New Hardware (but my luck ran out)

[Kevin Castro]

From what I have learned from many posts from many long-time members, my success with Katrora was pure dumb luck. I saw something online, downloaded it, installed it into an old tub, and it worked (even with a USB keyboard and mouse).

I figured I could inspire other people to install ReactOS on real hardware also. But, of course, I would need to demonstrate it on a mobo+APU that is still widely available so other people can replicate it if they desire. Just this month, I paid AUD213, including delivery and insurance. I am recycling some old G.Skill RAM.

And this is it. (In 2015, I used this mobo+APU combination to build a Win 8.1 PC for work.)
The motherboard has only one PS/2 socket. APU is 3.8GHz dual-core.
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[Kevin Castro]

The first item of business was to outboard the Crucial C300 into Semprix (XP, spinning boot) to have SSDLife Free evaluate its health.
I bought this drive in March 2011, and its first job was as a naked outboard backup for all my files that are held in Bellbird (XP, offline, C300 boot, spinning storage). In December 2014, I put it into a Firewire enclosure and it continued in the same job. In 2016, it was replaced and sat in a cupboard—awaiting its next job.
Having recently endured many formats as an experimental outboard in Katrora (ReactOS), the drive is still in excellent heath—proving just how rugged these old C300's are.
[ external image ]

[Kevin Castro]

First few bits of hardware plus three shiny blank plates for the now-empty slots.
[ external image ]

[Kevin Castro]

The first job was to pop in to the BIOS (mouse-operated) to check the following things:
Sata mode is IDE Emulation.
USB Legacy Support is enabled.
CPU C6 State is disabled.
First Boot is CD.

There are no fan-fail alarms or CPU-overtemp alarm—the motherboard has no piezo output pins.

The new rig wouldn't read the DVD, so I burned a CD.
Then, the PS/2 keyboard kept dropping out at the language screen. I tried a USB keyboard. Same problem.
I burned another CD on a different brand of disc. No change.
Legacy to auto. Legacy disabled. Legacy enabled. No change. Open a can of beer, have a think.

I plugged the PS/2 keyboard back in, and unplugged the USB mouse. Problem solved. Now I could set up the partition.
In this photo, the rig silently slow-formats the SSD. Here I go again!
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[Kevin Castro]

During "Setup is copying files", the DVD drive showed itself to be faulty (it's been sitting new, unused, for about four years) and wouldn't spin up to full speed. The copying took about ten minutes instead of one. Usually the yellow line races across the screen; but this time, it absolutely dawdled.
Then, something went wrong with the install during first reboot, and I had to do the install again.
Then, I was hit with the dreaded USB problem that I have read so much about.
Then, the DVD drive wouldn't read any of the three discs I had burned (it's the second Samsung failure I've had in three years).
Nothing was working. My luck had run out.

Where to from here? Well, I have ordered a new ASUS DVD drive, and I intend to continue with this install.

[EmuandCo]

http://vgal.ru.com/reactos-0-4-7-2-new-usb/

Try these ISOs for USB stuff and give some feedback, the developer behind it needs every feedback he can get.

[Kevin Castro]

I couldn't get either of the 0.4.7.2 ISO's to extract ("operation failed").
I fitted the ASUS DVD drive and it was as sluggish as the Samsung. I was relieved that, seemingly, there was nothing wrong with the Samsung.
The rig seemed hung up on the fact that there was a half-install trying to finish itself off. It would boot up to the point of the desktop with no taskbar or icons, trying to complete the install.

Thinking ReactOS was frozen, I chose to leave it alone this time and occupied myself doing some online stuff in Shellbone (7-64). After about fifteen minutes (in Katrora this bit had taken about thirty seconds), ReactOS finished with that screen, asked me to fill in my details, and then rebooted. I had no mouse, but I was able to navigate through the menus using Tab, Space, and Enter. The things I was able to do were running in super slow-motion and it was asking for a USB driver. ReactOS wouldn't acknowledge the drivers disc, so I couldn't attempt to see if anything in it would help.

Worried that I had some dud hardware, I tried installing XP. It spun up, went straight in, and activated over the phone. The mobo drivers wouldn't play nice because this mobo will only support XP if the APU is a Kaveri chip (the A4 7300 is a Richland). Out of curiosity, I then reformatted and installed Vista Business. It, too, went straight in beautifully; but not all the mobo drivers would install (Vista isn't actually supported).
So for now, the new rig is put away, Katrora is having a rest on the sofa, and Wombat (XP, websurfing) is back in place beside Shellbone.

[EmuandCo]

Operation failed? Install a new 7-zip 18.xx and retry. Just tried here and all is fine.

[Kevin Castro]

Operation failed? Install a new 7-zip 18.xx and retry. Just tried here and all is fine.

Yep, that did it perfectly! Tomorrow, I'll try another install. Fingers crossed.

[Kevin Castro]

On Saturday, I burned a 0.4.7.2 boot disc but the new rig wouldn't recognize it as a boot. I burned another disc from a different PC (with a different brand of burner), but the result was the same. For the time being, I have installed a Gigabyte GT 610 graphics card and a TP-Link network card so I could finish the Vista install.

I remain convinced that the way to generate more interest in ReactOS is to tweak it towards a cheap but modern APU build—Gigabyte+AMD or ASRock+AMD. Importantly, these two brands of mobo have only one PS/2 port.

[dizt3mp3r]

You are quite right about making it popular, unfortunately the way ReactOS is developed is not the manner you want it to be. The developers, being people like you and me, work on the things they want to - and basically there won't be a co-ordinated project push to make people strive toward such a goal. Even if there was such an attempt, people would still work on what interests them or work where their skills are applicable.

ReactOS really seems usable but the bugs are still everywhere, fundamental functionality is missing and users really aren't expected on an Alpha o/s (nor are they really wanted at this time). The fact that you have managed to use it is impressive and admirable on your part but users actually running ReactOS on a daily basis are not really desired as the o/s is not in the right shape for live use. The team is not set up nor ready to support live systems.

What is wanted is good testing and feedback, then the devs can get on fixing the bugs they find or are reported.

We all have expectations of ReactOS, we all have suggestions that might help but in the ReactOS forum we all learn to adjust those expectations downward to reality. Most of our suggestions go unheeded. Many leave disappointed but that's just the way it is.

It might not be what you want to hear. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just telling you how it is.