At end will unmount virtual drive R:

At this time if you look at C:\LiveXP.ima , you will see that it's size is about 120M (in
this example).

=====================================
Step_4.
=====================================

At this time most of the work is done and we are going to make last changes as comes:

1.Copy Files below from attachment to C:\

peboot.bin
peldr
WINNT.SIF

2.Add Line below to end of your C:\boot.ini

C:\peboot.bin="Run LiveXP Ramdisk Image"

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Notes:
1_If you look at WINNT.SIF ,you will see it is easy to understand.
2_if you want to know about files peboot.bin and peldr ,you can study RamPE-Nt5x.Script.

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Now if you restart your computer,and select "Run LiveXP Ramdisk Image" from boot menue
the system will load livexp image from hard ,ofcourse in ram.it will be shown as drive X:
in my computer.

Thats all

hope will help some

shirin Zaban

[pscEx]

=============================================================================
Run Image from HDD in RAM step by step (01_LiveXP)
=============================================================================

A very good tutorial including the background explanation.

But the best: As far as I saw in the first view, everything used is freeware or under GNU etc.
And: Sources included!

So no problem with 'attaching someting from Bill's XP-Embedded' or similar!



Peter

BTW: After the weekend I'm going to try it!

[was_jaclaz]

Well, no.

Winimage is Shareware, though Gilles Vollant is a nice guy and provides for working no-nagging downloads, it is shareware.

But point is that there is NO NEED to use it, since you also use filedisk.

@Shirin Zaban
Do review this thread by aec:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=19333

Particularly, there are "workarounds" to install filedisk without need for rebooting:
http://www.911cd.net...o...19333&st=22

And VDK and IMDISK can both be used instead of filedisk (and they do not need rebooting for install)

THE ATTACHMENT CONTAINS MICROSOFT FILES THAT ARE NOT REDISTRIBUTABLE

jaclaz

[Shirin Zaban]

Hi

Thank you psc
have a nice weekend


Thank you jaclaz for your attention and giving nice topics to learn more

have nice times

shirin zaban

[was_jaclaz]

Thank you jaclaz for your attention and giving nice topics to learn more

Shirin,
when I write something in CAPITAL LETTERS it's because it should be actually READ and complied to.

THE ATTACHMENT CONTAINS MICROSOFT FILES THAT ARE NOT REDISTRIBUTABLE

means in plain English:
Please, remove the attachment before I will have to remove it myself.

Maybe you did not get it, now you know.

READ, and I mean READ, here:
http://www.boot-land...topic=4099&st=5

jaclaz

[Shirin Zaban]

Hi dear jaclaz
I am very sorry .I did not see that

sorry,and i will modify tutor in few days.

thanks for your mention
have nice times

shirin zaban

[Shirin Zaban]

[quote name='jaclaz' date='Jul 3 2008, 05:51 PM' post='39021']
Well, no.
=================================
##########################################
Modification to tutor
##########################################

Hi

1.Thanks jaclaz for informing me.

2.As dear jaclaz mentioned and i did not know,I can not send you all real files
but you can continue as below to do that your self:

================================================================================
==

1)_.In step_2 of tutor You should use RAMDISK.SYS from windows 2003 sp1

2)_.For step_4 use files as below:

For peboot.bin-- Copy "peinst" plugin from plugin directory of PEBuilder ,copy it
to c:\ (you will have c:\peinst). now run batch below,it will make
peboot.bin in c:\
------------
c:
cd peinst
mkbt -x -c c: c:\peboot.bin
nt2peldr c:\peboot.bin
---------------

For peldr ----- Extract peldr.bin from "RamPE for WinNt 5.x.script".It is in :
winbuilder directory\Projects\BartPECore\Tools\ directory
rename it to peldr and use in tutor.

For WINNT.SIF -- open notepad and type lines below on it, then save it as WINNT.SIF

[SetupData]
BootDevice="ramdisk(0)"
BootPath="\i386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions="/fastdetect /minint /inram /rdpath=\LiveXP.ima"

3)_.For Make.bat in Step_3.Creating an Disk Image ,download sleep.exe from msdn site,then copy it to your
..\system32\ directory ,then use batch below:
-----------------
C:
cd filedisk
filedisk /mount 1 c:\LiveXP.IMA 256M R:
sleep 2
format R: /FS:NTFS /C /V :LiveXP
sleep 2
xcopy C:\Livexp\*.* R:\ /E /H /R /y
sleep 4
C:
cd filedisk
filedisk /umount R:
--------------------------------

4)_.you can get other files from web.they are too small.

