Pebuilder Cd Layout Optimization, Design faster LiveCDs Options

[aec]

I've been always much concerned about the relatively slow start up of PE disks.
This feeling gets stronger whenever I launce a Knoppix disk which boots quite fast.
OK, Knoppix is one but PEBuilder disks are as many as we are, each with its own personality.

To come now to the topic I want to discuss let me list some of the factors that affect boot time for a given PC system

1. The shell we use
2. The services we want to have available before our shell starts.
3. The CD layout for system files, driver files, plugin files, ...

A few comments:

1. We now have several shells we can choose from (nu2menu, nu2menu+geoshell, bluebox, litestep, aston, and explorer shells (XPE with localization, this-is-me's optimized, TrueExplorer, ...).
I think we can find fast shells and I believe that those that today are slow will become faster.

2. The services we want to have ready when our shell starts of course "eat" more boot time. However, most of the shells can be configured so that some services are started later on demand.

3. Thanks to the efforts of the people like Bart, Allen2, Paraglider, Frodo, Sherpya, ...
we now we have better and faster plug and play support with HWPnp, PePnp, bartpe, and Frodo's plugins.
Now we can support more and more devices but for this we need more and more files.
And of course, we now have tons of plugins for nice programs we want to use in our LiveCD.

4. Suppose now we have decided for what we want to have on our LiveCD.
Taking into account the relatively small access time and transfer rate of CD Players, the question now is:
Is there any way to optimize our CD?
- Does it help to store large files compressed (upx or zisofs)?
- Does it matter where our files are located on the CD?

Well, I haven't performed any compression tests. This is something that I find interesting and I would like to know if someone has some results regarding speed increase at least for fast systems (decompression itself needs a lot of time).

However, I have done a first experiment with the CD layout and found out that it is certainly important. We can get a faster CD with a proper layout pattern.

The First Experiment

I used PEBuilder to build an XP-SP1 based PE system with XPE 0.97 shell and several plugins making a 680MB CD.

I created three iso's by running the mkisofs.
The first one with the standard options.
The second one by adding the option -sort sort_pos_file and
the third one with the option -sort sort_neg_file.

The sort_pos_file and sort_neg_file are files with positive and negative weight definitions for certain files and folders of our CD.
The idea is that files that are needed during boot should be close together and preferably in the order that they are accesed. I used the positive weight definition list to put such files near the center of the CD. Similarly, I used a negative weight definition list to put these files at the outer parts of the CD.

I burned three CD's, the neutral, the positive and the negative. I tested them on my system and measured the time needed for XPE to boot. The results are:

CODE

Neutral:  171 s
Positive: 155 s
Negative: 185 s

My sorting list is just a first experiment. I share it in my next post, together with some instructions, hoping that it can be of use to anyone who wants to save some boot seconds and also wants to help to improve it.

[aec]

The mkisofs command line

CODE

mkisofs.exe -iso-level 4 -sort pe_sort.txt -volid "PE-Builder" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid "Win32" -b BOOTSECT.BIN -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -hide BOOTSECT.BIN -hide boot.catalog -o "c:\pebuilder.iso" "C:/PEBLDR"

Note: This command line is for the unpatched mkisofs.
If you use bart's patched version then lowercase BOOTSECT.BIN.
In our example The pebuilder @OutDir@ is C:\PEBLDR.

Important!! It took me two days to find out that the sort option does not like backslash "\". I was thinking that -sort is not working.
So use "/" in the command line and for the paths listed in the sorting list.
Also the @OutDir@ path in sorting list should exactly match whatever you use in command line.
e.g., if you use in command line "./PEBLDR" then you should replace
"C:/PEBLDR/" with "./PEBLDR" everywhere in the sorting list.


The sorting list pe_sort.txt.
It consists of two columns separated by only one space or tab.
The last column is a positive or negative number with nothing else after it.
Filenames with higher positive weights are ordered first. Default weight is 0 and the order is alphabetical.
Negative weight are ordered after 0 weighted files.

The list was constructed using
- info that is used by the defragmenter on a real windows system (windows\prefetch\layout.ini) to optimize disk layout and
- information from some boot tracing with sysinternals regmon.

