Feature Request & bounty - better multi-boot support

[troy]

Ok, while working on my 7th or 8th HFSILP 6-in-1 CD, I'm trying to figure out how to simplify the process.

The biggest time saver, would be to extend HFSLIP to look for PRO and HOME subfolders within the SOURCE folder, and to slip both at the same time, and skip the DRIVER.CAB options and automaticly create the SPX.CAB (otherwise, you can't fit into a single CD).

(this would also be good for Windows 2000 folks)

This would be more than enough, and I'd imagine it would be fairly trivial to implement (I don't write CMD scripts, so I really don't know).

But, to take this a bit further, have HFSLIP look for a MULTIBOOT folder, which might look something like this:

If found, HFSLIP would then create a similar directory structure under the SOURCESS folder, and:

• put the appropriate I386 folders in each
  
• generate an appropriate SETUPP.INI file for each
  
• put $OEM$ next to every I386 folder
  
• copy TXTSETUP.SIF to each of the appropriate boot folders with a fixed SetupSourcePath directive
  

If we can at least get to the point of being able to slip multiple versions of the same OS at the same time, I'll send $20 to whomever. If we can do it all, I'll send $50.

Edited August 9, 2006 by troy

[Super-Magician]

Although I like your point very much, I don't really think HFSLIP was built for such a setup. You would probably be better off with something like Windows XP PowerPacker (although it does still have its shortcomings here and there; it would be a much cleaner setup to use a script for it).

Don't take my word for it though -- I don't want to speak on behalf of TommyP or Tomcat. Maybe they could create a plug-in file or something? I don't know.

[Kiki Burgh]

hi troy! multi-booting is not actually what it is for ... it's for HotFixSLIPstreaming indeed it would be a nice feature but it could be a cause for bloat ... i completely agree with SM though that such is TP's &/or TC's call ...

try to check on this link too: Multi-Boot CD/DVDs

Edited August 10, 2006 by Kiki Burgh

[troy]

Yeah, I used the multiboot guides to create my setup. It's a very simple and easy process, but very tedius.

My background in shell scripting on unix boxes tells me that much of this can be automated, but I do not have the experience with windows command scripting to make modifications to HFSLIP myself. In fact, I got a headache within about 2 minutes of looking at the source.

I would expect that slipstreaming Home and Pro at the same would be a trivial excercise in repetition, as would creating muliple copies of each with seperate SEUTPP.INI files and copying over fixed versions of TXTSETUP.SIF files to the appropriate boot folders. Yes, this is an extension to what HFSIP currently handles, but I'd hardly call it bloat anymore than I'd call any of the other extended features bloat.

I would agree, however, that the creation of the appropriate boot images and folders falls quite far from the scope of HFSLIP.

[Tomcat76]

In fact, I got a headache within about 2 minutes of looking at the source.

Haha. That's what open source is all about...

But seriously... There's nothing "external" about what you want. HFSLIP would need a complete internal makeover for that as it cannot be done by a simple plugin, which means more time (that I don't have), more testing, and more problems for the current user base.

Also, I don't really understand what you mean by "simultaneously". Multiple sources cannot be patched at the same time and multiple hotfixes cannot be parsed simultaneously either. I think you're referring to extracting a hotfix for XP and patch XP Home and then XP Pro without extracting the hotfix a second time. The problem there is that there are exceptions (hotfixes for Home and not for Pro, or hotfixes for SP2 that don't apply to SP1 should you wish to have that possibility too); maintaining these exceptions is just too time consuming.

And what about separating the hotfixes? Your screenshot doesn't show separate folders so should HFSLIP maintain an internal list of accepted hotfixes for each OS?

This really isn't as simple as you'd expect.