Author Topic: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)  (Read 28162 times)

zoward

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ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« on: May 27, 2017, 04:11:14 pm »
I hadn't worked with OS/2 in 25 years.  The last time I was using it, I had it running alongside DOS 6.2, WfW 3.11, and Yggdrasil linux, all booting from OS/2 boot manager, on a 486/DX2-based custom-built PC in my parents' basement.  Time marched on, OS/2 support for hardware faded, and I moved over to linux.  Anyway, I recently read a news article  about ArcaOS on Slashdot and bought a copy, hoping to tinker with it the way I did in the old days.

I downloaded it and installed it to Virtualbox on a linux desktop machine.  It installed fairly easily, and most of the hardware came up once I had the guest additions installed.  I played with it for a while, and got most of the hardware working correctly.  All well and good!

Installing it to bare hardware has proven to be more of a challenge.  I'm working with an Asus EEE 301, based off a dual core hyperthreading Atom D270, 4 GB RAM.  I have a Verbatim external DVD drive.  Linux reports the network adapters as a Realtek RTL 8111/8168/8411 rev 6 chipset, and the wireless as an Atheros 9485 rev 1 chipset.  The former has a driver in ArcaOS, the latter doesn't.

I installed ArcaOS.  i got the audio up and running using the Uniaud driver.  Graphics seem to work best using the default Panorama driver.  The Verbatim DVD drive works, and reports as drive S:.  The four front panel USB 2.0 ports work fine, but the two SS ports on the back don't.  What is annoying about this is that while the USB ports work, they won't recognize a USB stick (I'm wondering if I need to manually install a FAT32 driver?), and since networking isn't working yet either (more on that in a sec), I have to burn files to a CD to get them onto the machine.  But, 25 years later, here I am in my own basement running OS/2's descendant - it feels pretty good!  I'm starting to find my way around the system again.  I was elated to see that Hobbes is still up and running - I spent a lot of time there back in the day.  My eventual goal here is to get ArcaOS doing all the regular daily things I do on a linux machine - surf the web, read my e-mail, listen to music, read (and edit) documents, and (hopefully, eventually), use a VPN client to connect to my work.   Looking forward to doing some REXX scripting as well.

My first major stumbling block is that I can't get networking up and running.  I figured getting wireless running was going to be a laborious process, so I ran a cat5 cable from my router to the machine in my basement .  The hardware manager reports that the driver (RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabyte Ethernet Network Adapter) is loaded and assigned IRQ 16 and a range of IO and  memory locations.  The hardware and the wire connecting it are both tested and work currently under linux.  The DHCP monitor for lan0 reports:

DDNS host name:   Not Registered
IP Address:               Not Configured
Lease remaining:    None
Status:                        Discovering DHCP servers.

It sends DISCOVER packets every 20 seconds or so (with number of options requested: 6).  It never gets a response. 

ifconfig lan0 returns:

flags-8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,LOOPBRD>
inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0xffffffff

I suspect that lan0 isn't really bound to the hardware, but I have no idea how to troubleshoot this.  I went looking through documentation that came with ArcaOS, but the install guide is pretty basic and doesn't cover networking in detail.  There are forum posts about networking, but they're sporadic and split across Warp 4, eComStation and ArcaOS, so it's hard to tell what's still relevant.  I thought I'd post this in case anyone can think of any obvious things I might not have configured (or might have misconfigured), maybe a parameter or two I'm not passing?   Thoughts?  I'll post a ticket later if I still can't get it working.

Meanwhile, on the wireless front, I found Martin's documentation for testing a generic Win32 wrapper with eComStation (thanks Martin!), and I thought I might give that a try with an XP driver I dug up for the Atheros chipset.  Does anyone know if it's still relevant with ArcaOS?  I noticed some of the directories the drivers are supposed to be put in for the drivers have "ECS" in them and don't currently exist in ArcaOS.  However, I noticed genmac ships with ArcaOS.  I'm not sure if the files would go in a different directory than in the guide, or if the guide is outdated and it won't work at all.  The doc is at http://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Testing_an_UnSupported_Network_Driver_with_GenMAC (sorry for inlining it but I'm not sure how the url tags work in this editor).

Alternately, if I can't get either network adapter working I may end up buying a USB-based wireless dongle.  Has anyone had success with a dongle they would recommend?

If anyone has any thoughts about any of this, I would appreciate hearing them.  Thanks!



Dave Yeo

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2017, 06:36:53 pm »
Hi Howard, welcome back to OS/2.
About the USB sticks, problem is that OS/2 doesn't recognize the large floppy format (no partition table) that most sticks use, so they need to be wiped, partitioned and LVM info added. Easiest is to download Dfsee (dfsee.com) which has a script to make USB sticks OS/2 friendly. DFsee is shareware but fully functional, the cost gives very good support.
About the realtek network driver, someone else can walk you through it but in short, there are a few different chipsets on the realtek cards that need different drivers, you probably need a different realtek driver. Doug seems to be the expert on those cards, so hopefully he'll be along to expand on it.