CODE

C:/PEBLDR/I386/NTDETECT.COM    7600
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTKRNLMP.EXE    7640
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BOOTVID.DLL    7620
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KDCOM.DLL    7610
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/HAL.DLL    7600
C:/PEBLDR/I386/TXTSETUP.SIF    7590
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CONFIG    7580
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SETUPREG.HIV    7570
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/L_INTL.NLS    7540
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/*.NLS    7535
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/*.FON    7530
C:/PEBLDR/I386/INF/INFCACHE.1    7525
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/DRIVERS    7520
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SMSS.EXE    7510
C:/PEBLDR/I386/APPPATCH/DRVMAIN.SDB    7500
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/AUTOCHK.EXE    7490
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SFCFILES.DLL    7480
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/ADVAPI32.DLL    7470
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/COMDLG32.DLL    7460
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/GDI32.DLL    7450
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/IMAGEHLP.DLL    7440
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KERNEL32.DLL    7430
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LZ32.DLL    7420
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLE32.DLL    7410
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLEAUT32.DLL    7400
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLECLI32.DLL    7390
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLECNV32.DLL    7380
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLESVR32.DLL    7370
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLETHK32.DLL    7360
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RPCRT4.DLL    7350
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHELL32.DLL    7340
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/URL.DLL    7330
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/URLMON.DLL    7320
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/USER32.DLL    7310
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/VERSION.DLL    7300
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WININET.DLL    7290
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WLDAP32.DLL    7280
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHLWAPI.DLL    7270
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/COMCTL32.DLL    7260
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSVCRT.DLL    7250
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MPR.DLL    7240
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTVDM.EXE    7230
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WOW32.DLL    7220
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CRYPT32.DLL    7210
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/APPHELP.DLL    7200
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/USERENV.DLL    7190
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSASN1.DLL    7180
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WIN32K.SYS    7170
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WATCHDOG.SYS    7160
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CSRSS.EXE    7150
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CSRSRV.DLL    7140
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BASESRV.DLL    7130
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINSRV.DLL    7120
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/UNICODE.NLS    7110
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LOCALE.NLS    7100
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SORTTBLS.NLS    7090
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/FNTCACHE.DAT    7070
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NV4_DISP.DLL    7060
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/VGA.DLL    7050
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM.INI    7040
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINLOGON.EXE    7030
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NDDEAPI.DLL    7020
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SECUR32.DLL    7010
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINSTA.DLL    7000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/PROFMAP.DLL    6690
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NETAPI32.DLL    6680
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/REGAPI.DLL    6670
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WS2_32.DLL    6650
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WS2HELP.DLL    6640
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/AUTHZ.DLL    6630
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/PSAPI.DLL    6620
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SETUPAPI.DLL    6610
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CTYPE.NLS    6600
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SORTKEY.NLS    6590
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KBDUS.DLL    6580
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/TREBUCBD.TTF    6570
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/TAHOMABD.TTF    6560
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/TAHOMA.TTF    6550
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/MARLETT.TTF    6540
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KBDHE.DLL    6530
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSGINA.DLL    6520
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/ODBC32.DLL    6510
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SXS.DLL    6500
C:/PEBLDR/I386/WINSXS    6490
C:/PEBLDR/I386/WINDOWSSHELL.MANIFEST    6480
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/ODBCINT.DLL    6470
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHSVCS.DLL    6460
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SFC.DLL    6450
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SFC_OS.DLL    6440
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINTRUST.DLL    6430
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SERVICES.EXE    6420
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LSASS.EXE    6410
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SCESRV.DLL    6400
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/UMPNPMGR.DLL    6390
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NCOBJAPI.DLL    6380
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LSASRV.DLL    6370
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SAMSRV.DLL    6360
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CRYPTDLL.DLL    6350
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/DNSAPI.DLL    6340
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SAMLIB.DLL    6330
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTDSAPI.DLL    6320
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SCHANNEL.DLL    6310
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINDOWSLOGON.MANIFEST    6300
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/IMM32.DLL    6290
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSPRIVS.DLL    6280
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KERBEROS.DLL    6270
C:/PEBLDR/I386/WIN.INI    6260
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSV1_0.DLL    6250
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NETLOGON.DLL    6240
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/W32TIME.DLL    6230
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSVCP60.DLL    6220
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/IPHLPAPI.DLL    6210
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WDIGEST.DLL    6200
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RSAENH.DLL    6190
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINSCARD.DLL    6180
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WTSAPI32.DLL    6170
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SCECLI.DLL    6160
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/ARIAL.TTF    6150
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTKRNLPA.EXE    6140
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/EVENTLOG.DLL    6130
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NETEVENT.DLL    6120
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SVCHOST.EXE    6110
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RPCSS.DLL    6100
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSWSOCK.DLL    6090
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WSHTCPIP.DLL    6080
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINRNR.DLL    6070
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RASADHLP.DLL    6060
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/UXTHEME.DLL    6050
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/DHCPCSVC.DLL    6040
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LOGONUI.EXE    6030
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CCEVTMGR.EXE    6020
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHELL32.DLL    6010
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SPOOLSV.EXE    6000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/XPEINIT.EXE    5020
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/PENETCFG.EXE    5010
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BARTPE.EXE    5000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32    4000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/INF    3000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS    2000
C:/PEBLDR/I386    1000

