THE FREEDOS BETA 8 ("Nikita") DISTRIBUTION INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS Based on INSTALL.TXT by Jim Hall 18 March 2001 Updated by Jeremy Davis 07 April 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. WHAT TO GET: The Beta8 distribution is being made available in two "flavors": (1) The Mini distribution will contain all the software that you need to reproduce the functionality of MS-DOS. This will consist only of an install boot floppy and the Base install disk. Download the Mini distribution if you only want to install a very basic DOS system, and nothing else. (2) The Full distribution will contain everything from the Mini, but also will include GUIs, compilers, assemblers, utilities, etc. Download the Full distribution if you want to have it all! Note: Mini and Full use the same installation boot disk (image). If you want to install the Mini distribution, you need to download these files: FDB8_144.DSK BASE1.ZIP If you want to install the Full distribution, you will need to download BASE1.ZIP, FDB8_144.DSK (ie same as Mini), plus the extra disk sets you want (EDIT, UTIL, ...). You will also need a program to write the floppy image to diskette (unless you get FDB8_144.EXE, which can write itself to a 1.44MB floppy) such as RAWRITE.EXE; which should be available from the same location as this distribution. There are many alternatives to rawrite, have a look at http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/rawrite/readme.html for several examples. Once you have written the image to floppy you no longer need RAWRITE (or similar) unless you intend to write other floppy images to diskette. If you do not already have a copy of UNZIP, you will need to download that as well. Yes, you need UNZIP to extract the install disks. 2. BEFORE YOU INSTALL: 2.1 STEP 1 - THE INSTALL DISKS (* see the variation, at the end) Once you have downloaded all the files you need, you must do a little "prep" work before you can install FreeDOS. The install disks (BASE1.ZIP, etc.) are actually zipped up, so that you only need to download the one file, rather than a whole bunch. So before you can install from the BASE1.ZIP install disk, you first need to unzip it. Format a 1.44MB floppy, then unzip the BASE1.ZIP file to that floppy. Do this: UNZIP BASE1.ZIP -d A: Yes, the lowercase "-d" is important. Unzip is case sensitive. Now everything that you need on the Base1 install floppy is on that floppy disk. If you look on the Base1 install floppy, you'll notice many smaller .zip files, each with a corresponding .lsm file. You'll also see a BASE.1 and BASE.END file. This is normal. You didn't do anything wrong. If you are installing the Mini distribution, then you are done with the install disks. If you are installing the Full distribution, then you need to repeat the above steps for the other install disks that you downloaded. 2.2 STEP 2 - THE INSTALL BOOT FLOPPY IMAGE The Beta8 distribution uses an install boot floppy that you use to (surprise!) boot your computer to install FreeDOS. The boot floppy needs to be written to a pre-formatted 1.44MB floppy disk. I'm sure other boot floppy images for 360k and 720k will soon be made available, but I have a 1.44MB disk drive, so that's what you get. We need to use a program called RAWRITE to write these images to a floppy. You downloaded this program, above. To create the boot floppy for the Mini or Full distribution: (1) Run RAWRITE (2) Read the FDB8_144.DSK image file (3) Write to the A: drive If you are using UNIX, you may instead use the "dd" program to write the disk images. Load a formatted 1.44MB floppy in your drive, then type the following while logged in as "root": dd if=FDB8_144.DSK of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880 (Depending on your current OS, you may instead use other alternate programs such as RawWriteWin under Microsoft(R)Windows, or OSPlus DiskImager under DOS.) Previously there were two boot disk images, the inquisitive DOS user may have noticed that the contents of both were essentially the same; thus they are now combined into a single disk image with a runtime choice as to install the FULL or MINI distribution. 3. TO INSTALL FROM FLOPPY DISK: Now you are ready to install the FreeDOS distribution on your computer. If you have made all your floppies correctly, then you reboot your computer using the install boot floppy that you made from FDB8_144.DSK. When your computer boots up (may take a minute or two, depending on the speed of your PC) you will be taken through the setup process. Note: For many cases the boot disk will prompt you for all necessary information and perform the required steps, however, some may need to manually do the steps as outlined below. At this point, you have the opportunity to run FDISK to create a DOS partition IF YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE ONE. To run FDISK, just type: FDISK Then follow the on-screen prompts to create a new partition and mark it as the active primary partition. After you run FDISK, you will need to reboot. Just boot off the install boot floppy again. IF YOU CREATED A NEW PARTITION for FreeDOS, you'll also need to format the partition before you can use it. To do that, just type: FORMAT C: Don't forget to make the C: drive bootable with FreeDOS. Just type: SYS C: After that, run the install program: INSTALL When the install program asks where you will install from (where the install files are located) enter: A:\ The install program will then ask you where to install FreeDOS. Most people will use C:\DOS or C:\FDOS. Install will also prompt you to determine which optional components to install. Once install has finished you should edit the sample configuration files (config.sys & autoexec.bat) to correct the paths (only necessary if you did not install to C:\FDOS) and copy them to the root directory. Replace FDOS in the steps below with the actual location you specified in the step above. To copy the files to the root directory type: COPY C:\FDOS\CONFIG.SYS C:\ COPY C:\FDOS\AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\ To edit the files, put the boot disk back into the drive and type: TE When the editor starts, go to File menu, select Open, and in the filename entry field type C:\CONFIG.SYS, followed by pressing Enter. Then repeat, but use C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT instead. Don't forget to save your changes when done (File --> Save). Floppy disk access has improved, but it is still a little slow. So, your install may take a lot longer than you might expect. Please budget for some additional time when installing your copy of FreeDOS. Everything runs fine from the hard disk after that, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations - you have now installed FreeDOS! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPTIONAL: TO INSTALL FROM THE HARD DISK I won't spend too much time on this, as I expect most people will opt to install from floppy disk. However, it is possible to install from your hard disk. If you are installing everything, and you already have a copy of DOS on your computer, then this is probably the option you want. Hard disk access under FreeDOS is a lot faster than floppy, anyway. The only difference between installing from floppy disk and installing from the hard disk is when you create the install floppies. When you installed from floppy disks, you needed to unzip each install floppy onto a separate 1.44MB floppy disk. But to install from the hard disk, you just unzip each install floppy INTO A SINGLE DIRECTORY ON YOUR HARD DISK. For example, you might do this: UNZIP BASE1.ZIP -d C:\FDBETA8 For the Mini distribution, that's all you need to do. If you want to install the Full distribution, you will also need to unzip all the other install disks like LANG1.ZIP, EDIT1.ZIP, and UTIL1.ZIP, etc. That's it. When the install program asks you where to install from, say C:\FDBETA8 (you can delete the C:\FDBETA8 directory after you are done installing FreeDOS.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------