Hi and merry xmas to everybody :-) I have been trying to understand the installer batch files, but they turned out to be too complex... What I did find out is that there are many variables:
Autoexec: DEBUG NLSPATH dircmd lang config PATH cputype ... plus runs GETARGS > temp bat and then calls that. Others: CD DIRECTORY OS destdrv autofile cfgfile GUI_inst kernel cddrv destdsk choice cdrom color instparm rd currdir isofile dest locmsg dosdir xms msg mkisoexe BASEDIR temp fdosroot lang usemse header INSTDAT INSTMAX INSTMIN instmode kblayout keybrest menu2_nr menu1_nr params2 path os CFGFILE FC display frmterr hello basedir keybfile line1 oldnls AUTOFILE TEXTMENU loadcd oldlang opt DISTRO KEY VM oemcmd pqbackup pqpart initrd cputype fdosdir nlspath key Generic: %%x %%X %%D %1 %2 ... PATH errorlevel _CWD comspec path config dircmd NLSPATH ... those all have special meanings. First suggestion: Reduce the number of used variables a lot, and use consistent upper / lower case for easier reading. I think it would be nice to always use UPPER CASE for variable names. Some variables seem to be unused, while in other cases there are a number of variables which all hold the same value. Examples of removable variables: autofile cfgfile (use fixed fdconfig, fdauto on %destdsk%) GUI_inst (always use textinst) kernel (always use fat32 386+ kernel) color (always use color) cputype (always use 386) mkisoexe (just put exe in same dir as the makeiso batch file) usemse (used as pbatch option but is never set? seems to be for enabling the mouse?) ... There are several variables for "cdrom drive", "destination drive" and "ramdisk drive", but it would be easier to use fixed letters. DISTRO / VM is used but never set, and there is no XOSL - all probably old "forgotten to remove" hooks from beta8 or beta9. The hooks for drive img / part magic / oem should be removed: oemcmd, pqbackup, pqpart variables are leftovers of those. Note that support for pre-386 / mono can be given on diskette distros if wanted. You cannot boot from CD on pre-386 anyway. By the way, what actually creates the postinst / config...? Next part: Who calls whom during install? First, you have the fdconfig and fdauto files on the diskette image. Because the image only contains 240k of data, it would be very nice to have a zip with a copy of the files in the isolinux directory, to make it easy for users to access them (actually there is a tool called "extract" on the CD to read from the gzipped diskette image but UNZIP is easier to figure out ;-)). This diskimage contains himem, emm386, cdrom drivers, caches and devload. There is a basic freedos system and a few helpers: getargs, xmssize, iniadd, oscheck, append, localize, choice and sys. Those should also be in the "odin" directory on the CDROM, so people can use the cdrom after booting from ANY dos diskette, not only after booting a 1.0 installer disk. The autoexec / fdauto sets: DEBUG (unused!?) NLSPATH dircmd (no problem) lang (always EN) config PATH and cputype (to 80286 or 80386). Initial PATH is "freedos" and "driver" on A: and the ODIN directory on X: ... This step also takes care to read ISOLINUX options with GETARGS and makes sure that the CDROM (or ISO) is mounted on drive letter X: ... Then it loads ctmouse (mouse driver) and runs setup :-). So... If you put copies of the boot disk image contents in an easy to access zip and write a short readme like "you have to make the CD contents available on X:, set PATH and NLSPATH and then run SETUP", it will be easier to run the SETUP from an existing previous DOS version. As long as the tools like LOCALIZE and OSCHECK are added to the ODIN dir on the cdrom, of course. I think config / lang / cputype as set by the boot diskimage should not be required by SETUP. Next step is SETUP: It loads shsurdrv (ramdisk) and checks if the ODIN dir is there and SET /E work. The cddrv variable is set to the current drive, so I guess there is no need to always use X: with this version of setup. The nlspath, path and lang are updated and fdosroot is set... A language menu with 10 choices is shown: EN DE FR PL NL IT SV PT ES RU. The 11th choice is "other", showing a much bigger menu... The choice is then passed to the REGIONAL batch. This can load a font and a keyboard layout. It does not add those settings to the target config, though. Next, a list of drives is generated. If more than one dest drive candidate exists, the user is asked to pick one. Now setup tries to CDD to that drive, and shows a FDISK menu if that fails. Options here: Xfdisk, abort, warmboot, and make bootdisk... Note that there is a separate BOOTDISK batch file which can do multi-system boot disks which is