Installing TinkerOS

Welcome to TinkerOS live! You can look around without installing.

If you want to install TinkerOS and you do not care about anything on the 
computer you are running on you can try the automated installer.  This will 
replace all data on the first hard drive it finds with TinkerOS so be sure you 
that is ok with you!  If you want to try alternative graphics modes you should 
consider first booting Super Grub and using the vbeinfo tool to figure out which 
modes your hardware supports or better yet boot the VBE tool from the USB image. 
 The TinkerOS installer does not filter out invalid modes unfortunately, so if 
you pick one graphics will fail to initialize and you will end up in text mode.  
This not a big deal, you can simply do a re-install on just that partition with 
a different graphics mode.

Hopefully the automated installer will work for you, however if it does not you 
may still be able to install TinkerOS.  The original TempleOS hard drive probing 
code and disk partitioner are not always up to the task.  TinkerOS has attempted 
to improve upon the process a bit, but sometimes a manual paritioning and 
entering of I/O ports is required.  Usually all that needs to be done is to 
create a msdos (not GPT) partition table on the drive and create a primary FAT 
32 partition for each TinkerOS install you want.  Then you can try going back 
and installing again not using the automated installer.  If you can't find the 
drive (or probing causes issues on your hardware) you can run lscpi in Linux to 
try to find the I/O ports and choose no to probing.

Dual booting with another operating system which can read FAT 32 partitions is 
handy for backup and transferring files.

The ::/Misc/OSInstall.HC script will automate much of this.  It runs if you boot 
the CD/DVD-ROM.

See Boot.DD for an overview of booting.  See Requirements for supported 
hardware.

Two TinkerOS partitions are highly recommended, so you can boot to a back-up and 
fix the primary when you work on it.  Odds are, you only need a couple gigabytes 
for your TinkerOS partitions.

1)
  Mount() use if the drive is partitioned.
    This command mounts a drive making it accessible.  For simplicity, sel 'C' 
    as the first drive letter for your hard drive.  The first partition will be 
    'C', second, 'D', etc.  TinkerOS needs 3 numbers to utilize a hard drive -- 
    base0, base1, and unit.  When you enter a hexadecimal number, do it like in 
    C with a 0x prefix.  If the probe was successful, you can just enter the 
    number in the probe box instead of base0.
  
  DskPrt('C') use if drive is not partitioned
  
    This will perform a special Mount() automatically.
    
    WARNING:  This command erases everything on a hard drive.  It repartitions a 
    whole drive and formats the partitions.  This command should be skipped if 
    you already have your hard drive partitioned.
    
    
    WARNING:  This command doesn't play well with other operating systems.  
    You'll need to do a BootMHDZero() to restore your drive to a state where 
    other operating systems can partition it.
  
2) Fmt('D',TRUE,FALSE,FSt_FAT32)
  This command formats a drive with FAT32 or the RedSea file system type.  Use 
  the drive letter of the partition in place of 'D'.
  
  WARNING:  If you are upgrading, be sure not to lose the file, /0000Boot/OldMBR
  .BIN.C.
  
3) CopyTree("T:/","D:/")
  This command is used to copy files onto a hard drive partition from the 
  CD/DVD.  Use the drive letter of the partition in place of 'D'.
  
4) BootHDIns('D')
  This command recompiles the source code on a drive and writes to the drive's 
  boot record.  You'll need to reenter the Mount information so it can be stored 
  in the kernel.
  
5) Use Linux's Grub or TinkerOS' BootMHDIns('D')
  
  The BootMHDIns() command places a boot loader on a drive.  It saves the old 
  master boot record to /0000Boot/OldMBR.BIN.C and replaces it.  When you boot, 
  you will have the option of booting the old master boot record.  This command 
  can be skipped if you already have a boot loader.  Be sure not to lose the 
  copy of the old boot record, like if you reformat the drive.
  
  Delete /0000Boot/OldMBR.BIN.C if you want to get a fresh copy of a mbr, like 
  if installing from your own custom CD containing it's own /0000Boot/OldMBR.BIN
  .C onto a system with a non-TinkerOS boot loader.
  
  If you have anti-virus software, it might object to having a different master 
  boot record.


* "Windows" is a trademark owned by MicroSoft Corp.
* "Linux" is a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds.