I tried a Gateway Solo Pentium III with 288MB RAM (system from about 1998)
I can use CD-ROM to boot GPARTED, [ confirm CD-ROM is working ]
but I can't use DVD-R disc to boot ArcaOS [ drive on the side is labeled "DVD" etched in the plastic, so not a CD-ROM drive-only issue ]
Can't get USB boot working (BIOS only offers ATAPI Removeable media, perhaps it means the PCMCIA card slot?)
The system has 2x USB slots on the side - I also tried an external USB-DVD drive to boot ArcaOS, but that didn't work either
That machine should work (I seem to recall that Gateway did not make very good machines, so it may not), but will be pretty much useless (not enough memory). If the drive really is a DVD drive, it should boot, IF the machine is smart enough to do it. My similar vintage IBM ThinkPad A22e (with 256 MB memory, and DVD RW drive) installs ArcaOS, with no trouble. A few years ago, I tried to run the current Firefox (probably around version 20, at that time). It took 20 minutes to get to a blank home page. Forget PCMCIA, it is far more trouble than it is worth. ATAPI removeable probably means CD, or DVD. USB should also work, but it seems that the machine is not smart enough to boot from USB. You need to determine if the drive really is a DVD drive, and that it works properly.
I tried a Dell Precision M60 (circa 2001/2002)
Boot GPARTED CD, deleted ALL partitions (80GB old PATA drive)
System has F12 Boot Menu, selected USB Device
Booted ArcaOS from USB 2GB thumbdrive
Made 20GB Startable partition (JFS)
ArcaOS install went to 100% [ system beeped at 3% and 47%, not sure why ]
Reboot worked, ArcaOS loaded from HDD (and audio worked!)
Haven't tested networking yet - but excited to be able to try some OS/2 again!
This sounds like a candidate. First thing: put the GPARTED CD out of reach. It is okay to prove that you can boot from a CD, but DO NOT EVER use anything other than the tools in ArcaOS to partition disk drives that will be used with ArcaOS.
The beeps are part of the original OS/2 installer. Ignore them.
I tried a Shuttle XPS with Pentium E2180 CPU with 4GB RAM, 1TB SATA SSD (circa 2007 system)
[ the Shuttle XPS is some integrated IPS heatsink thing for the CPU, small motherboard - think a bit
smaller or more narrow than ATX; motherboard also has floppy disk (1x), PATA/IDE, and 2x SATA ]
I don't know anything about that machine. I suspect it is one of those things that need some special handling (or it just doesn't work).
For now, Learn on the DELL. You probably should do some serious reading at:
https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/, and ask more questions.
Is it possible to make a CD-ROM install of ArcaOS ? (sorry brand new here - didn't search yet )
It should be possible, but you had better know what you are doing if you want to try it. I suggest forgetting that approach.