HOW-TO: mediadirect2 (all codecs) + winxp + linux

[davs]

i have an e1505 or 6400. i live in mexico city. the moment i got it, i tried to load mediadirect without any modification to the partitions, and it didn't work. i tried the repair cd , didn't work. after reading a lot of posts and many reformats, i've finally setup my system with windows xp pro, debian linux, and still have the mediadirect button working. my mediadirect 2 also plays divx, xvid, h.264 and all the other codecs that come with k-lite codec pack. let's begin.

requirements:
-dell mediadirect 2 reinstall cd
-windows xp (pro) install cd
-debian (or any linux) install cd
-linux live cd (i used kubuntu 6.06)

if you know how to partition and set up linux, here's a summary of what we'll do. i'll explain in more detail in a minute. we'll have partitions set up as follows:

1-dell utility (primary)
2-windows xp (ntfs, primary)
3-linux (2 ext3 partitions and 1 swap within an extended partition)
4-dell mediadirect (ntfs,primary)
5-8 megs of unusable space because dells mediadirect installer cant partition properly.

the order in which you should set this up is:

1-install windows xp.
Using your windows xp cd, boot the computer and select install windows xp. when give the option of what partition to use, delete all the partitions EXCEPT the dell utility (the first) partition. now create a new partitions that will hold windows xp. make sure to leave at least 1500 mb for dell mediadirect, and a few gigs for linux. on a 100gb drive, i gave the windows xp partition 40 gigs. i left the remaining 53-54 gigs unpartitioned.

once windows xp is finished installing, boot it up and set up the drivers. when you're done, its time to install mediadirect using the REINSTALL cd. not the repair cd.

2-install dell mediadirect
you can either mount the ISO image with daemon tools or burn it and pop it in. you'll get a window asking you to press enter to install mediadirect 2. don't press it just yet.

to be able to install media codecs, you need to be able to browse and execute programs. this is accomplished by adding a task manager to the mediadirect app. this tip was taken from the nbf by someone trying to install mediadirect on a 9300 i think? all credit goes to him. anyway, open windows explorer (win+e) and browse to the c:\windows\system32. scroll down to find the file called "taskmgr.exe". once you have it, open up another windows explorer and navigate to my compute. you should see your hard dive icon. the MD2 install window is behind those 2 windows. what we're going to do is wait for the installation to pass the 10% mark, and copy the taskmgr.exe program into X:\windows\system32. you only have about 10 or 15 seconds to do this. if you miss you can always reinstall md2 and try again.

press enter to start the installation and watch the explorer window with my computer open. a new drive (X should appear. give it a second while it gets formatted with ntfs, then double click it. if it tells you its not formatted, press cancel, wait, and try again. after a few moments, files should start to appear. look for the windows\system32 folder, then drag and drop the taskmgr.exe.

wait for the installation to finish. now go to http://codecguide.com and download the k-lite codec pack (the normal one, not mega) and save it onto your hard drive or usb drive. once your done, shut down your system and try to turn it on pressing the mediadirect button. if all went well, mediadirect should load.

3-set up codecs

once in mediadirect, press ctrl+alt+del to open the task manager. now go to file-run and type c:\windows\explorer.exe . navigate to where you saved the k-lite installer (remember the drives are swapped, so it should be under D: instead of C: ). launch the installer, i removed the media player classic option, so it just installs the codecs.

now try out your brand new mediadirect with a divx file. sweet.

4-install linux

this step may vary depending on which distro you're installing. the point is you need to boot up using the install cd, and when you're asked how to partition your drive, choose "manually edit partition table" or equivalent. DON'T LET THE INSTALLER DO IT FOR YOU!!, it might screw up your work so far.

we'll create 3 logical partitions within an extended partition. this can be different if you like. i like to have a / , /home, and swap partitions. but i've seen people who have /,/boot,/tmp,/home,/var, etc the first one will hold the root file system, the next one will hold /home, and the finally swap. in case you're wondering, here's the final layout of the drive once its partitioned.

(primary)dell utility 47 mb
(primary)winxp 40 gigs
(extended)
(logical) / ext3 , 8 gigs
(logical) /home ext3, 40 gigs
(logical) swap , 256 megs
(primary) mediadirect 1.5 gigs
unusable 8 megs

finish installing linux and you'll be asked where to install the boot loader. a lot of distros come with grub, which is what i used. if your distro comes with lilo, i can't help since ive never used it. DON'T install grub to the mbr. install it to the partition that holds /boot. in our case, the 8 gig partition. grub uses a different naming scheme, so (hd0,0) is dell utility, (hd0,1) is winxp, but (hd0,2) isn't our "/" partition. its the mediadirect one. we need to tell grub to install on (hd0,4) which is the first logical partition. logical partitions always start from 4 don't ask me why.

generally, you'll have to reboot to finish the installation. this is a problem because the mbr is still going to load either windows xp, or mediadirect. shut down the computer, and bootup using the livecd.

5-edit the windows boot loader to boot linux

once you're in a live cd session, you need to copy the first 512 bytes of the first linux logical partition. in a console, type:

dd if=/dev/hda5 of=./linux.bin bs=512 count=1

this will create a linux.bin file of size 512 bytes. you need to mail this file to yourself, or save it onto a usb drive. unless you know how to use linux to write to ntfs . notice the "if=/dev/hda5". some distros with older kernels will label scsi drives hda instead of sda. kubuntu 6.06 calls it sda. i used qtparted (included in the live cd) to verify the name of the correct partition.

now that you have the linux.bin file, reboot into windows xp and edit the c:\boot.ini appending thsi line to the end:

C:\linux.bin="Linux"

more info on how to do this on this site: http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

now you can reboot into windows xp, but you'll get a choice between winxp and linux. when you choose linux, you'll get a grub menu to boot linux. you can now finish setting up linux.

6- wrapping up
in theory now you should be able to boot both windows xp and mediadirect depending on which button you press on your keyboard. try it out. if it works, you're all set. if not, and you get errors, keep reading.

during my attempts of doing this, once i got a hal.dll missing error when trying to boot mediadirect after installing linux. what i did was use the winxp cd to launch a recovery console. i logged into windows installation number 2 (you'll understand what i mean when you use the recovery console) and typed:

>bootcfg /scan
>bootcfg /add
select #1
name:mediadirect
options: /fastdetect /KERNEL=NTOSBOOT.EXE /maxmem=256

type exit. and try to launch md2 again.

don't think because you have 1 or 2 gigs of ram you can change the 256 value to something greater. since md2 relies on hibernation to function, if you use too much ram, you might not have enough space to hibernate and get errors.

pm me or reply here for questions or improvements to this guide.