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terrance
Posts: 70
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:52 pm
Location: Switzerland

Call for help with spell check

Post by terrance »

Hi!

Lucio Diaz sent me a great FAQ but I'm just too busy to correct the spelling and grammar issues.

Could you please look at it and post the corrected version here? (Or send it to mike[dot]wirth[@]gmail[dot]com )

Thank you!

Greetings
Michael
What is ReactOS?

ReactOS is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows(R) applications and drivers.
Is this legal?

Yes, the developers have never looked at the windows code, they use the available documentation on windows OSes, and their own tests to understand how windows work. In fact, ReactOS make the same things windows does, but not exactly the same way as it does not have the same source code.
When will ReactOS be done?

ReactOS is such a big project that we don't honestly know, ourselves.Actualy only very basic programs work in ReactOS. Our goal is to have internet support and one browser working by January 2005. And other productivity programs like Open Office running by April 2005. However, no software is ever 'done', there will always be the need for improvements and bug fixes.

For more information, visit the roadmap page.
Can I help programming Applications for ReactOS?

Any help is welcome, but the developing team is not focused in making applications for ReactOS, there are already thousands of applications ready for ReactOS, wich are all the available windows compatible programs.
Will X application work in ReactOS?

If it is a Windows NT-XP compatible application it will work once ReactOS is finished, but actually ReactOS is Alpha software, and only about 60% of the windows API is finished so most complex programs wont work today at 08/11/2004 . The only way to know if one aplication can already be run by ReactOS is to visit http://www.reactos.net.tc/ a ReactOS fansite with a list of applications already tested on ReactOS or Download ReactOS and try your programm yourself.
What can i do for ReactOS?

If you have a good knowledge of C and C++ and any experience in the windows API and win32 programming you can join the Developers Mailing list, there they will guide you in the ReactOS development.

If you are not a master of C and C++ you can still help, with the website documentation and translation, installing ReactOS and reporting bugs, or just spreading the word of ReactOS.
Why ReactOS? Why clone Microsoft(R) Windows(R)?

Why Linux (an Open Source UNIX(R) clone)? In short, Linux is a great operating system, but is not the answer for everybody. There are a lot of us that like Microsoft(R) Windows(R), but are very frustrated with Microsoft's policies on various issues.

The 9X family of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) is based on DOS, and shares many of it's weakness, which is the primary reason why Microsoft(R) Windows(R) has such a bad name. The Microsoft(R) Windows(R) NT family of Windows, however, has a solid design. Dave Cutler of Digital was brought in by Microsoft to design it.

Reliability, subsystems, filesystem drivers, services and the registry are all good concepts which are implemented well in the NT kernel.
Not everything is perfect, but without access to the source code, we can't fix it, so we're choose to clone it.
Why don't you help the Wine project instead?

Actually we work very closely with the Wine project. Wine probably has a lot more in common with ReactOS than with Linux. The Wine project has the goal of implementing the entire windows API on top of WineServer. There are only a few WINE dlls that cannot be used in ReactOS. These are NTDLL, USER32, KERNEL32, GDI32, and ADVAPI. The rest of WINE's DLLs can be shared with ReactOS. We have several developers in both the WINE and ReactOS projects that work on cross-compatibility issues between the two projects.

It is our view that Linux + Wine can never be a full replacement for Microsoft(R) Windows(R). ReactOS has the potential for a much higher degree of compatibility - especially for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) drivers - which WINE does not address.
Why not let my employer host your site for free?

Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. Things may change within your organization and then we'd be either politely asked to start paying X amount or go elsewhere. With our current setup, we have direct access to the machine, bandwidth is not a problem, although the hardware does need improvement (if you wish to donate hardware for this cause, contact one of the ReactOS coordinators).
What hardware is supported by ReactOS?

* Intell Pentium processors.
* AMD equivalents.
* IDE ans SCSI hardisks (this guide explains how to use SCSI)
* FAT 16/32 are the only filesystems suported yet.
* VGA compatible cards.
* PS2 mouse and keyborad.
* Serial mouses since 0.3 (for versions prior 0.3 see how to enable them).
* Reatltek 8139
* Floopy and CDs.

Not suported:

* USB
* Sound is yet not implemented.




How can i try ReactOS?

Whether installing ReactOS on real hardware or on an emulator, it is important to know the minimum requirements to install and use ReactOS:

ReactOS Hardware Requirements

32MB RAM
IDE harddisk
FAT16/FAT32 boot partition
VGA compatible video card
Standard keyboard
PS/2 compatible mouse or Microsoft Mouse compatible serial mouse



Choosing an installation strategy

There are several ways you could try and install ReactOS, you can choose the best suited for your experience and hardware:

1. Using a PC emulator with no risk at all to your data or Hardware:
* QEMU can emulate a full system (for example a PC) -Opern source-
* BOCHS PC emulator emulates a full system (x86) -Open Source-
* VMWARE another emulator. -Comercial program-
* VirtualPC -Also Comercial-
2. Installing ReactOS in real Hardware as another Operating System
* Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS XP/2000/NT. (no change to Master Boot Sector)
* Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS 95/98 or MS/DOS:
* Instalation with Binaries and a Floopy bootdisk: (no change to Master Boot Sector)
* Using a ReactOS LiveCD (no change to Master Boot Sector)

With emulation reactOS will look more slower than it is, but there is absolutly no risk to your Data or Hardware, installing reactos in real hardware, although quite safe (to my experience) you can delete your data if you dont know what you are doing, mostly the risk is related to the change of the master boot sector (you need some knowledge to revert the change) and the manage of the partition table(Do not format the partition unless you know what it means).


