FreeDOS beta9 prerelease 4. Readme file Table of Contents: --------------------------------- I) bootdisk information II) CD layout III) installation IV) post-installation disk/RAM layout and configuration files V) updates --------------------------------- I) bootdisk information. We're now using 2 kinds of bootdisks (1.44MB and other). *the other bootdisk types have old style of loading the freedos kernel and then necessary files to access the cdrom medium on which the FreeDOS Beta9 is distributed. You can also create this diskette using the cdrom's Bootdisk Builder. *the downloadable 1.44MB diskette image is a special thing. you have two options: a)boot the FreeDOS diskette : 386 or newer, b)standard Freedos diskette. option a) loads part of diskette into system RAM before executing the contents. this requires a 386. In case of any error, try option b). option b) is mainly intended for systems with 8086, 80186 or 80286 processors. it is an unaccelerated version of the bootdisk. Unfortunately a diskette distribution is still not present. Use the common system procedure before copying any desired files: * run FDISK, create primary partition, and set it active. * run FORMAT C: to create the FAT filesystem * run SYS A: C: to copy kernel and shell to harddisk. The disk boots, and the configuration menu appears: option 0 enables you to test the integrity of the computer's main memory, by running Memtest86 version 3.0 option 1 provides you with access to the bootable cdrom, and thus the freedos installation. Option 1 is standard, and useful for most systems (605KB ram free) Option 2 is for old 8086/80186/80286 processors (which have no cdrom) and for 386+ if you don't want a XMS driver loaded. Option 3 drops you at the console to enter commands. Option 4 lets you specify additional (cdrom) drivers to be loaded, using the DEVLOAD commandline device driver loader program. useful for SCSI and/or non-ATAPI cdromdrives. if an order occurs (cdrom not found, cdromdriver not loaded, processor too old), you will be given an errormessage and a choice of your desired action to solve the errorcondition. following files are present: A:\COMMAND.COM A:\DRIVER\ATAPICDD.SYS A:\FDCONFIG.SYS A:\DRIVER\CTMOUSE.EXE A:\FDKERN1.SYS A:\DRIVER\DEVLOAD.EXE A:\KERNEL.SYS A:\DRIVER\ELTORITO.SYS A:\METAKERN.SYS A:\DRIVER\FDXXMS.SYS A:\README.TXT A:\DRIVER\SHSUCDX.EXE A:\FREEDOS\ATTRIB.COM A:\FREEDOS\FORMAT.EXE A:\FREEDOS\CALLVER.COM A:\FREEDOS\GPL.COM A:\FREEDOS\IFMEMDSK.COM A:\FREEDOS\MEMTESTE.EXE A:\FREEDOS\FDAUTO.BAT A:\FREEDOS\COPYBS.COM A:\FREEDOS\FDISK.EXE A:\FREEDOS\SAVEBS-C.COM A:\FREEDOS\FDISK.INI A:\FREEDOS\SYS.COM A:\FREEDOS\FDISKPT.INI A:\FREEDOS\XCOPY.EXE A:\FREEDOS\FINDCD.BAT II) CD layout CD layout is quite simple. At the very least, a root directory is present. To make the cdrom bootable, the IsoLinux directory is required, with the boot- loading file isolinux.bin. Optional is the Freedos directory, an autorun.inf, autorun.bat, etc. You can create your own cdrom by changing the contents of \isolinux\autorun.bat and then running MAKEISO.BAT to create the ISO9660 imagefile (write it as/to cd using NERO, CDRECORD, or a similar application) thus we have this: \{root} - autorun.inf \FREEDOS \ INSTALL (installer, batch scripts, required extra programs) \ PACKAGES (programs:binary={appinfo;bin;doc;help}, source={source\name} \ 3RDPARTY (optional programs which are GPL/freeware/PublicDomain) \ISOLINUX \ BUILDCD (makeiso.bat builds you a new ISO file) \ DATA (freedos related menu-entries, diskette image) ----------------------------- III) Installation Multiple forms of installation are theoretically possible. Among them installation replacing other DOS, a brand new installation, dualboot with Windows (95/98/ME or NT/2000/XP/2003) or Linux. for your old computer, we consider only a brand new installation. This assumes a fresh (can still be old though) unpartitioned harddisk. The FreeDOS kernel (core) needs to be installed on C:, the first activated and visible primary partition of your first harddisk. If you do not have a C: yet, as is the case with a new harddisk, you're offered the opportunity to run Fdisk, which creates the primary partition (fdisk option 1). Specify size and do