Try it and help to improve it.

[mbarnes]

I use Nu2menu & Geoshell V2a (for the task bar), I only start up Explorer when or if needed.
One thing which is slow is registering dll's, possibly 60 or 80 seconds out of 4 or 5 minutes boot up (for 36 dll's). I am going to have to find out if some dll's really need to be registered. (for USB , mmc & VBS plugins)
Running infcache builder (by Paraglider or Sherpya) makes a significant reduction in boot up time.

keep up the good work aec

regards
Mike Barnes

[aec]

Follows a second version of the sorting list, slightly improved

CODE

C:/PEBLDR/BOOTSECT.BIN 8000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN 7700
C:/PEBLDR/I386/BOOTFIX.BIN 7690
C:/PEBLDR/BOOTFONT.BIN 7680
C:/PEBLDR/I386/NTDETECT.COM 7670
C:/PEBLDR/I386/TXTSETUP.SIF 7660
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINPEOEM.SIF 7658
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SPCMDCON.SYS 7655
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BIOSINFO.INF 7650
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTKRNLMP.EXE 7640
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BOOTVID.DLL 7620
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KDCOM.DLL 7610
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/HAL.DLL 7600
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CONFIG 7580
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SETUPREG.HIV 7570
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/L_INTL.NLS 7540
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/*.NLS 7535
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/*.FON 7530
C:/PEBLDR/I386/INF/INFCACHE.1 7525
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/DRIVERS 7520
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SMSS.EXE 7510
C:/PEBLDR/I386/APPPATCH/DRVMAIN.SDB 7500
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/AUTOCHK.EXE 7490
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SFCFILES.DLL 7480
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/ADVAPI32.DLL 7470
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/COMDLG32.DLL 7460
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/GDI32.DLL 7450
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/IMAGEHLP.DLL 7440
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KERNEL32.DLL 7430
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LZ32.DLL 7420
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLE32.DLL 7410
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLEAUT32.DLL 7400
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLECLI32.DLL 7390
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLECNV32.DLL 7380
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLESVR32.DLL 7370
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/OLETHK32.DLL 7360
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RPCRT4.DLL 7350
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHELL32.DLL 7340
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/URL.DLL 7330
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/URLMON.DLL 7320
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/USER32.DLL 7310
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/VERSION.DLL 7300
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WININET.DLL 7290
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WLDAP32.DLL 7280
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHLWAPI.DLL 7270
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/COMCTL32.DLL 7260
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSVCRT.DLL 7250
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MPR.DLL 7240
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTVDM.EXE 7230
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WOW32.DLL 7220
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CRYPT32.DLL 7210
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/APPHELP.DLL 7200
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/USERENV.DLL 7190
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSASN1.DLL 7180
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WIN32K.SYS 7170
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WATCHDOG.SYS 7160
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CSRSS.EXE 7150
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CSRSRV.DLL 7140
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BASESRV.DLL 7130
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINSRV.DLL 7120
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/UNICODE.NLS 7110
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LOCALE.NLS 7100
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SORTTBLS.NLS 7090
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/FNTCACHE.DAT 7070
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NV4_DISP.DLL 7060
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/VGA.DLL 7050
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM.INI 7040
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINLOGON.EXE 7030
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NDDEAPI.DLL 7020
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SECUR32.DLL 7010
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINSTA.DLL 7000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/PROFMAP.DLL 6690
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NETAPI32.DLL 6680
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/REGAPI.DLL 6670
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WS2_32.DLL 6650
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WS2HELP.DLL 6640
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/AUTHZ.DLL 6630
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/PSAPI.DLL 6620
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SETUPAPI.DLL 6610
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CTYPE.NLS 6600
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SORTKEY.NLS 6590
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KBDUS.DLL 6580
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/TREBUCBD.TTF 6570
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/TAHOMABD.TTF 6560
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/TAHOMA.TTF 6550
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/MARLETT.TTF 6540
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KBD*.DLL 6530
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSGINA.DLL 6520
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/ODBC32.DLL 6510
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SXS.DLL 6500
C:/PEBLDR/I386/WINSXS 6490
C:/PEBLDR/I386/WINDOWSSHELL.MANIFEST 6480
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/ODBCINT.DLL 6470
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHSVCS.DLL 6460
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SFC.DLL 6450
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SFC_OS.DLL 6440
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINTRUST.DLL 6430
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SERVICES.EXE 6420
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LSASS.EXE 6410
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SCESRV.DLL 6400
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/UMPNPMGR.DLL 6390
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NCOBJAPI.DLL 6380
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LSASRV.DLL 6370
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SAMSRV.DLL 6360
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CRYPTDLL.DLL 6350
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/DNSAPI.DLL 6340
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SAMLIB.DLL 6330
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTDSAPI.DLL 6320
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SCHANNEL.DLL 6310
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINDOWSLOGON.MANIFEST 6300
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/IMM32.DLL 6290
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSPRIVS.DLL 6280
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/KERBEROS.DLL 6270
C:/PEBLDR/I386/WIN.INI 6260
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSV1_0.DLL 6250
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NETLOGON.DLL 6240
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/W32TIME.DLL 6230
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSVCP60.DLL 6220
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/IPHLPAPI.DLL 6210
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WDIGEST.DLL 6200
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RSAENH.DLL 6190
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINSCARD.DLL 6180
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WTSAPI32.DLL 6170
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SCECLI.DLL 6160
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS/ARIAL.TTF 6150
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NTKRNLPA.EXE 6140
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/EVENTLOG.DLL 6130
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/NETEVENT.DLL 6120
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SVCHOST.EXE 6110
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RPCSS.DLL 6100
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/MSWSOCK.DLL 6090
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WSHTCPIP.DLL 6080
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/WINRNR.DLL 6070
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/RASADHLP.DLL 6060
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/UXTHEME.DLL 6050
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/DHCPCSVC.DLL 6040
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/LOGONUI.EXE 6030
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/CCEVTMGR.EXE 6020
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SHELL32.DLL 6010
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/SPOOLSV.EXE 6000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/XPEINIT.EXE 5020
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/PENETCFG.EXE 5010
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32/BARTPE.EXE 5000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/INF 4000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/FONTS 3000
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32 2000
C:/PEBLDR/I386 1000
C:/PEBLDR/bin 900

