Author Topic: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports  (Read 55239 times)

Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #45 on: February 17, 2021, 06:08:16 pm »
It's OS/2, compiled with Borland C++ and IBM CSet++.
Good to know, that eases the situation, thanks. A question:

Should ISA card drivers appear in CONFIG.SYS? (I have no experience with the OS/2 drivers from Digi, just with the DOS drivers.)

Notes about ISA slots: The Digi board may be replaced by the PCI variant or any other product with OS/2 drivers, while I don't remember if there exist OS/2 drivers for the PCI one. I guess that the 3COM NIC may also be replaced by any other NIC with OS/2 drivers. It's hard to get a mainboard with 2 ISA slots nowadays. IIRC the maximum is 1 ISA slot, unless old hardware is used. Virtualization is impossible, as Ivan has already stated, due to the multiple serial ports.

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #46 on: February 17, 2021, 07:31:57 pm »
It's OS/2, compiled with Borland C++ and IBM CSet++.
Good to know, that eases the situation, thanks. A question:

Should ISA card drivers appear in CONFIG.SYS? (I have no experience with the OS/2 drivers from Digi, just with the DOS drivers.)

It may depend on the ISA card, that one Martin posted used jumpers but did have a device driver. I know my old ISA PAS sound card needed a driver, but that might have mostly been to set the IRQ and DMA up and IIRC, the same config.sys entry covered both OS/2 and DOS sessions.
Looking at the documentation for com.sys, it seems to be limited to 4 ports, so I'd assume the need for a driver or possibly a different com.sys

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #47 on: February 18, 2021, 09:44:06 am »
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.

Hi Ivan,
I was able to download all this files today, but I'm not sure what to do with these.... :)

Ian Manners

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #48 on: February 18, 2021, 11:21:19 am »
Fixpacks

http://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/warp4/fixpack15/
You can try fp15.zip from Aaron Lawrence or..

If you look in the 'zip/ directories there is a install.txt file that will show you how to 'Installing this fixpack the os2serv way.' such as the one in http://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/warp4/fixpack15/zip/

xr_e003 is the WSeB Fixpack 3.
http://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/wseb/fixpack3/zip/

Device driver pack 2 (device driver updates not included in Fixpacks)
http://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/ddpack2/

See the readme files.

ADDED: Always backup..
« Last Edit: February 18, 2021, 11:22:54 am by Ian Manners »
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Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #49 on: February 18, 2021, 11:32:29 am »
About the device driver fixpaks, originally fixpaks included device drivers but as they got bigger, IBM decided to split them off. You need the device driver fixpak for things like recognizing a large hard drive.
You might want to install the first driver fixpak first as it included support for USB. IBM removed the support and made it subscription only for fixpak 2 of the device drivers.
There are later subscription only fixpak's floating around, you probably don't need them. Kernel should be updated though.

ivan

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #50 on: February 18, 2021, 11:33:45 am »
Hi Daniele,

I'm down at the hospital today - checkup time for my heart - and trying tu use my tablet is slow.  Will get back to the 'how to' when I am home this evening, there is a way of applying all the fix paks fron a CD but I need to look it up.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #51 on: February 18, 2021, 04:13:13 pm »
Hi Danielle.

I never finished my "Updating Warp 4" wiki page.  I tried to list there all the fixpacks that will be required to have latest and greatest Warp 4... like there was somekind of IBM Warp 4.1 (that never existed). But I never completed my goal.

My take will be to install first:
1) Fixpak XR_M015
2) Driver fixpack XR_D002

There is this article "Applying Fixpaks to OS/2 Warp from a Local Hard Drive" that may help you.

I have a different technique (similar but different). But let me see if I can post something later.

Regards

Martin Iturbide
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ivan

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #52 on: February 18, 2021, 06:17:35 pm »
Hi Daniele,

Just one thing before I collapse (I hate hospitals!). 

You might find the following page helpful http://www.altsan.org/os2/fixpaks/index.html There is a lot of information there about fix paks and their application.

