Author Topic: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?  (Read 17555 times)

Geographer

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OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« on: September 08, 2020, 02:29:21 pm »
Hello everyone!  way back in my DOS days i was getting really frustrated with Microsoft Windows 2.  A friend of mine had just purchased an Apple, and gave his IBM desktop with OS/2 to play with.  i loved it, and used it for years until the hardware finally wore out.
I recently rescued a MicroATX motherboard with a Via C7 CPU.  it is a 2005 release, and would have winxp normallly,  The board has IDE, SATA, and USB.  Does anyone have any idea if I could get OS/2 Warp running on this hardware?
I have a small case and 2gb od
f RAM on the way along with a DVD.  I plan to add a 120gb hard drive and an aftermarket video card if possible.

Pete

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2020, 03:26:54 pm »
Hi richard

No experience of the Via C7 cpu myself but it is x86 compatible I understand so it should be possible to install and use OS/2 with this cpu. I suspect later OS/2 releases would work best  ie Warp4.5/eComstation/ArcaOS


Regards

Pete

Geographer

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2020, 04:15:21 pm »
Will ArcaOS handle USB and SATA?  If so maybe I will go with it!

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2020, 04:28:35 pm »
Will ArcaOS handle USB and SATA?  If so maybe I will go with it!

Yes, there is a very good chance that ArcaOS will just work.

Pete

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2020, 05:44:52 pm »
Hi richard

As it seems you have OS/2 Warp rather than eComStation or ArcaOS it does depend on if you have all the latest updates available.

For USB you will need the 10.162 updates but I do not recall an AHCI (SATA) driver being available. You can work around this by setting the system to use SATA as IDE in the mainboard BIOS and use the DANIS506.ADD  IDE driver.

If you are feeling rich you may want to consider updating to ArcaOS which has updated USB and AHCI (SATA) drivers included amongst others.


Regards

Pete



Ian Manners

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2020, 07:28:09 pm »
My server use to run on a VIA EPIA800 MiniITX, 800Mhz CPU, 1024Mb SDRAM

Depending on model, drivers etc here:
http://www.os2site.com/sw/hardware/mb/via/index.html

Note, memory can be limited due to number of slots.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2020, 07:30:07 pm by Ian Manners »
Cheers
Ian B Manners

Ben Hjelt

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2020, 09:08:29 am »
Yes, haven't tried ArcaOS on it but eCS did install and everything just worked.

« Last Edit: September 12, 2020, 10:13:18 am by Ben Hjelt »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2020, 03:22:36 pm »
Yes, haven't tried ArcaOS on it but eCS did install and everything just worked.


Hi Ben.
I would be awesome if you can share the hardware report of it, so I can include that wyse pc on the Wiki. Here I have some info on how to get the information.

Regards
« Last Edit: September 12, 2020, 05:34:13 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
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... just share the dream.

Ben Hjelt

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2020, 09:26:19 pm »
I would be awesome if you can share the hardware report of it, so I can include that wyse pc on the Wiki.
OK, I'll do a clean install this weekend and see if it still works.

Olafur Gunnlaugsson

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2020, 03:32:35 am »
I recently rescued a MicroATX motherboard with a Via C7 CPU.  it is a 2005 release, and would have winxp normallly,  The board has IDE, SATA, and USB.  Does anyone have any idea if I could get OS/2 Warp running on this hardware?
I run a couple of C7 systems for testing mostly, SNAP handles the graphics of all VIA/S3 graphics released up to VX900 (Ca 2009, a couple of them need to run in SNAP "compatibility mode") and the Via chipsets and ethernet controllers of that era were well supported by DANIS etc since they were the same as used with Intel boards with Via chipsets, the C3 to C7 family uses a Intel 370 bus basically.

Ben Hjelt

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2020, 12:26:34 pm »
After a succesful ArcaOS 5.0.4 install on the Wyse thin client I'm unable to use the network for long, can ping and sync the time but starting any browser results in:
Exception in module: SOCKETS
TRAP 000e

Might be the Velocity ethernet driver?

Lars

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2020, 01:53:58 pm »
Need to load socketsk.sys and afinetk.sys instead of sockets.sys and afinet.sys.

Ben Hjelt

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2020, 02:13:19 pm »
Need to load socketsk.sys and afinetk.sys instead of sockets.sys and afinet.sys.
socketsk.sys and afinetk.sys are already the default.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2020, 04:03:29 pm by Ben Hjelt »

Ben Hjelt

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #13 on: September 12, 2020, 10:22:55 am »
 ::) The thing completely died on me so I'm guessing it was bad hardware after all - attaching pci.txt anyways.

Olafur Gunnlaugsson

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Re: OS/2 on a Via C7 desktop?
« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2020, 02:49:40 pm »
Some of those older Wise Thin Clients are actually crippled terminal or Zero Client devices, sometimes in the BIOS, even is some cases will only allow Wise's own Linux version to run and nothing else. After the Dell takeover things got better and for the last decade Dell and Wise branded TC's have been just re-branded Clientron devices (Which in fairness have some BIOS limitations of their own).

For TC's of that vintage I have had much better results using HP's, TECO's and in particular IGEL hardware to run OS/2 derivatives on.