How to install without booting from CD

formula13x · Post by **formula13x** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:04 pm

I've got an old laptop I'm trying to get some use out of. It has a swappable cd drive and a swappable floppy. Only one can be in the system at a time. The laptop can not be booted from CD.
I have Linux installed on one partition, and DOS installed on another partition. I was interested in "testing" reactos out on this laptop, but I don't know how to install it in this situation.

Is there a way for me to boot into my DOS partition with CD Rom support and then kick off the install?

I have LILO installed as my bootloader to be able to boot to my different linux kernals and to my dos partition. After I install ReactOS, I would still like to have this functionality..

loki1985 · Post by **loki1985** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:13 am

1) create FAT32 partition.
2) install ROS via ISO to a HD image inside QEmu
3) copy HD image contents to newly created partition, using some tools for exploring RAW HD images, can be found on the internet, i just found one driver for windows.
4) insert freeloader.sys into LILO config (should work, i only use GRUB)...

thats the theory, hope it helps...

formula13x · Post by **formula13x** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:45 pm

I created a new fat32 partition.
Booted to linux.
Mounted the ReactOS ISO, and the fat32 partition.
Copied the contents of the ReactOS ISO to the fat32 partition.
I downloaded GRUB for dos and installed this onto my existing DOS partition (fat16 for what it's worth).
Booted into dos.
Manually created the freeloader.ini
From Grub for dos I loaded booted freeloader.
In the FreeLoader v2.1 ReactOS Boot Manager, I try to boot ReactOS or

ReactOS Debug, and either instance I get the message (NTOSKRNL.EXE not found)

The NTOSKRNL.EXE exist in the ReactOS directory.

What do I need to do now?

Here is the freeldr.ini I used

[FREELOADER]
DefaultOS=ReactOS

[Display]
TitleText=ReactOS Boot Manager
StatusBarColor=Cyan
StatusBarTextColor=Black
BackdropTextColor=White
BackdropColor=Blue
BackdropFillStyle=Medium
TitleBoxTextColor=White
TitleBoxColor=Red
MessageBoxTextColor=White
MessageBoxColor=Blue
MenuTextColor=White
MenuColor=Blue
TextColor=Yellow
SelectedTextColor=Black
SelectedColor=Gray
SpecialEffects=No

[Operating Systems]
ReactOS="ReactOS"
ReactOS_Debug="ReactOS (Debug)"

[ReactOS]
BootType=ReactOS
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\ReactOS

[ReactOS_Debug]
BootType=ReactOS
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\ReactOS
Options=/DEBUGPORT=SCREEN /NOGUIBOOT

Note, how this it is using partition 2 (which is the fat32 partition)
I also tried installing reactos on the fat16 partion and trying to boot from fat16 with the same effect (does ReactOS require fat32?) In either event, I still get the (NTOSKRNL.EXE not found) from the ReactOS Boot Manager.

GreyGhost · Post by **GreyGhost** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:24 pm

If you havent installed it off a cd.... i'd say make sure that you've got the directory tree structure correct..... i'd say create a vm using QEMU install ROS there and then try to copy the files .....
I dont know if this will work (i'm not very good at this stuff.....) but hopwe it works....

loki1985 · Post by **loki1985** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:51 am

"SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\ReactOS"

this part must be correct, try to play around with the partition(x) setting, worked for me.. my partition was 4 or 5 tho i never understood why....

formula13x · Post by **formula13x** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:12 pm

Sigh...
I'm not gaining much ground on this.
I didn't really understand the QEMU solution. I'll read into this some (haven't used QEMU much)

I was able to find a way to boot from CD.
I installed Smart Boot Manager to provide support for (indirect) CD-ROM booting.
But even the install from CD doesn't work for me.. I have opened another thread on this here
http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2680

.t. · Post by **.t.** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:44 pm

Well. To get this to work, I used to create a fat32 partition and mount it in Linux. Then, you either use the ROS_INSTALL variable or point <reactos-src-path>/reactos to the mount point (as a symlink). I chose the latter. Then, build freeldr.sys (you can use either of the CD targets to do this; find it in output-i386) and copy it to the mount point. Create freeldr.sys yourself, and in the sources root, run "make install". Add freeldr.sys to GRUB or LILO of whatever, and on next boot, see if it works. It did for me, but isn't any more. I suspect this is because I don't have it on a primary partition...

Davy · Post by **Davy** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:22 pm

lol funny, id love to get reactos to function on my 486 laptop, but it keeps rebooting when booting freeldr

the specs are 486DX @ 50MHz, 300mb harddrive, 16mb of ram.

GreyGhost · Post by **GreyGhost** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:01 am

Davy,
I think its the 16 mb ram .... the regular builds will need at least 64 mbs... or was it 32 ? ... but i'm pretty sure its not 16....

Andrewm1986 · Post by **Andrewm1986** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:47 am

Installer needs 32MB but reactos, once installed, will run on 16MB

How to install without booting from CD

How to install without booting from CD

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