FAQs

Some bad UEFI BIOSes may hang when booting from the default \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI agFM/grubfm boot file.

e.g. Dell Latitude 7400

The solution is to boot from the \EFI\GRUBFM\bootx64.efi file instead.

This can usually be done by using the UEFI BIOS option of booting to any file and then go to partition 2 of the E2B USB drive.

The following is taken from a Reddit post by pRedditory_Traits:

In 'General' under 'Boot Sequence' make sure it is listed. If it is, it probably says something like "UEFI: USB DISK 3.0 PMAP, Partition 2" and if you click on the box that says that, so it is highlighted blue, and click on the 'View' button, it will probably say in the 3rd box labeled 'File Name' as \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI and that one DOES NOT WORK on this computer apparently. I'm pretty sure this is the default one used by E2B but I could be wrong, please correct me if so. You'll want to click "OK" or the X to exit that window, and back in Boot Sequence, click "Add Boot Option," it will open another window and MAKE SURE TO GIVE IT A NAME in the Box that says "Boot Option Name:" on the top. Look for the one that ends in "/HD(2.MBR_________" The blank line will be some HEX code like "0x22e2749B" so it could be "/HD(2.MBR0x22e2749B" as that is what mine was, but it will be apparent that it is the second partition. Don't select it, click on the "..." by the 3rd menu option named "File Name:" and it will open yet another window. In that window, at the top, it has a drop-down menu for "File System:" click that and select "FS1:" as opposed to "FS0:" again, noting that it is the 2nd partition. The left-hand pane has Directories, select the one labeled "EFI" and after that, the one labeled "GRUBFM" that is within EFI. There should be a text file there that says "alternate for bad bioses.txt" Ironic right? And RIGHT BELOW that is a file "bootx64.efi" take note of the lack of capital letters on this one. It is the one that fixed my issue and it will hopefully fix yours, too. Select it and click on "Ok" once more, and you're almost there! Double check you set a name under "Boot Option Name:" and select "Ok" yet again.

Now, finally, click on the box with your new Boot Option name, and click the Up arrow slightly to the right of it to move it to the top of the list. Now, hit "Apply" in the bottom-right if necessary and reboot the machine.

Instead of a still, unmoving "_" underscore cursor, it should blink and proceed to booting to Easy2Boot as normal and you should be all set.

WBEM/WMIC missing error when running .cmd files or Make_E2B.exe under Windows 11

A new Windows 11 installation may not include the WMIC utility by default. See here

Add WMIC using: Windows 11 – Settings – Apps – Optional Features – WMIC
A Windows restart/reboot my be required after installing WMIC.

The file is too fragmented. Run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd to try to fix it.

If this does not work, install the Windows utility Defraggler – right-click on the file and select ‘Defraggler- Defragment’

If your USB drive is over 128GB in capacity, I recommend that you keep Partition 1 and Partition 2 to within 128GB from the start of the drive. This is because many PC and notebook BIOSes have a USB bug where they cannot access sectors past 128GB on a USB drive.

Drives greater than 2TB should not be used. GPT partitions should not be used on the USB drive.

When using Make_E2B.exe, I recommend you use the Gear Wheel button to make a USB drive as follows:

1. NTFS 127GB
2. FAT32 1GB
3. NTFS (rest of free space, use 999 as prompted)

If you want to add bootable payloads to Partition 3, then you can create a similar folder structure to Partition 1. e,g, \_ISO\BACKUP, \_ISO\LINUX, \_ISO\MAINMENU, etc. and then place your payload files in the new folders on Partition 3.

Then copy the file “\_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files\E2B Menus\PTN3_ADD_ALL_FOLDERS_TO_MENU.mnu” to the (Ptn1:)\_ISO\MAINMENU folder on the first partition so that you can list and boot from the payload files on partition 3.

Note that if you wish to boot Windows Install ISOs with XML files from Partition 3, you must also add and edit extra .mnu files to \_ISO\MAINMENU. See the .mnu file “\_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files\Windows\Win10_8_7_ISO_on_PTN3.mnu” for an example. You must also add any .XML files you want to use.

Note that some payload files (e.g. Linux ISOs) will need to be made contiguous. I recommend installing Defraggler and then using it by right-clicking on the ISO file and choosing ‘Defraggler – Defragment’.

.imgPTN files should not be placed on Partition 3 as they may prevent your whole USB drive from being ‘seen’ by a UEFI BIOS or OS once you switch-in the image file.

