Re: [ros-dev] [ros-general] ReactOS ISO support has been added in Rufus

[Pete Batard]

On 2014.01.03 18:58, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> What I would like to do, and about the only way I can see and test
> ReactOS, is to build from RosBE from FreeBSD or Linux, or Wine, and
> install onto a USB stick without having to make an intermediate
> boot/installation medium.

Then today may be your lucky day... ;)

But first things first (you may skip this part if you're only interested 
in UNIX, as Rufus is Windows only): Besides ISO support through 
Syslinux, the new BETA of Rufus [1] also adds the ability to install the 
ReactOS boot records, so that one can then boot freeldr.sys directly 
from USB. Unlike what's the case for the ISO, this is a bare install, so 
you will still need to copy your own freeldr.sys, freeldr.ini and 
relevant files to the USB. However, the hard part of the install 
(modifying the boot records) should now be taken care of for you.
Now, since this is an advanced feature, it's not made available in the 
UI by default. To access the bare ReactOS boot record installation, you 
must first enable Advanced Mode in Rufus, by clicking the white triangle 
next to "Format Options" and only then will you see "ReactOS" listed in 
the "Create a bootable disk" dropdown. It's the same way Rufus provides 
bare installation of Syslinux v4 & v5 boot records.

I tested freeldr.sys boot from USB using this method, after copying the 
same set of files as the one ReactOS creates for second stage 
installation, and it seems to work as good as one might expect (boots 
brilliantly, but then runs into ReactOS 0x7b, due to issues with USB 
support - at least on the systems I'm testing with).
I may eventually use this method to support ISOs, but for now, I'll 
stick with the syslinux -> mboot.c32 -> setupldr.sys for ISO support, 
while the direct freeldr.sys for more adventurous people.

Now, what may be of more interest for UNIX-derivative users, is that 
what Rufus really uses behind the scenes to install boot blocks is its 
own integrated version of ms-sys [2]. Thus, since I added ReactOS 
support in my own embedded version of ms-sys, I also went ahead and 
produced a generic UNIX version that can install the ReactOS bootblocks 
from the commandline, for freeldr support.

To use it, you'll first need to clone the relevant github repository [3] 
and then switch to the "rufus" branch of that repo, which is where I 
added the changes.

I'm also providing a fully detailed example of a run (git clone, branch 
switch, installation, etc), in the attached log, but basically, what you 
want to run is:

1. Fetching & compiling the source
# git clone https://github.com/pbatard/ms-sys.git
# cd ms-sys/
# git checkout rufus
# make

2. Installing the ReactOS boot blocks on an USB drive, here /dev/sda, 
after blanking its first sectors:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=8M count=8
# fdisk /dev/sda => create a FAT32 bootable partition
# mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1
# ./bin/ms-sys -0 /dev/sda => install the ReactOS MBR
# ./bin/ms-sys -O /dev/sda1 => install the ReactOS FAT32 PBR
# ./bin/ms-sys -p /dev/sda1 => write partition info [REQUIRED!]

Then you can just copy your files, and boot the drive.

Note that the MBR option is -0 (minus zero) and the second -O (minus 
uppercase O), and also that your drive _will NOT boot_ unless you also 
apply the -p option. Oh and if you want to complain about ms-sys (yeah, 
it would probably be nicer if it used getopt so that you could run 
multiple options at once), please remember that:
1. I am not the author of ms-sys
2. I use my own non-commandline, non-UNIX compatible version in Rufus
This means that, due to time constraints, I have little interest in 
improving my UNIX/ReactOS version of ms-sys (to add ext2 support for 
instance). I created it as fast as I could, in the hope that it would be 
useful for UNIX people (only tested FAT32 - I kind of expect FAT16 to be 
broken), and I may see with the author (Henrik Carlqvist) if he wants to 
integrate the ReactOS patches, but that'll be about it.
> There ought to be something like "make install DESTDIR=...".

