Hot Topic: Multi-bootable N-in-1 Cd Howto

[khauyeung]

Sorry once again for my typing mistakes:

the wpro.r02 should be read as wpro.r00.
the mkbootcd.exe has been added in khayftp2.

Previous links have been corrected.

[BigHead50]

Thank you for your Patience, khauyeung, I have now ALL the ingrediants for a tasty Multi-CD...

I follow your tutorial, and it is very cool how to make things point to where is needed...

Thanks again for sharing this Wealth of Info....

Very yummy reading!

SeeYa

Tks khauyeung, for share your great experience with us..

[Dave]

I'm having a hard time finding the time to keep up with the class.

Without a doupt, the best tutorial I have seen here and would nominate it for "post of the year".
Keep up the excellent work professor khauyeung!
Dave

[James55]

Yes this has been probably the best informative post Ive seen so far. Congrats and thank you

[craftyc]

I haven't tried the bootable CD menu yet, but great post!

Also why must we change the files in the Home Edition? Or is it just a personal preference? I have a legitamate copy therefore I don't want to change any of the files.

[khauyeung]

[12-23-2001] (Part 8)

Just Do It!

We have learnt the Multi-Bootable theories behind the N-in-1 CD, let us put it to work on our 2in1:

1. Copy the following stuffs which you have downloaded earlier to the sourceroot (E:CORP2IN1_EN): loader.bin, diskem1x.bin, diskemu.cmd, deload.bin and the uncompressed WPRO folder.

2. Make a Professional Boot-Sector WPROSECT.DAT pointing to the WPRO folder: In sourceroot, copy boot.bin WPROSECT.DAT; Turn off the READ-ONLY Attribute; Edit WPROSECT.DAT (with UltraEdit or something alike), replace "I386" with "WPRO".

3. Edit (or check) the 3 files in the WPRO foler: The WPRO folder which you got from download has been edited correctly on SETUPREG.HIV (with full retail Professional ID), SETUPLDR.BIN (4 "I386" entries replaced with "WPRO")& TXTSETUP.SIF (setupsourcepath=""). Double check on them.

4. Make a Home Edition Boot-Sector WPERSECT.DAT pointing to the WPER folder: In sourceroot, copy boot.bin WPERSECT.DAT; Turn off the READ-ONLY Attribute; Edit WPERSECT.DAT (with UltraEdit or something alike), replace "I386" with "WPER".

5. In sourceroot, Creating the [b}WPER[/b] folder by copying the WPRO folder.

6. Copying the 3 files (setupreg.hiv, setupldr.bin, txtsetup.sif) from the i386 folder of Home Edition (E:CORP2IN1_ENWXHVOL_ENi386) to the WPER folder (E:CORP2IN1_ENWPER). Overwriting those existings.

7. Turn off the READ-ONLY Attribute; Edit (or check) the 3 files in the WPER foler: SETUPREG.HIV (with full retail Professional ID), SETUPLDR.BIN (4 "I386" entries replaced with "WPER")& TXTSETUP.SIF (setupsourcepath="WXHVOL_EN"). Double check on them.

8. Now open the file diskemu.cmd with a text editor, try to understand its contents or change the wordings of the menu-section to whatever you like. Close it after it is done.

9. Delete the previous 2in1 ISO (E:CORP2IN1.ISO) to free up hard-drive space.

10. In DOS Window, Enter the following command to create a Multi-Bootable 2in1 ISO with loader.bin as the Boot-Image:


cdimage -lCORP2IN1_EN -t08/23/2001,12:00:00 -bE:CORP2IN1_ENloader.bin -h -n -m -o E:CORP2IN1_EN E:CORP2IN1.ISO

11. In about 5 minutes, we can enjoy what we have just cooked: The generated CORP2IN1.ISO is a CD-Image contains the DevilsOwn (i386 folder located under of the CD) and the Home Edition (i386 folder under WXHVOL_EN of the CD). The CD is multi-bootable to to a menu from which we can select to setup either DevilsOwn or Home Edition. If you insert the CD under Win32, it will autorun the setup.exe of the DevilsOwn (setup.exe)

We are very close to the finishing touch of this thread. The only thing I have not talked about is the Autorun Menu. I have not yet decided how to present this part because the one I used in my N-in-1 is too complicated to use. On the other hand, it is not free to distribute. I am awaiting your input of comments, questions, suggestion and creative idea...