Ian Manners

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2017, 06:37:25 pm »
Hi Howard,

Can you get ifconfig lan0 to hold the values if you manually enter something like :-
   ifconfig lan0 192.168.1.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 metric 0
from the commandline ?

And what does
 netstat -n return on the way of interfaces?
Mainly just want to make sure your Interface 0  is Ethernet and that Ethernet isnt on a different interface.

There are other things we can check but first I'd need to know what utilities are included with ArcaOS in the way of listing hardware, maybe someone else will chime in :)
Cheers
Ian B Manners

Pete

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2017, 11:27:27 pm »
Hi Howard

I installed ArcaOS to a Dell laptop fitted with an unsupported wireless nic - an Intel 5100 [8086:4232]. As I had this nic working with eCS previously I had a set of genmac drivers handy to install after the ArcaOS install finished.

That did not work as planned as when installed the driver failed to load during boot with something like "No valid hardware found".

Knowing that the drivers actually work with this card I double checked which version of genmac I had been using with eCS - turned out to be a different version. Not sure if the ArcaoS version is limited to loading only the drivers supplied with ArcaOS but replacing the ArcaOS version with the version I had used with eCS resulted in a working wireless nic. I think the ArcaOS version may be 2.20 and the version I am using successfully is 2.21

You may want to have a look through the genmac newsgroup - news.gmane.org:gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user - and ask questions about genmac and various driver packages available although I must admit to having no idea if the Atheros is supported - you will need the vendor:device IDs to check.

After a lot of faffing around trying different install options and discovering that xwlan did not get installed - possibly due to selecting the NULLNDIS nic - I opted for selecting a similar genmac wireless nic during ArcaOS install in order to make sure that all needed software got installed.

At the end of ArcaOS installation I used Warpin (Install/Remove folder) to uninstall the genmac package, installed genmac 2.21, then installed the wirless nic driver I needed, followed by running the Adapters and Protocols (System Setup -> Network) to *Change*  the nic.

Following a reboot all worked well  :-)


With regard to the wired nic, Realtek 8168/8111: I am running 1 of those in my eCS Desktop using the MMRE driver so have to ask which driver you picked? - and, as there seem to be problems with it, suggest you try the alternative driver by using the Change button in Adapters and Protocols.


Regards

Pete

zoward

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2017, 12:53:19 pm »
Thanks for the info.  If I use ifconfig to set the address of lan0, it does hold it.  I tried this with both 192.168.1.4, and 10.0.0.3/255.0.0.0 since my router is on the 192.168.1.0/16 address space.  A call to ifconfig lan0 confirms the new address, netmask and broadcast address. 

netstat -n returns device 0 as Ethernet-CSMA/CD and the device's MAC address, MTU 1500, speed 1000000000 bits/sec, broadcast packets sent 10, total bytes sent 5352, all other values 0.

netstat -arp has an extra line for the routing table based on the new address, but states: no ARP table entries present.


zoward

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2017, 12:54:31 pm »
Sorry, meant this as a reply to Ian's message above... 

zoward

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2017, 01:20:12 pm »
Pete, thanks for the info.  There are  only two RealTek RTL8111 drives in ArcaOS.  They map to  MMRE.OS2 and R8169.OS2.  I tried both.  They behave almost exactly the same with regard to the system, ie, they bind device 0 to the MAC address, but I don't get an ARP table entry and the DHCP requests go unanswered. The MMRE.OS2 has no parameters.   The 8169 driver has three parameters, all blank.  I tried setting the address to the device's MAC address, the Medium Type to 1000FULL, and the use receive chain to both Yes, then No, and nothing significant changed.

Hi Howard

I installed ArcaOS to a Dell laptop fitted with an unsupported wireless nic - an Intel 5100 [8086:4232]. As I had this nic working with eCS previously I had a set of genmac drivers handy to install after the ArcaOS install finished.

That did not work as planned as when installed the driver failed to load during boot with something like "No valid hardware found".

Knowing that the drivers actually work with this card I double checked which version of genmac I had been using with eCS - turned out to be a different version. Not sure if the ArcaoS version is limited to loading only the drivers supplied with ArcaOS but replacing the ArcaOS version with the version I had used with eCS resulted in a working wireless nic. I think the ArcaOS version may be 2.20 and the version I am using successfully is 2.21

You may want to have a look through the genmac newsgroup - news.gmane.org:gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user - and ask questions about genmac and various driver packages available although I must admit to having no idea if the Atheros is supported - you will need the vendor:device IDs to check.

After a lot of faffing around trying different install options and discovering that xwlan did not get installed - possibly due to selecting the NULLNDIS nic - I opted for selecting a similar genmac wireless nic during ArcaOS install in order to make sure that all needed software got installed.

