Author Topic: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue  (Read 18758 times)

Doug Bissett

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2018, 09:22:30 pm »
I didn't read every word in this thread, so it may have been suggested already, but look in the BIOS for something suggesting "virus protection". What that does, when set, is prevent writing to the boot sector. Not a good thing when you are trying to change the disk layout.

Bogdan

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2018, 12:18:22 am »
Doug's advise can be extended to the SCSI host adapter BIOS. The used hard drive is quite big for this particular SCSI adapter. Different mappings can restrict the usable disk size. Not a problem for OS/2 at all. But it becomes a problem if you wan't to IPL from the local drive unit. So the install volume has to be below cylinder 1024.

You can try from command line: FDISK /NEWMBR

Otherwise replacing the hard drive unit with a model with lesser than 8GB and reducing the installed RAM to 16 MB should be the best option to install from the original diskettes.

Fahrvenugen

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2018, 03:44:03 am »
Hi,

A few thoughts.

If you have not already, grab warpinst.exe from IBM and copy replace older files on your boot disk(s) with files in the archives. Especially anything dealing with SCSI since you're working with a SCSI system - with perhaps the exception of the drivers that actually work with your SCSI card.  You can grab this file from:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v3.0warp/english-us/warpinst/

Yes, IBM still has OS/2 files available on its FTP servers!

The system memory should not be a problem.  The main issue with Warp 3 was that if the system had more then 64 MB, then Warp would not see memory above 64 MB. Once installed and up and running you can use patchldr from Hobbes to see the "extra" memory - up to 512 MB as I recall (the Warp 3 kernel has  a 512 MB limit)

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=patchldr&pushbutton=Search

For the hard disk, there is a limit on how big the boot drive partition can be in Warp 3.  The boot partition for OS/2 must be with the first 1024 cylinders of the disk - if the end of your boot partition is beyond the first 1024 cylinders then the install won't complete, the system won't boot.

For starters - try the install using the Advanced install, go into FDISK when it lets you do so, and delete all partitions on the drive.  Select the option to write the changes to the disk and then reboot - power down, boot back up with your floppies selecting the Advanced install.

After the reboot see if it'll let you install Boot Manager and create a parition on your drive.  Your boot partition does not need to be very big.  Remember this is Warp 3 which came out originally in 1994.  200 MB is adequate for the OS install, in fact the original manual recommends 25 to 55 MB for the boot partition (although I do recommend more since - after you get things like TCP/IP, stuff from the bonus pack, and Fixpak 40 installed you'll need more then 55 MB).  Assign your Boot partition as Startable and assign it as Drive C (if FDISK doesn't do this already, I can't recall - it has been a few years since I did a Warp 3 install from original install disks).  Exit FDISK and select the option to write the changes to disk.

On Warp 3 installs I've often gone with 500 MB boot drives with success.  Note that making sure the boot partition is within the first 1024 cylinders of the drive should take care of the issue that Bogdan is talking about suggesting a smaller then 8 GB drive.   If Warp can see the drive itself (which is suggested based on the posted screen shots), then it is more likely a problem that the partition is just too big.

Note - if Warp 3's fdisk won't let you partition the drive properly you may have to use something like DFSee as suggested in an earlier post.

If I recall correctly you'll have to reboot again with your floppies, again select the Advanced install.  See if you can get it to the section where it'll let you format the partition - use HPFS - and if it'll do that then hopefully it'll go through the rest of the install.

** On some systems it'll get through the first part of the installation process, will try and boot to the hard disk to continue the process, and it'll fail to boot.  On these systems if it gets through the text-based install but fails to boot to the graphicall install part, try the following:

1.  Boot with your floppies, when it gets to the "select easy install or advanced" it also has an option to press F3 to go to a command prompt/exit.  Press F3

2.  From the command prompt, type:

sysinstx c:

You might need to search around to figure out which floppy the sysinstx utility is on - if I recall it is on either disk 1 or 2, you can do a dir command at the promot to see the floppy directory / contents.

Assuming it does not come up with an error, pull your floppy out and reboot with CTRL-ALT-DEL

Sysinstx is a utility on one of the boot floppies that'll transfer some of the main boot files over to the hard disk specified.  The installation app is supposed to do this for you, but it doesn't always work.

Also a few hints during install.  If you do get to the point of the graphical desktop and graphical install, do NOT try and install video drivers / sound drivers during install.  Just let it do its thing using VGA and such.  I've seen the installer crash while trying to install these drivers during an initial install. You can always install them once your desktop is up and running.

Hope this helps.

« Last Edit: March 26, 2018, 04:16:01 am by Fahrvenugen »

clh333

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2018, 07:35:45 pm »
I am happy (and relieved) to report that I eventually succeeded installing OS/2 Warp on my target machine** after many hours of floundering.  I would
like to thank all who responded to my inquiries and requests for help.  Here, in a nutshell, is the source of the problem: the SCSI hard drive.
Apparently this Quantum VIKING II 9 Gb SCSI II drive had been used in a Apple machine before I purchased it from eBay, and there was a remnant of the
old OS, an Apple partition table, that had survived all attempts to eradicate it.  OS2World's Ivan correctly recognized that despite the oddball DTC
controller - nominally register-compatible with the Adaptec 1540 and 42 - the OS/2 installer was recognizing and communicating with the disk.  He
recommended using FDSEE, a powerful program with which I was not familiar (and still am not) to diagnose the problem in communication.
FDSEE pointed out the remnant of the Aplle installation, which had persisted despite my attempts with three separate FDISK utilities to delete all
partitions and reformat the disk.  FDSEE was not able to remove it either, or, better said, I was not able to remove it with FDSEE.  I'm pretty sure FDSEE,
properly configured, could have accomplished the task; PEBCAC, as they say.

