Hi Ralf, I’m sorry to hear you are having problems installing 1.3-RC3.
Comparing 1.2-FINAL to 1.3-RC3, very little has changed with the CD boot process or installer. Most of the changes between those versions are the packages that get installed and the addition of a Live environment on the LiveCD. There have only been a few “tweaks” to the actual installer. Based on the information you have provided, the CD/DVD driver (UDVD2.SYS) was unable to provide support for your CD/DVD drive during the boot process. Although the version of UDVD2 that is provided has been updated since the previous FreeDOS release, I don’t think the update to the driver is causing the issue. A little information on the boot discs and installer. (Greatly simplified) The installer itself is identical across all media (except the Floppy only edition). The primary differences in the media are the BOOT process and some minor variations in the config files (FDAUTO.BAT & FDCONFIG.SYS) and utilities. The Legacy CD version uses the old EL TORITO specification. The BIOS simply loads a floppy image from the CD and uses that image to emulate a floppy disk to boot. The emulated floppy then boots FreeDOS and loads drivers to support access to the remainder of the CD-ROM. The Normal / LiveCD does something similar. However, it uses SYSLINUX / MEMDISK to emulate the floppy disk. This is why you see some files but no packages. Regardless of which method or disc is used to boot, a minimal version of FreeDOS is provided. That minimal version contains some drivers, utilities and programs. That set of programs provides the user with at least the ability to partition and format the hard drive then run the installer. Space on the emulated floppy is precious and there are only a handful of extra things that are not required to support the install process are provided on it. The installer is a large and fairly complex set of batch file logic. At startup, the “system” is in an unknown state with unknown capabilities and nearly nothing is known by the installer. Through batch logic and external utilities it attempts to remedy the situation. It figures out what drive contains the installer and attempts to create a RAM disk. If a RAM disk is successfully created, the installer gets a little smarter with the ability to perform I/O redirection. Otherwise, it falls back to "really dumb" mode until a hard drive is formatted and temporary space can be provided by that drive. However even with out I/O redirection, step by step, the installer gets to a “known” state — eventually. This is why on first boot, you are prompted for your choice of language. Then, asked of you wish to partition the drive. But on second boot, after being asked for your language, it skips partitioning. And when a previous version is installed and it can run in less-dumb mode, it may be able to import your language choice then skip straight to install after the welcome screen. At this point in time, I can’t really justify the added overhead (and disk space required) to attempt to determine if it can locate the install packages before the system is in a “known” state and has the ability to perform I/O redirection. Once a hard drive is partitioned and formatted, I/O redirection is guaranteed and everything becomes much simpler and streamlined. A search for the install packages is then performed. If it is unable to locate them, the installer is pretty much out of options. As a last resort, it offers to reboot the system. There is only a very very very slim chance a reboot will help. Without access to the DATA region of the CD, none of the FreeDOS packages can be found by the installer or other programs like FDIMPLES. They just aren’t available. Now back to problem of installing 1.3-RC3. You are not alone. In my personal opinion, the three biggest problems FreeDOS faces are UEFI only systems, sound drivers (like AC97) and more universal CD/DVD support. Networking is also an issue. But, it’s more of a “really want” and not a “really need” kind of problem. I face all of these in my own home. I’ve got a cool little Intel Compute Stick that is x86 compatible that I’d love to run FreeDOS on. However, it is UEFI only. :-( My old Pentium Pro has a slightly flakey Creative Labs DVD drive. Sometimes I need to reboot a couple times to get it to read discs. Also, that drive occasionally stops working without reason. And frequently, only portions of a disc are readable with it. Otherwise, that machine boots the LiveCD and fully supports the Live Environment and works like a champ. (still need to try and get networking and sound functional on it). On the other hand, my 486DX2-66 notebook (plus VLB docking station) does not support booting from any CD/DVD. To make matters worse, the TDK DVD drive in the docking station is not supported by the CD/DVD driver on the install media. I installed FreeDOS via the Floppy only edition. Installed drivers for the 3COM 3C509 NIC. The used EtherDFS to transfer other stuff. Eventually, I added a non-OSS driver (Acer APICD214, VIDE-CDD.SYS) for CD/DVD support. I have a couple suggestions to help overcome the problems you are facing with 1.3-RC3. Have you tried to boot the USB images? These do not require CD/DVD support. You may even be able to use a program like RUFUS to make a bootable CD that works without CD/DVD support. Have you tried using one of the alternate drivers on the emulated Floppy? You could use DEVLOAD to try GCDROM.SYS or maybe even UIDE.SYS. They are both present on the floppy image. You could create a boot floppy and replace UDVD2.SYS with VIDE-CDD.SYS (easy to find with google). Boot the floppy, then stick in the CD. You could try booting the CD, exit to DOS, then load an alternate driver, re-load SHSUCDX, then relaunch the installer with SETUP. Something like: DEVLOAD /H \FREEDOS\BIN\GCDROM.SYS /D:FDCD0001 SHSUCDX /QQ /~ /D:?SHSU-CDR,D /D:?SHSU-CDH,D /D:?FDCD0001,D /D:?FDCD0002,D /D:?FDCD0003,D SETUP or DEVLOAD /H B:\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:FDCD0001 SHSUCDX /QQ /~ /D:?SHSU-CDR,D /D:?SHSU-CDH,D /D:?FDCD0001,D /D:?FDCD0002,D /D:?FDCD0003,D SETUP Regardless, I have some ideas on how to maybe improve CD support a little for 1.3-RC4. The process used by Microsoft for the Windows 95 boot floppy is probably a bad idea for FreeDOS. That process basically just loaded numerous CD drivers without any testing. One after another after another with the hope that one eventually worked. We only have a couple OSS drivers at present that can provide access to a CD/DVD. Those are UDVD2.SYS, UIDE.SYS and GCDROM.SYS. I’m not counting XCDROM.SYS. GCDROM.SYS is XCDROM.SYS just renamed. All of which have the same original author. But even with just those 3 drivers, I don’t know what will happen if you try to load all of them. It would require a great deal of testing on a wide range of hardware. This leaves the install media with a couple possible options. The AUTOEXEC could try to test if SHSUCDX was able to provide CD access. Otherwise, try an alternate drivers with possible alternate settings. I would need to do some testing to see if it is even remotely practical to check. Potentially, if it is not possible to do it in the AUTOEXEC, the installer could try to do it later on when it can not find the install packages. I just wish someone would create or provide an additional Open Source CD/DVD driver(s) for those not handled by UDVD2.SYS. Maybe even port one from Linux. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do one. Jerome _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
