*** UPDATE - 18 OCTOBER 2005 ***

A solution has been posted here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=58410


Hello all,

I've been reading around and I found that most people are having difficulty to modify setupldr.bin in order to multibooot:
1- Windows 2003 Server SP1 (and 64-Bits Editions)
2- Windows XP 64-Bits Edition
3- Windows PE 2005


So I decided to start this thread in order to solve theses problems, all together we are better than alone.

Windows 2003 Server SP1 (french edition)
1- the new setupldr.bin (SP1) has 5 occurence of i386 and 2 occurence of I386 (the older one only had a total of 4 occurence)
2- Attempting to edit the new setupldr.bin will render it useless. You'll get a NTDLR corrupt message right at the beginning of the installation.
3- I beleive there is some kind of checksum built in the new setupldr.bin preventing any modifications or maybe the new 64bit code added is interfering... I don't know

WORKAROUND
Fortunatly, it is possible to use the older setupldr.bin from the original Win2003 Server to work with SP1. I did a test under simulation and everything went fine.

** UPDATE ** for now, you can replace i386 with i683 or 83i6, they don't corrupt the file - The credit goes to TheTruth

Windows XP 64-Bits Edition
No observation for now... I can't extract the boot folder and I can't go under simulation

WORKAROUND
From my reading, It doesn't seems to work using a Windows 32-Bits setupldr.bin so we'll have to dig this one...

The future of MultiBooting is at stake my friend!


DOWNLOAD
Here you can grab a copy to work on
SETUPLDR.BIN from Windows 2003 Server Standard English
SETUPLDR.BIN from Windows XP x64-Bits Edition English
SETUPLDR.BIN from WinPE 2005 English

You can add Windows PE 2005 to the list of OS's that have issues with the setupldr.bin file. Same problems, and the coming solution will probably fix this also.

Just spent abotu 2 hours trying to get it to work with multiple combinations of changing the I386. The REALLY interesting thing though...deleteing NTLDR from teh disc does NOTHING. lol.

Now if only I have a disassembler...(these aren't 32bit executables so no PE program will work)

Do you have something in mind? Maybe I can help you find one of theses...

that is interesting, id like to help out but i havnt tested my version of 64 as of yet but i soon will ,, but then again im not very pleased with the drivers yet,

but as for a dissasembler ill look for one also for you

as it's my first post here: Hi everyone, this site seems to be great

@topic: I tried to install 2K3 SP1 with the old setupldr unattended, works this far, but after booting up, windows claims a driver/service couldn't be started (someone reported this behaviour already with the rc1, but didn't find a solution either..).Furthermore in System the autoupdate and remote-tab are missing.
While installing in normal (attended) mode with the old setupldr these failures don't occure, but at the Gui-setup he asks for the installpath several times (once for notepad.exe, once for iexplore.exe which is missing in unattend version either).
At the moment I'm trying to take a 2K3 without SP1 and add the service pack by svcpack.inf. Non elegant, but could be working .

hm, I just got another idea... Couldn't we just leave the name of the boot foder i386? This way we needn't to edit the setupldr.bin... only the txtsetup.sif...



btw., if you don't understand my (horrible) english, please ask.. better to write everything twice if it helps the subject

This can be a workaround but in the long term, we need to find out how to modify setupldr.bin... otherwise multi-booting is dead


How do you plan to add another Microsoft Product while keeping this folder? This solution is only good for 1 product per media (CD/DVD)

ok, that's right... hm.. :/

I just got my hand on WinPE 2005 so I added the setupldr.bin in the download area of the first post...

Afterall, I wonder if this is exactly the same file for all 3 products. They all have 291KB... does somebody have a tool for comparison?

ok, I tried to change the i386 to a386 whereas I always took capital letters where they were in the original file too. After remembering to change the folders name and the bootsectors link too, it worked!
Before they were named 3ENU and 3ENT (didn't work...)

