My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

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Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

This will be my thrad were i gonna report running Reactos on real hardware.

As i someday want to be able to run it on all my machine, i'm just to curios to find out if it will run even now.
Testing it inside of VM won't tell you anything how your day-day apps and driveers gonna work.

Atm i have a dual-boot configuration of XP and 7, both on primary partitions, on all of my machines.
That are
- 4 laptops/netbooks
- 3 desktops and
- 2 desktop-boards without casing for fast card-testing and other stuff.

The first task will be to find a way to install Reactos and assemble it to a working multi-boot config. I know that freeloader can boot Windows but not viceversa. And I can't install freeloader on the first partition as this is the ntfs one with XP. So i gonna make an additional third primary partition for Ractos ( and the forth being the data partition) and set it active by a boot-floppy or cd. This way you preserve the already installed bootloader-config of win7 and XP and you can switch back anytime. I'm already testing this inside Vbox

But at the moment i can't do anything until bug 5857 gets resolved.

OK. I won't to it on all immediately, but as I said it is my aim to have them all "Reacted" one day.

Here is my list of the machines:
Laptops:
Gericom Webgine Laptop 340S8, Celeron 1,2 GHz, Sis 630 IGP
Fujitsu Amila-A, AMD Athlon 1800+, Ati Radeon 9250 IGP
Bluedisk Artworker C89, Amd Sempron 3000+, S3 Unichrome IGP
HP Netbook Compaq Mini 700, Atom 1,6Ghz, Intel IGP (have to look it up...)

Desktops
ABit PB6 with 2 Celeron 533, Ati Rage 128 AGB
Asus P2b-DS with 2 Pentium 700, Geforce TI4200
Asrock K7Upgrade 600, AMD AthlonXP 2600+, Geforce FX5500
Asrock AliveDual-eSata, AMD Dualcore 5000, Geforce 6800
Gigabyte ??, AMD DualCor 6000, Geforce GT8800

Not assembled atm:
Asrock K7vm2 with AMD Athlon1800+
PCChips M810LR with pentium 800Mhz (fsb133)

Not for testing, is my HTPC
PCCHips M726 with Amd Duron 1Ghz, Ati Radeoan7000

I think that should make me an official Reactos Hardware Tester, can I have the logo in my sig?! :D

Stay tuned....
Last edited by Saibamen on Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added bug BBCode
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Saibamen
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:19 am
Location: Poland
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Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Saibamen »

Alahndro wrote:I think that should make me an official Reactos Hardware Tester, can I have the logo in my sig?!
You don't need to ask about this :P Just put this RHT Logo in Your signature :)

I'm very proud to thank you making ReactOS better ;) Waiting for first report :P

Greetings from Poland,
Saibamen - global forum moderator, tester, polish translator
ReactOS Forum Global Moderator
IT-Maniak.pl administrator
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

Wow! I just realisd i have 10 working machines in my home. OK, they not all entirely my ones, but i do manage them. :lol:

One for my grandma, 2 for my mom, 2 belonged to my dad before he died half a year ago, and the rest is mine that i have found or repaired, or changed from my friends, neighbor, etc etc.

Although i have laptops too, they're staying at one place as i have one machine in every corner of my home....
Including (I forgot) an home server, Atom 330, that holds all my data at an centralised place, and does webserving, mailserving etc etc.

Ok, that's for now. Today i gonna work at heeee....... yea my old gericom laptop in my electronics lab. There's some testing to too.
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

So, i'll first test the partition setup on the traget machine first in vbox:

I set the second partition active (the first is w2k) and installed and got a blank screen after the logo. So i reinstalled and found out that you have to select "only vbr".

Can someone explain what's the difference. I know what the mbr is, but why didn't it work? I suppose that the mbr entry linked to the first partition and that one was the hidden ntfs.

waiting for second stage to finish, crossing fingers that it will pass mshtml ... ... hang - reset. second try - succes. Yeah!

So now I edit freeldr.ini and add the following entry:
W2K="Windows 2000 Professional"
...
[W2K]
BootType=Windows2000
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows (Reactos is 2)

restart, but upon selekting win2000 it jumps back to reactos in the startmenü
...
could it be because win2000 is still ntfs?

Any ideas? I could convert the ntfs back to fat32. Or would it be better to make a small boot-partition at the beginning?
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

OK, i found the problem: I have to select "BootType=2003"

Now he i get the error "Opening hive file failed"

The heck with ntfs, i'll convert the windows partition to fat.