not forget to activate the partition (fdisk option2). After a reboot you must install a filesystem called FAT (more specific: fat12/fat16/fat32), by issuing the command FORMAT C: (menu option 2 or 3, whichever you prefer). After that, installation can begin. Either the graphical installer starts (on modern systems), or the old one. please select the destionation directory (usually C:\DOS or C:\FREEDOS), and select the packages that you want to install. Once the installer finishes unpacking the desired software, post-installation begins. wheter to run Fdisk, the Format program or the installer is now automatically detected. ----------------------------- IV) Post-installation the FreeDOS software has been installed, but no automatic startup has been created yet. Since beta8, the post-installer does this for you. The shell (the commandline environment where you enter your commands) is translated to your language (if present on the cd), the config.sys driverfile is created, and the autoexec.bat scriptfile is created. See below for contents of both files: !SET dosdir=C:\FDOS !SET lang=EN !SET key=gr !REM for help on commands, see file config.sys in your FreeDOS directory !LASTDRIVE=Z !BUFFERS=20 !FILES=40 !set dircmd=/ogn !menucolor=7,0 MENU 1 - Load FreeDOS and XMS-memory driver MENU 2 - Load FreeDOS without drivers MENUDEFAULT=1,5 1?DOS=HIGH,UMB 1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\BIN\HIMEM.EXE ;REM 1?DEVICE=C:\FDOS\bin\atapicdd.sys /D:FDCD0001 1?SHELL=C:\FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM /P=c:\autoexec.bat 2?SHELL=C:\FDOS\BIN\command.com /P=c:\autoexec.bat @echo off set PATH=%dosdir%\bin set NLSDIR=%dosdir%\NLS set temp=%dosdir%\temp set tmp=%dosdir%\temp Shsucdx /D:?FDCD0001 /D:?FDCD0002 /D:?FDCD0003 keyb %dosdir%\bin\key\%key% echo BootFiles: c:\config.sys, c:\autoexec.bat, C:\FDOS\BIN\command.com echo type HELP to get support on commands and navigation echo. echo Welcome to FreeDOS echo. MOUSE mouse and cdrom driver support are optional :) also the kernel is installed, which is the actual FreeDOS core. it requires a loader (bootsector), which you may need to install manually by issueing the BOOT command. *If you've created a new C: partition and let FreeDOS format it for the first time, the bootsector has been written automatically, as no other bootsector (belonging to another operating system) was present. *If FreeDOS was installed on an already formatted partition, you have to type the command BOOT yourself. the command executed by it is "SYS C: C: BOOTONLY" This has not been automated because it's possible that an existing bootsector of an already installed Operating System will be overwritten. now you may reboot. after installation, you may type the command HELP to get some help on navigation and command support. Install your own programs and games. Since these all need to run in a limited memory environment [640KB maximum], we've made every effort to provide you with as much available conventional memory as possible. See below: Modules using memory below 1 MB: Name Total Conventional Upper Memory -------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- KERNEL 20,080 (20K) 20,080 (20K) 0 (0K) HIMEM 2,128 (2K) 2,128 (2K) 0 (0K) COMMAND 3,280 (3K) 3,280 (3K) 0 (0K) MOUSE 3,328 (3K) 3,328 (3K) 0 (0K) KEYB 1,584 (2K) 1,584 (2K) 0 (0K) Free 624,720 (610K) 624,720 (610K) 0 (0K) Note that we do not run EMM386 here (UMB provider). CD-romdriver is not loaded, Keyboard and mouse driver are loaded. ---------------------------- V) Updates -A newer FreeDOS distribution may be found at www.freedos.org/freedos/files/ -Updated software is available from http://www.freedos.org/freedos/software/ -The FreeDOS kernel may be updated by replacing C:\KERNEL.SYS with a newer version, which can be obtained from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=5109 -Bugs may be reported at the FreeDOS bug database [ http://www.freedos.org/bugs/bugzilla/ ], or at the developer's mailinglist [ read: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=freedos-devel ] [ subscribe to: http://www.freedos.org/freedos/lists/ ] [ send message: freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net ] regards, Bernd Blaauw, 2004-02-05