[Triton]

Anymore results?

[DigiWiz]

First I want to say I think your project is a great idea, and appreciate the work you've put into it... but I am unable to duplicate your results.

I am usings Bart's patched version of mkisofs, and followed your instructions exactly. I created both a sorted and non-sorted version numerous times, but always had identical results.

Boot time for both is 87 seconds (62 seconds until the autoRAMsizer pops up - another 15 seconds until it's done for a total of 87s)... Finally, in desperation to find out why sorting did not sem to help, I did a file compare, and unfortunately, except for the time stamps in the first few sectors, the ISO builds were identical.

It would appear then, that perhaps mkisofs included with PE Builder does not support the sort function... any ideas or confirmations of this anomaly?

DW

[aec]

@DigiWiz

I am usings Bart's patched version of mkisofs, and followed your instructions exactly. I created both a sorted and non-sorted version numerous times, but always had identical results.

I believe its only a problem of the correct combination of Upper/Lower case, together with slashes/backslashes. At the begining I had a lot of trouble with all these things and to check if the sort option was working I wasted several cds and finally resorted to hex file comparison.

I am using an unpached version of mkisofs on a directory tree where toplevel files and the "I386" folder/subfolders are uppercased. I checked that this procedure also works with the new win32 port of cdrtools that is not using cygwin1.dll and incorporates storage optimization (dfl is not needed any more) (link here).

So far I have not tested it with Bart's patched version. I already have an idea of what may be wrong with Bart's patched version, but give me some time to check it first.

I think your CD is already loading very fast . I guess you are using Nu2Menu as shell and not doing much pnp detection while booting.

[bobby100]

@aec

Wud you give me the permission to include your sorting list with final version of The_GUI v2 ?