Installing ReactOS with emulation:

Yes, you can test ReactOS on virtual hardware. You can test it in Bochs and Qemu, for which we have official packages available on our download page. This way you can start ReactOS in a window without leaving your operating system. However, because Bochs is an emulator, ReactOS will run very slowly. Qemu makes a less complete emulation than bochs, so it is faster, but sitll ReactOS will run at about half the normal speed.

Other Virtual Machines/x86 emulators should be able to run ReactOS as well, and ReactOS is known to run in at least Bochs, VMWare, VirtualPC and QEMU. If you know of other Virtual Machines supporting it, please let us know.

Using ReactOS Disk image Preloaded in QEMU

QEMU is the safest way to test ReactOS as no damage could be made to your system, it is an emulator that will emulate a PC with reactOS loaded inside your own PC without touching your system.The drawback, is that being an emulator it will be SLOW, imagine, ReactOs is calling the PC, the call is intercepted by QEMU who is calling Windows® to do the work and then sending the results back to ReactOS.

1) Download the Preloaded QEMU disk image with ReactOS from sourceforge

2)Extract it with WinZip or any other extracting software:

3) Execute Qemu.bat

4) You will see, the following window, there select ReactOS

5) ReactOS will load, and you will have to fill the Setup Wizard (If you exit the setup without going through it, the program may not run and you may have to re-extract the Quemu zip file to the same destination and rewrite the files).

6) Once finished the setup the program will tell you that your computer will reset, DONT FEAR!, you are inside the emulated environment of QEMU so your computer wont be reseted, go ahead and you will see how QEMU finish, now go back to the fold where you extracted QEMU and restart QEMU.bat, then reactos will start again, select ReactOS from the bootloader Menu and you will arrive to the ReactOS Desktop

Here there is a Howto of the several ways to install and try ReactOS.

Using ReactOS Disk image Preloaded in BOCHS



1) Download the Preloaded BOCHS disk image with ReactOS from sourceforge

2)Extract it with WinZip or any other extracting software:

3) Execute bochs.bat

4)Select ReactOS

5) ReactOS will load, and you will have to fill the Setup Wizard (If you exit the setup without going through it, the program may not run and you may have to re-extract the Bochs zip file to the same destination and rewrite the files).

6) Once finished the setup the program will tell you that your computer will reset, DONT FEAR!, you are inside the emulated environment of BOCHS so your computer wont be reseted, go ahead and you will see how BOCHS finish, now go back to the fold where you extracted BOCHS and restart bochs.bat, then reactos will start again, select ReactOS from the bootloader Menu and you will arrive to the ReactOS Desktop.



Installing ReactOS in real hardware:


Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS XP/2000/NT.

The instalation will copy the ReactOS files to the directory you will select, copy the files freeldr.sys , freeldr.ini and bootsect.ros to C:\ (or the active directory of your root partition) and add a the following lines to your boot.ini:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\bootsect.ros="ReactOS"

NO CHANGE WILL BE MADE TO YOUR BOOT SECTOR, so to uninstall ReactOS, you only have to delete the folder you selected for the instalation of reactos, delete freeldr.sys , freeldr.ini and bootsect.ros and edit boot.ini with Notepad and delete the added lines.

All the steps to install reactOS directly from the reactOS CD:

1) Download the ReactOS ISO from Souceforge or the daily CVS build (the active work in progress version, not stable and more prone to bugs) from the Casper Hornstrup web page.

2) Extract it with WinZip or any other extracting software:

3) Now use Nero or any othe Software able to burn a CD image to a real CD. (if you have any doubt about burning CD image this tutorial can help)

4) Once you have created the ReactOS CD, restart your computer it will probably boot from the CD by default if it does not you have to enter in the BIOS to enable it (here a good tutorial).

5) You will be welcomed by the ReactOS setup page:

6) A screen with the limitiations of the early Setup of ReactOS will be displayed, press ENTER to continue.

7) Here you can move and select your hardware configuration:

8) Like the Video Card compatibility mode:

9) Once you are happy with your settings:

10) A list of your the patitions detectables by reactos will be shown (only Fat 16/32 and void partitions are shown at the moment of this tutorial).Choose where you want to install ReactOS.

11) Once selected you are given the choice to format the partition (YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE DATA IN THAT PARTITION!). or Keep the current file system (RECOMENDED) that will ONLY copy the reactOS files to that partition without changing the other data.

12) Another screen that tells you that ReactOS can not yet check filesystems (scandisk), press ENTER to continue.

13) Write down the Folder where ReactOS will be installed:

14) It is installing:

15) You are given the option to install the Bootloader in the harddisk (WinXP-2000 and NT recomended) or install in a Floppy (win 95-98 recomended). But last time I tried to install in a Floopy it did not work for me.

Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS 95/98 or MS/DOS:

The instalation will copy the ReactOS files to the directory you will select, copy the files freeldr.sys and freeldr.ini to C:\ (or the active directory of your root partition) and reactOS will CHANGE YOUR MASTER BOOT SECTOR WITH THE REACTOS ONE (the FreeLoader boot code is then written to the boot sector of the active partition) and save the original bootsector as BOOTSECT.DOS. So from that moment you will find on starting a menu offering to start ReactOS or Windows/MSDOS, as this change is dificult to undo unless you have some technical knowledge, i would not recomend this way of instalation (in win95/98 and MSDOS) unless you dont mind risking your data or you know what you are doing. Read the binaries/floopy boot instalation.

Apart from the above, the whole process of instalation is the same as in Windows XP/2000/NT (look above)
Instalation with Binaries and a Floopy bootdisk:

The best strategy if you dont want to mess with your hard distk boot sector in the Windows 95/98 , MS/DOS and Linux is the folowing:

1) Download the ReactOS binaries (8 Megs) from sourceforge

2) Use Winzip to extract them to C:\ that way a Folder called C:\ReactOS will be created with all the reactos files.

3) Download the Program Rawwrite for windows and extract it to any folder you wish.

4) Download the Freeloader Floopy Disk image and extract it to any folder you wish.

5) Insert a new formated Floopy Disk and Execute Rawwrite:

6) Select the image file from the folder you extracted the Freeloader:

7) Press write, and wait till the program ends writing the image to the Floopy.

8) Restart the computer booting from the Floopy Disk:

Using a ReactOS LiveCD

This option gives you the chance to test ReactOS without installing anything, the whole ReactOS will run from the CD and no change will be made to your HardDisk or Boot Sector.

1) Download the Live CD from Sourceforge or the Daily CVS build from Casper Hornstrup site.

2) Unzip it with Winzip till you get the file roslive.iso

3) Now use Nero or any othe Software able to burn a CD image to a real CD. (if you have any doubt about burning CD image this tutorial can help)

4) Once you have created the ReactOS CD, restart your computer it will probably boot from the CD by default if it does not you have to enter in the BIOS to enable it (here a good tutorial).

5)ReactOS will autoconfigure itself and you will be able to have a look at the basic elements of the Operating System.
Enabling a serial mouse:

Once you have copied your ReactOS binaries (or installed reactos) in a computer with a serial mouse, then restart in Windows.

Once in windows go to the directory where you have installed reactos, probably C:\reactos\ and then go to \system32\drivers\

In that directory you will find many files, among them sermouse.sys and psaux.sys:

1. rename psaux.sys as psaux.bak
2. then rename sermouse.sys as psaux.sys

Now you have enabled Serial Mouse in reactOS, restart your computer with reactOS and your mouse will work.

If you want back a PS2 mouse, then undo the changes, delete psaux.sys and rename psaux.bak as psaux.sys.
Googly
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:01 am
Location: Northwest USA

Post by Googly »

Rat it through MSWord spellcheck, I'm not the best at grammer so I only changed that when obvious.
It's not perfect but much better.
What is ReactOS?

ReactOS is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows(R) applications and drivers.
Is this legal?

Yes, the developers have never looked at the windows code, they use the available documentation on windows OSes, and their own tests to understand how windows work. In fact, ReactOS make the same things windows does, but not exactly the same way as it does not have the same source code.
When will ReactOS be done?

ReactOS is such a big project that we don't honestly know, ourselves. Actually only very basic programs work in ReactOS. Our goal is to have internet support and one browser working by January 2005. And other productivity programs like Open Office running by April 2005. However, no software is ever 'done', there will always be the need for improvements and bug fixes.

For more information, visit the roadmap page.
Can I help programming Applications for ReactOS?

Any help is welcome, but the developing team is not focused in making applications for ReactOS, there are already thousands of applications ready for ReactOS, which are all the available windows compatible programs.
Will X application work in ReactOS?

If it is a Windows NT-XP compatible application it will work once ReactOS is finished, but actually ReactOS is Alpha software, and only about 60% of the windows API is finished so most complex programs wont work today at 08/11/2004. The only way to know if an application can already be run by ReactOS is to visit http://www.reactos.net.tc/ a ReactOS fansite with a list of applications already tested on ReactOS or Download ReactOS and try your program yourself.
What can I do for ReactOS?

If you have a good knowledge of C and C++ and any experience in the windows API and win32 programming you can join the Developers Mailing list, there they will guide you in the ReactOS development.

If you are not a master of C and C++ you can still help, with the website documentation and translation, installing ReactOS and reporting bugs, or just spreading the word of ReactOS.
Why ReactOS? Why clone Microsoft(R) Windows(R)?

Why Linux (an Open Source UNIX(R) clone)? In short, Linux is a great operating system, but is not the answer for everybody. There are a lot of us that like Microsoft(R) Windows(R), but are very frustrated with Microsoft's policies on various issues.

The 9X family of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) is based on DOS, and shares many of it's weakness, which is the primary reason why Microsoft(R) Windows(R) has such a bad name. The Microsoft(R) Windows(R) NT family of Windows, however, has a solid design. Dave Cutler of Digital was brought in by Microsoft to design it.

Reliability, subsystems, filesystem drivers, services and the registry are all good concepts which are implemented well in the NT kernel.
Not everything is perfect, but without access to the source code, we can't fix it, so we're choose to clone it.
Why don't you help the Wine project instead?