At the end of ArcaOS installation I used Warpin (Install/Remove folder) to uninstall the genmac package, installed genmac 2.21, then installed the wirless nic driver I needed, followed by running the Adapters and Protocols (System Setup -> Network) to *Change*  the nic.

Following a reboot all worked well  :-)


With regard to the wired nic, Realtek 8168/8111: I am running 1 of those in my eCS Desktop using the MMRE driver so have to ask which driver you picked? - and, as there seem to be problems with it, suggest you try the alternative driver by using the Change button in Adapters and Protocols.


Regards

Pete

zoward

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2017, 02:43:36 pm »
Thanks for the info, Dave!  Interestingly, I put my 8 GB stick into a linux machine, and used fdisk to change the partition type to 7 (HPFS/NTFS/exFAT), and it now works under both my linux desktop and ArcaOS.

Hi Howard, welcome back to OS/2.
About the USB sticks, problem is that OS/2 doesn't recognize the large floppy format (no partition table) that most sticks use, so they need to be wiped, partitioned and LVM info added. Easiest is to download Dfsee (dfsee.com) which has a script to make USB sticks OS/2 friendly. DFsee is shareware but fully functional, the cost gives very good support.
About the realtek network driver, someone else can walk you through it but in short, there are a few different chipsets on the realtek cards that need different drivers, you probably need a different realtek driver. Doug seems to be the expert on those cards, so hopefully he'll be along to expand on it.

Ian Manners

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2017, 03:05:53 pm »
Hi,

Just a thought, do others need to make a manual change in x:\ibmcom\protocol.ini for gigabyte cards anymore?

ie, the line with ETHERAND_TYPE I normally set to "D", MPTS sets it to "I" as a default.

Was this fixed with new drivers?
Cheers
Ian B Manners

Andi B.

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2017, 04:44:35 pm »
Quote
...the Medium Type to 1000FULL...
You're absolutely sure you want this instead AUTO? Means your counterpart has to have the same fixed link type and speed too. With 1000Base-T ethernet (maybe even 100Base-TX, I forgot about) auto negotiation is mandatory. Forced modes when not done on both ends asks for troubles. Be warned.

Dave Yeo

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2017, 06:31:56 pm »
Thanks for the info, Dave!  Interestingly, I put my 8 GB stick into a linux machine, and used fdisk to change the partition type to 7 (HPFS/NTFS/exFAT), and it now works under both my linux desktop and ArcaOS.

That's interesting. Guess the important part is being partitioned rather then a large floppy.
Note that there is an alternative USB stack maintained by Lars that can handle the large floppy format. It's more of an experimental branch and unsupported by Arca Noae.

zoward

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #11 on: May 28, 2017, 06:51:49 pm »
No, I was experimenting, trying to see if ArcaOS was having trouble determining the speed of the connection.  It was one of several things I tried before setting them back to the defaults.  Thank you for the explanation though - good to know.

Quote
...the Medium Type to 1000FULL...
You're absolutely sure you want this instead AUTO? Means your counterpart has to have the same fixed link type and speed too. With 1000Base-T ethernet (maybe even 100Base-TX, I forgot about) auto negotiation is mandatory. Forced modes when not done on both ends asks for troubles. Be warned.

Pete

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #12 on: May 28, 2017, 11:26:53 pm »
Hi Howard

I seem to recall reading somewhere, possibly the genmacs users newsgroup, that whether an OS/2 Realtek driver works or not does not depend just on vendor:device IDs but also on the Revision number. This possibly ties in with different chipsets used.

I do know that the 10EC:8168 in use here shows as Revision 6 when investigating the hardware from Windows 7.


Regards

Pete

zoward

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #13 on: May 28, 2017, 11:59:15 pm »
Mine is the same - rev 6 according to Xubuntu linux, which I had on the hardware before ArcaOS.   Also, the vendor/product ID combo returned from PCI.EXE for the chipset matches one of the ones the ArcaOS MultiMac documentation says the driver supports.  Still no luck so far.

Hi Howard

I seem to recall reading somewhere, possibly the genmacs users newsgroup, that whether an OS/2 Realtek driver works or not does not depend just on vendor:device IDs but also on the Revision number. This possibly ties in with different chipsets used.

I do know that the 10EC:8168 in use here shows as Revision 6 when investigating the hardware from Windows 7.


Regards

Pete

Alex Taylor

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Re: ArcaOS - new install (and a few questions)
« Reply #14 on: May 29, 2017, 12:23:07 am »
The first thing I'd do is check in \ibmcom\lantran.log for possible error messages.  That should tell you whether the driver bound to the MAC hardware successfully or not.

You said that setting a manual address and route gets retained, but you didn't mention whether connectivity actually works if you do this.

If you get no connectivity even with no errors in LANTRAN.LOG and manual address/mask/gateway configured, you will probably need to open a ticket on the MMRE MAC driver and report as much of your MAC hardware information (especially PCI IDs and revisions) as possible.  This information should be contained in the machine.cfg file in your \sys\install\rsp directory.