Hi Blair, I did not check the updated htmlhelp (could some
more documentation-oriented people have a look?), but I did
test your new iso :-). As said in my earlier mail, most of
the new changes are very nice, thanks :-). The install now
works without any real problems - APART FROM the fact that
isolinux 2.11 is not compatible with my BIOS, can you add
an iso with isolinux 2.04 (for example)? And does ANYBODY
have a BIOS which does not work with good old isolinux 2.04?
After installation (I used the "mount iso file" method, which
should be mentioned in the release notes / download page, as
it is a cool way to install DOS :-)), the installed DOS just
worked (well, PG was missing). And it booted in 3 seconds :-).
I had to re-add my previous PATH and soundcard driver lines, but
the installer cannot do much about this. It could and should
preserve the previous versions of config / fdauto, though! To
do that you can do, with my add.com:
set num=1
:foo
if not exist config.%num% goto bar
add %num% 1
set num=%errorlevel%
goto foo
:bar
copy config.sys config.%num%
... to backup config.sys without destroying any other file :-).
Do the same for fdauto ...
Anyway. The new FreeDOS 1.0 fdbasecd ISO worked quite well...
Nevertheless I still have a number of change suggestions. Enjoy!
Eric
Chapter one, the virtual 360k diskette.
Suggestions for various files...
1. 360k config sys: Leave "livecd" menu items intact even
on non-livecd. Just do not mention the word "livecd" ;-)
MENU FreeDOS 1.0 Final (2006-August-20) INSTALLATION/LIVE CD
You forgot to update the date ;-).
MENU 3. FreeDOS with HIMEM + EMM386
Note how I omit the word LiveCD ;-).
MENU FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall MCMXCIV-MMVI
You misspelled the roman numeral for 2006...
1345?!DEVICEHIGH=A:\DRIVER\XCDROM.SYS /D:FDCD0000
Note that I added "1" to this line
2. 360k fdauto bat: Remove all ">NUL" wherever possible. If
there are no bugs, messages will scroll away fast anyway,
and the user has to see what is going on...!
Some more changes:
if not errorlevel 4 getargs > temp...
No! You mean "if "%errorlevel%"=="1" getargs > temp...
because the temp file must NOT be created if A: is not
a MEMDISK. See the memdisk sources for further info.
>From my diff: Note the removal of /h /qq - yes that IS
a relevant change - and the removal of the XCDROM line,
which got moved to config sys :-).
-devload /h /qq xcdrom.sys /D:FDCD0001>NUL
-if not exist FDCD0001 devload /h /qq eltorito.sys /D:FDCD0001>NUL
-if exist FDCD0001 devload /h /qq cdrcache.sys FDCD0001 CDRCACH1 1024 >NUL
-if exist c:\fdbootcd.iso a:\driver\shsucdhd /f:c:\fdbootcd.iso >NUL
-if exist FDCD0001 set loadcd=FDCD0001
+if not exist FDCD0000 devload a:\driver\eltorito.sys /D:FDCD0000
+if exist FDCD0000 devload a:\driver\cdrcache.sys FDCD0000 CDRCACH1 1024
+if exist c:\fdbootcd.iso a:\driver\shsucdhd /f:c:\fdbootcd.iso
+if exist FDCD0000 set loadcd=FDCD0000
Other places where >NUL has to be removed:
a:\driver\shsucdx /Q /D2 /D:?%loadcd%,X
ctmouse
a:\freedos\xmssize 5
a:\freedos\xmssize 50
a:\freedos\xmssize 10
a:\freedos\xmssize 99
A very useful modification for the non-livecd ISOs, which allows
you to use the same CONFIG SYS for all ISOs:
:livecd
+rem *** this is an iso without livecd, jump to safemode
+goto safemode
In the livecd part of autoexec, the /H /QQ arguments to
DEVLOAD and SHSUCDX should be omitted. At least please do
remove the /QQ. We could settle for a /Q. But it is stupid
to remove all - possibly useful - output from the startup
files just because it might look "elegant". The output is
important to know what is going on. Same for SHSURDRV.
-localize 0.1 @@@ Welcome to the command prompt. No drivers were loaded.
+echo Welcome to the command prompt.
This was the only reason why localize.com and localize.en were
still in use...!
Final note on the 360k autoexec/config: Why do you
only load ElTorito if XCDROM failed? ElTorito is
more reliable.
> if not exist FDCD... devload /h /qq eltorito.sys /D:FDCD...
This will make the decision to which driver cdrcache
should be attached and which value loadcd should have
a bit more difficult. Add ElTorito anyway if you can
find the time, thanks.
