Windows PE - Revision history

Mjdtjm: Current release of wimlib-1.9.0 (released January 31, 2016)

2016-02-06T15:04:03Z

Current release of wimlib-1.9.0 (released January 31, 2016)

Obi: /* How to build a bootable WinPE .iso image / -- Added example using wimlib, which makes it easy to add drivers.

2014-01-27T13:33:52Z

‎How to build a bootable WinPE *.iso image: -- Added example using wimlib, which makes it easy to add drivers.

Obi: without kvm, qemu performs really badly

2014-01-27T13:19:33Z

without kvm, qemu performs really badly

Newhren: /* Building WinPE USB-FDD image with mtools, syslinux and grub4dos */

2010-04-18T05:44:22Z

‎Building WinPE USB-FDD image with mtools, syslinux and grub4dos

Newhren at 05:39, 18 April 2010

2010-04-18T05:39:21Z

Newhren at 05:33, 18 April 2010

2010-04-18T05:33:25Z

Newhren: added virtual CDROM option

2010-04-18T03:26:23Z

added virtual CDROM option

Newhren at 19:49, 13 April 2010

2010-04-13T19:49:11Z

Newhren at 19:47, 13 April 2010

2010-04-13T19:47:42Z

Newhren: switch to direct mapping -- saves RAM

2010-04-13T18:07:45Z

switch to direct mapping -- saves RAM

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==How to build a bootable WinPE *.iso image==
 ===Using wimlib===
-* Download, build and install wimlib http://sourceforge.net/projects/wimlib/
+* Download, build and install wimlib https://wimlib.net/  Current release: wimlib-1.9.0 (released January 31, 2016)
 ** On Debian-based systems:
      sudo apt-get install debhelper autotools-dev pkg-config libfuse-dev libxml2-dev libssl-dev ntfs-3g-dev attr-dev attr
-     wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/wimlib/wimlib-1.6.1.tar.gz
+     wget https://wimlib.net/downloads/wimlib-1.9.0.tar.gz
-     tar -xzf wimlib-1.6.1.tar.gz
+     tar -xzf wimlib-1.9.0.tar.gz
-     cd wimlib-1.6.1
+     cd wimlib-1.9.0
      dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us -rfakeroot
-     sudo dpkg -i ../wimlib9_1.6.1-1_amd64.deb ../wimtools_1.6.1-1_amd64.deb
+     sudo dpkg -i ../wimlib_1.9.0-1_amd64.deb ../wimtools_1.9.0-1_amd64.deb
 * Mount the AIK image
      mkdir waik

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ==How to build a bootable WinPE *.iso image==
 * From the AIK installation file <tt>KB3AIK_EN.iso</tt>, provided in the form of a UDF disk image, use <tt>7z</tt> (from [http://sourceforge.net/projects/p7zip p7zip]) to extract the files <tt>wAIKX86.msi</tt> and <tt>WinPE.cab</tt>
 * use <tt>7z</tt> or <tt>cabextract</tt> to unpack these files into <tt>/tmp/wAIKX86.msi/</tt> and <tt>/tmp/WinPE.cab/</tt> respectively

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
   dd if=/dev/zero of=winpe3_x86hdd.img count=250000
 * boot <tt>winpe3_x86.iso</tt> (which you've created before) in a virtual machine
-  qemu -cdrom winpe3_x86.iso -boot d -m 300 -hda winpe3_x86hdd.img
+  qemu -enable-kvm -machine accel=kvm -cdrom winpe3_x86.iso -boot d -m 300 -hda winpe3_x86hdd.img
 * now, in the shell provided by WinPE in the virtual machine
   diskpart.exe

@@ Line 115: / Line 115: @@
   LABEL WinPE
           KERNEL /grub.exe
-          APPEND --config-file="find --set-root /winpe3_x86part.img; map /winpe3_x86part.img (fd0); map --hook; chainloader (fd0)+1; rootnoverify (fd0)"
+          APPEND --config-file="map (hd0)/winpe3_x86part.img (fd0); map --hook; chainloader (fd0)+1; rootnoverify (fd0)"
 * install syslinux
   syslinux winpe3_x86fdd.img

