Boot into Linux from Windows thanks to Grub4Dos

News, , , , , , ,

I never write piece of news about wiki updates on the main page. I am doing an exception because I don’t update the wiki as often as in the old times.

So there are two new pages:

Boot into Linux from Windows thanks to Grub4Dos

and

Mikael63 and how he managed to boot into its Linux from Windows thanks to Grub4Dos .

This example is quite strange and I actually discourage the use of Grub4Dos for being as outdated as the Super Grub Disk (not Super Grub2 Disk). I suppose I will have to update my knowledge on how to do the same thing with grub2 (or knowing if it is possible at all).

By the way I have been working a little more on Rescatux 0.30 series. The QT and Python combination (pyqt) is a very powerful one. I will be able to show an integrated webbrowser to show the help of each command!

Working on Rescatux 0.30 series

News, Rescatux

Hi all,

I just wanted to share you a bit about my development on Rescatux. I don’t have enough time to work on this project but I try. :). I have already mentioned various features that could differentiate Rescatux 0.30 series from Rescatux 0.20 series.

 

However I am finally focusing in only one of these features. Rescatux gui is going to be based on pyqt. So I am reading a pyqt tutorial, I am checking how to run programs from it, updating the code and looking at some launchers.

 

The idea is to use pyqt only for the main gui that lets you choose options.

 

Pyqt will be used as the main component of resclib too.

 

But I will try to keep the option scripts (the ones that make something useful) bash based. Most people learn how to code in bash and I do not want to loose their code-power.

 

Pyqt will improve Rescapp gui so much that you would think it is another program :). Let’s hope. I have to write so many mini-programs in pyqt to get used to it and then make bigger and bigger programs that understand my current file tree for options.

 

And… of course… the resclib part. I want people to order their hard disks in one dialog not in three dialogs as we are doing right now.

 

And… I have removed some ads from the main page and software pages so that it is easier to read.

 

Happy rescueing!

I Super Grub Disk World Conference summary

News, Rescatux, Super Grub2 Disk

Summary: Although we run out of time in the quest of including Super Grub2 Disk into Rescatux some work was done in a development machine kindly given by bTactic.

Notice: New people are welcome to help in the chat channel. It seems that people ask for help there and we are not there as often as needed. So… Maybe one of you want to help on building a wiki with FAQ from the chat channels? Just join it and present yourself.

From August 29th 2011 to August 31th 2011 the I Super Grub Disk World Conference was held in a secret place in California, USA.

Jordan Uggla and I met and tried to include Super Grub2 Disk into Rescatux. Unfortunately some problems in our hack planning made us run of time.

But some work was done. We have set up a development machine kindly given by bTactic to speed up Rescatux and Super Grub2 Disk integration. Now the problem is the lack of time. Coming back from my trip to California I found too many tasks on my desk. 🙂 And I suppose that Jordan has his own duties too.

About the hack that we did. You know. You might think that having three days for hacking Super Grub2 Disk integration into Rescatux is too much. And that’s it. You are right. If you had a development environment ready and just want to add Super Grub2 Disk to Rescatux, that’s it. That’s easy!

But it would only have been once.

What we were trying to achieve is to:

  • Hack the debian-live scripts to boot from grub2 instead of isolinux.
  • Add the Super Grub2 Disk scripts into the disk (but not inside the chroot).
  • Send patches to debian-live

and that’s what we will continue to do when we have some free time ;).

You were supposed to see here a photo of the Rescatux / Super Grub2 Disk hacking. I always dreamt of doing it. Just a photo of the I Super Grub Disk World Conference with the two of us. Wow, 2 attendees! But, this is the great thing about hacking, once you are on it you loose your mind. XD

Easy Grub installation thanks to Rescatux video now with captions

News, Rescatux

I’ve just discovered that you can add captions to youtube videos. I have just added English and Spanish captions to the video that represents the main functionality of Rescatux.

It explains step by step what you should be doing in each one of them and also clarify some doubts that I have found in the users coming to the chat.

If you want to help translating into your own language please ask for more information at the Super Grub Disk mailing list.

Translators needed for boot-repair

News, Rescatux

First of all a video on how Rescatux can check your filesystem and fix it.

—–

Yannubuntu asks me to spread the word.

boot-repair needs translators .

If you check the web and (if you have a launchpad account) you will see that it is very easy to translate online (no need to install any app).

Click on: View all languages to see what languages are not completely translated.

boot-repair is either going to be included into Rescatux or Rescapp to be based on boot-repair code so it is a good idea to translate it if you want to help the Rescatux project.

Rescatux roadmap from August 2011

News, Rescatux

This a roadmap of what we are going to develop and do related to Rescatux from August 2011 to 2011’s end.

