IFL UFD auto restores

[Brian K]

I like IFL 2.84. A UFD was created containing scripts and one script was entered in scriptslist.txt. This script ran automatically after IFL loaded.

The UFD partition was copied to HD0 in two computers and BIBM was used to boot the partitions. In the old Dell computer, IFL performed just the same as the UFD. In my new computer it didn't. It booted to the IFL GUI. No scripts were found after clicking "Display User Scripts Menu". Clicking Partition Work results in a Product Key message.

Strange.

[TeraByte Support]

was there a difference in the boot item (what did view mbr look like after
booting)?

"Brian K" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

I like IFL 2.84. A UFD was created containing scripts and one script was
entered in scriptslist.txt. This script ran automatically after IFL loaded.

The UFD partition was copied to HD0 in two computers and BIBM was used to
boot the partitions. In the old Dell computer, IFL performed just the same
as the UFD. In my new computer it didn't. It booted to the IFL GUI. No
scripts were found after clicking "Display User Scripts Menu". Clicking
Partition Work results in a Product Key message.

Strange.

[Brian K]

TeraByte Support wrote:
> was there a difference in the boot item (what did view mbr look like after
>
> booting)?
>

Both View MBR were the same. Just the single IFL (Active) partition. No other partitions were in the Boot Edit.

But even stranger, after about an hour the old Dell computer performs like the new computer. It boots to the IFL GUI, finds no scripts and asks for a BIBM product key. This is repeatable, twice. I've just restored the image (again) to the Dell and IFL is fine at present and sees the scripts. But let's see what happens in an hour.

[Brian K]

One and two hours were OK but at three hours IFL in the Dell computer resembles the new computer. Scripts are... "No user scripts are currently included on the boot disk" and Partition Work asks for a Product Key. I have no explanation. That's three times in a row it has happened.

It works as intended for a few hours.

I have IFL partitions on the HD made in Ubuntu and they are fine. It's only the one made from the UFD that is strange.


Edit.... This is just an experiment. I planned to use TBOSDT in Windows to copy different scriptslist.txt files to the Scripts folder so IFL would run different restores.

[TeraByte Support]

could it be when the ufd is plugged in it works? It copies the stuff over
from the ufd, the script that does that may be ignoring non-usb hard drives.


"Brian K" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

One and two hours were OK but at three hours IFL in the Dell computer
resembles the new computer. Scripts are... "No user scripts are currently
included on the boot disk" and Partition Work asks for a Product Key. I have
no explanation. That's three times in a row it has happened.

It works as intended for a few hours.

I have IFL partitions on the HD made in Ubuntu and they are fine. It's only
the one made from the UFD that is strange.


Edit.... This is just an experiment. I planned to use TBOSDT in Windows to
copy different scriptslist.txt files to the Scripts folder so IFL would run
different restores.

[Brian K]

I'm giving up. It's behaving differently again. Now the scripts aren't shown at all on the Dell after restoring the same image that worked before. Different results in different computers suggests hardware issues. No problems. It was just an experiment.

[TeraByte Support(TP)]

Brian K wrote:
> I like IFL 2.84. A UFD was created containing scripts and one script was
> entered in scriptslist.txt. This script ran automatically after IFL loaded.
>
> The UFD partition was copied to HD0 in two computers and BIBM was used to
> boot the partitions. In the old Dell computer, IFL performed just the same
> as the UFD. In my new computer it didn't. It booted to the IFL GUI. No
> scripts were found after clicking "Display User Scripts Menu".
> Clicking Partition Work results in a Product Key message.
>
> Strange.

From Windows/Makedisk, when you create a UFD with a custom configuration (such as scripts), it needs to mount it at boot time to copy files off of it. It only looks for itself on removable drives (such as UFDs), not hard drive partitions. For that reason, it won't find the custom items when booted from a hard drive partition, unless you happen to have the UFD plugged in.

(When created from Linux, a custom UFD is self contained, or you can also just install directly to a hard drive partition).

[Brian K]

TeraByte Support(TP) wrote:

> it won't find the custom items when booted from a hard drive partition,
> unless you happen to have the UFD plugged in.
>

Tom,

You have hit the nail on the head. When I boot the IFL partition with the UFD plugged in, the script runs and Partition Work is available.

[Brian K]

Got it working. I prefer booting IFL from a HD partition (initiated from BootNow in Windows).

The UFD partition is copied to the HD and a Boot Item created. Using Tom's information I put...

the Scripts folder
BOOTITBM.INI
ifl.ini
scripts.conf

...on a "data" USB flash drive. The flash drive has to be connected when IFL boots and the script in scriptslist.txt runs. Partition Work opens OK.

I already have an IFL partition (created in Ubuntu) but it can only run one script automatically. The method described above can run a different script automatically as desired.

[TeraByte Support(TP)]

Brian K wrote:
> Got it working. I prefer booting IFL from a HD partition (initiated from
> BootNow in Windows).
>
> The UFD partition is copied to the HD and a Boot Item created. Using Tom's
> information I put...
>
> the Scripts folder
> BOOTITBM.INI
> ifl.ini
> scripts.conf
>
> ...on a "data" USB flash drive. The flash drive has to be
> connected when IFL boots and the script in scriptslist.txt runs. Partition
> Work opens OK.
>
> I already have an IFL partition (created in Ubuntu) but it can only run one
> script automatically. The method described above can run a different script
> automatically as desired.

Sounds good. We'll have to take a look at better supporting some of these alternate methods.

Just for informational purposes on the IFL partitions created from Ubuntu: There is also an "iflscript=" boot parameter available that can be used to specify a script to run at boot time. The script would have to be one of the scripts in the scripts folder that you populate when creating a custom version in Ubuntu. Then you would type e.g. 1 iflscript=<script name> at the boot prompt to get the script to run for that session. This isn't convenient for automation purposes, but you could make it permanent per each instance of an IFL partition by editing the syslinux.cfg file on the IFL partitiion and adding "iflscript=<script name>" to the end of the default append line (usually stanza 1), as shown below:

Original append line in the "label 1" stanza:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
label 1
kernel vmlinuz
append vga=773 iflkmap=us ktl=qwerty initrd=initrmfs.gz iflbflag=0 ProductKey=XXXX-YYYY-ZZZZ

Modified append line in the "label 1 stanza:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
label 1
kernel vmlinuz
append vga=773 iflkmap=us ktl=qwerty initrd=initrmfs.gz iflbflag=0 ProductKey=XXXX-YYYY-ZZZZ iflscript=myscript

A restriction is that the script name cannot have any spaces in it when used on the command line like this.