Hi guys. I've heard loads of good stuff about BeOS, and am thinking of getting Zeta, but I'd like to try BeOS 5 out first. I've created a 5gig Be partition and can run BeOS using a boot floppy. I can run it fine and surf the web ok etc. When I try to run the install program though, it always crashes out halfway through (it says it's installing something.ppd, the 1st bit is always different). I tried to run the 5.0.1 upgrade and that crashes as well. I suspect it's a driver problem. I've got my nvidia drivers working, so that's not the problem, I suspect the IDE driver is crashing. My chipset is a VIA Appollo Pro 133. I've tried a couple of IDE drivers from BeBit, but they haven't helped. Any suggestions for further troubleshooting?

Get the Devoper Edition at bebits.com Install it after you burn it as per instructions. It should boot from CD and do an "install to" (you pick 5G) and run OK and it has the updates. Be sure you have less than 700M RAM.

Excellent, I didn't see this before! I was going to try the Max edition, but I think I'll go with this more official version now. Thanks!

Why not install BeOS PE to the 5gig partition and then you won't need a floppy. If you don't know how, just look at the Installer.

That's what I'm trying to do, but the install program always crashes the system midway through the installation process, which is why I'm having to use the boot floppy. I'm hoping that the Dev Edition installer doesn't do this on my system...

Excellent, the Developer Edition worked a treat. Thanks guys.

It was the replacement IDE. If you have the MAX beos you can use the disk. It still has a gob of programs. Actually the beosonline developer edition isn't the most legal. The yellowtab Zeta is the offical distro. It may or may not have the replacement IDE driver though.