[aec]

@bobby100

Wud you give me the permission to include your sorting list with final version of The_GUI v2 ?

Be my guest .

@DigiWiz
After some tests I have found how one can use the sort option with the patched mkisofs version.

Both mkisofs versions, patched and unpatched, are actually case sensitive as far as the sort option is concerned.
Bart's version, just stores filenames in uppercase (everything in the burned CD is uppercased).
However, sorting takes place before burning and therefore the filename case is important.

Practically this means that in the sorting list the filenames are written preserving their case
(propably mixed), turning backslashes to slashes.
E.g. the C:\pebldr\i386\system32 folder should be listed as C:/pebldr/i386/system32 and not as
C:/PEBLDR/I386/SYSTEM32

The rule is: Respect case and use slashes. So if you want to use Bart's version you have to modify appropriately the filenames in the sorting list so that they match the case used in your directory tree.
You may use @bobby100's program "The_GUI v2" to construct such lists.

[d4vr0s]

Ok, after a little fight with the new mkisofs.exe and making the entire /I386 directory uppercase so it would boot again
I made 2 ISOs one with sorting and one without.
Testing with vmware, I found the one with sorting booted 20 to 25 seconds faster.

[Triton]

Is there a link for The_GUI v2 and does this prog build lists?

[Ixel]

I think your CD is already loading very fast . I guess you are using Nu2Menu as shell and not doing much pnp detection while booting.

I guess this is the case for me, too. This process only shaved off 2 seconds of the boot time for me (using bart's pathed mkisofs). Still, great investigative work aec. Thanks for sharing this info.

Ixel

[bobby100]

@Triton
Thread about The_GUI is here: http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7261

[aec]

Here is a version of the sorting list that can be used with the patched mkisofs version included with pebuilder.
Actually the modifications affect only the filename case.
I created it while beta-testing @bobby100's "The_GUI_v2".

It is assumed that your pebuilder @OutDir directory is at C:\pebldr.
You should make below the obvious modifications to match your @OutDir.

The mkisofs command line (defined near the top of pebuilder.inf) should be modified from

CODE

exec="mkisofs.exe -iso-level 4 -volid ""BartPE"" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid ""Win32"" -b bootsect.bin -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -hide bootsect.bin -hide boot.catalog -o ""@IsoFile@"" ""@OutDir@"""

to

CODE

exec="mkisofs.exe -sort ""pe_sort.lst"" -iso-level 4 -volid ""BartPE"" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid ""Win32"" -b bootsect.bin -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -hide bootsect.bin -hide boot.catalog -o ""@IsoFile@"" ""C:/pebldr"""

Create a text file named "pe_sort.lst" and put it in the pebuilder folder, where also mkisofs.exe is.