Both agFM and Ventoy can browse all files on Partition 3, so no special menu is required.

If you are using a cheap USB flash drive (e.g. 2TB USB 3.0 flash drive which cost $8) then the USB Flash drive is obviously a FAKE!

It may report it’s size as 2TB (or whatever is expected – 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB) but it probably contains only a few GB of slow, faulty flash memory!

You can test the USB drive by filling it full of mp4 video files and then playing the first and last ones, or you can test the USB drive using FakeFlashTest or H2TESTW. See here for details.

E2B will first display a text-mode screen and show a blue startup banner for 5 seconds when you legacy-boot (not UEFI-boot).

After that it will process the settings in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file and set the required video mode.

If the user has not specified a different graphics mode using the GMODE parameter in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file, then E2B will use 800×600 24/32-bit colour mode by default.

Some graphics adaptors or monitors may have difficulties displaying this mode (perhaps via HDMI or DisplayPort or VGA) and so you may see a garbled or blank screen instead of the 800×600 E2B Main Menu. You can try using the default E2B menu hotkeys below:

• CTRL+F7 – switch to text mode (graphics mode 3) – E2B v2.16+ required
• ALT+F7 – switch to 1024×768 graphics mode (grey background) – E2B v2.16+ required
• CTRL+F8 – restart grub4dos and reload E2B (similar to rebooting but faster)

Note that with some notebooks BIOSes, you may also have to hold down the ‘Fn’ key, if present on the notebook keyboard, at the same time. There is usually a BIOS configuration option to disable this annoying Fn key feature.

You can configure the MyE2B.cfg configuration file to always load in text mode or 1024×768 mode – see here for more details of ‘themes’.

If Windows Setup reports this error, it means that an XML file was used but contained no (or the incorrect) Product Key. Some Windows installers require a Product Key to be specified (e.g. Win8, SVR2022, etc,).

You must ensure that a suitable Product Key is used if the install method uses an XML file (e.g. E2B, agFM).

Note that Windows trial or evaluation versions use a different key from the standard generic installation keys. For these trial\evaluation versions you must use the correct Product Key in the XML file. If you cannot find a key that works, then install without using an XML file (e.g. using Ventoy or Rufus) and then run Produkey from NirSoft to discover the Product Key that was used.

First ensure you are using the latest version of SWITCH_E2B.exe (included in latest E2B download) and agFM.

If SWITCH_E2B.exe complains about the partitions being changed, use the ‘Display Partitions’ button to examine the four Primary partition table entries.

If Partition 4 is Type 0 but has a start position that is not 0 then simple boot from the E2B USB drive (legacy or UEFI) to the menu and then quit (or use the menu to select any .imgPTN file). When the E2B\agFM menu loads, it will automatically clear the contents of Partition 4. If you don’t have a system to boot from, then run \QEMU_MENU_TEST (run as admin).cmd from the E2B USB drive under Windows. Once at the MAIN MENU – press F10 to quit – Partition 4 should now be cleared.

If you have changed the size/position of any of the partitions on the drive, E2B, agFM and SWITCH_E2B.exe will refuse to switch-in any .imgPTN file.

Check carefully that Partitions 1, 2 and 3 look correct (Use SWITCH_E2B.exe – Display Partitions – Current Partition LBA0. Partition 4 should be all 0’s. if the partitions look correct then run fix30.g4d to fix the backup sector. See here for more instructions.

If the partitions 1, 2 and 3 (in LBA0) look incorrect then use the ‘Restore E2B Partitions’ menu entry in agFM or follow the instructions here.

If you convert OpenSuse-based ISOs to .imgPTN23 files using the MPI Tool Kit (v0.103 or previous) you may see this error when you UEFI-boot.

This issue should be fixed if you use MakePartImage v0.104 to make the .imgPTN23 file (for UEFI).

Workarounds:

1. In the OpenSuse boot menu – select the menu entry and then press ‘e’ to edit it – then change the string LABEL to CDLABEL. Then press F10 to boot. See screenshot above.
2. With the .imgPTN23 file switched in, edit the \boot\grub2\grub.cfg file and replace all occurrences of :LABEL with :CDLABEL. This will permanently fix the issue.
3. Don’t use a .imgPTN file – just directly UEFI-boot to agFM and then select the ISO file or use ‘Ventoy for Easy2Boot’.

Note: Legacy booting is not supported by the .imgPTN file.

