Getting started

Ask your support questions in here

Moderator: Moderator Team

Post Reply
turbofiat124
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:47 pm

Getting started

Post by turbofiat124 »

I'm not sure if ReactOS works on my computer or not. I will post details about the specs once someone answers this question.

Forgive me, I haven't had much of a chance to test out ReactOS except on one computer so far. Kind of hard to do stuff (much less concentrate) on computers after my 6 year old get's out of school.

I burned the latest ISO file (0.4.7) on a CD and popped the bootable CD into a Gateway with 3 GB RAM and a 2.60 Mhz processor and it says at the bottom of the screen "Loading React OS" and acts like it's working but after awhile the screen goes black and the CD drive occasionally blinks maybe every 30 seconds.

All I need to know at the moment is how long does it take ReactOS to load onto a computer?

I'm guessing I may have given it 3 to 5 minutes before giving up for the day. If the program was going to work on my PC, would it have started running by now?

Thanks.
ThFabba
Developer
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:39 am

Re: Getting started

Post by ThFabba »

I've seen one machine where accessing the disk and/or CD drive was extremely slow and setup took many hours.
That one exception aside, 3 to 5 minutes is more than enough. The blue setup screen should normally show up within seconds.
If your machine has a serial port, you may try to attach a cable to it and save the output (https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Debugging# ... t_messages has some more details). This will give you a debug log file that we may be able to analyze to figure out what's wrong.

It may also make sense to try with a more up to date iso file from https://reactos.org/getbuilds (pick gcc-lin-dbg builds).
oldman
Posts: 1179
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:23 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by oldman »

turbofiat124 wrote:I'm not sure if ReactOS works on my computer or not. I will post details about the specs once someone answers this question.
It looks like the answer is no!
turbofiat124 wrote: I burned the latest ISO file (0.4.7) on a CD and popped the bootable CD into a Gateway with 3 GB RAM and a 2.60 Mhz processor and it says at the bottom of the screen "Loading React OS" and acts like it's working but after awhile the screen goes black and the CD drive occasionally blinks maybe every 30 seconds.
0.4.7 is now old; 0.4.8 will be released soon, but why not try the very latest build
turbofiat124 wrote:All I need to know at the moment is how long does it take ReactOS to load onto a computer?
If it installs ok, then you should be at the desktop within 5 minutes.
turbofiat124 wrote:I'm guessing I may have given it 3 to 5 minutes before giving up for the day. If the program was going to work on my PC, would it have started running by now?
Yes!
You need to run the installer several times before giving up; the reason being, that sometimes it fails, but the next time it will succeed.
Please keep the Windows classic 9x/2000 look and feel.
The layman's guides - debugging - bug reporting - compiling - ISO remaster.
They may help you with a problem, so do have a look at them.
User avatar
mrmajik45
Posts: 345
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2017 1:21 am
Location: USA, Indiana
Contact:

Re: Getting started

Post by mrmajik45 »

Try one of the daily builds. https://reactos.org/getbuilds/
ReactOS Donator ~ $5.00 | Linux Mint Donator ~ $1.00 in BTC
turbofiat124
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:47 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by turbofiat124 »

Update:

I tried running the CD on a fairly new Dell Laptop. I currently have this computer setup for a dual boot for Cloudready and WIndows 10. For some reason it went straight to the dual boot option and bypassed the loading from the CD. I'm not sure what's up with that. I'll have to dig into that further but I think it's some setting in the BIOS even though the 3rd option seems to be for the CD drive. Or perhaps something do with Cloudready's dual boot option that the program installed that pops up after turning on the machine. It's not a typical dual boot option when selected in the BIOS. If that makes any sense.

I tried the ReactOS CD in my circa 2006 Emachines with Windows XP SP3. I'll have to write down all the specs on all of these computers.

On this particular computer it loaded off the CD and went to the blue screen with all the languages. So unlike the Gateway which I believe is actually a newer machine so far it seems to accept ReactOS. I was afraid to go any further. I wasn't sure if it was going to erase my hard drive or not. I believe I downloaded the installation image and not the "live boot".

I've got several old computers and plan on dedicating at least one of them for just ReactOS.

