Swad Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Check out the comments on that page - there are a ton of suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
settolo Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Check out the comments on that page - there are a ton of suggestions! I know, I read them every day, but this is one of the comments. And nobody has answered yet (it is the one just before the last one at this moment). Is it possible to run Vista from a FAT32/USB device (on a standard PC)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torncanvas Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Yeah, we've been trying to get into the EFI shell on our Macbook Pros lately. If anyone would like to lend a hand with some debug output on their new iMac, that would help us out a lot with getting into the EFI shell, and then we could help out everyone else with booting Vista/XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 What debug output is needed? (So that someone with a Macintel can share it!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paranoiduser Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Hello all, I've been lurking on the forums for a while now, but this is the first time I post. I keep seeing you trying to boot XP from a USB drive, but I've tried that on my Dell Inspiron 9300 and and it will not boot either and it gets hung up on the same section. Doing searches on google about a month ago I could not find a way to boot XP from a USB drive and I seem to remember reading that it was not possible for XP to boot from USB because at first the OS boots using the BIOS USB driver, but then it tries to load the Mass Storage driver and that drops the connection to the hard-drive. If anyone of you has been able to accomplish booting XP from a USB drive on your standard PC, please let me know how you did it because as far as I know right now it is not possible except for possibly using the Windows PE or Bart PE disks. l8r) Actually it is possible to boot XP from USB drives. I´ve just read an article with detailed instructions to get it to work. But it is in German and I don´t have leisure to translate it. Anyway if somenone wants to read or even translate it pm me. It´s also available online: http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/06/02/188/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveM Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Actually it is possible to boot XP from USB drives. I´ve just read an article with detailed instructions to get it to work. But it is in German and I don´t have leisure to translate it. Anyway if somenone wants to read or even translate it pm me. It´s also available online:http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/06/02/188/ Good article. Am I correct in thinking you cannot *install* XP directly to a USB drive though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefsalami Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I was tinkering around in the EFI shell this morning, and it appears to me that if you get the right .efi modules loaded when you boot into the shell, you should be able to access your Windows (Vista) installation files and get the installation going. There is, of course, the question of UGA video drivers, but there was a module called something like VgaClass.efi or NtUgaVideo.efi that might get you there. Just hunt around in the Intel EFI implementation that you can download off the net and look for these modules. I'm going to tinker some more tonight, but please let us know what you find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
settolo Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Yeah, we've been trying to get into the EFI shell on our Macbook Pros lately. If anyone would like to lend a hand with some debug output on their new iMac, that would help us out a lot with getting into the EFI shell, and then we could help out everyone else with booting Vista/XP. again from nakfull propaganda http://chrisp.de/files/rEFIt-0.1.dmgpretty & easy way to get into EFI interface !! Very nice. [...] I used Disk Utilities to 'restore' the rEFIt image to a USB key and it works nicely...good job. [...] * The shell in rEFIt can be replaced by Tiano's Shell_Full, allowing for e.g. 'mode 180 47' (full screen text). * Entering Apple's EFI menu still doesn't work (at least not on my MBP - flashes a '.', then boots into OS X). Whether this is just untested for the rEFIt/MBP combo or a "feature" of the MBP (my guess) remains to be seen. * Verbose info on the EFI settings can be retreived by running 'smbiosview' (from Tiano). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaniard Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Actually it is possible to boot XP from USB drives. I´ve just read an article with detailed instructions to get it to work. But it is in German and I don´t have leisure to translate it. Anyway if somenone wants to read or even translate it pm me. It´s also available online:http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/06/02/188/ I was not able to read the linked document, would someone be kind enough to translate it? Thanks. l8r) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirmanPika Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 Whoever made rEFIt is a wonderful genius! Makes my life a hell of alot easier choosing how to boot my PC as it pops up the boot menu to choose OSX, Shell, or EFI GUI at boot now. I went ahead and set it up the same way I had the graphicsconsole set up on the main HD. Even though the readme says not to do it like this I don't see anything amiss at this time. Anyway I've not been working much on vista the last few days so sorry about the lack of updates. I should get more time this weekend hopefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirmanPika Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 GOD DAMNIT THATS IT! The only viable reason Windows will not load is because of the damn UGA Video! Just as NAK said the setup loads but you can't see squat. I just loaded the setup off a USB drive finally but you just can't see anything. EFI is fine (we can obviously boot), FAT/NTFS is fine (the EFI doesn't need to see NTFS as long as you install windows and make sure there is a FAT32 partition infront of the vista partition for the /boot and /efi folders to be dumped), so obviously its down to the simple fact that we can't SEE anything. SOMEONE PLEASE get some sort of VGA option going as this is well out of my ability. OK so maybe this is