ReactOS Forum

Not sure if anyone will look at this.

I think it's better to talk with devs on IRC or via mailing list. Propositions will be probably buried on this forum.

Without knowing where to store this and how to properly convert to Unicode at the right time I'd probably break something!.

You can try...

Additional Info to "ReactOS does not run on older computers" :

On my "actual" PC (+1500 AMD)
- bootcd-25599-dbg DOES run up to "Welcome to ReactOS Setup"
- bootcd-25599-rel does NOT - it stops after loading BLUE.SYS with a black screen

So not all is fixed jet ..

So not all is fixed jet ..

Well, you are a joker, I see.

hto wrote:

So not all is fixed jet ..

Well, you are a joker, I see.

Yes, sometimes ...

I don't understand why there's a functional difference between bootCD dbg and rel.

I thought
(and I am not the only one
=> http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0)
a REL SVN version is the same as DBG, just without debug breakpoints or debug output ?

I don't understand why there's a functional difference between bootCD dbg and rel.

Yet another bug.

some code path are diffent in few function betwin dbg and release.

and all debug msg are remove from rel

hto wrote:Yet another bug.

Okay.

At the actual status of the developement, do You think it would make sense to search for the reasons of my Thread Title "ReactOS does not run on older computers" ?

I could try to make my own builds with debug breakpoints in that "simple" way You did for me (=> blue.sys) : inserting a HALT at several stages of the boot process - before that "Welcome to ReactOS Setup" text

I expect bugs (or missing code for older hardware?) in the modules that are responsible for
- reading out keyboard buffer
- serial port access
These two don't work on my "old computers"

Or do You expect the faulty code inside the area where Fireball and others are working on at the moment (so this code may change daily) ?

It's up to You. I don't know, maybe it is better to wait for new Fireball's loader.

hto wrote:It's up to You. I don't know, maybe it is better to wait for new Fireball's loader.

I have edited the source freeldr.c as follows:

**********************************************
VOID BootMain(LPSTR CmdLine)
{ CmdLineParse(CmdLine);
+ printf("1: CmdLineParse DONE - Press any key.\n");
+ MachConsGetCh();

MachInit(CmdLine);
+ printf("2: MachInit DONE - Press any key.\n");
+ MachConsGetCh();

DebugInit();
+ printf("3: DebugInit DONE - Press any key.\n");
+ MachConsGetCh();

DbgPrint((DPRINT_WARNING, "BootMain() called.\n"));
+ printf("4: DbgPrint DONE - Press any key.\n");
+ MachConsGetCh();

if (!MmInitializeMemoryManager())
{ printf("Press any key to reboot.\n");
MachConsGetCh();
return;
}
+ printf("5: MmInitializeMemoryManager DONE - Press any key.\n");
+ MachConsGetCh();

RunLoader();}
**********************************************


Before, all 3 old PCs did hang with black screen after loading BLUE.SYS ..

.. and now - with the edited freeldr.sys - I have different behaviore on my "zoo of PCs" (with bootCD-dbg SVN 25662):
- OK: "actual" PC AMD +1500 - DOES boot up to "Welcome to ReactOS Setup"
- OK: Dell GX260 (P 1,8 GHz) - DOES boot up to "Welcome to ReactOS Setup"
- MMX200 (Award Modular Bios 4.51PG) DOES go through ALL 5 "MachConsGetCh()"
but then hangs on "detecting hardware" (without "MachConsGetCh()"it did run
until loading BLUE.SYS and THEN it failed to show "Welcome to ReactOS Setup")
- MMX400 does add two empty lines on the "DOS"-screen and then hangs (very early .. !)
- AMD 650 Duron on K7S41GX does not even show "printf("1: ...) " but makes a hard RESET and reboots ..

Any ideas ?

For AMD 650 Duron on K7S41GX: BootMain() is called from /arch/i386/arch.S, you can try to insert hlt instruction there to see where it makes reset.

hto wrote:For AMD 650 Duron on K7S41GX: BootMain() is called from ...

Just a remark:

AMD DURON 650 runs on a KT133 K7 mainboard - not on K7S41GX.
=> K7S41GX is the mainboard in my "actual" PC, with AMD +1500 CPU

This doesn't change anything to our bug searching.
But if anyone else reads this, he may be wondering how I
managed to run this old AMD Duron 650 on a modern AsRock mainboard

It would be a shame if the newer versions of ROS stopped booting on old hardware. I had 0.2.5 running on a Pentium 1 AT machine just fine, although it was really laggy.

idumych wrote:It would be a shame if the newer versions of ROS stopped booting on old hardware. I had 0.2.5 running on a Pentium 1 AT machine just fine, although it was really laggy.

No, it's not a shame. But a lot of hacks are replaced by real code. If this code does not handle all real life hardware reaction it might look like a regresssion to You.

Hello,

I want to use ReactOS on my old Laptop with an Intel Pentium III processor with 850 MHz and 384 MB RAM. Is it possible to generate an ReactOS-Version which works on a lower processor than an 64-bit-architecture?

Thanks for your answer.

Best regards,
ThomB

ReactOS is designed to run on 32bit processors. Even if you're on a 64bit processor, it can't take advantage of it. For that matter, you're more likely to crash on a 64bit processor right now.