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Configure E2B

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Quick instructions
Payload and .mnu files
Change the background wallpaper
E2B_Editor
Screen size and Menu layout
Other changes (headings, menu position, colour)
Change how payload files are listed in the menu
Using .mnu files

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Quick Instructions

\_ISO\MyE2B.cfg is the user configuration file for E2B.
Use the E2B_Editor.exe menu editing utility, found in the \_ISO folder, to make a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg configuration file and change the menu layout and wallpaper, etc.
\_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg contains a complete list of all possible configuration settings to allow you to change the Main Menu heading, footer help text, menu position, size, colours, language, password and many other options (many settings can be changed!).
To change the wallpaper - add a 800x600 24-colour \_ISO\Mybackground.bmp or .jpg file (save using MS Paint) or specify one in the MyE2B.cfg file - see below for details.
To change the text of individual payload menu entries, simply rename the payload file (e.g. 'ubuntu-14.04-desktop-amd64.iso' can be renamed to 'Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit Desktop.iso'). Note: Spaces in filenames can cause problems - always test without spaces first and then change the file name once it is working correctly!
To change the menu text and help text below the menu for a specific payload, add a matching .txt file.
The Menu entry order is determined by E2B which sorts the payload and .mnu filenames alphabetically - so just rename them to change their order in a menu. Tip: press the spacebar twice to pause file enumeration so you can see how E2B has ordered each item.
To change the other menu sub-headings and E2B menu text - see 'Changing the Language'.
E2B also uses .mnu files to add new grub4dos menu entries into a menu - you can add more .mnu files, delete or rename them (but never edit an existing E2B .mnu file unless you first change its filename).
You can create a new menu folder with its own entry in the Main menu by using E2B SUBMENU Maker.cmd.
Double-click on \_ISO\PimpMyDrive.cmd to add some demo menu entries (.mnu files) for you to test (E2B v1.92+)

\_ISO\MyE2B.cfg is the user configuration file

When you boot E2B, it first looks for a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg user configuration file. It then adds into its menu, in alphabetical order, all .mnu files and payload files that are in the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder.

\_ISO\MyE2B.cfg may have already been created for you when you made the E2B USB drive.

Edit the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file - see thi s page for details.

Use the \_ISO\E2B_Editor.exe utility to modify your menu layout.

The \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file contains many examples of all the possible configuration settings.

Grub4dos only allows a maximum of 60 environment variables, E2B uses about 20 variables and requires about 20 more for it's scripts, this leaves a maximum of 20 or so extra 'set' variables for you to use in the MyE2B.cfg file. If you experience random grub4dos error messages, remove some 'set' variables from your MyE2B.cfg file or delete it.

E2B uses keyword lookup strings ($$STRxxxx) instead of text strings so that different languages can be supported. If you need to change the language, menu entries and headings, prompts and messages, you can use your own STRINGS.txt language file. Please set the LANG variable in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg configuration file (for details, see 'Changing the Language' in the MyE2B.cfg page).

IMPORTANT: Do not edit any of the original E2B files because if you later update the E2B drive with a newer version of E2B, you will lose all your changes. If you need to change one of the E2B files, rename it first, e.g. rename \_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZSubMenuAll.mnu to ZZSubMenuAll_NEW.mnu before you edit it.
The file \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg can be edited by you because it is not in the E2B download and is not an 'original' E2B file - it will not be over-written when you update your E2B version.

Note: The CSM menu that is created by MakePartImage is inside each .imgPTN image file, so its menu is not affected by MyE2B.cfg or any file within E2B - see 'Modifying the CSM Menu' on this page.

A YouTube Video about changing the E2B Menu background and using a MyE2B.cfg file is here.

Payload and .mnu files

E2B automatically adds payload files (.ISOs, .IMAs, .IMG, etc.) to the menu, only if they are at the 2nd folder level (i.e the \_ISO\xxxx level).

