Author Topic: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports  (Read 55267 times)

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #15 on: February 12, 2021, 05:34:42 pm »
Hi Daniele,

The Config.sys shows that the original OS/2 was just a standard install of the early Warp 4, including voice type and setup for a US keyboard.  The only strange thing is that it is setup to boot and run from the D: partition which indicates it might have been a dual boot setup for some reason.

Now you say you van get 'retired' computers from the IT department.  If those computers were running Win 7 then they will run OS/2 without problems.  Depending on how you have the disk image of OS/2 that you built the virtual disk image from you might be able to copy that image to the hard disk of one of the computers and it could run without problems other than changing drive letters in config.sys.  It is also possible to 'find' an ISO* of Warp  4 on the net, which might make things easier for you.

Let us know what sort of hardware you have available and the what form you have the master disk image then we can, hopefully, point you in the right direction.

The only real problem for you is going to be the cost of 8 port com add in cards - they are not cheap, the last ones we got were almost 200 euro each for PCIe ones.


https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems

EDIT to clean up typos.


Something else I just noted, there doesn't appear to be anything to run more than the normal 2 com ports, not even com3 and com4.  Are these controlled by the equipment program?
 

I Ivan,
The original controller HD has a DOS partition in C: and OS/2 in D:.
The PCs I can have from IT department are HP Compaq 8000 elite that has intel i2 dual core and Win7, 2 or 4 GB ram.
We have an hardware cloner so I can take original HD and clone it on a new SATA without problem.
I didn’t try this way because I think it cannot works 😣 so I try VM.
Maybe COM ports are managed by machine software, when I try to start utility of controllers connected to COM5 to COM8 it returns me an error that can’t find the ports.

Regards


Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #16 on: February 12, 2021, 05:54:50 pm »
Moving to a newer machine will mean having to update some drivers first, in particular Warp V4 only supported 4.3 GB hard drives IIRC, so you will need a newer IBMS506.ADD or better, switch to Dani's version. Other then that, it should boot up, perhaps with complaints on the boot assuming the new computer has the keyboard and mouse plugged into PS2 ports. It won't have any USB support without adding it, so USB keyboards etc won't be seen.
Actually, thinking about it, not sure if the kernel will be happy with such a new CPU or the 2GB+ memory if you have never upgraded by applying fixpaks. In which your choices are to apply fixpak 15 (last free one) along with other fixes, which would upgrade your install to Warp 4.5 or getting a newer version, a convenience pack from Winworld or such or purchasing ArcaOS, which is an OEM version of OS/2 with a lot of updates.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #17 on: February 12, 2021, 07:34:39 pm »
Hi

For what I see on the config.sys, I don't recognize this two folders, D:\NSC\DLL and D:\PEP\DLL. I guess those are the one with the specialized application for the machine.

The "D:\IBMI18N" is supposed to be the older "IBM I18N Toolkit" (international localization). Can it be possible that the specialized software has a dependency of that toolkit version?

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Martin Iturbide
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Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #18 on: February 12, 2021, 08:08:16 pm »
The "D:\IBMI18N" is supposed to be the older "IBM I18N Toolkit" (international localization). Can it be possible that the specialized software has a dependency of that toolkit version?


If it does, it is easy enough to use ENDLIBPATH to pull in the DLLs. It is how I run the old webexplorer and gopher clients on ArcaOS, using the IBMI18N install on a Warp V4 partition.
Does show the old partition needs to be left around if upgrading to ArcaOS or such.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #19 on: February 13, 2021, 01:26:13 am »
Hi

The "D:\IBMI18N" is supposed to be the older "IBM I18N Toolkit" (international localization). Can it be possible that the specialized software has a dependency of that toolkit version?

Regards

The software does not depend on internationalization. The applications was build with CSet++ and Borland C++ under Warp 3.
Expert consulting for ArcaOS, OS/2 and eComStation
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ivan

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #20 on: February 13, 2021, 11:57:10 am »
It is not surprising that there is so much 'odd' material listed in the config.sys because it appears to be a complete install of a very early version of Warp 4 including much of the bonus pak.

Should be very easy to apply the last fix pak and convert to SMP  for the HP computers.

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #21 on: February 13, 2021, 06:50:08 pm »
I never could get my Warp V4 install to run for more then a minute in SMP mode.