probably a bit overkill. The "get drives" thing is in a separate batch file, why that? Now the target drive is checked by making a test directory and by running oscheck (why not other way round?). Depending on the result, the metakern boot menu is installed, the user is asked whether he wants to run format /q, sys is run. The latter depends on the freedos boot diskimage, it would be better to explicitly use a kernel / shell from ODIN the dir. Finally the ramdisk is removed. Third step is AUTORUN: This contains two main menus, which both consist of several files including a batch file each. I think this should be simplified a lot, for example with inlined localize or pbatch calls, the former being the preferred option as this allows to inline English default messages. This would be useful for both -reading- the bat and for -using- it if you forget to set NLSPATH. Because if you forget that, all non-inlined messages vanish and you are expected to answer questions without seeing what the question is. For some reason, there is also code to set color to Mono or Color depending on cpu type if the key or lang variables are not set...?? Menu 1 items are: "install" (leads to menu 2), "bootdisk" (duplicates code discussed in SETUP), "quit", "readme", "reboot", "xfdisk", "spfdisk", "fdisk", "format". If you ask me, setup and autorun should be merged into one file to avoid duplicating the language selection (see below) and bootdisk and fdisk menu areas. Menu 2 items are: "quit", "keyboard" (language selection, duplicates code from SETUP), "install" (runs TEXTMENU and POSTINST), "return to English", "screen" (color or mono, a superfluous menu item imho), "mode". The latter is a non- intuitive name for a sub menu, choices: full, mini, maxi? TEXTMENU choices depend on whether games (non-base) and/ or sources (of games or of base) are available. I think there should NOT be a pre-made choice "install all the sources". No Linux distro would include such a choice. For some reason, TEXTMENU also seems to iniadd DOS to WinNT/WinXP boot.ini - which would only work if those are installed on FAT drives. Also does metakern again?? Users can always use the package mgr to install sources of single packages at any time. Installing all sources of fdfullws might consume 100s of megabytes. Remember that this includes "source of openwatcom" etc ;-). I do think that there should be a choice "install everything which can be installed without INTERNET connection": Many people got stuck during install because the WGET which tried to download additional files got stuck at some point sooner or later :-(. Before POSTINST is run, the TEXTMENU calls TEXTINST which is the tool which actually unzips everything and which asks you which packages to install, based on default sets selected by textmenu. Problem with TEXTINST is that it flickers a lot. By using a black background and by NOT using shadow effects, the tool can be made simpler, flicker can be eliminated and the mono / color decision can be removed :-). I guess something also creates the target config and autoexec, but I cannot find this. But I know that it needs some repairs: The trailing space after the LANG setting in (fd)config, the missing 4?ECHO no drivers in (fd)config, the missing load disk cache line, the complexity of fdauto. For the latter, I recommend to add at some point: if "%config%"=="4" goto nodrivers (...) ... instead of having many if-config lines. I myself load fdapm apmdos for all other choices, as shsucdhd (mount ISO file as virtual CDROM) and my fm801 drivers. I made loading DISPLAY, SHARE and DOSLFN conditional as those use a lot of RAM. Note that you should NOT use LH with MODE (yet another small flaw in 1.0) or MOUSE. The latter because CTMOUSE LHs itself anyway. For the CTMOUSE 2.1b3 driver, please use the /O /Y options to suppress wheel (QEMU bug) and Mouse Systems / Genius mouse mode (can get triggered by non-mouse devices). The path can be shortened - faster DOS - by using wrappers for emacs, setedit, vim, fbc, dog and the pacific c compiler. The latter 2 have several exes so it is probably okay to keep them in PATH. Other variables set in autoexec: dosdir, PATH, NLSPATH, HELPPATH, temp, tmp, BLASTER, CFGFILE, WATTCP.CFG and VIM. The LANG and dircmd variables are already set in (fd)config sys. This summary hopefully helps some people to understand more about the FreeDOS 1.0 installer and helps others to make the FreeDOS 1.1 installer a lot simpler (!). Have a nice day :-) Eric PS: See fd-doc.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?n=FdDocEn.FdInstall for other known problems in FreeDOS 1.0 / install ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
