Modern Motherboards - Whats working

[Eric Erickson]

First of all, thanks for all the info. Some interest food for thought here.

*but* only has 1 PS/2 port ...

That should not be a problem: there are ps/2 splitter cables for this. In fact mouse and keyboard are connected to different pins on the ps/2 connector.

I was not aware that those kind of splitters existed. May have to give that a try.

You didn't mention video output ports.  I ask because all my units are using HDMI either direct or via a DVI to HDMI adapter.

My setup is a 4 port Tcnewcl 4k KVM switch which takes USB 2.0 keyboard and trackball as well as my 28inch 1920x1200 HDMI monitor.  The main computer has a MSI A320M Pro-VD Plus motherboard, another possibility is the ASRock AB350M Pro4 - it has 2 PS/2 ports which you want.

BTW I think you should be thinking about upgrading your KVM switch to enable  you to have a much wider choice of motherboards.

Well, that present a bigger issue. I currently have 7 systems running into my KVM. I moved from a set of Linked 4 Port OMNI's I switched to a 16 Port TrendNet TK-1601A about 6 years ago. I tried several that had USB instead of PS/2 ports, but could not get all my systems, (Mix of Windows 7, Windows XP, OS/2 and ArcaNoae) all working with the USB Version, so I went back to the PS/2 port one. Converting all the systems is not a task I'm willing to undertake. I've had good luck going from USB to PS/2 with adapters, but less luck going the other way.

You didn't mention video output ports.  I ask because all my units are using HDMI either direct or via a DVI to HDMI adapter.

My setup is a 4 port Tcnewcl 4k KVM switch which takes USB 2.0 keyboard and trackball as well as my 28inch 1920x1200 HDMI monitor.  The main computer has a MSI A320M Pro-VD Plus motherboard, another possibility is the ASRock AB350M Pro4 - it has 2 PS/2 ports which you want.

BTW I think you should be thinking about upgrading your KVM switch to enable  you to have a much wider choice of motherboards.

Video is not an issue. I've got a mixture of DVI, VGA and HDMI outputs on my systems, I just use the appropriate adapter to convert to the VGA that my switch uses.

The vast majority of OS/2 users are on commercial computers, not home-made from motherboards.

Any Lenovo M series desktop computer in the last 15 years would work with your requirements -- I've tried pretty much all of them.

You can go with the hobbyist market -- It's more of a hobby than a rational decision. I know several skilled hobbyists inhabit OS/2 World. If building your own computer brings joy, go for it.

You can buy refurbished computers from the many of the major electronics retail websites now.

I have not bought a commercial desktop computer in over 25 years. I've always built them from the pieces. That way I don't get any of those nasty windows kludges that the various vendors have put into there systems over the years.

[David McKenna]

 Interesting this came up - I just got a new Gigabyte B760M DS3H MoBo to use with an i5-12600K processor. to replace my old B365M w/i3-8100 system. Was going to dual boot Windows 11 and ArcaOS 5.1 and was able to install everything and it 'works', but ArcaOS only sees 860MB of memory even though 16GB is installed. No amount of BIOS tweaking would change that, so I decided to do what I hoped would never have to be done, and that is install VirtualBox in Windows and run ArcaOS from there.

 Installed ArcaOS 5.1 in VirtualBox and got it working. Normally, I would then zip up my previous install from the old computer, and unzip over the new install on the new computer, boot it, and change whatever drivers needed changing (usually just the NIC). This also 'worked' except I now only have one choice of screen resolution, and that is 640x480x16, even though the original install had more. Tried re-installing the VirtualBox additions from the ArcaOS iso, but no help. Also tried running the ArcaOS install again, but no change.

 I am assuming some file was changed needed for VirtualBox when I unzipped my previous install over the new VirtualBox install - anyone know what file that might be? Or how to get back the screen resolutions installed originally?

Regards,

EDIT: added testlog  booted to new hardware.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

This also 'worked' except I now only have one choice of screen resolution, and that is 640x480x16, even though the original install had more. Tried re-installing the VirtualBox additions from the ArcaOS iso, but no help. Also tried running the ArcaOS install again, but no change.

Using VirtualBox I can set it up to 1920x1080 running a command form the Virtual Box host on Windows to change the VM screen resolution.

Here it is the procedure I used, maybe you can give it a try.
https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=ArcaOS_5.0.x_as_a_VirtualBox_6.x_Guest#Getting_Higher/Custom_Resolutions

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Interesting this came up - I just got a new Gigabyte B760M DS3H MoBo to use with an i5-12600K processor....

Thanks for the report. I created a wiki page for it: https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gigabyte_B760M_DS3H

Just a little request:
1) Can you updated the "pcidevs.txt" file to see if some of the "unknown" devices get recognized ?
2) Is the Network and Audio working?

Regards

[David McKenna]

Hi Martin,

  I did follow that procedure after the initial install and it worked. After unzipping my previous ArcaOS install, it did not. I'm pretty sure there is a file or setting in a file that got overwritten by the unzip. Just have to figure out what it is. I'll probably install another ArcaOS virtual machine and start studying the difference between the fresh install and my unzipped previous one.

 Got the absolute latest pci-ids file  and re-ran testlog - attached. Still some unknown devices though. Also noticed testlog complains about hyperthreading, but it is turned off in BIOS - strange..

