[ros-kernel] 0.2.3 release

[Eric Kohl]

"Bernd Blaauw" <bblaauw at home.nl> wrote:


> wrong wording at 2nd screen of installation cdrom (partitioning)
>
> Can you check the wording at the partitioning schemes
> (primary, minimum 0, maximum 4, or 3 if extended partition is present)
> (extended, minimum 0, maximum 1, logical partitions optional)
> (logical, minimum 0, maximum unlimited?)
>
> it uses Extended instead of Logical a few times.
>
> also at end of setup, there's no more need to remove ReactOS cdrom
> (setup asks you this after flushing has been done) because the "press any
> key to boot from cd" has been implemented.
> (hm.."All cdroms from cd-drive" ? 1 cdrom per drive, not multiple)
>
> same for first reboot when finished completing admin pass, pc-name etc.
>
> make it "Press any key to boot ReactOS setup from cdrom . . ." ??
>
> user-request, not a text-comment:
> can the finishing "Press ENTER to reboot" have a timeout of 5 minutes or
> so? enough time to see what's going on, but not waiting indefinately for
> the user..

I'll have a look at these issues before 0.2.3 gets published.


> installing a ReactOS to VMware and later downgrading available memory to
> 16MB causes a NTOSKRNL error, something about 0 0 0 0, lots of numbers and
> "DEADBEEF". is NTOSKRNL crashing, or GUI/splashscreen? can any sub-20MB
> system move to textmode (cmd.exe) if not enough memory to load
> splashscreen and/or GUI?
>
> 20MB works, but is more than "hey I installed 2 8MB SIMMS, get this OS
> working on my old computer"

We need to add some checks to FreeLoader and Ntoskrnl in order to prevent
such crashes and provide proper error messages.


> ReactOS: any way to create a bootdisk from a ReactOS system?
> FreeLDR and the .ini are present, but not the bootsector writer program
> (which is only in FreeLDR full binary (/source?) package)

The floppy driver must be fixed in order to create bootdisks ReactOS. I have
a modified usetup in my source tree that enables the user choose whether he
wants to write the bootcode to a floppy disk or to the harddisk. I wanted to
commit that modification but it soen't make sense until the floppy driver
works reliably.

The bootsector installer works only on Win NT/2k/XP systems, DOS and Win 9X
are not supported at all. Therfore I think we should focus on getting the
floppy driver working.


> OK, but should user then select VESA when installing from cdrom?
> (that device settings page for setting display/keyboard/mouse)

They cannot make any changes because I disabled the list of options. My plan
is to add a VESA detection routine to FreeLoader and store the supported
VESA version in the hardware description branch of the registry. Usetup will
read this information and install the VGA driver for VESA versions below 2.0
and the VBE driver for VESA 2.0 and up.


> any "hey you're in Vmware, press a key to mount the Vmware tools ISO so we
> can import the graphics drivers" trics?

Support of third party display drivers will be added when the missing
hardware detection routines are implemented.


Regards,
Eric