just the rant of someone who has gone mad after 2 weeks of trying but I can't see any other possible reason why this won't work anymore. The rebooting behavior I've been getting is just as it prolly looks....an OS install thats barfing after being installed on one machine and booted on another and since there is no viable way to properly sysprep the system in the same way XP can be (thats I know of) installing on one machine and porting to another just won't work. We need a clean install option and all thats in the way is video. *Rant Mode Off* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac tosh Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 someone has just now claimed to have booted XP on his Macbook http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?p=203#post203 Anyway, it's Colins contest forum ( link is iffy) Some guy gives some brief directions ( Most likely-total BS) Just thought i'd give a heads up just for kicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirmanPika Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 Yea BS Post nevermind. Look up to my last post to see what I think we need. I'm going to bed now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefsalami Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 SOMEONE PLEASE get some sort of VGA option going as this is well out of my ability. What about BINARY/BIOS32/Bin/VgaClass.efi? Does that provide any support? By the way, I don't know if anyone has noticed... if you are in the EFI shell and type "drivers" you'll see there is a line with "Radeon UGA driver". Perhaps the video support we need is already there, we just need to do something with it. Then there are also the device setup options in the main EFI screen... Just typing from memory right now, but there are some options for the video controller, and by default it is set to the PCIe option. Maybe changing that to the "internal" or whatever option will change the way the video works. I am a little reluctant to try it, though, just in case the video gets screwed and then I can't get back in to try to fix it. Anyone brave enough to give it a shot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirmanPika Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 I didn't have any luck with vgaclass.efi myself but thats not to say thats not going to help. Also I'm glad you reminded me about the radeon driver. I found a copy of it where someone had extracted it from the firmware but it may be in the same boat as the vgaclass.efi file. I'll look at the settings you mentioned when I get home today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayonae Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=3&page=6 Anyone try this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aumpak Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 use rEFIt to go into efi device maneger, at display there are some options like X1 support for PEG(pci express card) and aspm support, give them a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dataworm Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Have anyone tried to use a USB2VGA adapter? Driver are't available for Vista but they do have some drivers for XP... http://www.doublesight.com/miva/merchant.m...&Category_Code= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spanky Deluxe Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Have anyone tried to use a USB2VGA adapter? Driver are't available for Vista but they do have some drivers for XP... http://www.doublesight.com/miva/merchant.m...&Category_Code= That's an absolutely fantastic idea! However I don't think many people will happen to have one of those USB2VGA things lying around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirmanPika Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 Thats assuming the driver is preloaded as I think you need VGA support before the OS is loaded but I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefsalami Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=3&page=6 Anyone try this? AGAIN, this post using Acronis is total BS. It was started by someone before the MacBook Pros were even released, and basically assumes the machine runs like a PC, which it does not. Acronis would not even work on the machine, and if it did, the graphics would not display since we don't have an appropriate driver yet. Thats assuming the driver is preloaded as I think you need VGA support before the OS is loaded but I could be wrong. Well, the USB support would need to be there, and I think it is already. However, we would need a driver to control that device over USB, and that we CERTAINLY do not have under EFI. This would be a much more complicated task than getting the native video to work on the machine. Anyway, I was tinkering around last night again, and got to the point where I could start the Vista installation. In other words, the point where the text "Press a key to boot from CD...." is displayed. Once you press something, it dies with some error code. I think some others have gotten this far. The tough part is the fact that the error gives you no clue as to what the problem is... is it video, some other hardware controller, the fact that the files are not actually on the installation CD but rather on the hard drive...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 What's the error code? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefsalami Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 What's the error code? I'll try to get it later and post up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Note: The debate over the dual booting effort is now has a dedicated home so that this thread can stay on technical stuff! Gracias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chapel Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Well I know I dont have much if anything to contribute to this endeavor. But based on your latest frustration and issue, there might be one solution or something to get you moving. Using an unattended setup, where you setup the installer and everything so you dont need to see it, and even drivers to be installed as well. Im not sure if it would solve the issues youre having, but at this rate you could bypass any screens the installer has because you dont need to see them. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=70 Good luck, and I hope you figure it out. As far as my info, I hope its helpful, but I highly doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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