THE FREEDOS BETA 7 ("SPEARS") DISTRIBUTION

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Jim Hall <jhall@freedos.org>
18 March 2001

Updated by Jeremy Davis <jeremyd@computer.org>
07 September 2001

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1.  WHAT TO GET:

 The Beta7 distribution is being made available in two "flavors":

 (1) The Mini distribution will contain all the software that you need
     to reproduce the functionality of MS-DOS.  This will consist only
     of an install boot floppy and the Base1 install disk.  Download
     the Mini distribution if you only want to install a very basic
     DOS system, and nothing else.

 (2) The Full distribution will contain everything from the Mini, but
     also will include GUIs, compilers, assemblers, utilities, etc.
     Download the Full distribution if you want to have it all!

 If you want to install the Mini distribution, you need to download
 these files:
 
     RAWRITE.EXE
     MINI.BIN
     BASE1.ZIP
     SAMCFG.ZIP  [ Optional for sample CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT ]
 
 If you want to install the Full distribution, you will need to
 download RAWRITE.EXE, BASE1.ZIP, SAMCFG.ZIP (optional), FULL.BIN
 (instead of MINI.BIN), plus the extra disk sets you want.

 If you do not already have a copy of UNZIP, you will need to download
 that as well.  Yes, you need UNZIP to extract the install disks.


2.  BEFORE YOU INSTALL:

2.1 STEP 1 - THE INSTALL DISKS (* see the variation, at the end)

 Once you have downloaded all the files you need, you must do a little
 "prep" work before you can install FreeDOS.  The install disks
 (BASE1.ZIP, etc.) are actually zipped up, so that you only need to
 download the one file, rather than a whole bunch.  So before you can
 install from the BASE1.ZIP install disk, you first need to unzip it.
 
 Format a 1.44MB floppy, then unzip the BASE1.ZIP file to that
 floppy.  Do this:
 
     UNZIP BASE1.ZIP -d A:

 Yes, the lowercase "-d" is important.  Unzip is case sensitive.

 Now everything that you need on the Base1 install floppy is on that floppy
 disk.  If you look on the Base1 install floppy, you'll notice many
 smaller .zip files, each with a corresponding .lsm file.  You'll also
 see a BASE.1 and BASE.END file.  This is normal.  You didn't do
 anything wrong.
 
 If you are installing the Mini distribution, then you are done with
 the install disks.  If you are installing the Full distribution, then
 you need to repeat the above steps for the other install disks that
 you downloaded.


2.2 STEP 2 - THE INSTALL BOOT FLOPPY IMAGE

 The Beta6 distribution uses an install boot floppy that you use to
 (surprise!) boot your computer to install FreeDOS.  The boot floppy
 needs to be written to a pre-formatted 1.44MB floppy disk.  I'm sure
 other boot floppy images for 360k and 720k will soon be made
 available, but I have a 1.44MB disk drive, so that's what you get.
 
 We need to use a program called RAWRITE to write these images to a
 floppy.  You downloaded this program, above.
 
 To create the boot floppy for the Mini distribution:
 
    (1) Run RAWRITE
 
    (2) Read the MINI.BIN image file

    (3) Write to the A: drive
 
 To create the boot floppy for the Full distribution:
 
    (1) Run RAWRITE
 
    (2) Read the FULL.BIN image file

    (3) Write to the A: drive
 
 Notice that the procedure to create the boot floppy is essentially
 the same for the MINI and FULL distributions. The only thing that
 changes is the name of the image file name.

 If you are using UNIX, you may instead use the "dd" program to write
 the disk images.  Load a formatted 1.44MB floppy in your drive, then
 type the following while logged in as "root":

    dd if=MINI.BIN of=/dev/fd0
 
 The inquisitive DOS user will notice that the contents of MINI.BIN and
 FULL.BIN are essentially the same.  Yes, we planned it that way.


3.  TO INSTALL FROM FLOPPY DISK:

 Now you are ready to install the FreeDOS distribution on your
 computer. If you have made all your floppies correctly, then you
 reboot your computer using the install boot floppy that you made from
 either MINI.BIN or FULL.BIN.
 
 When your computer boots up (may take a minute or two, depending on
 the speed of your PC) you will be at a DOS prompt.  At this point,
 you have the opportunity to run FDISK to create a DOS partition IF
 YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE ONE.  To run FDISK, just type:
 
     FDISK
 
 Then follow the on-screen prompts to create a new partition and mark
 it as the active primary partition.  After you run FDISK, you will
 need to reboot.  Just boot off the install boot floppy again.
 
 IF YOU CREATED A NEW PARTITION for FreeDOS, you'll also need to
 format the partition before you can use it.  To do that, just type:
 
     FORMAT C:

 Don't forget to make the C: drive bootable with FreeDOS.  Just type:

     SYS C:

 After that, run the install program:
 
     INSTALL
 
 When the install program asks where you will install from (where the
 install files are located) enter:

     A:

 The install program will then ask you where to install FreeDOS.  Most
 people will use C:\DOS or C:\FDOS. 

 Install will also prompt you to determine which optional components
 to install.  If you said yes to SAMCFG (sample config files) then
 once install has finished you should edit them to correct the paths
 (only necessary if you did not install to C:\FDOS) and copy them to
 the root directory.  Replace FDOS in the steps below with the actual
 location you specified in the step above.

 To edit the files, put the boot disk back into the drive and type:
     TE
 When the editor starts, go to File menu, select Open, and in the
 filename entry field type C:\FDOS\CONFIG.SYS, followed by pressing Enter.
 Then repeat, but use  C:\FDOS\AUTOEXEC.BAT instead.  Don't forget
 to save your changes when done (File --> Save).

 To copy the files to the root directory type:
     COPY C:\FDOS\CONFIG.SYS C:\
     COPY C:\FDOS\AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\

 One final note: floppy disk access is still a little slow in this
 release.  So, your install may take a lot longer than you might
 expect.  Please budget for some additional time when installing your
 copy of FreeDOS.  Everything runs fine from the hard disk after that,
 though.

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Congratulations - you have now installed FreeDOS!

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OPTIONAL: TO INSTALL FROM THE HARD DISK

 I won't spend too much time on this, as I expect most people will opt
 to install from floppy disk.  However, it is possible to install from
 your hard disk.  If you are installing everything, and you already
 have a copy of DOS on your computer, then this is probably the option
 you want.  Hard disk access under FreeDOS is a lot faster than
 floppy, anyway.
 
 The only difference between installing from floppy disk and
 installing from the hard disk is when you create the install
 floppies.  When you installed from floppy disks, you needed to unzip
 each install floppy onto a separate 1.44MB floppy disk.
 
 But to install from the hard disk, you just unzip each install floppy
 INTO A SINGLE DIRECTORY ON YOUR HARD DISK. For example, you might do
 this:
 
    UNZIP BASE1.ZIP -d C:\FDBETA7
 
 For the Mini distribution, that's all you need to do.  If you want to
 install the Full distribution, you will also need to unzip all the
 other install disks like LANG1.ZIP, EDIT1.ZIP, and UTIL1.ZIP, etc.
 That's it.  When the install program asks you where to install from,
 say C:\FDBETA7 (you can delete the C:\FDBETA7 directory after you are
 done installing FreeDOS.)

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