The contents of the pe_sort.lst are

CODE

C:/pebldr/bootsect.bin 8000
C:/pebldr/i386/setupldr.bin 7990
C:/pebldr/i386/bootfix.bin 7980
C:/pebldr/bootfont.bin 7975
C:/pebldr/i386/ntdetect.com 7970
C:/pebldr/i386/txtsetup.sif 7960
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/winpeoem.sif 7950
C:/pebldr/i386/spcmdcon.sys 7940
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/biosinfo.inf 7930
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ntkrnlmp.exe 7920
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/bootvid.dll 7910
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/kdcom.dll 7900
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/hal.dll 7890
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/config 7880
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/setupreg.hiv 7870
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/l_intl.nls 7860
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/*.nls 7850
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/*.fon 7840
C:/pebldr/i386/inf/INFCACHE.1 7830
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/drivers 7820
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/smss.exe 7810
C:/pebldr/i386/AppPatch/drvmain.sdb 7800
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/autochk.exe 7790
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/sfcfiles.dll 7780
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/advapi32.dll 7770
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/comdlg32.dll 7760
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/gdi32.dll 7750
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/imagehlp.dll 7740
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/kernel32.dll 7730
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/lz32.dll 7720
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ole32.dll 7710
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/OLEAUT32.DLL 7700
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/olecli32.dll 7690
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/olecnv32.dll 7680
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/olesvr32.dll 7670
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/olethk32.dll 7660
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/rpcrt4.dll 7650
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/shell32.dll 7640
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/url.dll 7630
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/urlmon.dll 7620
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/user32.dll 7610
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/version.dll 7600
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wininet.dll 7590
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wldap32.dll 7580
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/shlwapi.dll 7570
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/comctl32.dll 7560
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/msvcrt.dll 7550
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/mpr.dll 7540
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ntvdm.exe 7530
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wow32.dll 7520
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/crypt32.dll 7510
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/apphelp.dll 7500
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/userenv.dll 7490
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/msasn1.dll 7480
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/win32k.sys 7470
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/watchdog.sys 7460
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/csrss.exe 7450
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/csrsrv.dll 7440
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/basesrv.dll 7430
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/winsrv.dll 7420
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/unicode.nls 7410
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/locale.nls 7400
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/FONT.DAT 7390
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/nv4_disp.dll 7380
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/vga.dll 7370
C:/pebldr/i386/system.ini 7360
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/winlogon.exe 7350
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/nddeapi.dll 7340
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/secur32.dll 7330
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/winsta.dll 7320
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/profmap.dll 7310
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/netapi32.dll 7300
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/regapi.dll 7290
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ws2_32.dll 7280
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ws2help.dll 7270
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/authz.dll 7260
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/psapi.dll 7250
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/setupapi.dll 7240
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ctype.nls 7230
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/sortkey.nls 7220
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/KBDUS.DLL 7210
C:/pebldr/i386/Fonts/trebucbd.ttf 7200
C:/pebldr/i386/Fonts/tahomabd.ttf 7190
C:/pebldr/i386/Fonts/tahoma.ttf 7180
C:/pebldr/i386/Fonts/marlett.ttf 7170
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/KBD*.DLL 7160
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/kbd*.dll 7160
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/msgina.dll 7150
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/odbc32.dll 7140
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/sxs.dll 7130
C:/pebldr/i386/WinSxS 7120
C:/pebldr/i386/WindowsShell.Manifest 7110
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/odbcint.dll 7100
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/shsvcs.dll 7090
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/sfc.dll 7080
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/sfc_os.dll 7070
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wintrust.dll 7060
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/services.exe 7050
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/lsass.exe 7040
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/scesrv.dll 7030
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/umpnpmgr.dll 7020
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ncobjapi.dll 7010
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/lsasrv.dll 7000
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/samsrv.dll 6990
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/cryptdll.dll 6980
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/dnsapi.dll 6970
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/samlib.dll 6960
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ntdsapi.dll 6950
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/schannel.dll 6940
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/WindowsLogon.Manifest 6930
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/imm32.dll 6920
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/msprivs.dll 6910
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/kerberos.dll 6900
C:/pebldr/i386/win.ini 6890
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/msv1_0.dll 6880
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/netlogon.dll 6870
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/w32time.dll 6860
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/msvcp60.dll 6850
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/iphlpapi.dll 6840
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wdigest.dll 6830
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/rsaenh.dll 6820
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/winscard.dll 6810
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wtsapi32.dll 6800
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/scecli.dll 6790
C:/pebldr/i386/Fonts/arial.ttf 6780
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ntkrnlmp.exe 7920
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ntkrnlpa.exe 6770
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/eventlog.dll 6760
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/netevent.dll 6750
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/svchost.exe 6740
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/rpcss.dll 6730
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/mswsock.dll 6720
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/wshtcpip.dll 6710
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/winrnr.dll 6700
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/rasadhlp.dll 6690
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/uxtheme.dll 6680
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/dhcpcsvc.dll 6670
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/logonui.exe 6660
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/ccevtmgr.exe 6650
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/shell32.dll 7640
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/spoolsv.exe 6630
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/XPEInit.exe 6620
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/penetcfg.exe 6610
C:/pebldr/i386/system32/bartpe.exe 6600
C:/pebldr/i386/inf 4000
C:/pebldr/i386/Fonts 3000
C:/pebldr/i386/system32 2000
C:/pebldr/i386 1000
C:/pebldr/bin 900

I would like to remark that if you are using the patched version of mkisofs, it is very important to respect the filename cases. So if you rename your i386 folder to I386, then this list above will not work. You will have to make the appropriate modification in the list. This also means that you have to check yourself all the filename cases listed in the above list.

My advise, is to use the new unpached version of mkisofs, uppercase the full i386 tree and a few top level files, and the previous version of sorting list which mainly contains uppercased entries.