Next topic: Suggestions for the disk contents.
- update HIMEM and EMM386 on the 360k disk
- remove HDD batch file (never used, outdated)
and remove LOCALIZE.com and LOCALIZE.en
- remove INIADD, META*.* (metakern) - only the
copies outside the 360k disk should be used
- you can leave SYS on the 360k disk even though
it is not used by the batch files on the disk
- you should add MKEYB, so people can manually
load it when they are in safemode etc
Chapter two, change suggestions for the ISO itself,
outside the 360k disk file:
- install3.txt should not say "not tested in VMWare
and Qemu" - Michael said Qemu is now happy and I
got a report that VMWare install works nicely, too.
- install3.txt should not say "no junk please". Robots
do not read such messages and humans feel insulted.
- the installer menu have a whole menu LEVEL too much,
and here is why:
You have one menu with the items "select language,
return to previous, install, return to english,
select screen mode (mono/color), select install set".
HOWEVER, several menus before are in color, so it
makes no sense to offer mono mode at that point. Plus
hardly any computer with cdrom drive uses a mono display.
Secondly, you already showed the language selection menu
a few menus earlier - there is no need to show it again.
Third, you can merge the "install" and "select install
set" (with sources, without sources, custom) into the
previous menu: Instead of having a menu item "various
settings", you only need 3 direct install items:
"Install now with sources", "Install now without
sources (recommended)" and "Install after custom
package selection". Those 3 can be in the previous menu.
- In the custom package selection dialog, you use the
cursor keys to navigate, the space key to toggle the
inclusion of the highlighted package, and enter to
leave the menu (jump to the installation). I guessed
right for the first two, but then I became curious
what the enter key would do and accidentally started
the rest of the install process. The dialog should
show an explanation of the keys. Maybe it should also
ask for confirmation when you exit the dialog (allow-
ing you to return the dialog instead of leaving it).
- all install screens waste a line because they show a
line below the outer frame. the outer frame should
just be around the whole screen minus the title bar.
I mean: The toplevel window should not "float above
the void and show a shadow". That wastes space.
- the install progress display (shows which package is
being unzipped and shows a progress bar) flickers a
lot. looks like you first draw a white screen and then
draw the usual text window on it. do not do that. start
with a screen in the same color as the text window.
It hurts to look at it ;-)
- the install progress bar has too high contrast. Use
something like * or +, not inverted blocks. Makes it
more eye-friendly to look at.
Chapter three, criticism on the installed system:
- the config sys still mentions those benq drivers
- the DOS=HIGH,UMB line must not have 12? in front of it
- the MENUDEFAULT should be 2,15 and not 1,5 (too short,
and NOEMS should not be the default)
- the SHELLHIGH line should not have any 1234? in front of it
- DISPLAY somehow manages to resist LOADHIGH, Aitor! Maybe it
just tries to be too clever...
- KEYB somehow creates a memory hole between KEYB and KEYBDATA.
Just include the space for keybdata in the main keyb address
space, which will also simplify keyb.
- PG is missing in the installed system
- it would be nice to have a way to skip DOSLFN and DISPLAY,
maybe "either load DOSLFN, DISPLAY and SHARE, or load neither
of them" (there already is a config sys menu item with SHARE
and some without). With SHARE, 70k UMB and 12k low RAM (for
DISPLAY) are used for potentially high-loadable drivers. A lot.
Without SHARE, DOSLFN and DISPLAY, it is 50 instead of 80k.
PS: Not relevant for anything, but your install.log file is not
proper XML syntax. Proper XML would be:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<install ver="3.7.6pl1" logformat="1.0" >
...
<datfile name="X:\FREEDOS\PACKAGES\base.1" />
...
<package name="base\appendx" choice="y"
zipfile="X:\FREEDOS\PACKAGES\base\appendx.ZIP"
ziplist="C:\FDOS\PACKAGES\appendx.LST"
packagesize="19484"
diskfree="..."
/>
...
</install>
In other words, you forgot the <?xml version="1.0"?> line
and have errors in the nesting of tags - your original format was:
...
<datfile name="X:\FREEDOS\PACKAGES\base.1" >
...
<package name="base\appendx" choice="y"
< full zipfile="X:\FREEDOS\PACKAGES\base\appendx.ZIP"/>
< full ziplist="C:\FDOS\PACKAGES\appendx.LST"/>
<package size="19484"/>
<disk free="..."/>
/>
...
> Blair Campbell wrote:
>> Uploaded to
>> www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.0-Testing/fdbasecd.iso
>> is hopefully the very last testing distribution before 1.0 is released
>> (and that emm386 update to be available soon should come with it).
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