Payload files (and .mnu files) are listed in alphabetical order of their file names.
For automatic addition to a menu, a payload file must be in a menu folder.
Note that .mnu files will be found at all levels, even if they are nested below the 2nd folder level (nested sub-folders).
e.g.

\_ISO\LINUX\FRED\Ubuntu.iso ignored - will not be added to the LINUX menu
\_ISO\LINUX\FRED\Ubuntu.mnu \_ISO\LINUX\Clonezilla.iso \_ISO\LINUX\Clonezilla_Persistent.mnu

Change the default background wallpaper

To add your own wallpaper background, prepare a .bmp file or .jpg file which is exactly 800x600 in size and 24/32-bit colour depth.

Name the file as mybackground.bmp and copy it to the \_ISO folder.

If you wish, you can reduce its file size by using 7Zip to compress it using GZip format (name it mybackground.bmp.gz or mybackground.bmp). Some high-quality wallpapers can be downloaded from here and here (choose a size of 800x600).

You can also have an E2B menu of 640x480 or 1024x768 by changing the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file and the GMODE value (see below).

The \_ISO\mybackground.bmp file can also be a JPEG encoded file (e.g. saved as a JPEG file called mybackground.bmp using MSPaint or Gimp). Note that a name of \_ISO\mybackground.jpg is also recognised by E2B v1.92 and later.

If you add a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg configuration file, you can specify the background wallpaper file name and path inside MyE2B.cfg (notice that forward slashes are used for grub4dos paths!) - e.g.

set MYWBMP=/_ISO/docs/special.bmp
or...
set MYWBMP=/User_E2B/myimage.jpg

It is also possible to load a different background wallpaper for each submenu - see here for details.

Do not use a wallpaper larger than 1024x768 (it can cause E2B to crash!) - use either 800x600 or 1024x768
I recommend you use 800x600 because not all systems can display 1024x768x24 colours.
E2B uses grub4dos 0.4.6a which supports .jpg files, grub4dos version 0.4.5c does not - so if you use or switch to grub4dos 0.4.5c, do not use a .jpg file.

Choosing a suitable background bitmap

When designing or choosing a menu bitmap, it is best to avoid lots of different colours in the menu area because the menu text needs to stand out against the background.

Therefore, choose an area for the menu which is suitable to have text overlaid on it so that it will stand out. You could do this by drawing a blank rectangle on the image before saving the bitmap.

E2B_Editor (E2Bed)!

Use the E2Bed editor to design your own menu system (save the configuration as MyE2B.cfg).

1. Run \_ISO\E2B_Editor.exe (Windows only) and choose a .cfg file (e.g. \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg or select the Sample_MyE2B.cfg file).

2. Choose a 800x600 or 1024x768 (uncompressed) .bmp file or .jpg (if one was not already specified in the .cfg file) - the file MUST be under the \_ISO folder (or sub-folder) and it must be on the E2B USB drive.

3. Use the mouse to draw a rectangle for the menu area (any menu border, if configured, will be drawn around the outside of the menu text).

4. Change the colours, header and footer text and other settings as required.

5. Click on the red Save button to save the new settings (if you chose Sample_MyE2B.cfg then New_MyE2B.cfg or MyE2B.cfg will be saved).
Tip: You can just view the new settings in Notepad by answering 'No' to the 'Save' question.

Note: When E2B boots, it will always load the user's configuration file from \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg.

Screen Size and Menu layout

The diagram below shows an 800x600 display mode (100 text characters x 37.5 lines, GMODE=800).

A 1024x768 display will be 128 characters x 48 lines (GMODE=1024).

If GFX=none is set, we will have 640x400 text mode 16-colour (VGA mode 3) of 80x25 lines (sometimes mode 18 which is 80x30)

E2B can automatically choose the best available resolution by adding code to your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file - see my blog post here. However, I suggest you stick to 800x600.

Note: Default menu size and position parameters assume a 800x600 display size. You may need to modify MyE2B.cfg if you change the display mode.

