ReactOS Install hangs at the end

[Z98]

I finish installing ReactOS and get to the point where the computer tells me to hit enter to reboot. I walk away with the system at the point of flushing cache or whatever. However, after I come back in about an hour or so, it's still stuck there.

The machine used was a 500MHz PIII
Around 384 MB of RAM
VIA motherboard
GeForce2 MX

Another odd issue was the fact that the ReactOS installer only saw about 4 GB of HD space, even though there's almost twice that much. At one point, it seemed to see the rest of the space, but after I deleted a partition to free up the rest of the space it disappeared.

[steveh]

Is a well-known effect for me.

I have to reset the machine each time at this stage. But this makes no problems afterwards. Nothing seems to be "uncompleted", reactos is set up correctly despite the "hang" in the flush.
Just forget the other independant problem with the non-functional hardware detection and driver install wizard...

[Z98]

Except that the install did not work correctly. In fact, I got booted into the Vector Linux installed on the harddrive, which of course didn't work because of what the ReactOS installer did.

[Coviti]

This "Flushing Cache" bug has already been reported, and I believe it will be fixed in 0.3.0, or whenever ACPI/APM is supported. I don't know exactly what you mean by "Vector". Do you mean a partition, or are you referring to the Master Boot Record? If you mean the latter, I don't know if ReactOS is compatible with GRUB or LILO, and I don't know if you can load Linux with FreeLoader.

Another already reported bug is the HD size problem. I reported this about 3 weeks ago. These problems are why it is not reccomended to Dual-boot ReactOS, partition with ReactOS, or even for that matter to use ReactOS for anything other than testing purposes. ReactOS should be much more usable in 1-2 years.

However, if we had more devs...

[Jaix]

What version of ReactOS did you try to install, was it the 0.2.9 or a Trund-SVN build? And in case of SVN, what revision did you try?

[Z98]

Tried both an SVN and 0.2.9 release. The SVN was 21747.

Vector is a Linux distribution. And the Freebooter never appeared. I ran into the LILO bootloader.

[Coviti]

I think you have the wrong partition set active. Here's how you can change it.

Download Free FDISK
Download a FreeDos boot disk
Copy Free FDISK to the boot disk
Follow the logical steps to changing the active partition

I've never tried Free FDISK, so if it doesn't work I'm sorry. I just know I've done this with MS FDISK, and this program claims to be a clone.

[Jaix]

Tried both an SVN and 0.2.9 release. The SVN was 21747.

Vector is a Linux distribution. And the Freebooter never appeared. I ran into the LILO bootloader.

Well, I have noticed that ReactOS sometimes behave strangely when not standard clustersize is used, one of my machines can't take the freeloader so I have to start ROS on that machine from a dos-disk. It doesn't even recognize the second partition until ROS is installed.
Try a new HD with only one partition FAT16/FAT32 standard clustersize for the size of that HD and do a fresh ROS install and see what happens.

[Z98]

Install works now, though I've moved it to a different computer. However, networking does not. This is on the SVN. I'm making the assumption that the driver isn't available for this particular card yet.

Also, the computer does not shut down when told to through the start menu.

[Coviti]

Your best bet would be a Realtek RTL8139 LAN card. The RTL8139 is the most compatible with ReactOS, but you could try the drivers for your current LAN. Here's what you would do:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Install ReactOS and go through the setup wizard

2. Have your LAN card's drivers ready

3. When hardware is detected on ROS's first boot, insert your driver disk

4. Copy all the driver files from the Windows 2000 driver directory to "C:\ReactOS\system32"

5. Copy the .INF file from the same directory to "C:\ReactOS\inf"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have found the Windows 2000 drivers to be the most compatible. If this works for your current ethernet card, please let us know or add an entry to the support database.

[Z98]

The buttons of going forward and backward and up one in the ReactOS Explorer also don't work. Again, this might be because of the fact that this was from the SVN.

Also, it's not letting me copy anything for some reason.

[Coviti]

Explorer is very incomplete at the moment. You have to copy files using Command Prompt, and I have already reported the toolbar function bug. In case you don't know how to copy files with command prompt, here's how (Sorry if you already know!)

1. Navigate to the directory containing the driver files using the "CD" command:
Syntax -- cd *DRIVELETTER*:\PATH

Note: *DRIVELETTER* stands for the drive letter (No kidding!)


2. Type "COPY *.* C:\ReactOS\system32" without quotes


3. Type "COPY *.INF C:\ReactOS\inf" once again, without the quotes.

Yes, include the asterisks that are shown inside the quotes. These are wildcards...blah, blah, blah. Sorry for the preschool level explanation, but that's the only way I understand.

[Z98]

Not working. I typed in

cd *DRIVELETTER*:\drivers\nic etc and such.

however, it constantly told me ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND.

Also, the system hangs at random times, but I'm willing to attribute it to the fact that this is a SVN version I'm running.

I may wait until 0.3 stable is out, but this test is taking a while.

As to why I'm running this test, it's because I'm one of the people that helps maintain the computers at school and we're looking into alternatives to Windows. My next test will be Suse, and I might just test Suse first if their DVD ISO is released before the 0.3 ReactOS.

[Coviti]

Let me be more specific. If the files are in drive X:\, type this:

X:\ [Enter]

cd X:\drivers\nic [Enter]

copy *.* C:\ReactOS\system32 [Enter]

copy *.inf C:\ReactOS\inf [Enter]


Don't literally type "[Enter]", I just mean to press the Enter key. Replace the drive letter "X" with the appropriate one, "D" is usually the CD-ROM, "A" is usually the Floppy, etc. Please let me know if you have any more problems, and I'll be happy to help

[Coviti]

Oh, I forgot to mention, floppies may not work. I reported this bug, but I haven't checked to see if it has been fixed. If you get an "ACCESS DENIED" error when trying to access your floppy drive, use another operating system to burn the contents of the floppy to a CD-R or CD-RW.

If you are not using a floppy, just ignore this!