Be, Inc., will continue to support BeBox hardware until January 1, 2000.  This appendix contains information about installing the BeOS on a BeBox, along with general pertinent usage information.

You install BeOS Release 4 the same way you've installed previous releases.  Before you install, however, follow these steps to upgrade the boot ROM:

1. Boot from the Release 4.0 CD.

2. In the /beos/etc folder, you'll see the ROMUpdater application and a file named bebox_bootmain.image.

3. Press the Control key and drag the bebox_bootmain.image icon onto the ROMUpdater icon.

4. A dialog tells you when the boot ROM has been upgraded.

5. Reboot and proceed with the installation.

Using Floppy Disks with the BeBox

You can reliably read/write to floppy disks on the BeBox. These types of floppies will work:

• Standard MS-DOS formatted 720K and 1.4MB disks

• Macintosh HD 1.4MB disks (but not Macintosh 800K disks)

• BFS formatted 720K and 1.4MB disks

Initialization

You can initialize MS-DOS and BFS floppies using the DriveSetup application. In the Setup menu, choose Initialize and then either Be File System or dos.... Note, however, that you cannot initialize Mac HFS floppies on the BeBox; those you wish to mount must already be initialized.

Mounting a Floppy

To access your DOS, BFS, or Mac HFS floppy, insert it in the floppy drive and mount it. You can do this using either DriveSetup's Mount command or the Mount command in the desktop context menu, or the context menu that appears when you right click on the icon of a mounted volume.

Using Drive Setup

1. Highlight the /dev/disk/floppy line in the DriveSetup window.

2. Choose Mount from the Mount menu to mount the initialized disk.

3. A floppy icon will appear on the desktop.

Using a Context Menu

1. Right-click on an open area of the desktop or on the icon of a mounted volume.

2. Choose Mount from the context menu that appears, and then choose the floppy.

3. A floppy icon will appear on the desktop.

The Be User's Guide, in lovely HTML, for BeOS Release 4.

Copyright © 1998 Be, Inc.  All rights reserved.

Last modified November 10, 1998.