INSTALL

   1 1. Build environment
   2 --------------------
   3
   4 To build the system it is strongly advised to use the ReactOS Build Environment
   5 (RosBE). Up-to-date versions for Windows and for Unix/GNU-Linux are available
   6 from our download page at: http://www.reactos.org/wiki/Build_Environment/
   7
   8 Alternatively one can use Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) version 2010+, together
   9 with separate installations of CMake and the Ninja build utility.
  10
  11
  12 2. Building ReactOS
  13 -------------------
  14
  15 A throughout guide for how to build ReactOS can be found at:
  16   http://www.reactos.org/wiki/Building_ReactOS
  17
  18 In the following we only make a quick overview.
  19
  20
  21 2.1 Building the binaries
  22
  23 To build ReactOS run 'ninja' (without the quotes), or alternatively run
  24 'make' if you are using the Make utility, from the top directory.
  25 NOTE: In the other examples listed in the following, similar modification
  26 holds if you are using the Make utility instead of Ninja.
  27 If you are using RosBE, follow on-screen instructions.
  28
  29
  30 2.2 Building a bootable CD image
  31
  32 To build a bootable CD image run 'ninja bootcd' (without the quotes) from the
  33 top directory. This will create a CD image with a filename, ReactOS.iso, in
  34 the top directory.
  35
  36
  37 3. Installation
  38 ---------------
  39
  40 By default, ReactOS can only be installed on a machine that has a FAT16 or FAT32
  41 partition as the active (bootable) partition. The partition on which ReactOS is
  42 to be installed (which may or may not be the bootable partition) must also be
  43 formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. ReactOS Setup can format the partitions if
  44 needed.
  45
  46 Starting 0.4.10, ReactOS can be installed using the BtrFS file system. But
  47 consider this as an experimental feature and thus regressions not triggered on
  48 FAT setup may be observed.
  49
  50 ReactOS can be installed from the source distribution or from the bootable CD
  51 distribution. The two ways to install ReactOS are explained below.
  52
  53
  54 3.1 Installation from sources
  55
  56 If you don't have an existing ReactOS installation you want to upgrade, then
  57 build a bootable CD as described above. Burn the CD image, boot from it, and
  58 follow the instructions to install ReactOS.
  59
  60 If you have an existing ReactOS installation you want to upgrade, then to
  61 install ReactOS after building it, type 'ninja install'. This will create
  62 the directory 'reactos' in the top directory. Copy the contents of this
  63 directory over the existing installation.
  64
  65 If you don't want to copy the files manually every time you run a
  66 'ninja install', then you can specify the directory where the files are
  67 to be copied to during installation.
  68
  69 Set the ROS_INSTALL environment variable. If you are on Windows this could be
  70 done by:
  71
  72   set ROS_INSTALL=c:\reactos
  73
  74 If you are on Linux this could be done by:
  75
  76   export ROS_INSTALL=/mnt/windows/reactos
  77
  78 Now run 'ninja install' to install the files to the new location.
  79
  80
  81 3.2 Installation from bootable CD distribution
  82
  83 To install ReactOS from the bootable CD distribution, extract the archive
  84 contents. Then burn the CD image, boot from it, and follow instructions.
  85
  86
  87 4. Help
  88 -------
  89
  90 If you run into problems or have suggestions for making ReactOS better, please
  91 visit the address below. Mailing lists are available for a variety of topics,
  92 bugs should be submitted to JIRA and general chat takes place in the forums,
  93 or #reactos on freenode.
  94
  95 http://www.reactos.org/
  96
  97 ReactOS Development Team