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- THE FREEDOS BETA 9 ("Methusalem") DISTRIBUTION
-
- CD-ROM BASED INSTALLATION INFORMATION
-
- Updated by Jeremy Davis <jeremyd@computer.org>
- 13 July 2003
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This FreeDOS CD-ROM is intended to allow one to boot the FreeDOS
- kernel and then either install FreeDOS to a hard drive, or run FreeDOS
- (use the included programs) directly from the CD.
-
- Please visit http://www.freedos.org for more information about FreeDOS
-
- The CD image (or CD-ROM) may be useful in emulation environments
- (such as Bochs [bochs.sourceforge.net] or vmware [www.vmware.com])
- however it has not been tested using them and as such is not guaranteed
- to work.
-
- Please read the other installation documents before attempting to
- install FreeDOS: DOCS\INSTALL.TXT (a general overiew aimed more at
- those installing FreeDOS using the floppy based distribution) and
- DOCS\INSTALL2.TXT (more detailed information about the steps to
- perform during installation, written for when booting from the
- installation floppy of the floppy based distribution, but most included
- information applies to installation from this CD as well.
-
-
- A What is on this CD (Layout)
- B How do I run (or install) FreeDOS from this CD
- C Creating a custom boot floppy to use with this CD
- D Creating a custom CD
- E Reporting problems
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- A What is on this CD (Layout)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This CD contains a complete (except for the source install sets) FreeDOS
- installation in \FREEDOS\ which is used by the installation
- routines. Additionally, all install sets have been extracted into
- \FREEDOS\PACKAGES\ (so you may omit any instructions that
- specify to unzip install sets such as BASE1.ZIP, UTIL1.ZIP, ...) thus
- you may use <cdrom>:\FREEDOS\PACKAGES\ as the source for
- installation purposes.
-
- AUTORUN.INF Windows stuff for when people view CD-ROM
- README.1ST General readme that should be read
- \isolinux\ Contains the bootable CD files such as ISOLINUX
- \FREEDOS\ Contains most of the FreeDOS related files
- INSTALL.BAT Installs FreeDOS from this CD-ROM
- READ.ME Basic information about this distribution
- AUTORUN\ Startup files and additional AUTORUN data
- DISKIMGS\ Contains a generic* CD-ROM based installation disk images
- (*requires you to add your own CD-ROM drivers)
- DOCS\ Contains important readmes, installation information, ...
- EXTRAS\ Contains additional DOS programs that may be of interest
- FDOS\ Contains FreeDOS installed, used when running from CD-ROM
- INSTALL\ Contains files used when installing from this CD-ROM
- DISKSETS\ Contains all the disksets, used to install to hd
- DOCS\ Localizable documentation used during installation
- INSTALL\ The install program itself and its data
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- B How do I run (or install) FreeDOS from this CD
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- To run FreeDOS from the CD, boot [either directly from the CD or using a
- floppy boot disk with DOS CD-ROM drivers] and make sure that
- <cdrom>:\FREEDOS\SETUP\BIN is in your PATH environment variable
- (where <cdrom> is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive). If you use
- KEYB you may also want to add <cdrom>:\FREEDOS\SETUP\BIN\KEY to your PATH.
- Note: when booting directly from the CD or using a custom boot floppy as
- escribed in Section C, the path should already be setup and FreeDOS ready
- to run.
- (where A:\ is your current drive and R: should be your CD-ROM drive)
-
- A:\>set PATH=R:\FREEDOS\FDOS\BIN;R:\FREEDOS\FDOS\BIN\KEY;%PATH%
-
- \FREEDOS\SETUP\BATCH\AUTORUN.BAT may be ran to initiate installing FreeDOS
- from this CD-ROM. If it fails to find your CD-ROM drive with this CD
- in it, then manually set the cdrom environment variable to the
- appropriate drive letter including the color (:) before executing
- AUTORUN.BAT. The installation must be performed using FreeCom. If
- you booted using a different command interpreter (such as one for
- another DOS) then you may need to run \FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM /E:512
- before begining the installation.
-
- R:\>set cdrom=R:
- R:\>\FREEDOS\AUTORUN\AUTORUN.BAT
-
- If you are having difficulties (your computer freezes or other odd
- behaviour) when running FreeDOS from the CD (or during installation).
- You may wish to use the DOS CD-ROM driver for your specific CD drive.
- To aid in doing this, when booting from the CD, option 4 allows
- you to boot using drivers available on a diskette in your 1st floppy
- drive.
-
- For ATAPI (IDE) drives we provide a cdrom-driver on the bootdisk.
-
- For non-ATAPI drives (for example a cdrom hung on the cdrom connector on
- soundcards, or SCSI drives), please provide its DOS driver on a separate disk.
- You need to select option 4 during install (SCSI) and provide the complete
- filename when asked for it (e.g. A:\DRIVER\ASPI8DOS.SYS).
- You may specify multiple drivernames if you require it. Separate the filenames
- by a space. Example: A:\ASPI8XX.SYS A:\DRIVER\SYMDISK.SYS
- (note that the physical diskdrive may become B:)
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- C Creating a custom boot floppy to use with this CD
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- If you are unable to boot from the CD-ROM, you may still use it to
- install FreeDOS by creating a boot floppy. To aid in this, there is
- a generic FreeDOS CD installation bootdisk builder on the CD that can
- be used to create a disk useful for this purpose.
- \FREEDOS\SETUP\BATCH\BOOTDISK.BAT
-
- i Write it to a floppy (option 3, or above mentioned batchfile)
- ii Copy the CD-ROM driver for your CD-ROM drive to the floppy
- iii Either
- rename the driver to ATAPICDD.SYS
- or
- edit config.sys and change ATAPICDD.SYS to your driver's filename
- iv Boot using the floppy (with the FreeDOS CD in your CD drive)
- v Continue installation just as though you booted directly from the CD
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- D Creating a custom CD
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Please look in isolinux directory for makeiso.bat, a tool to aid in creating
- your customized ISO image. Under Windows it should be a simple
- five step procedure:
- 1) copy all the files on the CD to a subdirectory [folder] on your
- hard drive using Explorer (the GUI) or from the command line
- e.g. XCOPY R: C:\TEMP\FDCD /S /H
- 2) make your customizations, removing read-only attributes as
- needed [copying a file from CD may automatically set it to
- read-only, so to alter or replace you may need to correct this]
- 3) change to C:\TEMP\FDCD\isolinux\ (substituting C:\TEMP\FDCD
- with the actual path you copied the files to
- e.g. CD C:\TEMP\FDCD\isolinux
- 4) run makeiso.bat which will remove any read-only settings for
- isolinux files and creates the new ISO image
- Under WindowsNT/2000/XP you can simply doubleclick makeiso.bat.
- Windows 95, 98 and ME versions require running MAKEISO from
- the commandline (dos prompt).
- 5) test the ISO image (boot it, view it, etc.) to ensure everything
- works alright. Bochs (bochs.sf.net) is a useful free program for this.
-
- The bootdisk you see when booting from cdrom (and which is written
- to a diskette if you run the bootdisk creator program) is located
- at ISOLINUX\FDBOOT.IMG (360KB).
- Files most wanted to update are probably the kernel (kernel.sys) and
- the shell (command.com). In case of updating the kernel, delete kernel.sys,
- and put the new kernel.sys in the correct (top level / root) directory.
-
- The pre-FreeDOS menu you see is located in 2 files:
- \isolinux\isolinux.cfg and \isolinux\bootmsg.txt
- change them if you want to add more boot disks or modify the message
- displayed when booting from the CD.
-
-
- For more information visit the site below:
- ---------------------------------------------
- ISOLINUX and MEMDISK
- copyright 2001-2004 H. Peter Anvin
- http://syslinux.zytor.com/
- ---------------------------------------------
-
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- E Reporting problems
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- If you run into problems there are several avenues you may try.
- If the problem is in one of the Base FreeDOS programs you should report
- the problem using bugZilla. http://www.freedos.org/bugs/
- Other related issues may also be reported there.
- For problems related to the distribution (program XYZ is missing, please
- don't include program ZZ3, document NNN should say 'dkdkdk', etc.)
- please email me: jeremyd@computer.org {No unsolicited Junk email please!}
- For general FreeDOS related issues, try the FreeDOS mailing lists:
- http://www.freedos.org/freedos/lists/.
-
- Information is obtainable online without the need to subscribe from the
- following sources:
- * http://www.freedos.org/
- * http://www.freedos.org/freedos/lists/
- * http://www.topica.com/lists/fd-dev/read (read-only old mail archive)
- * http://www.freedos.org/bugs/
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall.
- It was claimed as a trademark to prevent its possible abuse or misuse.
- The name FreeDOS may be used by the FreeDOS community to refer to
- programs that are part of the FreeDOS operating system, or to associate
- their programs with FreeDOS.
-