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E2B menu system (1)

UEFI

UEFI booting

Quick Setup Guide

The video above shows how to UEFI-boot using a .imgPTN file.

agFM is new for 2020 - UEFI-boot directly from ISOs (no need for .imgPTN files)!

With the new agFM, you can UEFI-boot and then directly boot from ISO, VHD and WIM files using a1ive's grub2 File Manager! No need to create .imgPTN files for most payloads.

UEFI-booting using a .imgPTN file

You cannot directly UEFI-boot to the E2B Menu system (but you can UEFI-boot to the agFM menu system on partition 2).
.imgPTN files are recommended when booting from all-in-one ISOs such as Strelec/Hirens, etc. or when UEFI Secure Boot is required.
You can UEFI-boot AFTER an .imgPTN file has been 'switched-in' and the E2B partition is replaced or you can UEFI-boot to a FAT32 partition 2 if you add one.
You can add rEFInd into a .imgPTN image file when you make it, which will allow you to boot (for instance) to a WinPE OS on a different partition and run SWITCH_E2B to choose a different .imgPTN boot file (E2B v1.B0+) - see here for more details.
You can replace Partition 2 on the E2B drive with a FAT32 partition containing UEFI WinPE boot files. This will allow you to UEFI-boot to WinPE from the E2B drive and select any .imgPTN23 or .imgPTNX4 file you want to run without needing to MBR-boot first - but you may not be able to MBR\Legacy-boot the E2B drive on some systems - see here for more details.

Easy2Boot can use .imgPTN files. An .imgPTN file contains an image of a whole partition. This partition must be 'switched-in' and the new partition will replace the E2B partition. The new partition can contain MBR and/or UEFI boot files. E2B can also 'switch-in' two partitions at the same time (or even 3), so one of the partitions could be an ext4 partition containing an OS or it could be a linux swap partition, or it could contain another OS such as a miniWinPE, etc.

To UEFI-boot, you must first convert an ISO file, .img file or USB drive to a FAT32 .imgPTN file using MakePartImage (download and install the MPI Tool Kit first) - click here for details.

The Utilities - Memory Test menu in E2B contains a ready-made .imgPTN of MemTest86.
It supports MBR and Secure-mode UEFI booting for 64-bit and 32-bit systems.

You then copy the .imgPTN file (which is an image of a partition) to the E2B USB drive. All partition images must be made contiguous. The .imgPTN image file will then be 'switched-in' to completely replace the E2B partition with a new FAT32 partition. You can then UEFI-boot (or MBR-boot) to the new payload files on the new 'switched-in' FAT32 partition.

This is the recommended and most compatible way to boot via UEFI (it also supports MBR\Legacy booting and UEFI Secure Boot if the boot files in your payload are signed).

It is also possible to have one UEFI-bootable FAT32 partition and a second NTFS partition for large >4GB files.

Summary

To UEFI-boot from an E2B drive, the process is:

1. First convert the ISO (or other payload) to a FAT32 .imgPTN file using the MPI Tool Kit (drag-and-drop onto Desktop shortcut) and then copy the .imgPTN file to your E2B USB drive.

2. Run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.cmd to make the .imgPTN file contiguous on the USB drive.

3. MBR-boot and select the .imgPTN file from the E2B menu - OR - run \_ISO\SWITCH_E2B.exe and double-click on the .imgPTN file.
The E2B drive will now contain a completely different partition which will contain your EFI files.
If you have booted using QEMU, you may need to unplug and re-connect the USB drive before Explorer will show you the new partition contents.

If the E2B drive contains a FAT32 partition with WinPE, you can UEFI-boot from the E2B drive and run SWITCH_E2B.exe to select any .imgPTN file.