New content segment is now in [12-23-2001] (Part 9). Check it out!



Last edited by khauyeung at Jul 20 2002, 10:34 AM

[[SiN]]

1585 views good work khauyeung!

"The only thing I have not talked about is the Autorun Menu"
So close lol...

I can't wait to see how this is done. What do you at least use to make the autorun menu? Programming or an application that automates the process? That is going to be a hard one to explain though... Maybe just give out sme basiscs?

[khauyeung]

[12-23-2001] (Part 9)

Finishing Touch

We have generated the Multi-Bootable 2in1 CD-Image (E:CORP2IN1.ISO). Don't burn it yet because it is not our final and we have to add an Autorun Menu in our final touch. But I can show you what it will look like when you boot this 2in1 CD:



In the finishing touch for the Autorun Menu, I have decided to use a simple but yet very effective Autorun program. Here is the Autorun Menu of our 2in1 CD generated by this program:



Now get the compressed Autorun program from the following link and put all the uncompressed files into your sourceroot: /http://members.rogers.com/khayftp2/autorun.rar

The Autorun program you have downloaded consists of 5 files: autorun.inf, autorun.exe, autorun.ini, autorun.bmp and autorun.ico. The operation is fairly easy to understand:

1. When you insert the CD under Win32, Windows will look into the autorun.inf which contains 3 lines:

[AutoRun]
open=autorun.exe
icon=autorun.ico

2. The autorun.inf redirects Windows to run the autoexec.exe which is a program written in VB. The autorun.exe looks into autorun.ini which contains control settings and can be edited easily with a text editor. Here is part of the content in autorun.ini:

...
[GENERAL]
prior install=true
show language=false
background=autorun.bmp
product logo=
mheight=1350
mborder=200
mfontsize=8
mfontbold=true
mfontitalics=false
mforecolor=16777215
mfontjustify=2
...
[LANG0] //Default (when language selection is not displayed)
numbutton=4
exit=E&xit
back=&Back

button1=Setup Windows XP &Professional
mess1=Setup Windows XP Professional
type1=1
active1=1
action1=Setup.exe

button2=Setup Windows XP &Home Edition
mess2=Setup Windows XP Home Edition
type2=1
active2=1
action2=WXHVOL_ENSetup.exe

button3=&View the release notes
mess3=View the release notes
type3=1
active3=1
action3=Readme.htm

button4=Browse this &CD
mess4=Browse this CD
type4=1
active4=1
action4=

3. According to autorun.ini, the Autorun program uses autorun.bmp as the background picture. It puts onto the background a total of 4 buttons (numbutton=4) and each of them has the individual label, message and action being defined. Obviously, you can change the background bitmap, the number of buttonts and their properties by modifying the content of the autorun.ini.

Now your sourceroot contains all the necessary ingredients and it will give you a CD-Image of around 550 MB in size when the optimization magics are played. You still have around 100 MB of space to fill with your Value-Added stuffs before you reach a full-house condition. Fill it up if you like.

It is time for our final cook:

1. cdimage -lCORP2IN1_EN -t08/23/2001,12:00:00 -bE:CORP2IN1_ENloader.bin -h -n -m -o E:CORP2IN1_EN E:CORP2IN1.ISO
2. Burn the CORP2IN1.ISO onto a CD.


Congratulation! Your Multi-Bootable Corporated Windows XP Professional & Home Edition 2in1 CD is done. Now I can see a smile on your face when you are leaving the door of this classroom with this gift and I believe that you will be able to create a lot more other N-in-1 for your own in the future. Don't forget to share your good stuffs with others though!

Thank you for attending our "Multi-Bootable N-in-1 CD Howto" Class and best wishes for the holiday season and a happy new year!



Last edited by khauyeung at Jul 20 2002, 10:40 AM

[[SiN]]

[quote:c40849657f]Thank you for attending our "Multi-Bootable N-in-1 CD Howto" Class and best wishes for the holiday season and a happy new year!
[/quote:c40849657f]

khauyeung, I want to just say thanks, I am copying all this info to a file for future reference. I learned a lot on how to make a Nin1 CD and I owe it to you

Thanks again,
Lucky


Have a great holiday