==================================================================

thanks again to jaclaz and also other friends ,and hope they will be my friend and
will help me again

have nice times
shirin

[Lancelot]

thanks for tutorial shirin

after some trials i get success with this method (vmware),

but to success, in addition to what are written (sorry if i missed sth) i take setupldr.bin from 2k3sp1 and named it peldr, than it worked. if some hex needed, please inform.

i have question for peboot.bin, is the peboot.bin we created distrubatable? if vista mbr is used will it have effect on creating peboot.bin? and work on all machines??? (so far i understand from what i read, it wont work on all machines)

if not, is there any other way to make peldr run? (ps: i know grub, i am asking for sth peboot.bin does)

shortly, i am looking for sth to use in general that i can add boot.ini which will run setupldr.bin (peldr)

boot.ini
c:\sthilook = "start setupldr.bin"


?????

[Shirin Zaban]

Hi Lancelot

1.In my country we do not have distributing problem ,So as you saw i have uploaded needed
files, But as "jaclaz" said it is illegal and they removed my attachment.So i do not have
information about your question: "is the peboot.bin we created distrubatable?" and hope
"jaclaz" or other friends will answer your question.

2.In your note i did not understand the meaning of "sth" and "sthilook",(because of my poor
english),would you please tell me what is it?

3.If you mean that you want to be able to use "setupldr.bin" of XP and "peldr" at the same
time from "boot.ini" ,I think that you should do as below:

...a)_ Rename "c:\setupldr.bin" to for example "c:\xxxxx.bin"

..._ Rename "grldr" (from grub4dos) to "setupldr.bin" and place it in C:\

...c)_ Edit menu.lst (from grub4dos) to have entry to run "c:\xxxxx.bin" for running xp (and
you can also put other entries in the same way to run other projects).

...D)_ Now by restarting computer,it will boot by "grldr" that is renamed to "setupldr.bin"
and if you select "c:\xxxxx.bin entry" it will run Windows xp or by selecting other projects
it will load them.

===============================

Note:
------
peboot.bin loads peldr,but if you open "peboot.bin" by hex editor and search for "peldr"
you will not find it,because you should search as picture_01 in attachment.

As you see in picture , it seems we can edit this file to run other name (I have not test this).

=============================
hope will be some help

shirin zaban

Attached Files

•  picture_01.png   27.64KB   160 downloads

[Lancelot]

Hi Shirin,

we dont have much distribution problem here for personal usage too, but i dont want things i put in internet to vanish in time because of distrubition problems, no site owner would want to get in trouble with those.

2. sthilook="something i look", lets call it peboot2.bin

i dont want to use grub4dos in this task for some reasons (i use grub4dos a lot), but in the end it seems to me it is the way i will go . This method is more practical only if i could have a xxxxx.bin for general usage.

Thanks for your concern.

btw:
thanks for peldr.bin warning,
my peboot.bin is different (as expected),



peldr is written together and there is a fat32 there as i created peboot.bin with a fat32 partition that have mbr.

simply i need a loader like peboot2.bin which loads peldr (setupldr.bin) by using boot.ini. it seems probably in the end i will use grub4dos and read more readme document in it .

[was_jaclaz]

@Lancelot
the general idea (mine ) is NOT to rename files, but to rather change the name of files invoked by bootsectors, use (or peruse) this:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=2362

Rather obviously each bootsector is peculiar to the partition (size, position on the hard disk), so, no matter wheter "peboot.bin" is or not redistributable, it is completely unuseful on any other setup unless it is IDENTICAL to that on which the bootsector was generated.

Thus it must be generated on the actual specific machine/disk, and this is where my batch or similar utilities get handy.

jaclaz

[Lancelot]

jaclaz,

i have the same general idea with yours, "is NOT to rename files, but to rather change the name of files invoked by bootsectors"
But, if conditons force, it is the solution (unless i always remain the defaults):
example: To boot more than one .iso/.img pe on same hd one must change setupldr.bin files with diff names and searching for different .sif

my intention is a bit different,
one can be using lilo, grub, vista or any other thing in mbr to start boot sequence,
example:
with grub mbr starting xp,vista,linux so when starting xp:
1)grubmbr-->2)menu.lst-->3)chainloader ntldr-->4)boot.ini ----->
5)selection---->----->6a)starting xp

my intention is to start a .img/.iso pe image after 5th step so everyone who have xp can easly start it.
Although they are very good, Using your utiltiy or method written here will fail i guess. That is why my intention went back to grub.

thanks for your concern