1024x768 = 128 x 48 lines

800x600 = 100 x 37 lines
GFX=NONE = 80 x 25 lines - note you must adjust noitems (max 17), tophelp (max 19), HBTM (max 24) and reduce length of the HELPTEXT string.

The menu variables with some example values are shown in the diagram below (case sensitive).

Note: The border is always drawn outside of the menu, e.g. if rstart=2 then the border vertical is in column 0 and an arrow pointer is in column 1. The menu text starts in column 2. Allow 1 line for the horizontal border lines. rstart=0, rstart=1 and rstart=2 are equivalent and will position the menu in the same place.

If GMODE=800 then we get 100 characters (0-99) across each row and 37 rows (0-36).

A default menu size is preset by E2B, and assumes a 800x600 screen resolution and the following parameters:

Default settings:

set HEADPOS=0000
set rstart=3
set menuw=64
set topstart=2
set noitems=24
set tophelp=26
set bdwidth=1
set HBTM=3502

You can change these in _ISO\MyE2B.cfg.

Tip: Copy the .mnu file "\_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files\E2B Menus\Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu" to the \_ISO\MAINMENU folder and boot to the E2B Main Menu. You can now adjust these parameters and observe the effect on the menu instantly (v1.A0+).

The Main Menu Heading

Menu headings are positioned on the screen using HEADPOS+HPAD+HEADING (the heading text).

HEADPOS is a four digit number (row+column) - e.g. YYXX - 0103 is line 1, 3rd character across. HEADPOS is ignored if CENTREHD is used. HEADPOS is 0000 by default.

HPAD is a variable that contains a string of one or more spaces and it is automatically calculated by E2B from the rstart value. HPAD is used by E2B to shift all the menu headings to the right and contains a number of spaces (must start with space character \x20).

You can override the internal HPAD value by setting it in MyE2B.cfg, e.g. set HPAD=\x20 \x20

The Main Menu heading text is set using HEADING in the MyE2B.cfg file. It can be offset by adding spaces - e.g. set HEADING=\x20 MY MAIN HEADING.

To remove the heading use:
set HEADING=\x20

CENTREHD

You can cause all menu headings to be auto-centred within the menu area by using set CENTREHD=1 in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (v1.65+).The central position is calculated by E2B from the menuw value that has been set in MyE2B.cfg (the default value is set in the E2B.cfg file = menuw = 64). You can skew the menu headings by using a value other than 1 for CENTREHD - e.g. set CENTREHD=65 will make E2B use 65 instead of the menuw value to calculate the centre of the menu. CENTREHD pads out the heading string with the correct number of spaces, i.e. HPAD + CENTREHD is used to shift the headings over to the right.

If you set CENTREHD in MyE2B.cfg, then HEADPOS (YYXX) will be set to YY00 by E2B v1.97+ (i.e. the X offset will be set to 00).

The X position of the heading is now determined by [HPAD] + the CENTREHD value.

Note: You can specify your own padding for HPAD in your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file - e.g. set HPAD=\x20 \x20.

e.g.

set HPAD=\x20\x20

set CENTREHD=98
The menu headings may also have leading spaces - if you want to change this, copy the STRINGS.txt file to your own LANGuage folder and edit the headings that are in the STRINGS.txt file. See here for more details.

Note that HBTM (the bottom help text position) is an absolute position, it is not padded by HPAD and not centered even if CENTREHD is set.

Other changes (headings, menu position, colours, etc.)

You can make a new \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file by using the E2B_Editor or by making a copy of the \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file - see the MyE2B.cfg page for more details.

E2B uses keyword lookup strings which begin with $$STR followed by 4 alphanumeric characters (e.g. $$STR1bhx). To change the existing E2B menu headings or standard menu entries or change the language, please refer to the 'Languages' page here.

Highlighting and centering the menu entries

When a menu entry is selected, the 'highlight' text colour and background colour can be changed, e.g.