What do you mean it worked? Did you sucessfully modified the setupldr.bin of Win2003 Server SP1 ???

Oui ^^
Leave the 386 and only replace the letter, respecting its form (capital, minor) then it works

formidable, pas?

I'm trying it with the full setup now (did it without the txtsetup modification for testing..). I'll tell you if it worked

You must be jooking, Alanoll wasn't able to do anything!

Could you describe the EXACT step you did

@braunchen210
I'll test it in a second as well. Sure you didn't forget to replace your nonSP1 file with that of the SP1 file?

I'm currently testing too...

... I am re-installing VMware 4.5... the stupid v5 demo has expired

I changed the I386 to A386 respecting the form of the letter (capital or minor).
It's just a guess, but I bet Alanoll (don't beat me) forgott to change the name of the folder ^^.

I'm trying it at the moment at the whole DVD... Would be a blame if it didn't work again, wouldn't it

@Alanoll I hope so

didn't work for me....

plz wait a second... it takes some time here
Could really be that I mixed up the setupldrs... but... just a moment (would be quite sorry if.. )

Same here... NTLDR is corrupt. The system cannot boot

Ok, obviesly I really mixed up the files
I'm sorry

Come on Alanoll, let's beat him! I'll go get my stick!


Unfortunatly, were back to square one...

Nah I think i found a dissembler, but i don't know if it's the proper one. It actually dissassembles the files (which is a start) but that's about it. Every character is written in integer form, and doesn't appear to relate to the HEX address of the compiled file (though it should).

I'll keep looking

I don't know if any of these will help, but figured I'd post them, just in case

Decompilers:

* Boomerang [GNU GPL]
* NASM [GNU LGPL]


EDIT: removed the Java decompilers.

Off that list only NASM is a usable decompiler.
HelpDeco is a chm helpfile decompiler and the rest are Java decompilers.

How about this one:
b a s t a r d

I'm not quite sure what we are looking for...

Boomerang won't work as it only supports 32bit PE based files (amonst others that aren't relevant). These files are easily found, they're the ones you can open in a resource editor and have been the main programming standard since Windows 95.

NASM is good. I'll look into it. The problem comes down to what type of file it is. I'm not sure if it's a 16bit or 8bit file, which makes a LARGE difference in disassembly. The file is most commonly called a sort of "flat file" i believe.

bastard looks promising, but I don't have a Unix based environment to run it in.


And as I was writing this, i had a case of Deja vu, though I don't know why. It feels like I've done this before...

You should install a Linux in a Virtual Machine...

so? what we have ?
setupldr.bin from windows server 2003-sp1(32bit) and windows xp(64bit-not itanium) - are some... i bellive all other "new" setupldr.bin is same as these...
it's for compatibility with classic i386 and amd64 in one file....

I called in some reinforcements (same guy who did the UXtheme.dll hacks) to help with this. Hopefully he can find something out as well...

Hmm, this is interesting. I was planning on implementing x64 onto my preinstall today, but I see my work is cut out for me. I'll play around with it at work later and see what I can figure out.

Well, I did figure something out. I copied ntldr from the actual i386 directory to the boot directory (1OPX on my disc). It got past the ntldr is corrupt message, but stopped with a NTDETECT failed error. That's a start anyway.

This observation bring in a 3rd possibility to the equation... maybe the setupldr.bin file isn't the cause of the problem, an other file may be responsible for that...

Another possibility that I didn't think of before is that a multi-boot DVD as we currently know them just will not work with x64. Think about it. When it boots initially it's running in 16-bit mode if I'm not mistaken. It then launches whatever setup files are needed to run the other setup disc on the DVD. However, x64 is not compatible with 16-bit mode. We may have to resort to a WinPE/BartPE method for preinstalls from here on out. Frankly, it's probably a better idea anyway. What do you think?

Jito463 =>put ntldr in boot folder doesn't work for me, i have ntldr corrupt (have you modified setupldr, how ?)