Secure Booting to a multiboot loader/manager such as grub2 often first boots to an EFI shim boot file which can then load the unsigned/insecure grub2 kernel.

However, the shim which is used (e.g. by Ventoy or agFM) may be blacklisted in the DBx database of your UEFI BIOS NVRAM. This will prevent these shims from being used to Secure Boot.

A Secure Boot system should only boot from signed EFI boot files and should only run signed executable files.

We can convert most bootable payloads such as a bootable USB drive partition (Linux or Windows, etc. made by RUFUS) or a Windows Install ISO or a bootable image or zip file into a .imgPTN23 file using MakePartImage.cmd.

So on Partition 1 of the E2B USB drive we can have many different .imgPTN23 files which will secure boot (e.g. Windows To Go, WinPE, Ubuntu, RedHat, Fedora, etc.). We can select any one of these and Partition 1 will instantly be replaced by the files in that .imgPTN23 file. Note that the filesystem within the .imgPTN23 image needs to be FAT32 because all UEFI firmware can boot from FAT32 partitions (but not all can boot from NTFS partitions).

These .imgPTN23 files can be switched in using SWITCH_E2B.exe (a 32-bit Windows utility) so that you can then Secure-boot from Partition 1. After use, you can restore the original E2B Partition 1 by using SWITCH_E2B.exe again.

You do not need to use another Windows system however if your USB drive already contains WinPE.

1. Create a FAT32 .imgPTN23 file and copy it to Partition 1 of your E2B drive
2. Run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd to defragment the .imgPTN23 file
3. Create a new Primary (not Logical) FAT32 Partition 3 on the E2B USB drive. There should be no Partition 4 – Partition 4 MUST be kept free (unused).
4. Copy onto Partition 3 a complete WinPE flat-file set of files – this could be DLCBoot or Strelec or Bob Omb’s WinPE or the special WinPE reduced-size files as detailed in eBook #3 (with download). The WinPE should be UEFI64-bootable and should support WoW64 so that it can run 32-bit Windows applications such as SWITCH_E2B.exe. You can also include a 32-bit Secure Boot WinPE if you think you may need to boot from Secure UEFI32 systems (quite rare).
5. You will find a copy of SWITCH_E2B.exe on Partition 2 of the E2B USB drive in the \e2b folder, and it will also be inside each .imgPTN23 file. However, it may be useful to also copy it to the root of Partition 3,
6. Now you can Secure Boot to WinPE from Partition 3 and run SWITCH_E2B.exe and select any .imgPTN23 file you like. Then reboot from Partition 1 to run the new payload. When you have finished, Secure Boot to Partition 3 again and restore the original E2B partition 1 using SWITCH_E2B.exe – you can then select a different .imgPTN23 file if you wish.

In this way you can Secure Boot boot to any FAT32 image.

E2B already contains a MEMTEST86 .imgPTN file. Once you have added WinPE to your Partition 3, you can experiment with the MEMTEST86 file to see how this works.

eBook #3 contains details of where you can download ready-made WinPE files from which supports Legacy booting and Secure UEFI32 and UEFI64 booting.

Files >4GB

If your Windows Install ISO contains an install.wim or install.esd file larger than 4GB, you can use Split WinISO to make the .imgPTN23 file.

If you use many Windows Install ISOs or WinPE payloads which have >4GB files in them, you may find it more convenient to simply create NTFS .imgPTN23 files and use the Partition 3 bootmgr to boot from Partition 1.

1. Create an NTFS .imgPTN23 file using MakePartImage, copy it to Partitition 1, make it contiguous, select it in SWITCH_E2B.exe and switch it in.
2. Run BootIce.exe under Windows and modify the \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD file on Partition 3 to add an entry to boot to the \sources\boot.wim file on Partition 1.

You can now boot from Partition 3 and choose the correct boot option to boot from Partition 1 of the new image.

Each .imgPTN23 file will require a different entry, so you should include the name of the payload in the ‘OS title’ – e.g. Win10 21H2 Eng.

Note: For best legacy\BIOS boot compatibility, it is best to NOT add any \EFI boot folder to the normal large E2B Partition 1 – it may prevent some BIOSes from giving you a legacy\CSM boot option.

1. Place your 800×600 32-bit colour .jpg or .bmp file in the \_ISO folder of the E2B USB drive.
2. Launch the \_ISO\E2B_Editor.exe program. This allows you to edit\create a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file which can specify the resolution and default wallpaper file.