Actually we work very closely with the Wine project. Wine probably has a lot more in common with ReactOS than with Linux. The Wine project has the goal of implementing the entire windows API on top of WineServer. There are only a few WINE DLLs that cannot be used in ReactOS. These are NTDLL, USER32, KERNEL32, GDI32, and ADVAPI. The rest of WINE's DLLs can be shared with ReactOS. We have several developers in both the WINE and ReactOS projects that work on cross-compatibility issues between the two projects.

It is our view that Linux + Wine can never be a full replacement for Microsoft(R) Windows(R). ReactOS has the potential for a much higher degree of compatibility - especially for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) drivers - which WINE does not address.
Why not let my employer host your site for free?

Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. Things may change within your organization and then we'd be either politely asked to start paying X amount or go elsewhere. With our current setup, we have direct access to the machine, bandwidth is not a problem, although the hardware does need improvement (if you wish to donate hardware for this cause, contact one of the ReactOS coordinators).
What hardware is supported by ReactOS?

* Intel Pentium processors.
* AMD equivalents.
* IDE and SCSI harddisks (this guide explains how to use SCSI)
* FAT 16/32 are the only filesystems supported yet.
* VGA compatible cards.
* PS2 mice and keyboards.
* Serial mice since 0.3 (for versions prior 0.3 see how to enable them).
* Realtek 8139
* Floppy Disks and CDs.

Not supported:

* USB
* Sound is yet not implemented.




How can I try ReactOS?

Whether installing ReactOS on real hardware or on an emulator, it is important to know the minimum requirements to install and use ReactOS:

ReactOS Hardware Requirements

32MB RAM
IDE harddisk
FAT16/FAT32 boot partition
VGA compatible video card
Standard keyboard
PS/2 compatible mouse or Microsoft Mouse compatible serial mouse



Choosing an installation strategy

There are several ways you could try and install ReactOS, you can choose the best suited for your experience and hardware:

1. Using a PC emulator with no risk at all to your data or Hardware:
* QEMU can emulate a full system (for example a PC) -Open source-
* BOCHS PC emulator emulates a full system (x86) -Open Source-
* VMWARE another emulator. -Commercial program-
* VirtualPC -Also Commercial-
2. Installing ReactOS in real Hardware as another Operating System
* Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS XP/2000/NT. (no change to Master Boot Sector)
* Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS 95/98 or MS/DOS:
* Installation with Binaries and a Floppy bootdisk: (no change to Master Boot Sector)
* Using a ReactOS LiveCD (no change to Master Boot Sector)

With emulation ReactOS will look more slower than it is, but there is absolutely no risk to your Data or Hardware, installing ReactOS in real hardware, although quite safe (to my experience) you can delete your data if you don't know what you are doing, mostly the risk is related to the change of the master boot sector (you need some knowledge to revert the change) and the manage of the partition table(Do not format the partition unless you know what it means).


Installing ReactOS with emulation:

Yes, you can test ReactOS on virtual hardware. You can test it in Bochs and Qemu, for which we have official packages available on our download page. This way you can start ReactOS in a window without leaving your operating system. However, because Bochs is an emulator, ReactOS will run very slowly. Qemu makes a less complete emulation than Bochs, so it is faster, but still ReactOS will run at about half the normal speed.

Other Virtual Machines/x86 emulators should be able to run ReactOS as well, and ReactOS is known to run in at least Bochs, VMWare, VirtualPC and QEMU. If you know of other Virtual Machines supporting it, please let us know.

Using ReactOS Disk image Preloaded in QEMU

QEMU is the safest way to test ReactOS as no damage could be made to your system, it is an emulator that will emulate a PC with ReactOS loaded inside your own PC without touching your system. The drawback, is that being an emulator it will be SLOW, imagine, ReactOS is calling the PC, the call is intercepted by QEMU who is calling Windows(r) to do the work and then sending the results back to ReactOS.

1) Download the Preloaded QEMU disk image with ReactOS from sourceforge

2)Extract it with WinZip or any other extracting software:

3) Execute Qemu.bat

4) You will see, the following window, there select ReactOS

5) ReactOS will load, and you will have to fill the Setup Wizard (If you exit the setup without going through it, the program may not run and you may have to re-extract the Qemu zip file to the same destination and rewrite the files).

6) Once finished the setup the program will tell you that your computer will reset, DONT FEAR!, you are inside the emulated environment of QEMU so your computer wont be reset, go ahead and you will see how QEMU finish, now go back to the fold where you extracted QEMU and restart QEMU.bat, then ReactOS will start again, select ReactOS from the bootloader Menu and you will arrive to the ReactOS Desktop

Here there is a Howto of the several ways to install and try ReactOS.

Using ReactOS Disk image Preloaded in BOCHS



1) Download the Preloaded BOCHS disk image with ReactOS from sourceforge

2)Extract it with WinZip or any other extracting software:

3) Execute bochs.bat

4)Select ReactOS

5) ReactOS will load, and you will have to fill the Setup Wizard (If you exit the setup without going through it, the program may not run and you may have to re-extract the Bochs zip file to the same destination and rewrite the files).

6) Once finished the setup the program will tell you that your computer will reset, DONT FEAR!, you are inside the emulated environment of BOCHS so your computer wont be reset, go ahead and you will see how BOCHS finish, now go back to the fold where you extracted BOCHS and restart bochs.bat, then ReactOS will start again, select ReactOS from the bootloader Menu and you will arrive to the ReactOS Desktop.



