Several questions with ReactOS and custom builds of PCs

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Missingno50
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Several questions with ReactOS and custom builds of PCs

Post by Missingno50 »

So, long story short is I'm trying to build a computer to sell with ReactOS installed on it.

I'm building a computer that costs about 317.41 to produce(not including stickers I need to put on, the discs in order to install ReactOS, and other miscellaneous stuff that'll put my build to about 500 max. It's supposed to be a budget build, but I've got few expensive parts. Most specifically, the 59.99 USD monitor I plan on including. I plan to also get 150 in profit, so essentially the same price as a prebuilt computer.) MAY I SELL computers preinstalled with ReactOS and a disc that contains ReactOS, or is that against the license? I can't find the license wherever I look, even though it's probably in a very obvious spot. I am an idiot at times.

How would I create an ISO that not only installed ReactOS but also installed some other software(examples being Love2D, OpenOffice, and a game I'm making for ReactOS)? This is mostly to get rid of the strain of trying to install most of this software before shipping the computer, and also update the readme to be localized in my language(see my signature). Is there even a way to do this?

How many cores does ReactOS support? Does it even support multiple cores? What about graphics cards, are those supported?

I plan to give back 1/3 of my profits of building a computer with ReactOS. I'll give updates later on whether or not I can sell a computer with ReactOS. Keeping in mind I plan to make Balto Kal's government computers run ReactOS, so you got a micronation's computer network running ReactOS soon to look forward to. Thanks for anything in advance!
"We are going to have to act, if we want to live in a different world."
Proud owner of one semi-modern ROS compatible computer. I hope to make an industry out of selling ROS compatibles the moment 0.5.0 releases.
ThFabba
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Re: Several questions with ReactOS and custom builds of PCs

Post by ThFabba »

The project is generally considered to be distributed under GPLv2, a copy of which is found in the root directory of the source tree:
https://github.com/reactos/reactos/blob/master/COPYING

There are individual pieces that use other licenses, most of which are GPLv2-compatible (e.g. MIT, BSD, LGPL). It's likely that some parts are GPLv3, which is not compatible (but similar).
As a general rule, selling GPL software is okay. The FSF has a discussion on it here: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html

Integrating software is possible, but may require some tinkering:
  • Add individual files (such as installers) to the modules/optional subdirectory, and add those files to boot/bootdata/packages/reactos.dff.in to tell setup where to copy them. This can be useful for integrating third-party drivers (but be aware of their distribution requirements, if any)
  • Alternatively, you can add a tree of files to modules/bootcd_extras and it will be copied over to an "extras" folder
  • If you need to run an executable during setup, you'll probably want to do it after Gecko installation in 2nd stage, here: https://github.com/reactos/reactos/blob ... rd.c#L2098 -- however you will have to add the code to do this yourself (should be fairly straightforward using ShellExecute)
ReactOS will not currently use more than one processor or core, and most people run with the built-in VESA graphics driver. Some people have had success using the manufacturer's drivers on certain hardware. This works on a trial-and-error basis, and the fact that some driver worked in the past does not guarantee that it still works or will keep working. People have collected some information here: https://reactos.org/wiki/Supported_Hardware/Video_cards (there are various similar wiki pages listing people's experience with hardware devices).

Finally, while it may be possible to use ReactOS for browsing or Office tasks somewhat reliably, one of its biggest weaknesses is data integrity. If you hit any bug in the system and it crashes, your file system may get corrupted to a point of no recovery. That's one of the reasons we label ROS as alpha-grade software and do not recommend it for production use.
Missingno50
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Re: Several questions with ReactOS and custom builds of PCs

Post by Missingno50 »

Ok, thanks!

(So apparently that's(multicore) been bugged since 2007? I found some threads referencing multicore support and how it was broken in 2007.)
"We are going to have to act, if we want to live in a different world."
Proud owner of one semi-modern ROS compatible computer. I hope to make an industry out of selling ROS compatibles the moment 0.5.0 releases.
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EmuandCo
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Re: Several questions with ReactOS and custom builds of PCs

Post by EmuandCo »

It never worked. Multiprocessor kernel and HAL never were in a working state regarding multiprocessor init and handling.
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

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Missingno50
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Re: Several questions with ReactOS and custom builds of PCs

Post by Missingno50 »

EmuandCo wrote:It never worked. Multiprocessor kernel and HAL never were in a working state regarding multiprocessor init and handling.
Interesting. It looked like the guys talking about it(one of them being a developer) knew that at one point it did work. Maybe I'm just bad at telling text. I gotta find that topic post, but it's on my Chromebook which is being refurbished with a new screen.
"We are going to have to act, if we want to live in a different world."
Proud owner of one semi-modern ROS compatible computer. I hope to make an industry out of selling ROS compatibles the moment 0.5.0 releases.
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