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #22 on: February 14, 2021, 07:12:02 am »
So guys,
Monday I hope to find some time to try to clone an HD of one machine and run it on HP desktop.
If it works next step is to find a multiple serials pcie board that can workunder OS/2 and a 3com ethernet board....
Where I can find fixpack you tell? Is better to install in any case?
Thanks
Regards

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #23 on: February 14, 2021, 07:24:36 am »
Here's one place to start http://web.archive.org/web/20060926004818/www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/site_contents.html. A lot of dead links but file names to Google. For Warp V4, IBM should still have them on its FTP. http://web.archive.org/web/20060926005938/http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/base_fixpak40.html

Your are going to need FP15, which will update you to Warp v4.5, the device driver FP2, which will update stuff like the disk controller to handle large HD's. Probably a newer kernel and possibly more.
Finding a Convenience Pack 2 ISO image might be simpler, that is Warp v4.52 and would be more SMP safe if you care about using multiple cores. Likely unneeded for your use.

ivan

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #24 on: February 14, 2021, 10:39:14 pm »
For fix pak download and update kernels just look in the IBM FTP site as follows:

ftp://service.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4warp/english-us/xr_m015/

ftp://service.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4.5warp/english-us/xr_e003/ 

ftp://service.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/update-kernels/

The big problem might be the need for a lot of floppies - there is a way round that and I will look up the ISO of the CD I made to allow running from CD.  If you need that let me know and I will see if I can post it somewhere.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2021, 10:43:20 pm by ivan »

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #25 on: February 15, 2021, 05:22:06 pm »
Hi all,
I try to run a clone on the HP Compaq, but after the Os/2 logo screen appear this...

c0000005
DOSCALL1.DLL 0002:0000a455
P1=00000001  P2=00000004  P3=XXXXXXXX  P4=XXXXXXXX
EAX=000300d2  EBX=00000000  ECX=0003000c2  EDX=bfeb5213
ESI=00000100  EDI=fe7f43ec
DS=0053  DSACC=d0f3  DSLIM=3fffffff
ES=0053  ESACC=d0f3  ESLIM=3fffffff
FS=150b  FSACC=00f3  FSLIM=00000030
GS=0000  GSACC=****  GSLIM=********
CS:EIP=005b:1c02a455  CSACC=d0df  CSLIM=3fffffff
SS:ESP=0053:000300b2. SSACC=d0f3  SSLIM=3fffffff
EBP=000300da  FLG=00213202


ivan

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #26 on: February 15, 2021, 09:01:34 pm »
Hi Daniele,

All that is saying is that you need to apply the fix paks to the OS/2 install before you try to run it on the HP.

Depending on how you have the clone will depend how you do it.  If you have a disk image you should be able to install that on VBox and update it there then take that image and clone it , then try it on the HP.

If you have one of the old computers you might be able to update OS/2 on that computer (make a disk image first in case of problems).  If that works transfer the new image to the HP ans see if it works.

No matter what you do there will be some adjustments needed for it to work easily on the HP.

I understand this is your first time installing OS/2 so don't be afraid to ask questions, there are several of us that have been using OS/2 since version 2.1 and we will hopefully know most of the answers.

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #27 on: February 15, 2021, 10:03:01 pm »
Thanks Ivan,
as you suppose it's my first time :).
Today I download the Daniela's patch for fix the problem with the memory size >64Mb, but I'm not able to run the patch.
I think it only works under OS/2, but my OS/2 doesn't start.
I have a Perfect clone of the machine HD mounted on HP Pc.
I can run Windows 7 as primary HD and see the OS/2 HD as secondary and navigate into directory.
I prefer don't touch the machine and I don't have an old pc not mounted in a tool.

Thanks for your support, I believe we will do it !!!

Regards

ivan

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #28 on: February 16, 2021, 12:35:05 am »
Hi Daniele,

I have just downloaded the service manual for the HP which I will read in the morning and then see if I can produce a bootable CD for OS/2 that has all the updates included.  I think I have everything needed even if I do have to load some hard disks via USB to get what is needed.  Once I have that I will make an ISO and upload it to the large file storage of my ISP and send you the information on where to download it from.

If we didn't have all the travel restrictions I would drive over the border and help you but I understand the restrictions are just as bad where you are.

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #29 on: February 16, 2021, 09:17:04 am »
Great news Ivan !!!  :)
I love to learn every day new things.
My job is Equipment Engineer, this activity on Os/2 is an extra for improove the machines, so the time I can dedicate is very small.
I really appreciate your help, all I can do now is promise you pizza and beer here in Italy when coronavirus wiil end 😁😁😁.

Regards
Daniele