Installing ReactOS in real hardware:


Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS XP/2000/NT.

The installation will copy the ReactOS files to the directory you will select, copy the files freeldr.sys , freeldr.ini and bootsect.ros to C:\ (or the active directory of your root partition) and add a the following lines to your boot.ini:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\bootsect.ros="ReactOS"

NO CHANGE WILL BE MADE TO YOUR BOOT SECTOR, so to uninstall ReactOS, you only have to delete the folder you selected for the installation of ReactOS, delete freeldr.sys , freeldr.ini and bootsect.ros and edit boot.ini with Notepad and delete the added lines.

All the steps to install ReactOS directly from the ReactOS CD:

1) Download the ReactOS ISO from Souceforge or the daily CVS build (the active work in progress version, not stable and more prone to bugs) from the Casper Hornstrup web page.

2) Extract it with WinZip or any other extracting software:

3) Now use Nero or any other Software able to burn a CD image to a real CD. (if you have any doubt about burning CD image this tutorial can help)

4) Once you have created the ReactOS CD, restart your computer it will probably boot from the CD by default if it does not you have to enter in the BIOS to enable it (here a good tutorial).

5) You will be welcomed by the ReactOS setup page:

6) A screen with the limitations of the early Setup of ReactOS will be displayed, press ENTER to continue.

7) Here you can move and select your hardware configuration:

8) Like the Video Card compatibility mode:

9) Once you are happy with your settings:

10) A list of your the partitions detected by ReactOS will be shown (only Fat 16/32 and void partitions are shown at the moment of this tutorial).Choose where you want to install ReactOS.

11) Once selected you are given the choice to format the partition (YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE DATA IN THAT PARTITION!). or Keep the current file system (RECOMENDED) that will ONLY copy the ReactOS files to that partition without changing the other data.

12) Another screen that tells you that ReactOS can not yet check filesystems (scandisk), press ENTER to continue.

13) Write down the Folder where ReactOS will be installed:

14) It is installing:

15) You are given the option to install the Bootloader in the harddisk (WinXP-2000 and NT recommended) or install in a Floppy (win 95-98 recommended). But last time I tried to install in a Floppy it did not work for me.

Installing the ISO Bootable CD Disk in WINDOWS 95/98 or MS/DOS:

The installation will copy the ReactOS files to the directory you will select, copy the files freeldr.sys and freeldr.ini to C:\ (or the active directory of your root partition) and ReactOS will CHANGE YOUR MASTER BOOT SECTOR WITH THE REACTOS ONE (the FreeLoader boot code is then written to the boot sector of the active partition) and save the original bootsector as BOOTSECT.DOS. So from that moment you will find on starting a menu offering to start ReactOS or Windows/MSDOS, as this change is difficult to undo unless you have some technical knowledge, I would not recommend this way of installation (in win95/98 and MSDOS) unless you don't mind risking your data or you know what you are doing. Read the binaries/floppy boot installation.

Apart from the above, the whole process of installation is the same as in Windows XP/2000/NT (look above)
Installation with Binaries and a Floppy bootdisk:

The best strategy if you don't want to mess with your hard disk boot sector in the Windows 95/98 , MS/DOS and Linux is the following:

1) Download the ReactOS binaries (8 Megs) from sourceforge

2) Use WinZip to extract them to C:\ that way a Folder called C:\ReactOS will be created with all the ReactOS files.

3) Download the Program Rawwrite for windows and extract it to any folder you wish.

4) Download the Freeloader Floppy Disk image and extract it to any folder you wish.

5) Insert a new formatted Floppy Disk and Execute Rawwrite:

6) Select the image file from the folder you extracted the Freeloader:

7) Press write, and wait till the program ends writing the image to the Floppy.

8) Restart the computer booting from the Floppy Disk:

Using a ReactOS LiveCD

This option gives you the chance to test ReactOS without installing anything, the whole ReactOS will run from the CD and no change will be made to your HardDisk or Boot Sector.

1) Download the Live CD from Sourceforge or the Daily CVS build from Casper Hornstrup site.

2) Unzip it with WinZip till you get the file roslive.iso

3) Now use Nero or any other Software able to burn a CD image to a real CD. (if you have any doubt about burning CD image this tutorial can help)

4) Once you have created the ReactOS CD, restart your computer it will probably boot from the CD by default if it does not you have to enter in the BIOS to enable it (here a good tutorial).

5)ReactOS will autoconfigure itself and you will be able to have a look at the basic elements of the Operating System.
Enabling a serial mouse:

Once you have copied your ReactOS binaries (or installed ReactOS) in a computer with a serial mouse, then restart in Windows.

Once in windows go to the directory where you have installed ReactOS, probably C:\reactos\ and then go to \system32\drivers\

In that directory you will find many files, among them sermouse.sys and psaux.sys:

1. rename psaux.sys as psaux.bak
2. then rename sermouse.sys as psaux.sys

Now you have enabled Serial Mouse in ReactOS, restart your computer with ReactOS and your mouse will work.

If you want back a PS2 mouse, then undo the changes, delete psaux.sys and rename psaux.bak as psaux.sys.
uniQ
Posts: 246
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:58 am

Post by uniQ »

LD wrote:What is ReactOS?

ReactOS (ROS for short) is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows® applications and drivers.

Is this legal?

