FINALLY!!!! N00b can post in this forum. -->Boot.ini

[Monster_user]

I tried to post in the last, thread but it wouldn't let me, I kept getting sent to the main forum page. It took 2 tries to create this thread. Thing is, this is my second post. It worked fine the first time... (<-- I feel like leaving this, so you can understand how I feel) Its that the bandwidth is still being hogged, so IF this thread gets through, don't ban me.

On to my reason for posting. As per my sig I would like a fully legit, free, 100% windows compatible OS, such is my interest in the progress of ROS.

However, on DL of the ISO I get the error "Please go to the Control Panel to Add/Remove Programs". I do not have a CD burner on my machine (I do have irregular access to one, I know how to get ROS to work that way, when I can burn it). Why does this error show? What prevents ROS from installing under W2ksp4?

I've gotten the .bin, extracted it, and installed in under Win98se's command prompt. However, I cannot figure out how to get it to show up in the boot manager for W2k2p4. I DL the ITsp4 install, but I have not had the "boot.ini" file at all (except on the NT4 drive, which isn't mine, and may or may not work). What file, can I edit, and how? Or is Lilo or another boot loader my only option, untill I can get access to a burner?

[Monster_user]

Uh, call me stupid. I thought "Search" would find the file, and I also thought I had unchecked system files. lol.

I've manually installed it. Gonna check and see if it works...

Oh, and BTW. I prefer "Filefront's" "Gaming Forums" because they've allowed infinite edit. I coulda deleted my stupidity... <--chose it for the half crooked smile.

[Quigs]

You got it to work? I tried that for a very long time before realizing and being told it wouldnt work....

http://reactos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55

Do you have both Windows 98 installed and W2ksp4 or what?

[Monster_user]

Yeah, both 98 and 2000 are installed. I prefer Win2K, but Win98 is sometimes faster, and because of DOS is more compatible.

I thought I saw this info before, but I searched through the entire forum, and coudn't find it?

It didn't work...
Thanks for the info. Now I've got two entries to check, (I never give up)

C:\reactos.bin="ReactOS"

and to autodetect freeloader...

C:\bootsect.ros="ReactOS"

Now just gotta find freeloader...

[Monster_user]

The above didn't work along with a hundred other files. Finally got access to the burner, and set it up that way. The version appears to be the "stable" release, however, its slow, unstable, and runable under DOS. According to my tests, there is no speed and/or stability decrease from running this OS under DOS. The boot file is custom, and I don't have a binary/Hex editor to decode it. It also adds another file

"freeloader.ini" ->contents...
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

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

[ReactOS]
BootType=ReactOS
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\ReactOS
-->end contents...

The "bootsect.ros" file contains something about NT4, gibberish, hard drive name, and format, more gibberish, and then
Disk error
File system error
Press any key to restart

Not that this will help...

GUYS, HOW ABOUT A WINDOWS COMPATIBLE INSTALLER? OR A UNIVERSAL SET OF BOOTABLE FILES.

[sonny73044]

You should also have the "freeldr.sys" file on this drive.
Get the freeldr.sys file from the installation cd in the "loader" directory
You may edit boot.ini or freeldr.ini with any text editor if ntldr is already installed (do you get to a menu that allows you to boot into win2k or win98?)
bootsect.ros is the file you need to point to from your boot.ini
Boot Order:
NTLDR (the menu)
bootsect.ros (loads freeldr.sys)
freeldr.sys (loads os)

my boot.ini

Code: Select all

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Windows Millennium Edition"
C:\bootsect.ros="ReactOS"         <<< add this line without this text
C:\bootmf32.bin="MenuetOS 0.78-Pre3"

my freeldr.ini

Code: Select all

[FREELOADER]
timeout=0

[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

[Operating Systems]
ReactOS="ReactOS"

[ReactOS]
BootType=ReactOS
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\ReactOS

[Monster_user]

Hmmm, it seems I didn't explain myself well enough.

I burned it to a CD and it worked. All neccassary files are there. If however works like a non-stable (nightly?) release.

