[Freedos-devel] Testings on the FreeDOS 1.0 second version available

[<ait...@gm...>]

Hi,

I just want to share my experiences on the installing of the latest
CD-ROM (full, with sources) available.

In general, my opinion is good!! There's a lot of good stuff that is
being downloaded for a robust DOS system.

There are a couple of faults that I have found, I think that some
could be looked after. There have been other reports like Eric's, but
I just wanted to make a go of what a not-DOS-known user could find.

(1) When I insert the CD on the CD-ROM, the options in the context
menu in MS-Windows are broken (View freedos information sheet, ...).
They all ask me to choose an app to open some file that I am unaware
of. Perhaps one should use a format for which all Windows users would
mostly have a program to open them.

(2) Many places in the CD refer to BETA9:
\freedos\bugzilla.txt, features.txt, readme.txt
\freedos\3rdparty\readme.txt
\freedos\setup\language COMPLETE folder

Which is worse, at some point of the install you get:

FreeDOS 1.0 Final cdrom distribution.

    1) Start installation of FreeDOS beta9
    ...

you click (1) and then

    "FreeDOS Beta9 ("methusalem")..."


(3) Once I create the partition with FDISK under WMWARE, I get the
"usual" message:
Partition signature != 55AA
and PC locks. I have to FORMAT and SYS manually to avoid this.

(4) I can't remember the reason why the graphical installer was
abandoned. We get to the old text installer, and get to the usual
problems or uneasiness:

(4a) When a package set is required, it simply asks me to press a key,
not very intuitive
(4b) I wish there was an option which says "install everything" and never asks
(4c) I get random failure when installing packages. I couldn't find a
common feature. It might be that they are using the CD-ROM driver
which has some kind of bug.
(4d) Suppose I cancel the install (e.g. I am tired of waiting till the
VI runtime library gets installed and reboot). I press reset and
there's no way to run POSTSET or POSTINST: I guess that the
appropriate files are installed LATER or something like that:

postinst.bat:
bad command or filename - "LOCALIZE"
F.R.E.E.D.O.S.: and reboots

postset.bat
bad command or filename - "FDPKG"

(btw, I think I've read "Microsoft Clipper" somewhere ??? )

(5) When installing the SOURCES of emacs/etc, I get corrupted package
names. I have skipped the install.

(6) In post-install I always get questions asked twice:

This package needs "wget" installed
Install (Y/N)? n
This package needs "$" installed
Install? (Y/N)? n
Dependencies met or there aren't dependencies

(the $ sign is actually the smiley #1 character; what is that?)

(7) When I get to:

Thank you for installing OpenGEM!
Remove installation directory[Y,N]?

The system will not accept any of my keys: I had to press ^C to
continue the batch.

(8) INSTALL never asked me about my keyboard configuration: thus I get
no KEYB (but curiously enough with CP 858)

(9) GEM does NOT exit, except with the RESET button.

(10) A path to BIN is NOT set in AUTOEXEC after install

(11) CWSDPMI was NOT configured, even if I was requested to in the post-install.

Perhaps I am doing something wrong here, but I just tried to do what a
regular user would do.

Any feedback is welcome!

BTW, I am currently packing DISPLAY 0.13, with the fix for the
infamous lock bug on the absence of HIMEM. Will release it in a couple
of hours.

Aitor