End Users

By reading and/or using any information in this article, you are agreeing to our Disclaimer.

Using a Virtual Machine

This is for users who may find it easier to use a Virtual Machine. This is the method that The SharpOS Team uses.

Supported Virtual Machines

We have currently had great success using the following Virtual Machines.

• VMWare (R) – The player is free, the workstation is not.
• Microsoft Virtual PC (R) – Completely free for Microsoft Windows® Machines.
• Bochs – Free and Open Source (FOSS).
• VirtualBox (R) – Virtualization product developed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• QEMU – Open Source Machine Emulator.

Please refrain from using Parallels® on a Mac OS® System. Parallels® in an integrated Virtual Machine and may compromise your system if used with a Operating System not supported by Parallels® itself.

VMWare® Instructions

1. Ensure VMWare is installed and working.
2. Download the VMWare distribution.
3. Open the SharpOS.VMX file.

Microsoft Virtual PC® Instructions

1. Ensure Virtual PC is installed and working.
2. Download the Virtual PC distribution.
3. Open the SharpOS.VMC file.

Bochs

1. Ensure Bochs is installed and working.
2. Download the Bochs distribution.
3. Depending on your operating system:
   1. Windows: Open the SharpOS.BAT file.
   2. Linux: Open the SharpOS.SH file.

VirtualBox®

1. Ensure VirtualBox is installed and working.
2. Start VirtualBox and Create New Virtual Machine with name “SharpOS”, click next.
3. Choose Others/Unknown, click Next.
4. Leave default value for memory usage (64MB) and click Next.
5. Don’t select HardDisk, No HardDisk, click Next.
6. Click on Floppy to mount floppy device and load your SharpOS disk image (SharpOS.img or disk.img).
7. Run the virtual Machine and enjoy SharpOS.

QEMU

1. Ensure QEMU is installed and working.
2. Copy your SharpOS disk image (SharpOS.img or disk.img).
   1. Windows: (http://www1.interq.or.jp/~t-takeda/qemu/) Modify qemu-win.bat file, with this command line: qemu.exe -L . -m 128 -boot a -fda disk.img
   2. Run qemu-win.bat.
   3. Linux: qemu -m 128 -boot a -fda SharpOS.img

Using a Real Computer

We have had one person test SharpOS on seperate machines, with no issues what-so-ever.

Requirements

• A floppy disk (thumbdrives have not been tested), or a blank CD-R.
• DD: This utility allows images to be installed on disks (unless the user is using a CD-R).
  • Microsoft Windows (R): You must download dd.
  • Linux: DD should already be installed on your machine.
• Either:
  • The floppy disk image,
  • Or the ISO image.

Linux (Floppy Disk)

1. Ensure that your BIOS is set up to boot from a Floppy Disk.
2. Open your favorite shell.
3. You may need super-user rights (type su)
4. Use the cd command to navigate to the location where you put the image.
5. Type the following into the prompt:
   

   dd if=SharpOS.img of=/dev/fda bs=1440k
   

6. You may try replacing /dev/fda with the name of your thumbdrive, but this is not known to work.
   1. Note that writing images to drives erases all data on those drives. Proceed with caution.
7. Reboot your computer.

Microsoft Windows® (Floppy Disk)

1. Ensure that your BIOS is set up to boot from a Floppy Disk.
2. Click Start -> Run
3. Type cmd and press return.
4. Use the cd command to navigate to the location where you put the image.
5. Type the following into the prompt:
   

   dd if=SharpOS.img of=\\.\a: bs=1440k 
   

6. You may try replacing a: with the name of your thumbdrive, but this is not known to work.
   1. Note that writing images to drives erases all data on those drives. Proceed with caution.
7. Reboot your computer.

CD-R

You must use a program that is capable of writing an ISO image to a device. The default CD-R tools provided with Microsoft Windows® are not sufficient. The steps to perform this task depends entirely on the software you use.

Please ensure that your BIOS is set up to boot from a CD-ROM.

Screenshots

You can see screenshots of SharpOS in different emulators on Screenshots page.