4. Now you can UEFI-boot (or MBR-boot) from the E2B USB drive.

5. When finished, restore the E2B drive partition by MBR-booting to the E2B CSM menu and selecting menu #0 - OR - use \e2b\SWITCH_E2B.exe to restore the E2B partition - OR - use one of the .cmd scripts in the \e2b folder under Windows to restore the E2B partition. Alternativley, you can add rEFInd to the .imgPTN image and boot to a miniWinPE OS and run SWITCH_E2B - in this way you can change to a different payload on a UEFI-only system.

Tip: If you want the 2nd and 3rd Primary partitions on the E2B drive to be kept, use the file extension .imgPTN23 instead of .imgPTN. Most E2B drives do not contain a 3rd partition however.

New! 130-page PDF eBook (complete course on making a multiboot USB drive).

Other methods of UEFI-booting

These methods all have disadvantages. You may not be able to boot from all systems, Secure Boot may not work, etc.

1. Use Easy2Boot v2 with agFM

When you make a E2B v2 USB drive, you will be asked if you want to add the agFM UEFI boot files to the second FAT32 partition. This adds the a1ive grub2 File Manager (agFM) UEFI boot files to the E2B USB drive. agFM allows you to UEFI-boot from the E2B drive and then directly boot from the ISO/VHD/WIM/EFI files that are in the E2B first partition. If required, agFM can also 'switch-in' any .imgPTN files you have (change the extension to .imgPTN23 for best compatability).

2. Use the E2B grub2 menu system (mainly for linux payloads) - deprecated/obsolete

You can add a grub2 menu system to E2B (two partitions are required). This is most suitable for USB Hard Disks but can be used with removable USB drives too. The E2B grub2 menu system has the advantage that you may be able to UEFI-boot to some payloads which do not normally support UEFI-booting. You can also directly UEFI-boot from ISO files via grub2 and the ISO files do NOT need to be contiguous.

Secure boot for memtest86 is already included - it is also possible to secure boot to linux payloads (but you may need to use MokManager which will alter the NVRAM of the BIOS in the system that you are booting from).

Because grub2 menus require specific boot parameters, each menu needs to be tailored to each payload and each ISO must use the specific name mentioned in the menu file. The E2B grub2 menu system uses .grub2 menu files which contain the menu entries. You can easily add your own grub2 menu entries by adding more .grub2 files.

You can add some files to support MBR-booting from multiple Windows Install ISOs too.

Once you have 'switched' to the grub2 menu system however, you may find that some systems will not MBR-boot from the E2B drive until you switch it back to the E2B menu system. This is due to a common bug found in many UEFI-enabled PCs\Notebooks.

3. Add the UEFI boot files directly onto the E2B drive (not recommended)

If your E2B USB drive is formatted as FAT32 you can add UEFI boot files to the USB drive and then UEFI-boot directly from the E2B USB drive.

WARNING: Adding the UEFI boot add-on may prevent some systems from booting to the E2B menu!
For this reason, I strongly recommend you use separate .imgPTN files for each UEFI payload and do not use this method.

For instance, you could add a dual-boot version of Win8.1SE (WinPE) to the E2B USB drive so that you could boot to WinPE either via MBR booting (if you add a bootmgr .mnu file) or via UEFI booting from either a 32-bit or 64-bit system.

By adding the rEFInd boot manager, you can boot to a variety of different UEFI (.EFI) boot files.

Then, if you UEFI-boot from the E2B drive, you will get a rEFInd GUI icon menu and you can choose to UEFI-boot to Windows, KonBoot or Memtest86.

If you use the rEFInd boot manager, secure booting will not be supported however.

You could add UEFI MemTest86 and UEFI KonBoot files too, as well as add the .mnu files to E2B for normal MBR-boot operation of KonBoot.

The E2B_UEFI_BOOT_ADDON.zip download is available on the Alternate Downloads site and uses rEFInd as a boot manager. Extract the files to a folder on your system and read the rEFInd_READ_ME.txt file for instructions.

Note: It is not possible to add more than one instance of the same OS, unless each one uses a different folder or file structure.

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