In your situation I would get a hard disk that is the same size as the ones in the old machines and clone the old OS/2 drive to that - try running the old computer from that drive and if it works you then have a replacement if anything goes wrong (that is what we did when upgrading the machine tools computers and it saved us several times).

If it works it is then safe to run the fix paks, first the base fp then the dd fp.  Everything should still be working when you finish and re-boot.  You can then clone the updated drive and try it in the HP computer - if that works you are home except for finding replacement PCIe adin cards.

And now I will try and relax after being subjected to every medical machine known to man.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #53 on: February 18, 2021, 07:06:54 pm »
Ivan: My best wishes on your medical tests.

Danielle: I wrote this quick draft on how I prepare my fixpacks. Applying Fixpaks to OS/2 Warp from a Local Hard Drive (Alternative). It is still not finished.

I'm also attaching Diunpack, FIX.CMD and cs_144.exe since those files are small.

Regards


« Last Edit: February 18, 2021, 07:08:41 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
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Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #54 on: February 19, 2021, 10:41:57 am »
Hi guys.
Ivan: I hope it's all right yesterday your check up !
Martin: Thank you, this afternoon if the situation in clean room will be good I try to install the fixpacks.

I also download many .zip files of the kernel, I must install all or I need just the right one? How can I know which?

What I'm doing this days is cloned a backup of one chamber controller (we have RAID HDD installed so it's easy for me without stopping the machine) in a VHD file using Disk2vhd utility.
Loaded this VHD in a virtual machine on Oracle Virtual Box and it running well.
Now I will patch the VM and then convert it into a IMG files and with Ubuntu I will clone the IMG on an HDD.
Then I try to run this on the HP COMPAQ.
If it will work I need then to find the right multiserial board or hub and check for the ethernet connection.
In this way I don't need to reinstall the toll software and all it config.
That's my plan :).

Otherwise I think about ArcaOS for sure.

Regards

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #55 on: February 19, 2021, 05:40:03 pm »
For the kernel, I think first update to FP15, then update the kernel to 104aW4, 104a is the last free one, and W4 for Warp V4.

Rota

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #56 on: February 19, 2021, 11:10:45 pm »
Danielle: I wrote this quick draft on how I prepare my fixpacks. Applying Fixpaks to OS/2 Warp from a Local Hard Drive (Alternative). It is still not finished.

I'm also attaching Diunpack, FIX.CMD and cs_144.exe since those files are small.

Regards

Hi Martin,
today I was able to install XR_M015 following your instruction using your tools ;).
I try to install also XR_E003 but when I launch fix.cmd it says me that can't find any product !
Then I also install Kernel w41026d, it seems to be the last released.
I did all this on a virtual machine, I can always come back if I made mistake ;).
I see only now that was suggested to install also ddpack2.... the procedure is the same of  the XR packs?
Thanks

Regards

Ian Manners

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #57 on: February 20, 2021, 04:21:53 am »
Hi Daniele,

You do not want XR_E003, this is Fixpack 3 for WSeB (Warp Server for eBusiness)
ddpack2 can be installed the same way that you installed FP15.

You might also like to install ddpack1 as Dave mentioned,
Quote
You might want to install the first driver fixpak first as it included support for USB.

Any of the kernel files with d after the name/date are normally half strict versions, you do not want these. As Dave says below :)
you want w420050811.zip
« Last Edit: February 20, 2021, 11:06:10 am by Ian Manners »
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Ian B Manners

Dave Yeo

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #58 on: February 20, 2021, 06:32:45 am »
Also w420050811.zip is the latest free kernel that IBM released.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: OS/2 on Virtualbox with 8 COM ports
« Reply #59 on: February 20, 2021, 05:14:04 pm »
Hi Dave.
Just as general knowledge, which was the last IBM kernel version/level for Warp 4 and which one was for Warp 4.52 ?
Regards
Martin Iturbide
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