OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: Hughes on June 05, 2017, 04:26:07 am

Title: my journey back to a functional os/2 system
Post by: Hughes on June 05, 2017, 04:26:07 am
Hello Everyone

Background:
Firstly, being Canadian I must apologize; to the purists out there, if I get the jargon/terminology wrong; too many past lives and I can't necessarily be bothered to to keep everything straight. A shovel is still a shovel, whether called a scuttle, a
spade or a goon-spoon; unless the word has been used as the basis for an acronym where it becomes anyone's guess.

I started using os/2 with Warp 3 (red?) add your own Windows and several fists-full of floppies (they formatted nicely and were re-purposed)), and then on through Warp 3 (blue?) on CD, Warp Connect, Warp 4, and eCS 1.0 -> eCS 2.2b. Most installations were
on salvaged/castoff used hardware. I'm a HOME user/hobbyist, late 60s, and only know enough about programming etc. to be extremely dangerous.The same with Networking.  I had eCS 2.1 & 2.2b on another, holding, machine but they were beyond unstable and virtually unusable, I did manage to update them to the ArcaNoae drivers and package manager.

I am an unrepentant "lurker" on some of the various sites and forums, from back, at least, to Dr. Terrel's OS/2 Site.
Generally, joining in only when I think I mght have something to possibly add to the knowledge of the Collective. There are many wiser and more knowledgeable than me; whose, over the years, unknowing Mentor-ship I've valued and appreciated beyond words, thank you all! When possible I've tried to support the os/2 Community eve though I've been mostly stuck in a windows world.

Now on to ArcaNoae's ARCAOS5.

The Victim:

- Asus M5A97_LE_R20 (2013 vintage) w/ AMD FX-8350 (8 core) 4g CPU, 8g RAM;
             http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/ (http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/)
             http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/HelpDesk/ (http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/HelpDesk/)
   BIOS is as purchased (not updated); with EUFI changed to CSM (Legacy) and all disk controllers switched to AHCI (see BIOS screen shots)
This is all in a full height desktop (home theatre type) case, with front access to up to six 2.5" drive trays and 4 USB-2
ports. I've built this system up over time, as resources became available, as a general test-bed, and to be my os/2 machine and
anticipating it to probably be my last desktop machine.

Installation:
1. As write this I don't have the computer in front of me so I'm relying on "old timers" memory so things may be out of order
or not be worded correctly;

2. was onto a os/2 dedicated 64g ssd, Partitioned with DFSee (geo 64 hds 32 sec) with DFSees's IBM Boot Manager installed first
on the front of the drive. [note: with any empty drive I'm partitioning, I always install DFSees's IBM Boot Manager active or
not as the first partition, it keeps the subsequent partitions aligned, if for no other reason.
 
3.CD start-up, I chose:
-"Boot with own values" and from the pre-installer boot accepted all defaults (ACHI, etc.), except I reserved drv W, enabled the disk integrity check, changed the USB devices to 6 and made sure the USB floppy & CD (bootable) were enabled.

4. Actual Installer
Once I figured out the what, where, and why of the installer and myself, the installs went relatively quickly and smoothly. I ended up with what seems to be a solid base for the system:
5. Gotchas (maybe from operator error/stupidity), or that nothing has been tweaked, the contents of "config.sys", etc. are as
installed:
If Life in general allows me computing time, I should soon be back in the os/2 world with what seems to be stablity and a base that I can build a fully functioning system on.

Thank you ArcaNoae, your Associates, Collaborators, Developers, Testors, and the others handling the minutia of other tasks involved in putting a project like this together.

Regards and best wishes to ALL
Jim Hughes

ps: because of posting size limitations the BIOS screen shots will be in a subsequent post or 2 as zip files
Title: Re: my journey back to a functional os/2 system M5A97_BIOS-1st_half screen shots
Post by: Hughes on June 05, 2017, 04:28:36 am
as promised Bios screen shots 1st half
Title: Re: my journey back to a functional os/2 system M5A97_BIOS-2nd_half screen shots
Post by: Hughes on June 05, 2017, 04:30:20 am
as promised 2nd half of the bios screen shots
Title: Re: my journey back to a functional os/2 system an additional screenshot
Post by: Hughes on June 05, 2017, 04:47:16 am
Sorry about the number of posts but as I said I don't post much, especially attachments There is only one SNAP based shot the other two are Panorama


Regards
Jim
Title: Re: my journey back to a functional os/2 system
Post by: Doug Bissett on June 05, 2017, 05:11:16 am
Hi Jim. I don't have time to go through this in detail, but i get the impression that your system is similar to my Asus A88XM-A system. Mine works quite well, but I will make a couple of comments.

About using SNAP or Panorama. Panorama is preferred, unless SNAP will run the video in accelerated mode. That probably means video that is 20, or more, years old. SNAP will install to 1024x768, no matter what the video system is capable of., but you can change it using the selections shown, or by using the SNAP tools.

Bottom line: Use Panorama on any modern machine, at least until Arca Noae has a chance to make some serious changes to SNAP.

I also notice that you have an 8 core processor. I am not sure where multiple CPU support stands. I know that 4 cores work, but there have been problems with more than 4. in the past. Try limiting it to 4 cores, until you get it going.

Quote
on-board USB is mostly USB 3, but with USB 2 pass-through ?xUHCD & ?xEHCD

That probably requires a USB 3.x driver, which we do not have, yet. I don't know if disabling USB 3.x actually causes the devices to work in USB 2.0 mode, with a USB 2.0 driver. That doesn't work on my Lenovo ThinkPad L530 (Intel).

Quote
4 port KVM carrying both DVI & VGA, USB keyboard/mouse, 2 switched USB other stuff ports.

I  am not really familiar with KVM switches, but some devices have caused problems for some users, in the past. Try direct connections, until you get it working.