# yellow text FFFF00 + background will be 222222 (v. dark grey/black) for selected menu entry - 0x00rrggbb00RRGGBB
color highlight=0x0022222200FFFF00

If the background highlight colour value is 0 (black) then the background colour will be transparent.

If SHORT_HL is set, then the background selection bar will not extend across the whole menu.

Menu entries can be aligned from the left (most languages are 'LTR' = left-to-right) or from right-to-left ('RTL', e.g. Arabic), or they can be centred within the menu area (v1.A0+). e.g. in your MyE2B.cfg file, add a setmenu command under the ADVANCED MENU CONFIGURATION section...

# --- ADVANCED MENU CONFIGURATION ----

# set a short bar for background of highlighted menu entry (E2B v1.A0+) requires grub4dos 0.4.6a 2018-07 or later
set SHORT_HL=1

# centre the menu entries inside the menu area (and centre help text under menu) - requires grub4dos 0.4.6a 2018-07 or later
setmenu --middle-align

See the \_ISO\Sample_MyE2B.cfg file for more details.

Sub-Menu heading positions

HEADPOS can be set in the MyE2B.cfg file. If CENTREHD is used, the HEADPOS xx value is set to 0 by E2B.

HPAD is usually automatically calculated by E2B from the rstart value set in MyE2B.cfg and so does not usually need to be set.

e.g. If HEADPOS = 0200 (3rd line down) and rstart=4 (5th column across) then HPAD will be automatically set to '\x20\x20\x20' (i.e. rstart = 3 spaces) - followed by the menu heading string ('AntiVirus Menu').

HPAD can be set in the MyE2B.cfg file - e.g. set HPAD= \x20 \x20.

Sub-menu headings may start with leading spaces if you wish. If you look in the \_ISO\e2b\grub\ENG\STRINGS.txt language file you can see entries like:

$$STRm017=AntiVirus Menu

So if you want one Heading to start further to the right, you must add the spaces in the STRINGS.txt headings - e.g.

$$STRm017=\x20 AntiVirus Menu

You should make and change your own STRINGS.txt file (do NOT edit the original E2B files!). see 'Changing the Language'.

All Sub-Menu headings will be automatically centred if CENTREHD has been set in the MyE2B.cfg file.

Menu help text

The help text area directly below the menu requires 5 clear lines of space, because up to 5 lines of help text can be printed, starting at the 'tophelp' position, on the display.

Note: with more recent versions of grub4dos, only 4 lines are required, however I recommend you allow for 5 lines of help text below the menu for backwards compatibility reasons.

The older grub4dos 0.4.5c requires 5 free lines below the menu area - if a default menu entry is chosen by the user, they may see a 'This highlighted entry will be booted automatically in x seconds' message at position tophelp+5 if a default menu item is set. This text is part of grub4dos. Its position is the 5th line down from the menu help text start position (tophelp set in MyE2B.cfg file).

In all versions of grub4dos, you can define only a maximum of 4 lines of help text for each menu entry.

e.g. if the .mnu file was:

title TEST \n1\n2\n3\n4\n5\n6
pause
boot

The help text below the menu would be:
1
2
3
4
grub4dos messages may be on line 5- e.g. 'The highlighted entry will be booted automatically in x seconds'

So you always need to ensure that there a 5 clear lines directly below your menu and then the HELPTEXT footer text below that.

Note: grub4dos 0.4.6a (default) will display the timeout counter on the same menu entry line and only 4 lines of help text below the menu are required.

If you want to hide the menu entry title help text, set tophelp to a large value so it is positioned just off-screen (e.g. set tophelp=47) in the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file.

Set the line width and position of the menu entry help text

The menu help text under the menu area can be moved and the width can be adjusted.

