Hex Editing bootmgr.exe

[ShaoKahn]

Hello

I stumbled on ERPXE and it looks like this would be what i am searching for.

Now i am installing Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 from USB-Sticks. But it would be much easyer to install it from Netboot.
I got ERPXE respondig to Netboot.

Now my Problem:
I have no idea how to Hex Edit bootmgr.exe. first of all, i do not find a bootmgr.EXE. All bootmgr i found are without ending (EXE).
Then, wich Hex Editor should i use? the bootmgr i found in Windows AIK for Windows 7 does not contain \Boot\BCD or i am doing wrong.
And where do i have to copy the Windows Source file to?

I can install, configure and repair nearly all Windows, but i am not in this Hex editing.

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you very much in advance!

I state, that i asked google, but i was not able to find a Solution.
I state, that i am not installing unlicensed OS or Software.

[ShaoKahn]

Ok. With help of some Friends i found out, that These Locations found in the Wiki were not the correct ones for me:

Change the "\Boot\BCD" unicode text to "\ER\0\BCD" at 0x 4F98C
Change the "bootmgr.exe" to "er\0\bt.exe" at 0x 5961

But i found them at last.
Now i got everything fine up and runnig, it boots.

Now i got other Problems:
Feb 20 11:38:17 bootserver in.tftpd[2241]: RRQ from 10.0.0.100 filename er/0/pxeboot.0
Feb 20 11:38:17 bootserver in.tftpd[2242]: remap: input: er\0\bt.exe
Feb 20 11:38:17 bootserver in.tftpd[2242]: remap: rule 3: rewrite: er/0\bt.exe
Feb 20 11:38:17 bootserver in.tftpd[2242]: remap: rule 3: rewrite: er/0/bt.exe
Feb 20 11:38:17 bootserver in.tftpd[2242]: remap: done
Feb 20 11:38:17 bootserver in.tftpd[2242]: RRQ from 10.0.0.100 filename er\0\bt.exe remapped to er/0/bt.exe
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: input: \Boot\Fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: rule 3: rewrite: /Boot\Fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: rule 3: rewrite: /Boot/Fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: rule 3: rewrite: /Boot/Fonts/wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: rule 4: rewrite: /boot/Fonts/wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: rule 4: rewrite: /boot/fonts/wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: remap: done
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: RRQ from 10.0.0.100 filename \Boot\Fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf remapped to /boot/fonts/wgl4_boot.ttf
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2243]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 10.0.0.100
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2244]: remap: input: \boot.ini
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2244]: remap: rule 3: rewrite: /boot.ini
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2244]: remap: done
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2244]: RRQ from 10.0.0.100 filename \boot.ini remapped to /boot.ini
Feb 20 11:38:30 bootserver in.tftpd[2244]: sending NAK (1, File not found) to 10.0.0.100

from where should it load the boot.ini? or what do i have to do now? The only Thing that happens is, that a black Screen starts with a blinking Cursor.
i do not find anymore informations on the wiki page.

[RaveMaker]

Where did you get those files?
If the locations are incorrect then this is probably the wrong file version.

Did you download the WAIK from microsoft?

[ShaoKahn]

Hey, thank you for the reply.
Yes, the files are from Windows AIK (Windows 7)

So can you please point me to the correct files?
There are several WAIK.... Vista, Win7... from Windows 8 on is another name....

[RaveMaker]

Windows Vista / Server 2008 AIK

Direct link
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ikl_en.iso

Taken from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

[dany.baranek]

Hi,

I came along the same problem : I don't really understand how to modifiy the file "bootmgr.exe" according to the indications specificed in this tutorial : http://erpxe.org/Windows_PE_3.0_%28Windows_7/2008_R2%29
The tutorial seems to be a great start, but some of the parts -the ones that require hex modifications, or the checksum part for example- aren't fleshed out enough and I'm confused about what to do and how I should do it.

