How to create a BartPE utility on a USB Disk

In this blog I posted the things that I used that I think is necessary for simplicity of use.

1. Prerequisites:

All you need is:
> a USB Flash Drive with at least 1GB of storage or an external HDD*
> the original Windows XP Setup CD
> BartPE program creator

2. Preparing BartPE
> use PEbuilder and build the file only not an ISO
> while the file is being processed let,s go to the usb drive. NOTE: Make sure you have no important files on the usb drive for it's content is to be erased!
> let's use the HP format tool button to format the usb drive.
> on the HP format tool only use fat32 filesystem or the system will not boot.
> when the build is finished copy all the files to the newly formatted usb drive
> rename i386 directory to minint
> copy setupldr.bin and ntdetect.com from the renamed i386 directory to root directory or you can download all the boot files from here
> rename setupldr.bin to ntldr
> create a boot.ini file containing the ff:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\minint
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\minint="XPE" /fastdetect

3. Making it bootable
> we'll gonna use the bootfiles in the Vista installer (so better have one)
> use diskpart to make the partition active (see my other posts regarding diskpart)
> then use bootsect.exe in the vista installer.
ex: bootsect /nt52 d:
> after seeing that there is no error on the updating of the bootcode it should be bootable now.

note:
* not all HDD can be used as a bootable drive

Windows XP usb drive Installer

source

In this blog I posted the things that I used that I think is necessary for simplicity of use.

1. Prerequisites:

All you need is:
> a USB Flash Drive with at least 1GB of storage
> the original Windows XP Setup CD
> WinSetupFromUSB

2. Preparing the Usb Drive
> after extracting and installing the WinSetupFromUSB run it.
> make sure you have no important files on the usb drive for it's content is to be erased!
> let's use the HP format tool button to format the usb drive.
> on the HP format tool only use fat32 filesystem or the system will not boot.
> after formatting set the WinSetupFromUSB source to where your XP CD is
> leave all the other settings and click on GO button to start the installer
> this will take a while so take a coffee or two
> an instruction will appear after a successfull transfer of files on how to use the installer

3. Usage of your new usb drive installer
> like in the instruction said it requires 2x to boot to the usb drive.
> 1st is the formatting and copying of files
> and on the 2nd reboot is the configuration and stuff
> the 3rd reboot you may set the BIOS to boot from the HDD



Note: I tried it on a 8GB Kingston usb drive the transfer speed of the copy installation is slow as hell! If you wish to have a greater speed I think try an external usb hard disk instead.
Will try the usb hdd after buying it and update this post if the installation will achieve faster speeds.

How to use SSH in Ubuntu

Let's set it up first...
1. Type sudo aptitude install ssh to install ssh service
2. select "yes" for install to proceed

Now how to connect to your Ubuntu ssh enabled machine...
1. type ssh username@ipaddr or username@domainname
2. If it's the first time to connect to your computer a verification will prompt you to validate it.
3. if you choose "yes" and the password you entered is correct the login on your ubuntu pc should show.

To check the logged on Users in your Ubuntu PC...
1. just type who -u to see the connected users in you machine
1a. sample output:
rorfano tty7 2009-02-05 09:52 . 6539 (:0)
rorfano pts/0 2009-02-06 17:18 . 26248 (:0.0)

this means that there are no users connected to my machine.

2a. sample output:
rorfano tty7 2009-02-05 09:52 . 6539 (:0)
rorfano pts/0 2009-02-06 17:18 . 26248 (:0.0)
rorfano pts/1 2009-02-12 10:34 . 6508 (tenchi.local)

this means that the machine "tenchi.local" is connected to my machine.

To check the log...
1. Just type tail /var/log/auth.log | grep "Accepted password"
1a. sample output:
Feb 12 10:17:48 Ichigo-pc sshd[6223]: Accepted password for rorfano from 192.168.10.100 port 5061 ssh2

2. as the ssh is used more often the log file will pile up with these lines.
3. as a security measure often check this log to see if there's an intruder logged-on in your machine.

have fun!

How to Create Bootable USB Drive to Install Windows Vista?

Here are the steps..

1. Open Command Prompt window from Start menu. Right-click on Command Prompt entry in start menu and select "Run as administrator" option.
2. type diskpart in Command Prompt window and press Enter
3. to see which drive to set (our usb drive) type list volume
4. select the number of the usb drive by typing the ff. ex: select volume 4
5. Now we have to make this drive active. So type active
6. now type exit to exit the diskpart program
7. Now we need to create Boot sector on USB drive. We'll use "bootsect.exe" utility for this task. You can find this utility in Windows Vista setup disk. It'll be present in "Boot" directory.
8. Issue this command after finding it... bootsect /nt60 G: (note: Replace it with the correct drive letter if your system has some other letter for USB drive.)
9. Copy all the files in the Vista DVD installer
10. If it works now you have a diskless installer!

source

how to create a new swap file in Ubuntu

The external link is located here.

Windows network installation

the url can be found here.

Tried it but there are some limitations...

1. not all network interface is supported especially new ones (like nvidia)