@@ Line 115: / Line 115: @@
   LABEL WinPE
           KERNEL /grub.exe
-          APPEND --config-file="map (hd0)/winpe3_x86part.img (fd0); map --hook; chainloader (fd0)+1; rootnoverify (fd0)"
+          APPEND --config-file="find --set-root /winpe3_x86part.img; map /winpe3_x86part.img (fd0); map --hook; chainloader (fd0)+1; rootnoverify (fd0)"
 * install syslinux
   syslinux winpe3_x86fdd.img

@@ Line 105: / Line 105: @@
   mcopy -i winpe3_x86fdd.img /tmp/syslinux.cfg ::/syslinux.cfg
-Note: for a virtual CDROM, your <tt>syslinux.cfg</tt> should look like
+'''Note''': for a virtual CDROM, your <tt>syslinux.cfg</tt> should look like
   DEFAULT WinPE
   LABEL WinPE
           KERNEL /grub.exe
-          APPEND --config-file="map (rd) (hd32); map --hook; chainloader (hd32); rootnoverify (hd32)"
+          APPEND --config-file="map (rd) (hd32); map --hook; root (hd32); chainloader (hd32)"
           INITRD /winpe3_x86.iso
-* install syslinux
+'''Note''': if your computer is low on RAM (less than 350Mb) you may also try the following <tt>syslinux.cfg</tt> with direct mapping and make sure that the payload <tt>winpe3_x86part.img</tt> is in one contiguous disk area.
   DEFAULT WinPE
   LABEL WinPE
           KERNEL /grub.exe
           APPEND --config-file="map (hd0)/winpe3_x86part.img (fd0); map --hook; chainloader (fd0)+1; rootnoverify (fd0)"
 * now the image is ready. If you have write permissions for some flash media device (e.g. <tt>/dev/sdb</tt>), you can copy it with
   # dd if=winpe3_x86fdd.img of=/dev/sdb
 and use it for test/diagnostic tasks such as firmware upgrades.

@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 ===Building WinPE USB-FDD image with mtools, syslinux and grub4dos===
-Any BIOS that supports booting from some USB media at all supports booting from USB-FDD. As it was mentioned ealier, the problem with WinPE is that the bootloader <tt>bootmgr</tt> does not seem to like such devices. So, we will have to create a virtual HDD. For some mystical reason, <tt>memdisk</tt> (the dirver for virtual disks which comes with syslinux) does not work on Thinkpads if the disk image is on a USB media. Thus we will use a rival technology [http://sourceforge.net/projects/grub4dos/files/ grub4dos].
+Any BIOS that supports booting from some USB media at all supports booting from USB-FDD. As it was mentioned ealier, the problem with WinPE is that the bootloader <tt>bootmgr</tt> does not seem to like such devices. So, we will have to create a virtual HDD or a virtual CDROM (I prefer virtual HDD). For some mystical reason, <tt>memdisk</tt> (the dirver for virtual disks which comes with syslinux) does not work on Thinkpads if the disk image is on a USB media. Thus we will use a rival technology [http://sourceforge.net/projects/grub4dos/files/ grub4dos].
 * create USB-FDD image
   dd if=/dev/zero of=winpe3_x86fdd.img count='''238200'''
@@ Line 105: / Line 105: @@
   mcopy -i winpe3_x86fdd.img /tmp/syslinux.cfg ::/syslinux.cfg
 * install syslinux
   syslinux winpe3_x86fdd.img
-Note: if you computer is low on RAM (less than 350Mb) you may also try the following <tt>syslinux.cfg</tt> with direct mapping and make sure that the payload
+Note: if your computer is low on RAM (less than 350Mb) you may also try the following <tt>syslinux.cfg</tt> with direct mapping and make sure that the payload <tt>winpe3_x86part.img</tt> is in one contiguous disk area.
   DEFAULT WinPE
   LABEL WinPE