Stay tuned...
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

Nope, it seems that freeloader can't boot Windows 2000, even if it is on fat32
Pisarz
Posts: 375
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 9:29 am

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Pisarz »

You could boot Freeloader from Windows 2000 bootloader, couldn't you?
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

OK. The Problem was that the Windows directory called "Winnt" not "Windows"!

So, it loaded the hive, kernel and then gets stuck loading kdcom.dll, gives the error: "Error loading imported dll"
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

I'd like to boot Windows directly via freeloader, not trough some complicated bootsect-files. I've read sometime that freeloader can do this. Or was it only working for XP or Win2003?
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

OK, now i've tried the following:

BootType=Bootsector
BootSector=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\bootsect.dat

It contains the bootsector of the windows partition, but freeloader gives me: "Bootsector not defined"

BootType=Partition
BootPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

...and says "Boot Drive not specified for selected OS"???
I thought that it does chainloading and starts up the ntldr on the first partition.

I can find none actual documentation how to set the freeldr.ini right.
hto
Developer
Posts: 2193
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:43 pm

Post by hto »

Use this syntax:

Code: Select all

[Operating Systems]
...
Bootsector="Bootsector"
...
[Bootsector]
BootType=BootSector
BootSectorFile=bootsect.dat
or:

Code: Select all

[Operating Systems]
...
Partition="Partition"
...
[Partition]
BootType=Partition
BootDrive=128
BootPartition=1
I can find none actual documentation how to set the freeldr.ini right.
I doubt there is any documentation aside from the sources.
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

I've got it!

BootType=Partition
BootDrive=hd0
BootPartition=1

So, let's summarize:
Make a New Partition behind Windows, Fat32 and set it active.
Install Reactos
Edit freeldr and add the above Entry.
Works! You're back in Windows

You don't have to worry that windows is on a ntfs partition and also don't need any bootsector files!
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

So again to avoid misunderstandings, and for all google searchers: here's the complete and working freeldr.ini

Code: Select all

[FREELOADER]
DefaultOS=ReactOS
TimeOut=10
[Display]
TitleText=ReactOS Boot Manager
StatusBarColor=Cyan
StatusBarTextColor=Black
BackdropTextColor=White
BackdropColor=Blue
BackdropFillStyle=Medium
TitleBoxTextColor=White
TitleBoxColor=Red
MessageBoxTextColor=White
MessageBoxColor=Blue
MenuTextColor=Gray
MenuColor=Black
TextColor=Gray
SelectedTextColor=Black
SelectedColor=Gray
ShowTime=No
MenuBox=No
CenterMenu=No
MinimalUI=Yes
TimeText=Seconds until highlighted choice will be started automatically:
[Operating Systems]
ReactOS="ReactOS"
ReactOS_Debug="ReactOS (Debug)"
Windows="Windows"

[ReactOS]
BootType=Windows2003
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\ReactOS
[ReactOS_Debug]
BootType=Windows2003
SystemPath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\ReactOS
Options=/DEBUG /DEBUGPORT=COM1 /BAUDRATE=115200 /SOS
[Windows]
BootType=Partition
BootDrive=hd0
BootPartition=1
Please mind that the partition count always begins with "1", whereas "0" is always the active one.

Now the real fun can begin. I'll burn the latest Reactos Build onto a CD-RW and repeat this on real hardware

Stay tuned...
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

Here is the Result from the first Machine:
Gericom Webgine 340s8, Celeron 1,2GHz, 512MB Ram, Sis 630 IGP @ 32MB shared memory

First stage completed succesful ,though the screen was 40% shifted to the right.
Second stage initialised succesful, got screen, but couldn't get pass the setup wizard as neither keyboard nor mouse functioned. I've tried several external keyboards/mouses, PS2 and USB, none worked. I can't say if it only gets no input or if the machine is completely frozen.

Finally i configured freeloader from inside Windows. Dualboot config works, switches from freeloader to the Win7 loader, but its counter ran twice as fast (weird).
Alahndro
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: My Real Hardware Testing and Tutorial Thread

Post by Alahndro »

Bad News: My Win7 on the second partition doesn't startup anymore, repair can't solve it, it gets stuck somewhere in the boot-process, but that's not so grave as i hated it anyway...
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