ArcaOS 5.1 - First Impressions

[TNG999]

Fresh EFI install of 5.1 on HP EliteDesk 800 G3 machine worked just fine...  Only thing I had to change was Secure Boot Disable and Legacy Support Enable in the BIOS and then the USB stick booted fine EFI. 

HP Desktop Computer EliteDesk 800 G3 (1FY72UT#ABA)
Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700 (3.6 GHz)
8 GB DDR4
256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Intel HD Graphics 630

-m

[Tom]

I was able to sort of get windowed DOS sessions working. Full screen DOS sessions work fine for me now. I found a thread here that suggested opening a full screen DOS window and ALT+Tab to make it a windowed and it worked!

You probably mean Alt + Home instead of Alt + Tab ? Alt + Home should also work the other way around: from window to full screen.

[christech]

Yep. Alt + Home in CSM mode.

[Martin Iturbide]

Fresh EFI install of 5.1 on HP EliteDesk 800 G3 machine worked just fine...  Only thing I had to change was Secure Boot Disable and Legacy Support Enable in the BIOS and then the USB stick booted fine EFI. 

HP Desktop Computer EliteDesk 800 G3 (1FY72UT#ABA)
Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700 (3.6 GHz)
8 GB DDR4
256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Intel HD Graphics 630

-m

Thanks for you report TNG999.
I wrote that your machine here:https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/HP_EliteDesk_800_G3.

Do you think it can be possible for you to please share the PCI.exe report? You can use pci.exe or Testlog.

Regards

[Roderick Klein]

Fresh EFI install of 5.1 on HP EliteDesk 800 G3 machine worked just fine...  Only thing I had to change was Secure Boot Disable and Legacy Support Enable in the BIOS and then the USB stick booted fine EFI. 

HP Desktop Computer EliteDesk 800 G3 (1FY72UT#ABA)
Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700 (3.6 GHz)
8 GB DDR4
256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Intel HD Graphics 630

-m

Did you boot in UEFI mode or CSM mode ?

BTW while its recommended the CSM is also switched on even when boot in UEFI mode. In some cases it can also have negative side effect. I have one system where switching on the CSM reduces system memory by 256 MB.  So switching on CSM does not always have a positive effect.

Roderick

[Roderick Klein]

Here's another success story (eventually). I have an HP Laptop 17-by2053cl with Windows 11 on it , UEFI only, previously upgraded to 16GB RAM and SSD drive. Wanted ArcaOS 5.1 on it too. Tried to install with a DVD but it would not boot, so made a USB stick, and boot would start, but then hang immediately after the boot logo. Eventually figured out that it didn't like AMOUSE.SYS, so switched to IBM's MOUSE.SYS and boot continued to the WPS, but then I got a 'ISO not found' error when the WPS started.. Fiddled with it for too long, but figured out that if I remove the USB stick and re-insert at the right moment before the WPS started, then the install started, but then it could not find any disk to install on. Turns out the install did not detect the SATA adapter (because it is technically a RAID adapter, though in non-RAID mode) so I was finally stuck.

Then I found out there is an NVME slot in this laptop! So I got a 1TB one ($45) and transferred Win11 over to it and left a nice big 450GB unallocated space for ArcaOS. Made sure Win worked, then restarted installing ArcaOS using lessons learned up to now and it recognized the NVME drive as GPT and installed, although I had to do the remove/re-insert trick with the USB stick at each boot. Now ArcaOS was installed - woohoo! But...

 When I rebooted with no USB stick attached, I got a 'Your system needs to be Repaired' blue screen of confusion. It took me a while to figure out I needed to go into the BIOS to set the ArcaOS EFI as the default. Now the Arca EFI boot list appeared and I could boot ArcaOS 5.1 and it worked - Wow! Even more amazing, it now recognized the SATA drive, and I could format it FAT32 to use as storage for both OS's. But...

 Rebooted and tried to boot  Windows, but again the 'Repair' blue screen. Tried doing repairs as per various Internet sites, but nothing worked, so finally just re-installed Windows 11 (from DVD). That worked and now I can switch between the 2 OS's at will using the ArcaOS EFI menu.

