nice to meet you

[yash]

Hello,

I am just subscribed, I do not know if I will contribute or not, need to browse the code
and the website for longer to see. Now the question:

Where is if any documentation to the ReactOS booting process in maximum details?

The area of my interest is to try to create Win32 console environement build from ReactOS.
That is no windows, no graphics. Only the command line, much like linux or freebsd after
the boot. 

My experience with ReactOS has never been any good. I guess few years ago when I first
heared of ReactOS, I tried to set it up, and got no luck. I keep trying every six month,
and few days ago I downloaded the .iso and - oops, no luck again, it now complains about
"cabinet not found", dude, this is an installation CD! So I guess I have to go
down to source and keep the stuff under control. And the first thing I want to know is the
boot process in details.

If anyone here is afraid of anonyms my name is Yakov Sudeikin I live in Siberia. I like
the idea of ReactOS and I just unsubscribed from other developer's mailing lists
([dev-freepascal] and [dev-shareware] got me bored finally) and it looks I cannot simply
live without being a part of [dev-something].

Yash

[Ge van Geldorp]

>   From: yash
>
>  I am just subscribed 
Welcome!

>   Where is if any documentation to the ReactOS booting
> process
>  in maximum details? 
Like in many other open source projects, documentation is not our strongest
point... On the positive side, when you find some docs on how Windows does
something (lots of those floating around) then often it will apply to
ReactOS too.
The boot process with minimum details: First FREELDR.SYS is loaded (either
from the bootsector or by chainloading from e.g. NTLDR or GRUB). FreeLdr
will load the kernel, hal and (parts of) the registry. It will parse the
registry to find which boot-time drivers (and NLS data files) to load and
will actually load them. Some device detection is done and finally FreeLdr
will transfer control to the kernel.
The kernel will initialize itself and the drivers which were loaded by
FreeLdr. This should give it access to the disk. It will then proceed to
load other drivers. At the end of the boot process it will start the first
usermode app, the Session Manager Sub System (SMSS.EXE).
SMSS will load and start the environment subsystems (e.g. CSRSS.EXE, the
usermode Win32 subsystem and WIN32K.SYS, it's kernelmode counterpart). It
will also start WINLOGON.EXE, the logon process. WinLogon would normally be
responsible for logging in users, but since we don't support security yet
that's basically stubbed out. WinLogon will then start the users shell.

>   The area of my interest is to try to create Win32
> console
>  environement build from ReactOS. That is no windows, no
>  graphics. Only the command line, much like linux or freebsd
>  after the boot. 
Well, we already provide that. We don't switch to graphics mode until the
first graphics app is started. Normally the users shell will be set to
Explorer, that will be the first graphics app so we switch to graphics mode
after WinLogon has started the shell. However, by overriding the default
shell and setting it to CMD.EXE, no graphics app is started so we stay in
text mode. The easiest way to experiment with this is to just copy
\ReactOS\System32\cmd.exe to \ReactOS\explorer.exe. You can also change a
registry value.

>   My experience with ReactOS has never been any good. I
> guess
>  few years ago when I first heared of ReactOS, I tried to set
>  it up, and got no luck. I keep trying every six month, and
>  few days ago I downloaded the .iso and - oops, no luck again,
>  it now complains about "cabinet not found", dude, this is an
>  installation CD! 
Hmm, that's bad. Where did you obtain the .iso (which version is it)?

>   And the first thing I want to know is the boot process
> in details. 
If you have questions about specific parts of the boot process, just ask.
I'm sure there's someone on the list who can answer your questions. Also
feel free to add information you got which was useful to you to
http://wiki.reactos.com so it doesn't get lost.

Ge van Geldorp.

[Emanuele Aliberti]

A few more comments to what Ge van Geldorp wrote.

>  Like in many other open source projects, documentation
> is not our strongest
> point...
>  
Nature has no sort of own documentation I am aware of... but it is an 
excellent project! Many books were written later about it. ROS is just a 
few picoseconds after the Big Bang... ;)

>   On the positive side, when you find some docs on how
> Windows does
> something (lots of those floating around) then often it will apply to
> ReactOS too.
>   
>  
Apples are apples! iPods are iPods...

[omissis]

>  The kernel will initialize itself and the drivers which
> were loaded by
> FreeLdr. This should give it access to the disk. It will then proceed to
> load other drivers. At the end of the boot process it will start the first
> usermode app, the Session Manager Sub System (SMSS.EXE).
>   
>  
At this point, do not confuse that kind of session with a typical 
Unix/Windows user session. SM sessions are "emulated operating systems". 
At present, ReactOS boots only the emulated Win32(tm) session 
(CSRSS.EXE). We hope it will be able to boot more in the future.

>  SMSS will load and start the environment subsystems
> (e.g. CSRSS.EXE, the
> usermode Win32 subsystem and WIN32K.SYS, it's kernelmode counterpart). It
> will also start WINLOGON.EXE, the logon process. WinLogon would normally be
> responsible for logging in users, but since we don't support security yet
> that's basically stubbed out. WinLogon will then start the users shell.
>
>   
>  
Recently, in an attempt to clean the design a little to make the SM 
support easily other OS emulators, loading of WIN32K.SYS and running 
WINLOGON.EXE were moved in CSRSS.EXE.

-- 
:Emanuele Aliberti