#240 Installation Process Aborts Without Error Message

[Myka Martinez]

I have been attempting my first FreeDOS installation and am running into an issue I cannot find a solution for.

I created a bootable usb using the CDROM "standard" installer iso using rufus onto a FAT32 formatted 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive. Booting from the USB the setup program loads and I choose "Install to harddisk". After it processes the startup files I choose English as my preferred language and "Yes" when it asks if I would like to proceed with the installation.

Following this, the system pauses for a moment and then exits to an A prompt with a message at the top of the screen that reads "The installation of FreeDOS 1.2 has been aborted." There are no error codes or any other indication of what might be disrupting the process and I have not come across anyone having a similar issue that has been addressed.

Any insight would be appreciated. My hardware info is below and screenshots are attached.

Hardware Info:

DELL Dimension 3100
BIOS Version: A04
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.06GHz
Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz
Storage: 400GB IDE Hitatchi HDS724040KLAT80

[Jim Hall]

Not sure what's happenning but at a guess it's dying at checking the disk. You might try exiting the installer and trying a few manual steps first. Exit the installer, then partition your hard drive using FDISK. As a test, set up only one primary partition that's about 200MB in size. No other partitions. Then reboot to restart the installer and see if that works.

[Myka Martinez]

I worked through the manual steps you suggested in four iterations. Without large disk support and with, each with the primary partition being set as active and not. Following a reboot on each attempt I ran Install to harddisk and the result was what I have been experiencing previously where the system aborts after choosing to proceed with the installation.

The only other piece of information I neglected to include is that I had previously installed Ubuntu Linux on this machine. I mention it now on the off-chance that a linux installation may make changes to the system that I'm not aware of that could interfere with the smooth installation of FreeDOS.

[Jim Hall]

Reviewing after the FreeDOS 1.3 RC4 release .. a lot has changed in the installer since this bug was reported

If I boot a VM without a hard drive, the installer still offers to partition the hard drive, but there's a bunch of obvious No fixed disks present messages printed to the screen.

If I boot a VM with a hard drive image, but already partitioned with other stuff (100% used for non-DOS stuff) so there's no room left, the installer isn't able to autopartition the disk and brings me into FDISK. But when I try to create a new partition, FDISK tells me No space to create a DOS partition

So I think this bug is fixed, at least in RC4.

[Jim Hall]

Marking as 'works for me' in RC4, but I think the bug can be marked closed/fixed in RC4.