  And I have to say that this laptop works great with ArcaOS (and Windows) now that it is installed on an NVME. If only ArcaOS had WiFi <sigh>.

 I'll upload a testlog too...

Regards,

Windows 11 MIGHT have failed because you switched between RAID and SATA mode...

Roderick

[Eugene Tucker]

I was able to get Arca OS 5.1 on my Asus Tuf Gaming A17 laptop. I did have to disable Secure Boot though. I cannot resize or move Windows. But wired networking works more details as I progress.

[Tiny Frogware]

Did you boot in UEFI mode or CSM mode ?

BTW while its recommended the CSM is also switched on even when boot in UEFI mode....

Hello Roderick,

  Could you please explain the advantages of enabling Legacy support in the BIOS on UEFI installs of 5.1 or point me to a link where I can find that info? On my UEFI 5.1 install I left Legacy support disabled and everything seems good so far.

Thanks,

  Tony.

[Pete]

Hi Tony

This page mentions enabling CSM even if booting in uefi  https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/arcaos/technical-specifications/   - see paragraph 4


Regards

Pete

[Roderick Klein]

Did you boot in UEFI mode or CSM mode ?

BTW while its recommended the CSM is also switched on even when boot in UEFI mode....

Hello Roderick,

  Could you please explain the advantages of enabling Legacy support in the BIOS on UEFI installs of 5.1 or point me to a link where I can find that info? On my UEFI 5.1 install I left Legacy support disabled and everything seems good so far.

Thanks,

  Tony.

I understood at Warpstock Orlando during a presentation from Lewis Rosenthal the following (this is my wording).

1. Switching on UEFI and CSM could result in a memory layout that might be more beneficial for OS/2. As I typed before I have had the opposite experience on a system where enableing the CSM with UEFI boot result in 256 MB LESS memory for OS/2. Switching off CSM support

2. Th idea to enable the CSM and UEFI code is that the CSM code might better initialise device's in the PC such as devices on the PCI bus.

Note that I have seen systems where you can ONLY enable UEFI OR CSM and NOT enable them both at the same time. Keep an eye on this!

From my perspective enabling the CSM by default with UEFI boot could hide issue's that could appear on new equipment where NO CSM is present. Like a PCI device not being initiliased.

The generic trent is simple. Intel already declared CSM would go away janauryb 2020.  With Windows 7 having gone out of support 2 years ago (which required CSM boot) CSM's are rarely present in modern modern systems. UEFI is also just part of longer ongoing trend to have more stuff done by the OS and not the BIOS/UEFI firmware. That can include the OS has to initialise a PCI device for example.

Roderick

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

Now it my turn installing ArcaOS 5.1 on a Virtual Machine (VirtualBox 7.0.10 on Windows 10 host). Nothing funny, no UEFI emu, no nvme, no GTP.. just the normal stuff.

Installation went normal.

When I run E.exe I get this POPUPLOG error :

09-06-2023  16:54:56  SYS2070  PID 008c  TID 0001  Slot 0020
C:\OS2\E.EXE
C:\PSFONTS\WARPSANS.FON
193
------------------------------------------------------------

But WARPSANS.FON it's on its place.

8-21-22  2:02p       349,642      0 a---  WARPSANS.FON

Regards

[Roderick Klein]

Report on the testers list or open a bug. Attach a testlog.

No clue what is going on.

Roderick

[ivan]

Now everyone has had their say, the one thing I don't see are comments about improvements to the OS/2 part.  Can I assume that it is still the same as 5.0.7?

[Tiny Frogware]

@Pete
Thanks for the link to the UEFI info Pete.

@Roderick
I appreciate your reply Roderick. Great info and helped clear things up for me. I need to double check, but I think my laptop allows either CSM or UEFI  to be enabled but not both at once. Still, glad to know for future reference.

Best wishes,

 Tony.

[Roderick Klein]

Now everyone has had their say, the one thing I don't see are comments about improvements to the OS/2 part.  Can I assume that it is still the same as 5.0.7?

What improvements to the OS/2 part where you expecting specifically ?

Roderick