The menu display mode is determined by the setting in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file. Use 800×600 32-bit colour (or 1024×768 but may not work on older systems). Do not exceed 1024×768 or else grub4dos may crash!

.jpg files must be in standard non-progressive 100% format (use Microsoft Paint to re-save it).

agFM and Ventoy use different menu systems. agFM can use a simple background picture on a text-based menu. agFM and Ventoy can also use a grub2 theme.

Change the other E2B menu backgrounds

To change the background loaded by any E2B menu, you can place a .bmp or .jpg file in the \_ISO folder which has the same folder name as the menu folder.

For instance, if you copy over an 800×600 32-bit colour .jpg file \_ISO\MAINMENU.jpg, it will be loaded when the MAINMENU folder is displayed.

If you have a \_ISO\LINUX.bmp 800×600 32-bit colour file, it will be loaded when the LINUX folder is displayed.

If you have a \_ISO\UTILITIES_MEMTEST.jpg file, it will be loaded when the MEMORY TEST menu is loaded.

Tip: .jpg files will be smaller and quicker to load.

E2B will sort the files into alphabetical order.

The easiest way to change the order is by using a sort order prefix – e.g. _010_Ubuntu x86 64-bit.iso

E2B will automatically remove any _xxxxx_ prefix when it displays the filename in the menu.

The agFM and Ventoy menu systems will list the complete filename however.

In most cases you can simply rename the payload file – e.g. change blackarch-linux-full-2020.12.01-x86_64.iso to BlackArchLinux 2020.12.01.iso.

Avoid using filenames with special characters such as = & # $ which may cause problems with the E2B, agFM and Ventoy menu systems.

The other alternative is to create a new matching .txt file which has the same name as the payload file

• blackarch-linux-full-2020.12.01-x86_64.iso
• blackarch-linux-full-2020.12.01-x86_64.txt

A UTF-8 encoded text file saved using Windows NotePad if non-English characters are required.

A .txt file can be used to display a different menu title for the iso file of the same name. The contents of .txt file must be a single line – for example:

iftitle [checkrange 2,3 is64bit] ^Alt+B BlackArch Linux 2020.12.01 [Alt+B]\nThis is the x86 64-bit version\nof BlackArch Linux\nIt will only be displayed on systems\nwith a 64-bit CPU

You can use the .TXT file maker utility to help you make the file and you can define a hotkey and up to four lines of help text. You can use \E2B Launcher.exe to run the .TXT Maker utility.

You can see the E2B menu entry below, the ISO filename is no longer listed but the contents of the .txt file are used instead:

If you have made Ventoy official partition images and switched one of them into Partition 2 using agFM then you must NOT then try to update the new Ventoy drive because this will completely format and re-write the entire contents of Partition 2 and will also overwrite the E2B backup sectors located at the start of the E2B USB drive and replace the grub4dos boot code.

This means that you cannot restore the original E2B Partition 2 or the original boot code.

The best thing to do is to backup (copy) all the contents of Partition 1 (the first NTFS partition with the payload files, etc.) and also Partition 3 if you made an extra partition and then remake the E2B USB drive using Make_E2B.exe again and copy the files back onto the USB drive.

If you wish to have the latest official Ventoy version, you must re-make the Ventoy partition images again using the \e2b\update e2b\Make_Latest_Ventoy_Partition_Image.cmd script on the second partition of the E2B USB drive.

If you have checked the UEFI/BIOS settings and they appear to be correct for UEFI-booting, but when you try to UEFI-boot you find that the agFM menu does not appear or when you select an ISO it does not seem to boot (or the USB drive LED flashes for a while and system hangs), or other strange things occur with agFM or Ventoy, then I recommend you reset the BIOS settings.

Go to BIOS Setup menu and find the ‘Exit’ Menu, then choose the ‘Load Default Settings’ option (or similar) and any other ‘default’, reset or Factory settings options you can see.

Then save the changes and reboot back into the BIOS Setup menu and ensure the settings are correct for Legacy and UEFI booting.

USB Legacy: enabled
Fast Boot: disabled
Boot Mode: Legacy (CSM) – if you want Legacy booting
For Secure Boot, I suggest you clear the DBx keys (if possible), or Restore Factory Keys

It has been reported that some systems hang just after loading the XP ISO into memory during Step 1 XP Install but that earlier versions of E2B do not have this issue.

Try making an E2B USB drive using E2B v1.B1 (you can just click on the ‘Update E2B drive’ button of v1.B1 to change to the earlier version).

