![]() (So the fun begins) In spite of what VFATLIB headers pretend, there's not magic in FAT boot sector. The 3 first bytes are just the jump instruction (to the boot code). No jump, no boot. Also, some (many?) FAT implementations rely on the jump code to help detecting that a FAT volume is really a FAT volume. Like MS FastFAT. Or our own FAT recognizer in FS_REC. The story is that, up to that commit, we zeroed the 3 first bytes; leading to broken FAT volumes. This got hidden in most cases by the fact that during setup, when we install boot loader, we erase parts of the boot sector, including the jump instruction, making the volume valid again. But that wouldn't fix secondary volumes where the boot loader isn't installed. And, also, imagine a scenario where you want to install ReactOS on a newly formatted volume with MS FastFAT instead of our own implementation... That would simply not work to the fact that the driver wouldn't recognize the fresh formatted volume! (So the non fashion begins) Fix this by putting a not that valid jump into the boot sector when formatting our partitions. That way, our volume is always regarding a FAT view point. But, instead of putting values that mean (nearly) nothing. We should also put a dummy bootloader displaying the user and error message, as done by dosfstools. (So the hope begins) This opens the way for trying to install ReactOS with MS FastFAT (doesn't work yet). CORE-11819 CORE-14362 |
||
---|---|---|
.github | ||
base | ||
boot | ||
dll | ||
drivers | ||
hal | ||
media | ||
modules | ||
ntoskrnl | ||
sdk | ||
subsystems | ||
win32ss | ||
.gitattributes | ||
.gitignore | ||
.gitmessage | ||
.travis.yml | ||
apistatus.lst | ||
appveyor.yml | ||
CMakeLists.txt | ||
configure.cmd | ||
configure.sh | ||
CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
COPYING | ||
COPYING.ARM | ||
COPYING.LIB | ||
COPYING3 | ||
COPYING3.LIB | ||
CREDITS | ||
Doxyfile | ||
INSTALL | ||
PreLoad.cmake | ||
README.md | ||
toolchain-clang.cmake | ||
toolchain-gcc.cmake | ||
toolchain-msvc.cmake |
Quick Links
What is ReactOS?
ReactOS™ is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with applications and drivers written for the Microsoft® Windows™ NT family of operating systems (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Seven).
The ReactOS project, although currently focused on Windows Server 2003 compatibility, is always keeping an eye toward compatibility with Windows Vista and future Windows NT releases.
The code of ReactOS is licensed under GNU GPL 2.0.
Building
To build the system it is strongly advised to use the ReactOS Build Environment (RosBE). Up-to-date versions for Windows and for Unix/GNU-Linux are available from our download page at: http://www.reactos.org/wiki/Build_Environment.
Alternatively one can use Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) version 2010+. Building with MSVC is covered here: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Building_with_MSVC.
Binaries
To build ReactOS you must run the configure
script in the directory you want to have your build files. Choose configure.cmd
or configure.sh
depending on your system. Then run ninja <modulename>
to build a module you want or just ninja
to build all modules.
Bootable images
To build a bootable CD image run ninja bootcd
from the
build directory. This will create a CD image with a filename bootcd.iso
.
See "Building ReactOS" for more details.
Installing
ReactOS currently can only be installed on a machine that has a FAT16 or FAT32 partition as the active (bootable) partition. The partition on which ReactOS is to be installed (which may or may not be the bootable partition) must also be formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. ReactOS Setup can format the partitions if needed.
To install ReactOS from the bootable CD distribution, extract the archive contents. Then burn the CD image, boot from it, and follow the instructions.
See "Installing ReactOS" Wiki page or INSTALL for more details.
Testing
If you discover a bug in ReactOS search on JIRA first - it might be reported already. If not report the bug providing logs and as many information as possible.
See "File Bugs" for a guide.
NOTE: The bug tracker is not for discussions. Please use #reactos
Freenode IRC channel or our forum.
Contributing ![prwelcome.badge](https://img.shields.io/badge/PR-welcome-0688CB.svg)
We are always looking for developers! Check how to contribute if you are willing to participate.
You can also support ReactOS by donating! We rely on our backers to maintain our servers and accelerate development by hiring full-time devs.
More information
ReactOS is a Free and Open Source operating system based on the Windows architecture, providing support for existing applications and drivers, and an alternative to the current dominant consumer operating system.
It is not another wrapper built on Linux, like WINE. It does not attempt or plan to compete with WINE; in fact, the user-mode part of ReactOS is almost entirely WINE-based and our two teams have cooperated closely in the past.
ReactOS is also not "yet another OS". It does not attempt to be a third player like any other alternative OS out there. People are not meant to uninstall Linux and use ReactOS instead; ReactOS is a replacement for Windows users who want a Windows replacement that behaves just like Windows.
More information is available at: https://www.reactos.org.
Also see the media/doc subdirectory for some sparse notes.
Who is responsible
Active devs are listed as members of GitHub organization. See also the CREDITS file for others.
Code mirrors
The main development is done on GitHub. We have an alternative mirror in case GitHub is down.
There is also an obsolete SVN archive repository that is kept for historical purposes.