If there's another tutorial out there, with better explanations, maybe screenshots to explain all those procedures a little bit better, or if anyone could give me more informations about the whole procedure, it would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

[RaveMaker]

Just download any hex editor and change the values according to the tutorial.
The check-sum part is done with a software called PE Explorer and there is a button in the interface to create a new check-sum.

If you have an issue please be more specific.

[King George]

It took me forever to figure this out, and I am familiar with both Windows PE and hex editing. Much has changed since the instructions on the ERPxE wiki were written. It took me a long time to find the files, and the strings that it says to replace are not found at the locations that it says in the files once I did find them. (I tried it with both the files from the x86 version of WinPE from the Vista WAIK and the Windows 7 AIK.) I was at long last able to get it to work using instructions from various other PxE tool sites. I am beginning to wonder whether I made the right decision to go with ERPxE.

Some better instructions:

• Download the winpe3-XXX.tar.gz from ERPxE download site and extract it to / on your PXE server.
• Download and install the WAIK for Windows 7. Currently it is available from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... px?id=5753
• Run the Deployment tools Command Prompt as Administrator
• Create a PE working directory for the proper architecture:
  copype [x86 | amd64 | ia64] destination
  The rest of these instructions assume that you set C:\WinPE as the destination for the copype command.
• Mount winpe.wim
  imagex /mountrw C:\WinPE\winpe.wim C:\WinPE\mount
• Copy C:\WinPE\ISO\boot\boot.sdi to /tftpboot/er/0/ on your PxE server.
• Open C:\WinPE\mount\Windows\bootmgr.exe in hex editor (I use HxD). Search for the Unicode String "\Boot\BCD" and replace it with "\ER\0\BCD".
• Save this modified file as bt.exe.
• Use a tool such as PEExplorer or PEChecksum to correct the checksum of bt.exe.
• Copy bt.exe to /tftpboot/er/0/ on your PxE server.
• Open C:\WinPE\mount\Windows\pxeboot.n12 in hex editor Search for the (non-Unicode) string "bootmgr.exe" and replace with "er\0\bt.exe"
• Save the modified file as pxeboot.0 and copy to /tftpboot/er/0/ on your PxE server.
• Copy C:\WinPE\winpe.wim to /tftpboot/er/0/ on your PxE server.

If desired, this process can be repeated with alternate architectures using /tftpboot/er/1/ and /tftpboot/er/2/. The instructions as they stand on the wiki at the moment refer to F1 F2 and F3 .wim files. These are just the different architectures. I prefer to use the copype command so I get all of the files in one spot, and I am sure what architecture I am working with.

[KyRol]

Where did you get those files?
If the locations are incorrect then this is probably the wrong file version.

Did you download the WAIK from microsoft?

I downloaded exact waik package as it was written at wiki. I even did not changed the language of it. By default English was set.

Could you specify path and method which you used to extract and modify boot.sdi, pxeboot.0 and bootmgr.exe files? The wiki says only:

Copy "boot.sdi" to "er\0\boot.sdi"
Copy "bootmgr.exe" to "er\0\bt.exe" and hex edit it:
[...]
Also, copy "boot\pxeboot.0" to "er\0\pxeboot.0" and hex edit this too:

These files doesn't exist in the root path of the iso file, nor in the waik folder in the program files. If it so, you should describe exact path to follow for others.

Where these files exists? How you did it? It was made by expanding, extracting by mounting .wim files or who knows how this could be done. I have issues too. Of course I'm able to locate the path in hex editor but the location in my case is different from yours. And as I see not only mine. I suppose that pxeboot.0 should be expanded exactly as in PE1.0 it was described. Why those who wish to prepare PE3.0 have to read description for PE1.0? This is unclear, time consuming and annoying... Maybe hex does not match because specific language of the file?

Everyone here have mess in the head. I would like to follow the way from wiki. But without further details we may spend only lot of time for nothing, those who prepared pe3.0 for use with ERPXE did it more by accident than by using description from wiki...

By the way - why we have to play with win-machines? I'm pretty long didn't have any need to use this s#!t. Is not really any other way such as playing with scripts, symlinks, emulation or virtualization?