I right click, and it reboots, I open 3 windows and it crashes, I try to access a Windows file, and it crawls. This all happens whether I boot up to Windows98se's command prompt first, or select freeloader from the boot screen. This however is not my concern, it is still early in its developement stage.

However I still would like to know how to install it via Windows/Linux, as I don't have access to a burner/CD-R often.

The above file contents list was half written for this reason. To aid others in such a quest, untill ReactOS is capapable of this (if it ever will be). NOTHING is impossible for those who seek it.

This is what the post was originally about, but I coudn't post in another thread for at the time unknown reasons. After I started to post the thread I learned that it was a connection problem (on 300kbps High speed) due to another computer on the network hogging the bandwidth. I did not feel Like backing out, trying to access the existing thread, and having to retry posting a dozen times. Now I'm on when that computer is not.

[Monster_user]

However I forgot to add. Should anyone be interest in why its crashing, these are the specs, I'll see what I've done to crash it when possible, and the HD type if needed.

Dual Pentium III 600mhz
IDE x2
IDE 0 20gig (Fat32 Reactos in root, Win2K, Win98se)
IDE 1 20gig (Fat32 no OS)
IDE 2 10gig (NTFS WinNT 4)
IDE 3 Atapi CD-ROM
Yamaha XG sound card
nVidia Geforce 4 Mx440 64mb
Diamond Monster II 3dfx card
3Com Etherlink XL 10/100 PCI..... (3c905b-TX)
~100mb free on C: under Win2k, with swap set to 600mb. (now ~400mb, Win3k swp 600mb)
~900mb free on D:
~400mb free on (IDE 2, letter varies per OS)
(motherboard unknown? Symbion 4200/5200 system kit mobo)
~390mb of PC100 SDRAM

OS loaded
1. Windows98se command prompt only, ReactOS Bin image "aboot.bat"
2. ReactOS iso install

[Lucio Diaz]

It still crashes a lot, specially the 0.2.4 version was quite unstable for a final release, but remember it is alpha, the next release 0.2.5 probably will be quite more stable as some memory bugs have been fixed.

Also you can get a ReactOS howto and several ways to install it at:

http://reactos.no-ip.com

I tried to make it the easiest posible for everybody.

[uniQ]

Your No-IP site is unreachable by me.

-uniQ

[Stead]

have yo utried the emulator, it runs quite well in bochs? last time i run boches it was painfully slow although saying that this is a 2.8ht cpu, hrmm, last time i run it with a PIII 800...

well even if its slow in bochs, it seems a waste of cd's the live cd way, unless of course you have a spare cd-rw, i put it on rw-dvd a few times, although i feel silly putting a 12mb iso on a 4.7gig dvd...

[Gasmann]

have yo utried the emulator, it runs quite well in bochs? last time i run boches it was painfully slow although saying that this is a 2.8ht cpu, hrmm, last time i run it with a PIII 800...

well even if its slow in bochs, it seems a waste of cd's the live cd way, unless of course you have a spare cd-rw, i put it on rw-dvd a few times, although i feel silly putting a 12mb iso on a 4.7gig dvd...

I can't really use ReactOS in bochs. It already takes more than a minute to start up, and I've got a 2ghz machine. It's the slowest emulator I've ever seen
I use one and the same cd-rw for ReactOS since 0.2.0 or so, and burnt 1 reactos-iso on it every 5-7 days... And the cd-rw is still working
And it was only 0,80€
So, really cheap as you can burn hundreds of images on it

[GreatLord]

Hi
I am alwasy using vmware or qemu in windows
boche are to slow
we will drop boch image in release 0.2.5

[Monster_user]

Well, I don't like emulators... I don't know of a free one, that does not emulate the processor.

So I prefer the live CD. I do have a CR-RW handy, just got to find my software, to remove 0.2.4 from it, now that 0.2.5 is out.

My attempts to get 0.2.4 to boot from Windows/DOS are moot, now I've got to start all over...