Yes, the developers have never looked at the leaked Windows® code they use the available documentation on different versions of Windows®, and their own tests to understand how Windows® work. ReactOS does the same things Windows® does, but not exactly the same way as it does not have the same source code.

When will ReactOS be done?

ReactOS is such a big project that we don't honestly know ourselves. Presently only very basic programs work in ReactOS. Our goal is to have TCP/IP support and one browser working by January 2005. And other productivity programs like OpenOffice.org running by April 2005. However, no software is ever 'done', there will always be the need for improvements and bug fixes.

For more information, visit <a href="http://reactos.org/en/reactos_user_site ... admap">the roadmap page</A>.

Can I help programming applications for ReactOS?

Any help is welcome, but the developing team is not focused on making applications for ReactOS, there are already thousands of applications ready for ReactOS: all the available Windows® programs.

Will X application work in ReactOS?

If it is a Windows® NT compatible application (That is, will run on Windows® NT, 2000, XP or 2003) it will work once ReactOS is finished, but ReactOS is Alpha software — only about 60% of the Windows® API is finished so most complex programs don't work. The only way to know if one application can already be run by ReactOS is to visit <a href="http://www.reactos.net.tc/">ReactOS Fansite</a> and see if the application is on the list of those already tested on ReactOS or download ReactOS and try running the program yourself.

What can I do for ReactOS?

If you have a good knowledge of C and C++ and any experience in the Windows® API and Win32 programming you can join the <a href="http://reactos.org/en/content/view/full/66">Developers mailing-list</a>, there they will guide you in helping ReactOS development.

If you are not a master of C and C++ you can still help with the website documentation and translation, installing ReactOS and reporting bugs, or just spreading the word about ReactOS.

Why ReactOS? That is, why clone Microsoft® Windows®®?

Why Linux (an Open Source UNIX® clone)? Many of the same reasons that caused the development of Linux are shared by the ReactOS developers. There are a lot of people that like UNIX®, but are very frustrated with their vendors policies on various issues. Instead of the various UNIX® vendors, Microsoft is our frustrater.

Why the NT kernel?

The 9X family of Microsoft® Windows®® is based on DOS, and shares many of it's weakness, which is a primary reason why Microsoft® Windows®® has such a bad name. The Microsoft® Windows®® NT family of Windows®, however, has a solid design. Dave Cutler of Digital was brought in by Microsoft to design it.

Reliability, subsystems, filesystem drivers, services and the registry are all good concepts which are implemented well in the NT kernel.
Not everything is perfect, but without access to the source code, we can't fix it, so we're choose to clone it.

Why don't you help the WINE project instead?

Actually we work very closely with the WINE project. WINE probably has a lot more in common with ReactOS than with Linux. The Wine project has the goal of implementing the entire Windows® API on top of WineServer. There are only a few WINE DLLs that cannot be used in ReactOS. These are NTDLL, USER32, KERNEL32, GDI32, and ADVAPI. The rest of WINE's DLLs can be shared with ReactOS. We have several developers in both the WINE and ReactOS projects that work on cross-compatibility issues between the two projects.

It is our view that Linux + Wine can never be a full replacement for Microsoft® Windows®®. ReactOS has the potential for a much higher degree of compatibility - especially for Microsoft® Windows®® drivers - which WINE does not address.

Why not let my employer host your site for free?

Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. Things may change within your organization and then we'd be either politely asked to start paying X amount or go elsewhere. With our current setup, we have direct access to the machine, bandwidth is not a problem, although the hardware does need improvement (if you wish to donate hardware for this cause, contact one of the ReactOS coordinators).

What hardware is supported by ReactOS?

* Intel Pentium and AMD processors
* IDE and SCSI hard disks (this guide explains how to use SCSI)
* FAT 16/32 are the only filesystems supported yet.
* VGA compatible cards.
* PS2 mouse and keyboard.
* Serial mouses since 0.3 (for versions prior 0.3 see how to enable them).
* Realtek 8139 network cards
* Floppy and CD drives

Not supported (yet):

* USB
* Sound

How can I try ReactOS?

Whether installing ReactOS on real hardware or on an emulator, it is important to know the minimum requirements to install and use ReactOS:

ReactOS Hardware Requirements

32MB RAM
IDE hard disk
FAT16/FAT32 boot partition
VGA compatible video card
Standard keyboard
PS/2 compatible mouse or Microsoft Mouse compatible serial mouse



Choosing an installation strategy

There are several ways you could try and install ReactOS, you can choose the best suited for your experience and hardware:

1. Using a PC emulator with no risk at all to your data or Hardware:
* QEMU can emulate a full system (for example a PC) - Free
* Bochs emulates a full system (x86) - Free
* VMware another emulator - Commercial (Costs money)
* VirtualPC - Commercial, but has a free trial

2. Installing ReactOS in real Hardware as another Operating System
* Installing from the bootable CD in Windows® NT/2000/XP/2003. (no change to the Master Boot Sector)
* Installing from the bootable CD in Windows® 95/98/ME or DOS.
* Installation with Binaries and a Floppy disk. (no change to Master Boot Sector)
* Using a ReactOS LiveCD (no change to Master Boot Sector)

With emulation ReactOS will run much slower than normal, but there is absolutely no risk to your data or hardware, installing ReactOS in real hardware, although quite safe (to my experience) you can delete your data if you don't know what you are doing. The greatest risk is posed by changing the master boot sector (you need some knowledge to revert the change) and changing the partition table (Do not format or delete a partition unless you know what it means).


