1. Build environment

To build the system you need either mingw32 installed on Windows or a mingw32
cross compiler running on unix.


2. Building ReactOS

To build from Windows run 'make' (wihout the quotes) from the top directory.
To build from unix, edit rules.mak and change the PREFIX variable to the
correct value for your cross-compiler, then run 'make'.


3. Installation

The system can only be installed on the first partition on the first harddisk.
The partition must be formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. The system can only be
started from DOS and not from a Windows DOS-prompt.

ReactOS can be installed from the source distribution or from the binary
distribution. The two ways to install ReactOS are explained below.


3.1 Installation from sources

To install ReactOS after building it, type 'make install'. This will create
the directory 'reactos' in the top directory. Copy this directory to the root
of your first partition on your first harddisk. This is usually c:\ on a
Windows machine.

If you don't want to copy the files manually every time you run a 'make install',
you can specify the directory where the files are to be copied to during
installation.

In rules.mak find the variable INSTALL_DIR and change the assigned value to the
name of the directory where the files are to be copied to. If you are using
Windows this could be:

    INSTALL_DIR = c:\reactos

If you are on linux this could be:

    INSTALL_DIR = /mnt/windows/reactos

Save the changes to rules.mak and run 'make install' to install the files to
the new location.


3.2 Installation from binany distribution

To install ReactOS from the binary distribution, extract the archive contents
to c:\reactos. Remember to extract the files with full paths.


4. Booting ReactOS

Startup in DOS mode. 'cd' to c:\reactos and type 'boot' and press <enter>.
ReactOS will now boot and when it has booted, you are asked for a username and
password. Just press <enter> twice as ReactOS does not currently have user
validation. A simple shell is started where you can use simple commands like
'cd' and 'dir'.

You may also want to try running the enhanced shell, cmd.exe, found in
the rosapps CVS module.


5. Help

If you run into problems or have suggestions for making ReactOS better, please
surf to the address below and subscribe to one or more of the mailing lists.

http://www.reactos.com/index.php?tab=discussion&section=lists

ReactOS Development Team