  • 9 sept: Rescatux is based on Bootrepair’s GUI (1/3)
  • 16 sept: Rescatux is based on Bootrepair’s GUI (2/3)
  • 23 sept: Rescatux is based on Bootrepair’s GUI (3/3)
  • 24 sept: Rescatux 0.30 is released
  • 30 sept: Rescatux is translated into Spanish
  • 1 oct: Rescatux 0.31 is released
  • 7 oct: Zzz…
  • 14 oct: Rescatux is redesigned so that is based on new Boot Info Script libraries (1/2)
  • 21 oct: Rescatux is redesigned so that is based on new Boot Info Script libraries (2/2)
  • 22 oct: Rescatux 0.32 is released
  • 28 oct: zzz…
  • 4 nov: Minor fixes on current Rescatux options
  • 11 nov: Minor fixes on current Rescatux GUI
  • 12 nov: Rescatux 0.33 is released
  • 18 nov: Send piece of news to Barrapunto so that it is published on its frontpage
  • 19 nov: Piece of news on supergrubdisk.org telling developers the Rescatux API is ready for prime time and we are waiting for them to improve  Rescatux in ways anyone have thought.
  • 25 nov: Preparing MuyLinux interview and article.
  • 2 dec: Hopefully the interview and article gets published on MuyLinux
  • 9 dec: Zzz…
  • 16 dec: Hopefully someone at linux.com discovers Rescatux and makes an article without my help
  • 23 dec: Option to solve /etc/sudoers problems
  • 30 dec: Zzzz…

These are other things that I don’t have to forget:

  • Use Mantis for tracking bugs and new features
  • Use BootRepair code rebase to make Rescapp an actual Debian package
  • Update wiki with instructions on how to use Rescatux or… just use the online documentation that it is updated on GIT
  • SG2D and Rescatux integration thanks to Jordan Uggla’s help.
  • Update wiki with what Rescatux cannot do (Maybe fakeraid, raid0 and so on, will have to check at the moment).
  • Instructions on how to put Rescatux into a USB (Official and with other tools).

New page: Buy Rescatux

News, Rescatux

First of all one video about easy grub menu update thanks to Rescatux.

Now the piece of news. I have added a new page about how to buy Rescatux.

The idea is very simple. We gather in a single place all the places where you can buy Rescatux. I did not do such kind of a page neither with Super Grub Disk (which now it is outdated) or Super Grub2 Disk because they were only 4 or 1 MB size. And I won’t probably do it.

It’s summer and I am not fan of working too much on Rescatux although I will publish soon a roadmap for the Rescatux 0.3X series.

There are too many changes and improvements. I do not feel responsible if I do not to order their implementation a bit.

Winpass development and chntpw interaction problem

News, Rescatux

Hi,

I just wanted to share with you that I have been working a bit on winpass, that Rescatux option inspired on Trinity Rescue Kit’s winpass script that will let you reset your Windows password (mainly blanking it).

 

I have managed to extract in an automated manner the windows user, prompt the user to choose one of them.

The problem comes when one has to choose to blank the password. You have to choose an option on an interactive menu inside chntpw.

Now I need to test the original chntpw program because the chntpw debian package does not seem to be updated with the latest upstream release.

I will try to find some new command line options that will let me blank the password directly from command line.

If I do not find them I will try to implement them myself or ask the chntpw developer to add them for me. And I will also ask about an option that lists all the users (one per line) so that I do not have to use bkhive and samdump2 to obtain them.

The other option is to imitate input thanks to an input pipe but I prefer to do it in more elegant manner.

Let’s hope that I do not have to maintain a chntpw fork and a new repository for all of this stuff.

 

In the other hand next features I have been thinking about are: Share log with (ubuntu)forums and Boot info script option.

Log will be already available inside [CODE] [/CODE] marks!!!

So… let’s hope next weekend I can work a bit more on this stuff and make a new Rescatux release.

Forum is open again

News

I have reopened Boot Problems Open Source Tools, Super Grub Disk, Super Grub2 Disk and Rescatux Forum.
In order to improve experience and avoid spammers I have added some recaptcha at registration. If spammers are annoying I will have to apply manually recaptcha to post topic page or even try to implement some kind of double recaptcha.

Update: 2 spammers were already trying to register into the forum after being opened even with reCaptcha activated. I have made some hacking on SMF to avoid automated spamming. Let’s hope my hack is robust enough.

Update 2: I disable the forum till I found another better method for avoiding spammers to register on the site. I think I have a great idea for that that involves wordpress. Stay tuned and sorry for any inconveniences.

Update 3: Forum is open again. Enjoy. New accounts might delay one week till they are active.

Another change will impact old forum users. I have choosen Classic YaBB SE theme instead of the default one. The forum is the good old one with tons of information but with a new skin so that it seems that it is a new one. 😉

Enjoy the new questions and answers just after consulting Super Grub Disk and Super Grub2 Disk wiki and Rescatux wiki. And of course the Support rules for the forum.

I am just so excited of opening the forum again! I need some feedback about Rescatux in order to improve it.