|
|
| The FreeDOS Project > Files > Beta9 Prerelease 2 | |
Download FreeDOS software:
2003-08-25
The FreeDOS Beta 9 Distribution is now available at ibiblio and Fdos.org. This release is available as an ISO image only , please see the readme file for more info.
Hello list,
FreeDOS beta9 prerelease 2 has been released to update a few programs and to solve some problems, like people running SYS and ending up with an unbootable operating system because of MetaKern on the bootdisk as kernel.sys source location. Also some improvements in the installation code have been made [ \freedos\postinst.bat ] and the bootdisk now uses a bootsector which survives disk imaging/resizing programs. Thus, FreeDOS is ready for mass pc deployment using tools like Ghost/DriveImage/DriveSnapshot. Many thanks go to Tom Ehlert, Luchezar Georgiev, Eric Auer, Jon Gentle and Bart Oldeman for improving both the bootsector and the SYS tool.
Finally, a brand new KEYBOARD driver has been integrated. Please have a look at the readme file for detailed disk layout and RAM usage information.
This is a prerelease because it provides only the Base diskset and the corresponding sources for it. The FULL Beta 9 distribution will be ready in a few months, but there's no reason to delay any updates/improvements until then.
Let this be a continued effort for the push towards a version 1.0, which will hopefully be ready by 29 April 2004, when the FreeDOS project celebrates it's 10th anniversery since Jim Hall founded it back in '94
Beta 9 can be obtained from Ibiblio.
With kind regards,
Bernd Blaauw
Updates to BASE include:
- Kernel 2031 [was 2030]
- Sys 2.7beta, improved bootsector support, BOOTONLY option now works as expected [was 2.6]
- FC version 2.22 [was 2.21]
- ShsuCDX 2.1, which uses less RAM, improved by Jason Hood (was 1.4b, John H McCoy)
- KEYB2 Prototype4 (was: Xkeyb 1.15)
- Append 0.1 , by Jesse Smith (non functional prototype)
Other disksets have not been included due to lack of time and diskspace (and especially download time)
Updates for the ISO only include:
- ISOLINUX/MEMDISK 2.06 [was 2.05]
Updates for the bootdisk and installation include:
- Added support for scripted DriveSnapshot restores
- Processor detection tool (CPUDET.COM) added, thanks to Eric Auer.
- Menu's indicate what needs to be done
- Memtest86 version 3.0 option available for RAM testing.
Please see History.txt in the ISOLINUX directory of the cdrom for the complete set of changes.
You can easily integrate this cdrom distribution to your custom cdrom by adding the software and running MAKEISO.BAT in the ISOLINUX\BUILDCD directory.
Mirrors of the Beta9:
Were you looking for the source code?
You may want to visit the FreeDOS developer page at SourceForge to get the source for the kernel, FreeCOM, and Install program. For more source code to FreeDOS, refer to the maintainers list.
Files archive:
Primary download at ibiblio (formerly Sunsite):
Mirrors of the FreeDOS files archive:
- gd.tuwien.ac.at(www)
- gd.tuwien.ac.at(ftp)
- planetmirror.com(www)
- planetmirror.com(ftp)
- powerlink.no(www)
- rediris.es(www)
- rediris.es(ftp)
- wermlandsdata.com(www) (Sweden)
- If you would like to mirror the FreeDOS files archive, please email the webmaster!