UBCD 4.x Fixes/Changes

Message

#2 Post by **Victor Chew** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:53 am

Smart BootManager 3.7.1 - [FIX] Reverted to floppy image, .cbt is not fully tested!

I resorted to using the CBT because I can't get the floppy version of Smart Boot Manager to work with memdisk. Any tips?

Darik's Boot and Nuke V1.0.7 - [FIX] Booting kernel directly into interactive mode

Could you please elaborate?

Memtest86 3.3 (new update) - [FIX] Booting linux binary directly instead of using floppy image.
Memtest86+ 1.70 - [FIX] Booting linux binary directly instead of using floppy image.

Could you please elaborate?

Thanks!

amurphy7701 · #3 Post by **amurphy7701** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:32 am

Speaking about the new UBCD version, there is a problem booting Norton Ghost 8.* floppies.
I tried to make a custom UBCD 4.0, with the same floppy image I used with 3.* versions.
It seems to load fine, up to the Ghost GUI, and then it stops working.
Tested with Ghost 8 & 8.3, on 2 physical machines, and 1 VMWare.
After some more tests, it seems that the problem comes from the memdisk version embedded in the new UBCD.
I tried to add the old memdisk as memdisk0 from the UBCD 3.3, and then the 2 Ghost versions worked!

So I searched memdisk web site.
On UBCD 4.0, the version of memdisk is 3.35.
On memdisk website (http://syslinux.zytor.com/history.php) I read :
Changes in 3.35:
MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
Changes in 3.36:
MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be enabled with the edd option and disabled with noedd. This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.

So, it seems the chosen version was the bad one

I haven't tried the new memdisk version yet, but FYI, EasyRecovery disk was also having problems booting with 3.35 (and works with old version), so maybe many issues with UBCD 4.0 come from EDD (what does it mean anyway

?)

Hope it will help

#4 Post by **Victor Chew** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:09 am

Thanks for the info! I intend to release an update (V4.01?) once the dust has cleared, probably after two to three weeks. I will make sure memdisk gets updated. Who knows? Maybe syslinux V3.40 would be available by then.

So does the "noedd" option works to boot Ghost with memdisk V3.35?

amurphy7701 · #5 Post by **amurphy7701** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:25 am

I didn't tried 3.35 with noedd option, but I just tried 3.36, that have this option disabled by default, and guess what? Ghost works!

So we have :
- memdisk 3.07 (shipped with UBCD3.3) -> ghost works
- memdisk 3.35 (shipped with UBCD4.0) -> ghost (and maybe other disk) crashes on the ghost welcome page
- memdisk 3.36 (current memdisk version, that has the so-called edd option turned off) -> ghost works

So if you plan to release a new version soon, consider upgrading to memdisk 3.36

#8 Post by **Victor Chew** » Wed May 09, 2007 7:47 am

I was quite dumb struck when none of them reached the 4.0 final release so I never posted the rest of my findings. For this I apologise unreservedly

I think there was some timing issue. By the time I got to your message, I have already release V4.0 final. Sorry about that.

Seagate's DiskWizard app has been updated. Same as MaxBlast 5.0 but for Seagate drives (can't see why they did that?).

Thanks! I will make a note of it for V4.2.

Every machine I've tried Western's Data Lifeguard Tools on (currently 11.2) fails to boot. Possibly a memdisk problem.

DocMem doesn't boot. I've tried every memdisk argument going but just doesn't want to play. Again I've tried this on multiple machines.

I assume you have tried "raw" and "bigraw" already?

The default text, I agree, is ugly but can be easily hidden from view at the bottom of the screen with a few simple settings.

Could you show me your implementation? Want to see what those "simple settings" are!

Well thats it and thank you again for this excellent release

Thank YOU for your excellent suggestions. It's a learning process for me as well.

#11 Post by **Victor Chew** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:37 am

Thanks for the code. I will add that to the next major release.

I still can't find anything wrong with using the original Smart Boot Manager image.

I personally will be replacing the .cbt for it but it's up to you.

OK, I will check that in the next major release too.

Also when adding Seagate's new DiscWizard app (Acronis True Image in disguise) don't forget to add the "Recovery Manager" folder for those who use it. This may be the case for MaxBlast as well so I'm not quite sure what to do there.

Any idea what you need that folder for? I don't have a Maxtor or Seagate disk (I use WD), so I can't check. But I remember the integration for Acronis TrueImage didn't need that folder at all.

#13 Post by **Victor Chew** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:28 pm

However, I have used Acronis True Image and the Recover Manager folder is required for adding or removing the boot time recovery options i.e if you use secure zone you need it. Works a bit like Symantec's Go Back prog, if that helps.

I finally have time to sit down with this while working on the next release of UBCD. It seems like the "Recovery Manager" folder is required for activating Recovery Manager so that it will come up when you next boot the HDD. However it is not really required for secure zone, since you will still be able to recover from the secure zone if you have already boot up the rescue CD.

As such, I don't think I will be adding the Recovery Manager folder to the UBCD, since IMHO it is not really critical, and could be left as a customization exercise.

Please let me know if you think I am wrong.

#15 Post by **Victor Chew** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:47 pm

Whilst we're on the subject... don't use any newer version of menu.c32 than you use already. The current ones break your full screen menu!

Thanks! I found that out when trying to update to syslinux 3.52. I will retain the current version of menu.c32, but update isolinux/syslinux/memdisk.

#19 Post by **Victor Chew** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:05 am

Would you consider copying all dosapps into RAM when launched by startup.bat?

The only consideration is the size of the RAM disk will have to be increased (64MB? 128MB?), and this means UBCD won't be able to boot on machines with lesser RAM.