[daederatz]

Hi there,

I followed this topic with great interest, but i have to wonder why none of
the posters have mentioned the obvious:

use cdimage instead of mkisofs for ISO creation.

cdimage.exe (v 2.47) is a tool made by MS for internal use that can be found
on the net, just google for it. Legally it may be marginal to use it, OTAH it's not sold, so there's no financial loss for anybody.

One of the programm options is
-y5
which means "write \i386 directory files first, in reverse sort order"

There are many more options, most notably the one to reduce the iso size by
removing duplicate files.

My complete build command is:

CODE

cdimage.exe -l<ISOName> -b<path to bootloader file> -e -yt7C0 -yd -y5 -c -h -oci -n -m <path to build directory> <path to iso file>

This works really great, resulting in visible faster boot time then with mkisofs (can't measure exactly now, being at work).

One thing though, out of precaution I use "filecase.exe" to make certain files on the CD uppercase. There should be other topics on this, here is just the code for my layout:

CODE

ECHO Upper/Lower case routine...
filecase.exe /u /h /q /d <PEBUILDERDIR>\i386
filecase.exe /u /h /q /d /s <PEBUILDERDIR>\i386\system32
filecase.exe /u /h /q /d /s <PEBUILDERDIR>\i386\system32\drivers
filecase.exe /l /h /q <PEBUILDERDIR>\i386\system32\autorun*.*"
ren "<PEBUILDERDIR>\i386\system32" SYSTEM32
ren "<PEBUILDERDIR>\i386\system32\drivers" DRIVERS

I remember that my CD worked even without the uppercase thing, but I read elsewhere that there could be problems with certain programs, so it's really just to be safe...

Note that inside my code snippets you must replace everything between < and > with your own variables / hardcoded paths respectively.

You may have to fiddle a bit to get it all right, but thats what we are here for, isn't ist?

[bobby100]

@daederatz
Mkisofs also can remove duplicated files

[daederatz]

@bobby100

IIRC this needs another external program (dfl.exe?)
I tried this once and at first it seemend to work, but then I received weird errors on further runs. Could be because my CD consists of more than Bart's PE. I actually build a compilation with the best stuff from several BootCD's (Hiren, UBCD, some Antivirus apps and a lot more little proggies).
This other stuff changes less frequently then the PE part, so I usually run PEBuilder, then copy it's files & dirs over to the root of my BootCD and then build the ISO.
If I do so and run "dfl.exe", effectively for the 2nd time on the same directory tree, with only the PE dirs/files changed, it doesn't work any more (complains of "broken directory structure" or something).

So I really have given up on this method and switched to cdimage. Works great so far.

Or is there is another, build-in mechanism for this task in mkisofs?

---
Tim

[aec]

@daederatz

There is a very new win32 port of mkisofs with internal storage optimization (same files stored once). dfl is not needed any more (link here).

The other advantage of mkisofs sort option is that you can instruct the program to put this file first, the other next and so on.

I will try the cdimage -y5 option, which however only affects storing \I386 files in a predefined way. In other words, you dont have fine control on sorting.

Thanks for the cdimage info.

regards

[philon]

@aec
Thanks for your effort to decrease booting time!

Gave it a test, here are my results:
CD-R/DVD drive:
unsorted 167 sec
sorted 155 sec
difference -12 sec

Also tested CD-RW drive:
unsorted 152 sec
sorted 139 sec
difference -13 sec

Never used the CD-RW drive as boot drive before and I'm happy to see a 25 sec difference now between CD-R unsorted and CD-RW sorted. I use a mini CDs filled up to the limit. For comparison purpose burned the same sorted content also on a maxi CD to see how much the outer circles are faster, but gained only 4 sec.
My CD is a multiboot CD (EasyBoot) so I had to modify the (patched) mkisofs accordingly (ezboot folder beeing in root):

CODE

mkisofs.exe -sort "pe_sort.lst" -iso-level 4 -volid "BartPE" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid "Win32" -b "ezboot/loader.bin" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -hide loader.bin -hide boot.catalog -o "pebuilder.iso" "C:/pebldr"

In the sortlist I changed the first lines:

CODE

C:/pebldr/ezboot/loader.bin 8000
C:/pebldr/bootsect.bin 7995
.
.

philon

[daederatz]

@aec

thanks for the info on the new mkisofs version, sounds very interesting and I'll run a few tests over the weekend. My actual BootCD really depends on storage optimization (would be 20% larger without it and > 800MB, according to cdimage).
I'll post my findings & boot-up times...

---
Tim