MultiBoot Beginner needs help

[Bry]

Hi, i hope you can bear with me as i am very new this and perhaps am not understanding some of the simpler things.

My goal is to create a multiboot cd/dvd with windows xp SP2 slimstreamed (unattended install) with various applications being run using runonce (i will add these last once i get the main part working)

It will also have partition magic 8 on which can be loaded via the boot menu.

I am using diskemu currently to do this.

I have successfully used nlite to create a slimstreamed sp2 unattended install and have a .iso and a folder containing the contents of this iso.

I have used winimage to create a .ima file (2.88mb) for partition magic 8.

I have created my menu using diskemu but, this is where i start to struggle.

Most guides i've read seem to concentrate on multiple versions of windows on 1 cd/dvd. I don't want this just xp sp2 and partition magic (making it a multi boot cd/dvd). Therefore, i dont believe i need to modify the folder strucure of xp (correct?). Most guides seem to run the xp image or folder contents (not sure which?) via a dat file. I can find zero explanation on this and hope someone will help.

What is this dat file? Where do i get it from/How do i make one (SP2)?

Is there anything else i need to know with integrating this with partition magic?

Many Thanks for all your help

[Screwz Luse]

I imagine, although I've never tried, you could just leave everything as is, using cdshell to boot everything. Basically, just grab the .dat file from here (the SP1 dat should work for SP2) and don't edit anything. Try leaving the .ima and .dat files in the root of the DVD and just calling them from CDShell. No promises on this working, just a thought.

You shouldn't have to edit anything if you try the above method, assuming it works.

[Bry]

Hi, thanks thats one of the things i wasnt sure on i found all these references to SP1 but none for SP2.

so i would run xp by telling the program to run the dat file this would then tell it to look in the i386 folder i take it?

Cheers for your help, i understand all of the hard stuff but how toa ctually run the xp install escaped me

[Screwz Luse]

As long as you don't follow the guide which says to change I386 to PRO1, it should work as it'll look in your I386 folder for the boot files. So, if you have I386 in your root directory, I would think it'd work. Just follow the creation of the CDShell menu and creating the ISO in the Multiboot guide and it should work. Just a reminder, I'm not positive as I've never tried it so I'd give it a test with diskemu first. Hope it works for ya.

Edited October 12, 2005 by Screwz Luse

[Bry]

Thankyou very much, uve been a massive help

[Bry]

Windows Xp works great cheers for your help.

However, i am having problems with partition magic. I created a 2.88mb floppy image using winimage and am using. and have caleld the file pqmagic.IMA

i am using

if $lastKey == key[2]; then memdisk /pqmagic.IMA

to try and launch it. I have also tried

if $lastKey == key[2]; then diskemu /pqmagic.IMA

pqmagic.ima is in the root folder.

Yet i get a error inc dshell when i try to run it memdisk/diskemu not found.

Any ideas?

Cheers

[Screwz Luse]

I think I got mine working using something similar to:

if $lastKey == key[2]; then memdisk PM8.IMG

(from the guide)

But I don't recall. I'll double check when I get back to the 'ol apartment later tonight. Glad to hear WinXP is working for you though.

[Jotnar]

Yeah...it has to have .img for a floppy image. You can just rename .ima to .img The newer memdisk builds (last 6 months or so) also support zipped images.

Cheers

Edited October 13, 2005 by Jotnar

[Bry]

Hi thanks for the help. ive renamed it to .img and .IMG but it makes no difference.

if i use

if $lastKey == key[2]; then memdisk /pqmagic.img

i still get command not found

if i use

if $lastKey == key[2]; then memdisk pqmagic.img

(note the lack of a /)

command not available ins cript debugger.

So i thought ill try it on virtual pc as maybe the test script (cdshw.com) isn't workign correctly.

On virtual pc i get the same error for both which is command not found.

For reference the full error is

Error:unknown command entered.

[command: memdisk] [Line 58.2] [File: cdshell.ini]

Cheers for your help guys, i really appreciate this

[Screwz Luse]

Ah, so I'm back home and found that I use BCDW to boot the 2.88MB image.

if $lastKey == key[1]; then bcdw boot \IMAGES\PM8.IMG

[Bry]

thanks for that. However, i am still getting unknown command entered (this time bcdw).

Am i really doing something majroly wrong here?

[Screwz Luse]

You probably just need to download the module for CDShell for BCDW. You get it here. Just open the zip file, go to /cdsh/ and extract the modules folder to your CDShell folder. The should do it, hopefully..

[LiquidSage]

you mentioned using cdshw.com. You should know that when testing your ini file using cdshw.com, no actual cmds are performed. (Just imagine if you were testing your menu and you hit an option for some kind of auto-disk erase boot disk....) Your error is most likely this. (I dbl checked with a script of mine and I got the same error as well).

Actual testing must be done booting.

If this isn't it, then you probably don't have a complete set of files in the 'modules' folder.

Just to make sure you are aware of the process.....

-You must set the boot file to loader.bin in the boot folder.

Loader.bin will trigger cdshell.bin which will start your cdshell.ini menu.

--When booting using memdisk or diskemu...Some mobo's will give you an error if you have disabled your Floppy disk controller and/or selected None for Drive A's type in BIOS.

--Be careful mixing cdshell and bcdw. You need to be aware of version incompatibilities (PM me if you want a copy of both that work together. -CDShell 2.0.11 and bcdw 1.5z plugin-)

Regarding paths....

-To start from the root dir. use "/" first. Ex. /boot.ima <---this makes for a messy root

-Relative dir starts with the folder name then "/".

I personally create a folder in boot called "files" and use /boot/files/xxx.xxx

[Bry]

Hi, LiquidSage i have sent you a pm regarding cdshell and bcdw.

As for using cdshw.com you are right and i did think of this myself hence why ive tested it using virtual pc yet, i still get the same errors of no command entered.

[Bry]

i gave up on cdshell. it is an extremly buggy program no matter what i could not run memdisk in it.

I have now gone back to the original diskemu and it works great.

Cheers for all the help