Try to put ntdll.dll and osloader too, maybe it will work ... !

I think the WinPE based method is the best to explore now ...

Good evening all !

I agree. I have modified setupldr.bin files working fine on linux (for WinPE PXE booting). So I think there is some other file (DLL maybe?) doing a checksum on the setupldr.bin file durring boot.

Well, if windows XP x64 is 64bit, then the installation is 64bit too (or else you wouldn't be having any trouble, would you?). So at some point, the installation switches from 16-bit mode to 64-bit mode. (Maybe with 32-bit mode between those) That moment should normally be the same point where a normal windows XP installation (32 bit) switches from 16 bit to 32 bit mode. That last one (16 -> 32) works on multi-boot, so why wouldn't 16->(32)->64 work?

I would agree with that IF Windows 2003 Server SP1 (32-Bits) would work! Since it has the same issues as 64-Bits, it must be something else.

Are the download links in the first post broken, or is it just me? I'd like to look at the 2003 .bin, but the link isn't cooperating with me.

I don't see anything wrong...

here is another link:

http://66.131.144.223:88/MSFN/Win2K3-STD-SETUPLDR.BIN

Ahh, that one worked for me, thanks.

sorry i am from Spain,read english well but write very bad..
asi que pondre tambien español,si alguien puede interpretar a los demas se agradece


ok,the solution for dvd windows 2003 server and server X64 is posible thats:
put yours server 2003 carpets ,no chaing the name I386 ,for the X64 put AMD64 and
the I386 rename for example I064 and put too in the boot.bin of the X64

SETUPLDR.BINBOOTFIX.BINI064AMD64

DVD
I386 ; WINDOWS SERVER 2003
AMD64 ; WINDOWS X64
I064 ; WINDOWS X 64 I386 RENAME I064

ok,i am too looking that I386 in the X64 only have one file diferent of the I386 in 2003 server ,i am think put all in I386 , Windows 2003 server and X64

Has anyone tried hex-editing the setupldr.exe (after unpacking it of course) and changing the references to i386 in there? I ask because when I opened it in the hex editor, it had the exact same i386 references in what appeared to be the same places as setupldr.bin. I probably won't get a chance to play with it until next week. We're closing our store down and moving everything to the other store, so things are a little busy atm.

Jito463, gave that a try, but didn't see any changes. Sounded good though.

I think this is normal : with the gosh reducing size of source method, there is no setupldr.ex_

I think the WinPe boot Method is the solution ...

my guess is that ntdetect.com or spcmdcon.sys is doing some kind of checksum on setupldr.bin.

Anyone know if this can be debuged somehow?

Next thing I'm going to try come Tuesday (soonest I can do it) is to copy the ntldr to the boot directory (1OPX in my case) and hex-edit it to rename the I386 directory to 1OPX. If anyone else wants to try before then, please do and let us know. Otherwise, I'll try when I get back to work.

poking at that file (xp64 final) shows some interresting strings: http://pastebin.com/308398

it partly shows what the bootloader is capable of doing. maybe there a way to trick the loader (eg ramdisk with original loader and different txtsetup.sif)

i tried a modified pre-sp1 2003 loader with xp64 but that didnt work

Well, I finally got a chance to try modifying the ntldr. No go. Anyone else have any luck with this? I'm about to switch my setup over to a WinPE based method with CD installation. I'm sure that will work. But I really would like to continue using the current method instead.

I hope we'll find a way to make this work...

Anyway, can we use WinPE in a similar way as multiboot? I mean, I pop my CD in, I browse in my custom menu, I select the installation I want (4 different boot folder with 4 different winnt.sif file) ?

well i tried to initiate the setup with some other option than booting from cd, but after reading http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896334 i dont think there're many possibilities except network based setups

and


which means pe based wont work

so i guess the only multiboot solution is to hack/use another ntldr