Oh the "Cancel and boot from hard disk" could be on the main menu I suppose!
On 4 July 2017 at 22:45, David Quintana (gigaherz) <gigah...@gmail.com> wrote: > I feel like the boot menu is going to be far too busy for the end user. > I'd go with something closer to > > blah blah: > > - Install Now > - Try without installing > - Show advanced options... > > where: > > - Install now -- boots into the graphical installer (no desktop unless > you cancel or something) > - Try without installing -- boots into livecd desktop (backed by RAM, > I guess) > - Show advanced options... -- opens a second-level menu with > - Text-mode installer > - Live boot without Ramdisk > - etc. > > > > On 4 July 2017 at 21:45, Hermès BÉLUSCA-MAÏTO <hermes.belu...@sfr.fr> > wrote: > >> Hello everyone, >> >> >> >> One of the long-term plan for ReactOS was to have a graphical user-mode >> interface for the 1st-stage setup, similar to e.g. what may be found in >> newer versions of Windows (Vista+), as an alternative to our current >> 1st-stage >> setup in text-mode >> >> (note that I say “alternative”, not “replacement”, because both of them >> can live together without fundamental changes to either ReactOS or our ISO >> images, both of them can share core functionality, and finally because some >> people may prefer the text-mode either for unattended installations or for >> low-memory conditions). >> >> >> >> You can find some information about the 1st-stage GUI setup here: >> https://reactos.org/wiki/First_Stage_GUI_Setup . In our source code, it >> can be found in base/setup/reactos/ . Currently only most of the screens >> have been implemented, while the core functionality is not present. However >> this functionality can somehow be taken by reusing the source code of >> USETUP (see my branch https://svn.reactos.org/svn/re >> actos/branches/setup_improvements/base/setup/ ). >> >> >> >> >> >> Abstract (aka. TL;DR): I explain below the needed changes introduced >> experimentally in the “setup-improvements” branch, revision 75273, to >> generate an all-in-one ReactOS bootcd, that includes both the 1st-stage >> text-mode setup + 1st-stage GUI setup alternative + live-demo >> functionality. This is meant to replace our currently separated “bootcd” / >> “livecd” ISOs, where the latter currently do not offer the possibility to >> install ReactOS. Some currently known potential problems are evoked. >> >> >> >> Images: Proposed BootCD contents : http://i.imgur.com/EBA6JHd.png ; >> Proposed Boot Menu : http://i.imgur.com/14n5Ryi.png . >> >> >> >> >> >> Having a 1st-stage GUI setup also means that it’ll also use the >> already-existing functionality that we offer in our “Live-CD” ISOs. >> Currently, the “Live-CD” ISOs we provide only allow for demonstration >> purposes, while the ReactOS installation proper is found in our so-called >> “Boot-CD” ISOs (which currently only contain text-mode setup). Thus, the 1 >> st-stage GUI setup, as an alternative to the 1st-stage setup in >> text-mode, means that both ISOs can be merged all in one, and we won’t have >> to make a distinction between both: they will be able to offer both the 1 >> st-stage in text mode AND a graphical mode (à la “Live-CD”) where it is >> possible to choose whether to test ReactOS in demo mode, or to install it >> via the GUI setup. >> >> Such an all-in-one ISO capability was already present in the trunk under >> the name “hybridcd”, but was used only when we built ISO images for the >> public events where ReactOS participated (FOSDEM, CLT, …). But now, having >> the setup process both in text mode and in graphics mode, in addition to >> the Live-CD demonstration capability, really suggests just using the >> all-in-one ISO and stop doing the “Boot-CD” (aka. only setup) vs. “Live-CD” >> (aka. only demo) separation. We would just generate only one type of ISO >> that contains everything. >> >> >> >> With that in mind, I have committed in my branch “setup_improvements”, in >> revision 75273 : https://svn.reactos.org/svn/re >> actos?view=revision&revision=75273 such changes to be able to only build >> an ISO that contains everything. These changes are minimal, in the sense >> that I haven’t purposelessly changed the names of the build targets just to >> be fancy. Such changes may be done later, but not now. >> >> >> >> The needed changes are the following: First, the build target that will >> generate the all-in-one CD is called “bootcd”, because this also was the >> main build target for ISOs before the change. Second, I completely remove >> the “hybridcd” build target, because its functionality are now absorbed by >> “bootcd”. Third, the build target “livecd” is reduced to its strict >> minimum. For the sake of building a RAMDISK boot drive (see comments >> after), I continue to generate an ISO for “livecd”. But I’ve changed the >> generated name to “liveimage.iso”, to emphasize the point that it has to be >> understood as a (virtual) disk image for RAMDISK purposes, not just as a >> ISO image. Note that I haven’t renamed the build target “livecd” to, say, >> “liveimage” to reduce my commit changes (such a renaming may be done >> later). The “livecd” target builds a list of files that need to be present >> in the image. The generated liveimage.iso is no-more a bootable ISO, I’ve >> removed inclusion of freeloader + El-Torito boot-sector + the >> USB-ISO-Hybrid functionality for it. >> >> The “bootcd” target has been slightly changed in order to include the >> liveimage.iso as a file (for RAMDISK), and to also add the contents of this >> image in a flattened tree within the bootcd iso: the two directories >> “Profiles” and “reactos”. >> >> The 1st-stage text-mode setup is kept, as said before, but its >> corresponding files + the installation CAB source + the 1st-stage GUI >> setup application proper goes into a (renamed) directory called “i386”, >> corresponding to installation files for an i386 installation (technically, >> 1 per architecture when we’ll have a ReactOS ported to other archs). These >> files cannot be present in the same “reactos” directory as the ones from >> the flattened LiveImage, because some of the files are different (smss.exe, >> registry, etc…) Our FreeLdr knows from where to boot the 1st-stage >> text-mode (from i386), as well as the Live-demo in graphics mode (from >> reactos). >> >> I need to adjust the code of few setup components for them to stop >> relying on hardcoded “reactos/” path, and instead use a more “dynamic” >> (determined at runtime) path. >> >> >> >> NOTE FOR DEVS/SYSADMINS: The “bootcdregtest” build target, generating the >> special ISO that is fed to our test bots, remains exactly the same, and the >> files contained in the generated ISO have not changed. >> >> >> >> NOTE about the RAMDISK feature: I enabled it so that a user can remove >> the demo media (CD, …) and reuse the drive for other purposes, while still >> being able to use ReactOS. Of course this requires a large amount of RAM >> available. And that’s also why I include the flattened liveimage files so >> that one can use the demo without the RAMDISK (when few memory is >> available). >> >> As is currently implemented, this makes the ReactOS all-in-one bootcd >> large (it gains a good 100 MB) due to duplicated space (the flattened >> files, plus the same inside “liveimage.iso”). I cannot do better (unless >> ditching either the RAMDISK, or keeping it but not include the flattened >> files) because ReactOS currently doesn’t have a way to boot from disk >> images **that are not meant to be a RAMDISK**. The day when this >> difficulty is removed, a single disk image could be used either as the >> RAMDISK or the (non-removable) installation. >> >> A second remark is that I don’t plan to have the 1st-stage GUI setup >> available when booting ReactOS in RAMDISK mode because, as a consequence of >> its current implementation, I would otherwise need to duplicate the >> installation CAB source in the RAMDISK image too, making it again larger. >> >> >> >> NOTE about the FreeLdr Boot Menu: Since ReactOS is not that stable >> currently, we like to boot it in debug mode, and redirect the output to a >> serial port (usually COM1). However some people don’t have serial ports on >> real hardware, so we propose to boot with debug output redirected to >> screen. However this may slow ReactOS down, so we also like to boot ReactOS >> with debug mode disabled. That’s why I proposed the declination of these >> boot modes for each ReactOS installation contained in the BootCD >> (Live+Setup, with or without RAMDISK, and with debug enabled or not). The >> problem is that it clutters a lot the boot menu. A remedy would be to >> implement in FreeLdr the functionality of editing **existing** boot >> entries to change their associated boot options, so that one could add by >> hand the options to enable (or disable) debugging. This is currently >> unimplemented. The only implemented feature is to set up a new boot entry >> on the fly to boot ReactOS afterwards. >> >> >> >> NOTE for regress-testers: Possible remark that I may hear: “I only care >> about installing ReactOS (perhaps just in unattended mode) and I don’t care >> at all about the GUI setup nor about the Live-demo thingie, and your new >> BootCD is too large. I want to be able to download & use the good-old >> bootcd for regress-testing.” . So what to do? Since we currently build and >> store the “bootcdregtest” ISOs, but are not publicly available through our >> www.reactos.org/getbuilds interface, I would suggest here to make them >> available to people, so that those who want to quickly DL and/or >> install/regress-test ReactOS could use these ISOs instead (which are really >> just the good old BootCDs, but with unattended installation enabled * >> *and** with our test-suite included). They are not that much large, just >> a bit more than the old regular bootcd. >> >> >> >> Please let me know whether you have other >> remarks/comments/questions/suggestions/etc… >> to make the new BootCDs better. >> >> >> >> >> >> Best, >> >> >> >> Hermès >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Ros-dev mailing list >> Ros-dev@reactos.org >> http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev >> > >
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