Installing ReactOS with emulation:

Yes, you can test ReactOS on virtual hardware. You can test it in Bochs and QEMU, for which we have official packages available on our <a href="http://reactos.org/en/content/view/full/62">download page</a>. This way you can start ReactOS in a window without leaving your operating system. However, because Bochs is an emulator, ReactOS will run very slowly. QEMU makes a less complete emulation than Bochs, so it is faster, but still ReactOS will run at about half the normal speed.

Other Virtual Machines/x86 emulators should be able to run ReactOS as well, and ReactOS is known to run in at least Bochs, VMWare, VirtualPC and QEMU. If you know of other virtual machine software supporting it, please let us know.

Using ReactOS Disk image Preloaded in QEMU

QEMU is the safest way to test ReactOS as it cannot damage your system, it is an emulator that will emulate a PC with for ReactOS inside your own PC without touching your existing OS (Windows®, most likely). The drawback is that being an emulator it will be SLOW: ReactOS is calling the PC, the call is intercepted by QEMU who is calling Windows® to do the work and then sending the results back to ReactOS though QEMU. This relayed nature makes virtual machines slow by nature. On a fast and modern machine it shouldn't be too noticeable, but on an old(er) machine, it can be unbearable.

Steps:

1) <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/reac ... ownload</a> the preloaded QEMU disk image with ReactOS from SourceForge.

2) Extract it with WinZip®, WinRAR®, or any other archiving software.

3) Run (Double-click) QEMU.bat

4) You will see a window with a menu, there select "ReactOS"

5) ReactOS will load, and you will have to complete the Setup Wizard (If you exit the setup without going through it may cause problems later on and you will have to repeat these steps).

6) Once finished Setup the program will tell you that your computer will be restarted. Don't worry, this is from inside the QEMU so your computer wont be restarted, only QEMU. Once this happens, go back to the folder where you extracted QEMU and run QEMU.bat again, then ReactOS will start again. Select ReactOS from the menu like last time and you will arrive at ReactOS.


If you want to use Bochs instead of QEMU, here's how:

1) <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/reac ... ownload</a> the preloaded Bochs disk image with ReactOS from sourceforge

2) Extract it with WinZip®, WinRAR®, or any other archiving software.

3) Run (Double-click) bochs.bat

4) You will see a window with a menu, there select "ReactOS"

5) ReactOS will load, and you will have to complete the Setup Wizard (If you exit the setup without going through it may cause problems later on and you will have to repeat these steps).

6) Once finished Setup the program will tell you that your computer will be restarted. Don't worry, this is from inside the QEMU so your computer wont be restarted, only QEMU. Once this happens, go back to the folder where you extracted QEMU and run QEMU.bat again, then ReactOS will start again. Select ReactOS from the menu like last time and you will arrive at ReactOS.


If you have a spare machine, or want to try it on your own computer, you can install ReactOS on real hardware:

Installing from the bootable CD in Windows® NT/2000/XP/2003.

NOTE! This can cause data loss if you're not careful. Read all the instructions in the list first. If you're not sure about something, try the emulation instructions above.

The instalation will copy the ReactOS files to the directory you will select, copy the files freeldr.sys, freeldr.ini and bootsect.ros to C:\ (or the active directory of your root partition) and add a the following line to your boot.ini:

C:\bootsect.ros="ReactOS"

Your bootsector isn't changed, so to uninstall ReactOS, you only have to delete the folder you installed ReactOS to, delete freeldr.sys, freeldr.ini, and bootsect.ros, and edit boot.ini with Notepad and delete the added line.

Now the actual installation instructions:

1) <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/reac ... ownload</a> the ReactOS ISO from Souceforge or the daily CVS build (the active work in progress version, more likely to have bugs and errors in it) from <a href="http://reactsoft.com/builds.php
ReactSoft</a>.

2) Extract it with WinZip®, WinRAR®, or any other archiving software.

3) Now use Nero or any other CD writing ("Burning") software able to burn the CD image to a real CD (If you're not sure about this, this tutorial can help)

4) Once you have created the ReactOS CD, keep it in your CD drive and restart your computer. It will probably boot from the CD by default if it does not you may have to enter in the BIOS and set it to do that (Here is a good tutorial on doing that).

5) You will be welcomed by the ReactOS setup page.

6) A screen with the limitations of the early versions of ReactOS Setup will be displayed, press <Enter> or <Return> to continue.

7) Here you can select your hardware configuration.

8) Like the Video Card compatibility mode.

9) Once you are happy with your settings.

10) A list of your the partitions detectable by ReactOS Setup will be shown (only FAT 16/32 and void partitions are shown in the current version). Choose where you want to install ReactOS.

11) Once selected you are given the choice to format the partition or keep the current file system (Recommended). Keeping the current filesystem will ONLY copy the ReactOS files to that partition without changing the other data. If you're not sure of what you're doing here, it is HIGHLY recommended you eject the CD, restart your machine, and ask for help about this.

12) Should you continue, this screen that tells you that ReactOS can not yet check filesystems (scandisk).

13) Select the folder to install ReactOS to.

14) Then Setup copies the files and you just have to wait.