Use hstart and hwidth (E2B v1.97+)

Using MyE2B.cfg, you can change the default position of the menu entry help text under the menu using:

tophelp - sets row at which to start help text (y offset)

hstart - sets column at which to start help text (x offset) (default = rstart-1), min = 1, 0 = use menu width and menu start

hwidth - sets the width of each help text line before it will wrap over (default = menuw+2), 0 = use whole screen width - 2 x hstart

# Example 1 - define exact position of help text

set tophelp=26

set hwidth=70

set hstart=6

# Example 2 - use whole screen width (minus 2 x hstart value) - so 3 spaces at start and 3 spaces at end

set hstart=3

set hwidth=0

# Example 3 - use menu default position and width

set hstart=0

Note: In My_E2B.cfg, hstart and hwidth should be defined below the 'ADVANCED MENU SETTINGS' area so that they are preserved if you use the E2B_Editor utility.

In 800x600 mode, hstart+hwidth

Note: E2B v1.97 and later versions do not use a leading space in the help text after \n, e.g. instead of...

title Here is my title\n Line 1 help text\n Line 2 help text

E2B now uses no spaces:

title Here is my title\nLine 1 help text\nLine 2 help text

Tip:

You can draw a box around the help text using 'setmenu --draw-box'. Note that you may have to draw a box one-character wider than the help text width to allow for an extra space that can occur at the end of a help text line. You may also need to adjust the vertical start position of the box downwards by one line.

Type help setmenu in the grub4DOS command prompt to see the syntax.

Change how the filenames are listed in the menus

By default, payload files (e.g. ISO files, etc.) are listed in the E2B menus by their full filename but without their file extension (set EXTOFF=1).

To force E2B to list the filename+extension, use set EXTOFF= in the MyE2B.cfg file (clears the variable).

If you use set EXTOFF=1 in a \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file (default) then only the filename will be displayed in the menus (without extension). The filename can be any name you like, E2B will look at the file extension to decide how to boot from it. e.g. a file named \_ISO\MAINMENU\Boot Ubuntu 14.04.iso will appear in the menu as 'Boot Ubuntu 14.04' unless EXTOFF is set to 1.

To change the text of a menu entry and add your own menu help text, make a .txt file of exactly the same name as the payload file:
e.g. for a payload ISO in \_ISO\MAINMENU\fred.iso, you can create a \_ISO\MAINMENU\fred.txt file containing the line...

title This is a menu for Fred\nThis is help text.\nThis is a 2nd line of help text.

and the 'fred.iso' menu entry will now appear as 'This is a menu for Fred' and the Help text at the bottom of the menu will also be changed. See h ere for more details.

To do this without having to use a file editor, copy the \_ISO\TXT_Maker.exe or \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities\E2B TXT Maker.cmd file to your Windows Desktop. Then drag and drop the payload file (.e.g .iso file) and you will be prompted to enter the menu text and help text. A new .txt file will be made on the E2B drive in the same folder as your payload file. You can also define a hotkey for the menu entry.

Using .mnu files

If you use a .mnu file, you can also define the menu entry text and help text and also the grub4dos commands too.

.mnu files contain just grub4dos menu lines that you might find in a normal grub4dos menu.lst file. All .mnu file contents are automatically collated and added into the Easy2Boot menu each time you boot E2B. Save the file as UTF-8 if you want it to display special non-ASCII characters.

.mnu files are typically used for special cases and many example files can be found in the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files folder. Instructions for users are inside each .mnu file (view/edit using Notepad).

Typically, .mnu files and their payload files are placed at the 3rd level (e.g. \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU). You can use any folder name instead of MNU for the 3rd level folder and you can have many different 3rd level folders or many sub-folders below that. The folder names will be enumerated alphabetically.

See here for more details.

Do not edit any of the original E2B .mnu files because if you later update the E2B drive with a newer version of E2B, you will lose all your changes!

If you need to change one of the E2B .mnu files, rename it first, e.g. rename \_ISO\MAINMENU\ZZSubMenuAll.mnu to ZZSubMenuAllXYZ.mnu before you edit it.

Note: The CSM menu is created by MakePartImage and is inside the .imgPTN image file, so it's menu is not affected by MyE2B.cfg or any file within E2B - see 'Modifying the CSM Menu' on this page.