Hopefully, now that you can use ms-sys on Linux/FreeBSD, you should be 
able to add an install step, that can invoke ms-sys to create a whole 
Live/USB system from scratch, to install the newly generated development 
binaries.
"All" that remains then, is to fix USB support in ReactOS, so that such 
a system can run as expected... ;)

Regards,

/Pete

[1] http://rufus.akeo.ie/downloads/
[2] http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net/
[3] https://github.com/pbatard/ms-sys/tree/rufus

root@sheeva:/usr/src# git clone https://github.com/pbatard/ms-sys.git
Cloning into ms-sys...
remote: Counting objects: 306, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (86/86), done.
remote: Total 306 (delta 203), reused 302 (delta 199)
Receiving objects: 100% (306/306), 84.59 KiB, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (203/203), done.
root@sheeva:/usr/src# cd ms-sys/
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# git checkout rufus
Branch rufus set up to track remote branch rufus from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'rufus'
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# make
mkdir -p dep
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/partition_info.d src/partition_info.c > dep/partition_info.d
mkdir -p obj
mkdir -p bin
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/partition_info.o src/partition_info.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/ntfs.d src/ntfs.c > dep/ntfs.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/ntfs.o src/ntfs.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/fat12.d src/fat12.c > dep/fat12.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/fat12.o src/fat12.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/fat16.d src/fat16.c > dep/fat16.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/fat16.o src/fat16.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/file.d src/file.c > dep/file.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/file.o src/file.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/br.d src/br.c > dep/br.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/br.o src/br.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/nls.d src/nls.c > dep/nls.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/nls.o src/nls.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/main.d src/main.c > dep/main.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/main.o src/main.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/fat32.d src/fat32.c > dep/fat32.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/fat32.o src/fat32.c
cc -MM -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -MT dep/identify.d src/identify.c > dep/identify.d
cc -O2 -ansi -pedantic -Wall -c -I inc -D PACKAGE="ms-sys" -D LOCALEDIR="/usr/local/share/locale" -idirafter include-fallback -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -o obj/identify.o src/identify.c
cc -o bin/ms-sys obj/partition_info.o obj/ntfs.o obj/fat12.o obj/fat16.o obj/file.o obj/br.o obj/nls.o obj/main.o obj/fat32.o obj/identify.o
mkdir -p mo
msgfmt -o mo/sv.mo po/sv.po
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=8M count=8
8+0 records in
8+0 records out
67108864 bytes (67 MB) copied, 2.41523 s, 27.8 MB/s
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# fdisk /dev/sda
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x7759d579.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.

Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-63487999, default 2048):
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-63487999, default 63487999):
Using default value 63487999

Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): c
Changed system type of partition 1 to c (W95 FAT32 (LBA))

Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
information.
Syncing disks.
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1
mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ./bin/ms-sys -0 /dev/sda
ReactOS master boot record successfully written to /dev/sda
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ./bin/ms-sys /dev/sda
/dev/sda has an x86 boot sector,
it is a ReactOS master boot record, like the one this
program creates with the switch -r on a hard disk device.
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ./bin/ms-sys -O /dev/sda1
FAT32 ReactOS boot record successfully written to /dev/sda1
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ./bin/ms-sys -p /dev/sda1
Start sector 2048 (nr of hidden sectors) successfully written to /dev/sda1
Physical disk drive id 0x80 (C:) successfully written to /dev/sda1
Number of heads (64) successfully written to /dev/sda1
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ./bin/ms-sys /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1 has a FAT32 file system.
/dev/sda1 has an x86 boot sector,
it is exactly the kind of FAT32 ReactOS boot record this program
would create with the switch -O on a FAT32 partition.
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ls /ext/reactos_files/
ReactOS/  freeldr.ini  freeldr.sys
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ls /mnt/usb
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# cp -r /ext/reactos_files/* /mnt/usb
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# ls /mnt/usb
ReactOS/  freeldr.ini*  freeldr.sys*
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys# umount /mnt/usb
root@sheeva:/usr/src/ms-sys#