15) You are given the option to install the Bootloader in the harddisk (Recommended if you usually use Windows® NT/2000/XP/2003) or install it on a floppy disk (Recommended if you usually use Windows® 95/98/ME).

If you use Windows® 95/98/ME or DOS, follow these steps:

The installation will copy the ReactOS files to the directory you will select, copy the files freeldr.sys and freeldr.ini to C:\ (or the active directory of your root partition) and ReactOS Setup will replace your Master Boot Sector with the ReactOS one (the FreeLoader boot code is then written to the boot sector of the active partition) and save the original bootsector as C:\BOOTSECT.DOS. So the next time you start your computer, you ill find a menu offering to start ReactOS or Windows®/DOS. As this change is difficult to undo unless you have some technical knowledge, it is not recommended unless you don't mind risking your data or you know what you are doing. Read the binaries/floppy boot installation.

Apart from the above, the whole process of installation is the same as in Windows® NT/2000/XP/2003 (See above)

Installation with Binaries and a floppy bootdisk:

The best strategy if you don't want to mess with your hard disk boot sector and are running Windows® 95/98/ME, DOS, or Linux is the following:

1) <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/reac ... ownload</a> the ReactOS binaries (~8MB) from Sourceforge

2) Extract it with WinZip®, WinRAR®, or any other archiving software to extract them to C:\. This should create a folder called C:\ReactOS with all the ReactOS files.

3) Download the Program Rawwrite for Windows® and extract it to any folder you wish. (Need link)

4) Download the Freeloader floppy disk image and extract it to any folder you wish. (Need link)

5) Insert a formated (blank) floppy disk and run (Double click) Rawwrite.

6) Select the image file from the folder you extracted FreeLoader to.

7) Press Write, and wait till the program finishes writing the image to the floppy.

8) Shut down and restart the computer with the floppy disk still in the drive.

Using a ReactOS LiveCD

This option gives you the chance to test ReactOS without installing anything. ReactOS will run from the CD and no change will be made to your hard disk or boot sector.

1) <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/reac ... ownload</a> the Live CD from Sourceforge or the Daily CVS build from Casper Hornstrups site.

2) Extract roslive.iso from it with WinZip®, WinRAR®, or any other archiving software

3) Now use Nero or any other CD writing ("Burning") software able to burn the CD image to a real CD (If you're not sure about this, this tutorial can help)

4) Once you have created the ReactOS CD, keep it in your CD drive and restart your computer. It will probably boot from the CD by default if it does not you may have to enter in the BIOS and set it to do that (Here is a good tutorial on doing that).

5) ReactOS will run through Setup by itself and you will be able to have a look at the basic elements of ReactOS.
LD wrote:
If you use a Serial mouse:

Once ReactOS has been installed, then restart and make sure you boot into Windows®.

Once in Windows® go to the directory where you have installed ReactOS (Usually C:\reactos) and then go to \system32\drivers\

In that directory you will find many files. Look for "sermouse.sys" and "psaux.sys":

To enable your serial mouse, do the following:

1. rename psaux.sys to psaux.bak
2. rename sermouse.sys as psaux.sys

Shutdown and restart the computer and boot into ReactOS and your serial mouse should work. If you want to reverse this (For example if you have a PS/2 mouse), rename the files back to their original names. In the future ReactOS Setup should do this for you.
That's my best sofar. I tried to clean up some things that didn't make sense/sound right in Eng. Also I added alot of ®s to ensure that the Ppl from Redmond don't claim we're trying to defraud their trademarks ;)

-uniQ
Coming on, coming up, let me help ROS and I'll be able to look @ a life well used.
Lucio Diaz
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: España (perdido en el atlantico)

Post by Lucio Diaz »

Uniq, i did add all those links but it seems only a text version was posted in the forum, the whole document is in HTML and with many screenshoots to help the beginers.

I think you also deleted some sentences that did not make sense cause they were related to the images and links to external tutorials.

Please, post the HTML version so people can work with the original.



Best regards,

Lucio Diaz. (the author)
terrance
Posts: 70
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:52 pm
Location: Switzerland

Post by terrance »

I will do it by myself the next weekend on top of uniQ's version.
Lucio Diaz
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: España (perdido en el atlantico)

Post by Lucio Diaz »

Thankyou Michael, in the meanwhile and as a matter of trying my amateur habilities i have set up my little linux server with the FAQs.

It can be found when online at http://213.96.166.94/
Lucio Diaz
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: España (perdido en el atlantico)

Post by Lucio Diaz »

I can not see the images with a proxy but i can in localhost, if you can not see them, post here and i will try to find what is wrong in the httpd.conf file
Lucio Diaz
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: España (perdido en el atlantico)

Post by Lucio Diaz »

It is also accesible at http://reactos.no-ip.com
uniQ
Posts: 246
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:58 am

Post by uniQ »

You might want to update the screenshots, nowadays Setup has images to the left, which looks much more impressive, IMO.

-uniQ
Coming on, coming up, let me help ROS and I'll be able to look @ a life well used.
Lucio Diaz
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: España (perdido en el atlantico)

Post by Lucio Diaz »

This are mostly from the 0.2.4 version and CVS version, as soon as 0.3 is out, i will update the information and images.

I will use the above corrected text as soon as posible.Thanks.

Best regards,

Lucio Diaz.
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