HFSLIP web site comments

[Tomcat76]

Here you can post constructive comments telling us how the HFSLIP web site can be improved. Report spelling or grammatical errors, if sections can be worded better, etc.

URL: hfslip.org

<rant>One thing I won't change is the core code of the site. It was designed from the ground up to be XHTML 1.1 compliant and at the same time compatible with MSIE 5.5, MSIE 6, as well as any standards-compliant web browser (tested in Opera 9, Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.0 and Mozilla Firefox 1.5). For MSIE in general you need to have scripting enabled, and for MSIE6 on XPSP2 and Win2003 in particular you need to allow it to process active content. Working around the "yellow information bar" problem means degrading the code to "street HTML", resulting in degraded display and possible compatibility problems with modern web browsers. I won't go there. People who want to progress should be rewarded.</rant>

Edited August 8, 2006 by Tomcat76

[fdv]

this is great.

not to slander myself <laughs> but... finally a much needed overhaul; my documentation was so patchworked i didn't really know where to begin

glad i can 'clean up' and trim my site down now...

though it's touched on, the way you have things, it is my bet that people are going to e-mail you asking 'where does xxx go? how about yyy?' you might want to have a sample graphic illustrating this (no need to keep it updated, but something to give people an idea).

[tain]

This Page Is Valid XHTML 1.1!

Nice

[Kiki Burgh]

hi!

i've already said this before the site is nice & simple ... and is not heavy when loading

[Super-Magician]

OK. Updated. Keep the corrections coming, but please don't do it in [the test release thread]. I'll start a new one.

Sorry about that!

[tain]

I think more emphasis should be placed on FDV integration (IE Removal). I, for one, was brought to HFSLIP by FDV's project which really is a separate entity, however well-integrated it may be.

IE Removal is a *huge* feature of HFSLIP, a main feature for some of us, and it should be on the front page and should probably have its own menu entry on the left.

[Kiki Burgh]

glad i can 'clean up' and trim my site down now...

this isn't goodbye to you FDV right? HFSLIP is still going to be mentioned in your site i'm sure ... and certainly too you are going to frequent HFSLIP ...

[fdv]

this isn't goodbye to you FDV right?

No, certainly not! I'll still be roaming the board.

I do anticipate:

- less work on the 2k fileset, because it's very mature and close to perfect as it can get

- less work on my version of the HFSLIP documentation; I'll be retaining the reduction files and info

- using windows less personally as i learn something else

So I'll definitely see you all around!

[Aluminum]

Finally a site I can point some (brighter) people at and they won't give up after the first minute...sorry FDV not many people are willing to follow through things that aren't "pretty" or "neat" but thats not unique to your stuff at all. Handholding is where its at! haha

I've been forcing myself to learn more of the nitty-gritty linux things setting up and customizing various firewalls/routers/etc. You can wring a lot of uses out of a $50 appliance 1 2 or quite the modest PC. The snort logs filtered just to my cable's subnet is so sad...its zombieland incarnate. Either that or my neighborhood is nothing but evil programmers

Its an interesting shift from 'click and done' things, and you can learn fun stuff like importing improperly formatted text files from windows can cause unexpected disasters. There was a very good format long before MS, but they just had to change it.

"Those who don't understand UNIX are doomed to reinvent it, poorly."

I'm really starting to realize how deep a statement that is today.

Edited July 26, 2006 by Aluminum

[crayoxide]

Step six of the basic howto could be expanded to let newbies know that, while the bbie.exe file is needed, its purpose is to extract a cd-rom boot image. Also, do not forget to explain that HFSLIP needs the output of bbie.exe to be renamed to boot.img.

In step eight:

Next to this, HFSLIP allows three different compression ratios for both scenarios.

I think that it would more correct to say:

In addition to this, HFSLIP allows three different compression ratios to be selected for both scenarios.

Thanks for everyones hard work in such a great project!

[Tomcat76]

Step six of the basic howto could be expanded to let newbies know that, while the bbie.exe file is needed, its purpose is to extract a cd-rom boot image.

OK.

Also, do not forget to explain that HFSLIP needs the output of bbie.exe to be renamed to boot.img.

That hasn't been the case for several months. BBIE outputs *.BIN files, MKISOFS can work with *.BIN files, and CDIMAGE can work with *.BIN files. There's no point in forcing people to rename it to *.IMG so it was dropped. Since that change, if BOOT.IMG exists but not BOOT.BIN, BOOT.IMG is automatically renamed to BOOT.BIN.

In addition to this, HFSLIP allows three different compression ratios to be selected for both scenarios.

Thanks.

[fdv]

BTW dont forget a link to the HFSLIP worldmap!

http://www.frappr.com/hfslip

[Super-Magician]

Technically, I think it would be more accurate and grammatically correct to say:

In addition to this, HFSLIP allows three different compression ratios to be selected for each scenario.

[crayoxide]

That hasn't been the case for several months. BBIE outputs *.BIN files, MKISOFS can work with *.BIN files, and CDIMAGE can work with *.BIN files. There's no point in forcing people to rename it to *.IMG so it was dropped. Since that change, if BOOT.IMG exists but not BOOT.BIN, BOOT.IMG is automatically renamed to BOOT.BIN.

ack! Brain fart. Dunno why I typed .img as the extension.

lol.

[ebernard]

Dear friends,

Thanks for making such a useful and helpful website.

Even a newbie like me can use your method with success, I found out.

You make me feel happy to contribute making it still better.

1. Availability of Non-ENU versions

You point to Tomcat76'Complete List of XP Updates for the files to go in folders.

The list limits to ENU versions.

I can see why and agree.

For a non-ENU user like me, for most of the files it is easy to find the corresponding NLD version.

In some rare cases however it seems impossible.

After long tedious searching the Internet the question remains: does a non ENU version exist?

This was the case with

WindowsXP-KB905474-ENU-x86_0aad890762cf263dbd4c825c477ef7ba821a852f.exe

My question: can you or Tomcat indicate for which files only ENU versions are available?

2. P or C

In step six you mention

WIN51IP

Win51ip.sp2

Maybe it is useful to mention the fact that the 'P' in these filenames occurs in the case of XP-Pro versions, the XP-Home version has a 'C' instead.

3. Optionals

Step seven mentions: SFC_OS.DLL (OR USE AN EMPTY SFCFILES.DLL)

To me it was not immediately clear if I had to have one of these optionals or could forget both of them. Just a matter of formulation.

I suggest (hope I understood correctly):

SFC_OS.DLL (OR USE AN EMPTY SFCFILES.DLL)

You can, but you do not have to shut off WFP. If you are an "HFSLIP Expert," you might want it. A quick word about Windows File Protection. It was designed not to thwart you, but to prevent software from changing your DLLs on you. WFP is a good thing 95% of the time. Also, if you're setting up a system for someone else, and WFP is off, how long do you think it would be before they were on the phone with you telling you that their system is "acting weird?"

Here is two methods to shut off Windows File Protection.

First method: edit SFC_OS.DLL (how to link coming, for now use Google).

Alternately, instead of hacking SFC_OS.DLL, you can leave it alone and use a version of SFCFILES.DLL that is empty. Download this new SFCFILES.DLL and put it in FIX. I got the idea here, but there were several errors in the approach, so a programmer friend re-wrote the DLL for me. Here is the source.

When you don't want WFP shut off, do not include an edited SFC_OS.DLL or new SFCFILES.DLL in the FIX folder.