If your system works with v1.B1 and not with v2 of E2B, please could you contact me as I would very much like to identify and fix the issue which I think is due to the version of grub4dos (\grldr) that is used. To test this, make a v1.B1 version of E2B and check that it works with your XP ISO. Then replace the \grldr file with the \grldr file from the latest version of E2B and see if XP fails to load. Also try answering ‘N’ for No when it asks you about loading the ISO into memory. Please also report the system make\model and the total RAM in the system. Thanks!

If you are using an E2B USB drive larger than 128GiB and have updated it, the \grldr file may now be outside the 128GiB limit.

Some buggy BIOSes have a USB drive bug and cannot access sectors past 128GiB on a USB drive, that is why I strongly recommend the first partition (and second) are within 128GiB of the start of the disk.

The solution is to remake your USB drive using a smaller partition 1 (below 128GiB) and then copy all your payload files back on (or don’t use systems with buggy BIOSes).

If Partition 1 is less than 128GiB then you may have a corrupt NTFS filesystem or the \grldr file may be missing. First fix the filesystem (e.g. using chkdsk U: /f where U: is E2B partition 1) and then copy all the files from the E2B download back onto the E2B USB drive (overwriting any existing files – your payload files and MyE2B.cfg file will not be changed).

I use Virtual Box v5 + VMUB.

1. UEFI-boot from the E2B USB drive to agFM
2. Press F4 and then T to switch the menu system to textmode
3. Now press F2 and select your ISO/payload file and boot from it.

If using Ventoy, try pressing F7 for text mode before selecting the ISO/payload file.

If you see a message asking for a ‘DVD’ or ‘CD’ then this means that Windows Setup cannot find the installation files (i.e cannot detect the E2B USB drive or E2B has not loaded the ISO file as a virtual DVD drive).

Setup is looking for the very large install.wim or install.esd windows installation source file (usually in the \Sources folder) on all drives in the system. If it cannot find this file then you will see this message. If you are booting from a Windows ISO, then the ISO must be loaded as a virtual DVD and given a drive letter so that Windows Setup can find the large Install.wim or Install.esd which is the installation source file.

There are usually two reasons for this:

1. Windows Pre-Installation Environment (WinPE) does not contain the necessary USB driver (e.g. USB 3 driver) and so cannot ‘see’ the E2B USB drive.
2. If booting from an ISO file (using isowin) via E2B or agFM, the Windows Pre-installation start-up will usually load a special blue cmd shell box which will find and load the ISO file as a virtual DVD drive – e.g. Y:.
   Windows Setup will then find the install.wim/install.esd file on the new Y: drive. If you don’t see the cmd window run (see below), then you may not have chosen the correct menu or file extension for the ISO, or your ISO is not compatible with that boot method.

Diagnose the problem

1. Boot to Windows Setup until you see the error dialogue box – then use ‘Cancel’ button
2. Type SHIFT+F10 (hold down SHIFT key and tap F10 key) – if nothing happens, try proceeding onto the next Setup screen.
3. You should now see a new Windows CMD console window open up. Type the following commands:
   DISKPART
   LIST DISK
   LIST VOL
   EXIT
4. Look for the USB drive in the list. If it is not present then Windows has not detected your USB drive and so it cannot read the ISO file which is on that USB drive. This indicates that the Windows PE that you have booted from does not contain the USB chipset drivers contained in your PC.

Solutions:

1. If booting using the Easy2Boot legacy menu, ensure you have the ISO in the correct \_ISO\WINDOWS\xxx folder. If booting using agFM, ensure you select the .isowin boot option which is for booting Windows ISOs.
2. Try a different menu system, e.g. try agFM or ‘Ventoy for Easy2Boot’.
3. Try a USB 2 port instead of a USB 3 port – use a rear USB port (or connect the USB 3 drive to the computer using a USB 2 cable). Do not use a USB hub.
4. Convert the ISO to a .imgPTN23 file using the MPI Tool Kit
5. If the WinPE environment cannot ‘see’ the USB drive, then even a .imgPTN23 file will not work. You will need to modify your ISO by adding USB drivers into the boot.wim file.
6. If using E2B on a USB Hard Disk, E2B should use the WIMBOOT method of booting the ISO. If you see the E2B message ‘WIMBOOT NOT USED‘ then you may have an incompatible Windows ISO. Please use a standard Microsoft Windows Install ISO file (or use E2B on a ‘Removable’ type of USB flash drive).