I'm hoping this ReactOS will work on some older PCs I have laying around that are too sluggish to run XP SP3.

Cloudready runs pretty good on my Dell laptop, but does not boot up as fast as my ChromeBox I have out in my garage. CR kind of let me down because I was wanting to install it on some older PCs and none of them seem to want to boot off a USB memory stick.

I guess it's hit or miss when your using experimental operating systems.

But I'm eager to try out this ReactOS!
User avatar
EmuandCo
Developer
Posts: 4723
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:52 pm
Location: Germany, Bavaria, Steinfeld
Contact:

Re: Getting started

Post by EmuandCo »

On newer PCs, be sure to boot by legacy Mode and not UEFI boot. UEFI thinks we already support booting from it, but thats not the case yet.
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
turbofiat124
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:47 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by turbofiat124 »

EmuandCo wrote:On newer PCs, be sure to boot by legacy Mode and not UEFI boot. UEFI thinks we already support booting from it, but thats not the case yet.
Thanks for the tip. I remember seeing this setting in the BIOS but didn't know what the difference between the two were. I try not to mess with anything in the BIOS if I am not sure what it does.

I hate to mention Cloudready again but when I installed this on a Gateway Desktop PC, I had a tough time trying to get the computer to boot the installer off a USB memory stick. I finally discovered that disabling the secure boot setting fixed the problem.

Still no luck getting CR to install on anything older than 3 or 4 years old. I was hoping I might have better luck with ReactOS.
User avatar
mrmajik45
Posts: 345
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2017 1:21 am
Location: USA, Indiana
Contact:

Re: Getting started

Post by mrmajik45 »

Legacy mode -> Support old OS
ReactOS Donator ~ $5.00 | Linux Mint Donator ~ $1.00 in BTC
turbofiat124
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:47 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by turbofiat124 »

I made some progress today. But I am not quite there yet.

I installed ReactOS .047 (yes I know there is a later version) on an old Compaq desktop Once again I need to look up the specs on this computer but I did have Windows 2000 installed on it when it was running. Before the hard drive died. I think it has at least 256 MB of RAM, maybe 512 MB so it should meet the memory requirements. Not sure about the processor speed.

Since all of my salvaged computers have bad hard drives, I don't have any good PATA hard drives that I know are good. I might have a few but will have to test them out.

I've been playing around with flash memory. Yes I know it's not ideal and not meant to replace a hard drive. I'm using a 32MB Compact Flash card with an IDE adapter. This worked somewhat on another PC with Windows XP SP3 but the desktop would freeze for about 10 seconds at a time. Yet would play YouTube videos just fine. I know have an 1 TB SATA hard drive from an old Dell laptop in it.

Everything looked OK at first until after the computer rebooted after the installation and I got the blue screen of death. So I loaded into safe mode and everything seemed to go OK. Then rebooted. So far so good but the ethernet controller still won't work (driver issue).

Seems I am having a tough time trying to find an ethernet card that ReactOS can accept. No drivers.

I tried a D-Link card to no avail. Right now I am using an (old) RealTek RTL 8029 AS. Still React OS cannot find the correct drivers.

What type of driver's does ReactOS use? I did manage to find some for Windows 2000 for this particular Ethernet controller.

The main issue at the moment is ReactOS just locks up at times and is unresponsive.

I'm thinking the problem maybe because I am using a flash memory card instead of a hard drive? Or it just doesn't like these ethernet cards. Memory?

Not sure what the problem is.
oldman
Posts: 1179
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:23 pm

Re: Getting started

Post by oldman »

It looks like ReactOS supports these network cards:
* ne2000
* pcnet
* rtl8139.

The rtl8139 should work. I have had it work for me in the past.
Please keep the Windows classic 9x/2000 look and feel.
The layman's guides - debugging - bug reporting - compiling - ISO remaster.
They may help you with a problem, so do have a look at them.
User avatar
EmuandCo
Developer
Posts: 4723
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:52 pm
Location: Germany, Bavaria, Steinfeld
Contact:

Re: Getting started

Post by EmuandCo »

It supports even more if you provide a driver for it.
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests