THE FREEDOS BETA 9 ("Methusalem") DISTRIBUTION

CD-ROM BASED INSTALLATION INFORMATION

Updated by Jeremy Davis <jeremyd@computer.org>
13 July 2003

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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


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A  What is on this CD (Layout)
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This CD contains a complete (except for the source install sets) FreeDOS
installation in \FREEDOS\FDOS\ which is used by the installation 
routines.  Additionally, all install sets have been extracted into 
\FREEDOS\INSTALL\DISKSETS\ (so you may omit any instructions that
specify to unzip install sets such as BASE1.ZIP, UTIL1.ZIP, ...) thus
you may use <cdrom>:\FREEDOS\INSTALL\DISKSETS\ 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


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B  How do I run (or install) FreeDOS from this CD
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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\FDOS\BIN is in your PATH environment variable 
(where <cdrom> is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive).  If you use 
xkeyb you may also want to add <cdrom>:\FREEDOS\FDOS\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\AUTORUN\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, options 3 and 4 allow
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


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C  Creating a custom boot floppy to use with this CD
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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 boot disk image on the CD that can
be written to a disk and used for this purpose.
\FREEDOS\DISKIMGS\FDCD_144.DSK
You may use one of the image writing programs available in
\FREEDOS\EXTRAS\RAWRITE\ to create the floppy, or if you have a computer
that can boot the CD, then one of the options is to write this
image to a floppy.

i    Write it to a floppy
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   OPTIONAL: Copy KERNEL32.SYS to KERNEL.SYS to use the EXPERIMENTAL
       Fat32 enabled kernel (KERNEL16.SYS is the standard kernel)
v    Boot using the floppy (with the FreeDOS CD in your CD drive)
vi   Continue installation just as though you booted directly from the CD


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D  Creating a custom CD
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Please look in isolinux/BUILDCD for tools 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\BUILDCD\ (substituting C:\TEMP\FDCD
   with the actual path you copied the files to
   e.g.   CD C:\TEMP\FDCD\isolinux\BUILDCD
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

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 both
fdkernel.sys and kernel.sys, and put the new kernel.sys in the correct
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 2001-2003 H. Peter Anvin
         http://syslinux.zytor.com/
         ---------------------------------------------


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E  Reporting problems
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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/join/.

Information is obtainable online without the need to subscribe from the 
following sources:
 * http://www.freedos.org/
 * http://www.topica.com/lists/fd-dev/read

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  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.