In any event I remembered reading in the DTC controller manual that there was a low-level format utility in the DTC BIOS.  I invoked it with DEBUG:
g=c800:5 and we were off to the races.  Formatted and verified the drive, checked and initialized with FDSEE then tried the OS/2 install again. 
Unfortunately, I got into the same reboot loop I had experienced before.  Back into DOS I examined the VIKING disk again with FDSEE, only to find that
the previous configuration I had made was not present.

A number of people had suggested that the OS/2 install process needed a DTC driver on the installation disk.  It turns out that OS/2 was able and happy
to use the Adaptec 154x driver instead (see attachment) but I thank them for their recommendations.  Without their prompting I would never have
noticed the README.INS file on the installation floppy supplied with WARP.  It read, in part:

  1.0     FORMAT ERRORS WHEN INSTALLING OS/2 ON 4MB COMPUTERS
          ___________________________________________________

  When installing OS/2 on some 4MB computers, you might not
  be able to format the installation partition.  You will
  see the following error message:

    Disk Format Error

  If so, discontinue the OS/2 installation and do the
  following:

  1.  Insert the DOS Setup diskette 1 from a DOS
      package into drive A.
  2.  Turn on your computer.  If your computer is
      already on, press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart it.
  3.  When the DOS Setup screen appears, press F3 to
      display a command prompt.
  4.  Use the DOS FORMAT command to format the
      partition you want to use to install OS/2.  Refer
      to your DOS documentation for information about
      the FORMAT command.
  5.  Begin the OS/2 installation again.  If the
      Installation program asks if you want to format
      the installation partition, select Do Not Format
      the Partition.

I went back into DOS and used FDISK to create a new Primary DOS partition, active, of ~600Mb.  After restarting I formatted that partition, again with
DOS.

The next attempt at installing OS/2 succeeded.  When, after booting from FD1 and the FD2 and finally CD, I was prompted to reboot, this time the reboot
started loading the OS from the hard disk and proceeded with the installation to completion.

I still have software to install and hardware to configure (Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16) and maybe tweak the video driver.  But I have a bootable
OS/2 machine!  I couldn't have done it without your help. 

Thank you all.


** Generic '486 VL "deep green" board, SiS 471/407 chipset, AMD '586 processor, 64 Mb RAM, Cirrus Logic VLB VGA video card, DTC 3274 VL SCSI
controller, Quantum Viking II SCSI HD 9.1 Gb, Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16 audio, Everex 170 I/O card.

ivan

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2018, 11:03:53 pm »
Congratulations.

It is rather surprising what you find on HDs eBay.  I got a set of 6 for my HP server and when I looked at them prior to making sure they were OK I found some companies complete development data, some of it was interesting but they cleaned up well and have been running WSeB server 24/7 for the past 8 years.

Bogdan

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2018, 11:35:02 pm »
I still have software to install and hardware to configure (Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16) and maybe tweak the video driver.  But I have a bootable OS/2 machine!  I couldn't have done it without your help.
Later Cirrus Logic display drivers are available from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/drivers/video/cirrus.zip

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2018, 11:39:01 pm »
Sounds like you ended up installing to a FAT partition with its limitations such as 8.3 names. I hate to say it but you might want to consider redoing the install to a HPFS volume or else format another partition HPFS and use that for your stuff.

clh333

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #22 on: March 29, 2018, 05:15:38 pm »
I still have software to install and hardware to configure (Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16) and maybe tweak the video driver.  But I have a bootable OS/2 machine!  I couldn't have done it without your help.
Later Cirrus Logic display drivers are available from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/drivers/video/cirrus.zip

I found the driver, thanks.  The card is a Genoa WindowsVGA 24, model 8500VL.  The chip is a CL 5426 and there is 1 Mb RAM on the card.

clh333

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #23 on: March 29, 2018, 05:30:09 pm »
Sounds like you ended up installing to a FAT partition with its limitations such as 8.3 names. I hate to say it but you might want to consider redoing the install to a HPFS volume or else format another partition HPFS and use that for your stuff.

I think this is an HPFS partition.  That's what I specified during installation, at least.  But there's lots more space on the disk.  Eventually I'd like to add another partition; how large can the HPFS partitions be under OS/2 Warp 3?


Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
« Reply #24 on: March 29, 2018, 06:08:49 pm »
Good to be using HPFS instead of FAT. It is one of the reasons that OS/2 made a better DOS and Windows.
HPFS is limited to 64 GB partitions and I've heard that for stability they should be a bit smaller, perhaps 60 GB. The main problem with HPFS is the long chkdsk times as the partitions get bigger.