Regards,

PS - almost forgot - sound works, but the NIC is not recognized (a Realtek 2.5GB). I installed an Intel 1GB PCIe NIC just for this situation.

[ivan]

Just an observation.  I notice that most people seem to follow the win idea and cram everything into the one partition and then have problems getting everything working again.

My setup has 9 partitions, a small one (2GB) only for the operating system (it could be smaller but I can't be bothered to change it), then I have one for tools another for programs, another for work and yet another for home as well as a few odd ones for storage.  In fact apart from new operation systems (OS/2, OS/2 warp and now ArcaOS the other partitions remain untouched except for the odd update as necessary.

My reasoning comes from when I was guiding a couple of companies that were setting up with OS/2 and I see no reason to change it.  I will add that I now have a Linux mint based computer at the side of my desk so I can use a newer version of firefox to download or screen grab what I want, and network it to my OS/2 unit for processing.

[Doug Bissett]

I have been skipping through this, but thought I would add a few comments. Unfortunately, I am not at home, so most of this is from my failing memory.

I, recently, got an Asus x570 Tuff Gaming motherboard, with 6 core (12 threads, for windows) AMD 5600G (?) processor. Put 16 GB of memory in it, with a 1 TB Crucial NVME stick for disk. After I looked through the UEFI BIOS, and turned off a number of things, it is working well. Over 3GB memory available to OS/2. Sound works (UNIAUD needs /A:1). The 2.5 Gbps Realtek NIC works (with Multimac MMRE, but I can't say if it runs that fast since I don't have another machine with 2.5 Gbps). Video is HDMI only (works well, with a 1920x1080 screen, and Panorama).

Overall, I am very pleased with it.

[David McKenna]

 Figured out the problem with unzipping a previous install over a VirtualBox install - the file 'C:\OS2\svgadata.pmi' must be deleted after unzipping. It is apparently used by Panorama and messes up VirtualBox if it is present. The VirtualBox additions install does not delete it. Now I can run a full screen OS/2 session in VirtualBox at native resolution.

Regards,

[Andi B.]

file 'C:\OS2\svgadata.pmi'

I ever thought this file is used for SNAP only. But maybe all gradd based drivers use is? SNAP manual deinstallation instruction mention that deleting this file is needed. 

[Doug Clark]

Eric,

I am running AOS 5.1 on a MSI PROB550-VC motherboard, Ryzen 5 5600x, with a Radeon X600 graphics card, SNAP .   Mem says 16,355 MB  (3,567 MB accessible to system)

The motherboard has one combo type keyboard/mouse PS/2 port.  You can plug in a mouse, or a keyboard, but not both, even when using a splitter or y cable.  I tried.  And after trying the y cable and failing I found other people posting on the net with the same issue with other motherboards.  Apparently to use both a keyboard and mouse at the same time (via a y cable) the motherboard has to be built to to accommodate it.

You said you wanted 8 cores.  Remember - more cores equals more cost, both in terms of watts, cooling and money.  My system at the desktop consumes 62 watts.  It consumes 4 watts when not running  - unless I turn off the power supply.  I have seen a maximum of 130 watts at boot up and when watching a movie on VLC, Compiling small (3.5 mb applications) gets it to 87 watts. 

The motherboard/processor/SSD combination works well in OS/2  - with the following conditions/issues. 

I believe you can mix GPT and MBR disks in the same machine, but there are considerations when booting.
The alternatives for a 'boot manager" for booting into different disks/partitions are: 1) the boot menu from the bios, 2) the AOS 5.1 GPT boot manager, 3) Airboot.  The bios boot menu will boot to either MBR or GPT disks.  The  AOS GPT boot manager will only boot GPT disks.  Airboot will only boot MBR disks.  On this machine Airboot does not work with a USB attached keyboard - you have to use a PS/2 attached keyboard.  On my Thinkpad T530 with AOS 5.1 Airboot works fine.   

On this machine some Windows applications lock up the machine when running in Win-OS/2 seamless mode.  They appear to run fine in Win-OS/2 full screen.

Once OS/2 boots up it is fast.  However this machine takes longer to boot than my Thinkpad T530. 

Finally - I would strongly encourage you to check out Neil's stuff (Blondeguy.com) when going through a make-buy decision.  If he has what you need it might save you a considerable about of time in specifying, buying, assembling and troubleshooting a new machine.  Plus he list the watts used by various machines you can get an idea of the trade off between cores and electricity usage.

[Doug Clark]

Another possibility is plugging your mouse (actually the mouse output from the KVM) into the the serial port of a motherboard that does not have 2 PS/2 ports.

The MSI board I mentioned has a serial header.  It appears these headers have a standardized pin out - I used a ribbon cable that worked with an older ASUS motherboard on the serial header on the MSI motherboard and it works.  Neither MSI nor ASUS included the cable with the motherboard - I had to find one on the internet.

To test this I got an old PS/2 style mouse and plugged it into the serial port using a PS/2 to COM adapter - Logitech used to include these with all their mice. It works in OS/2 - after you adjust the amouse.sys line in CONFIG.SYS  Look in the command reference for the other requirements for using a serial mouse.

DEVICE=K:\OS2\BOOT\AMOUSE.SYS SERIAL=COM1

I need to point out that this arrangement does NOT work in the bios setup screens for this MSI board.  If you plug the mouse into the PS/2 keyboard/mouse port directly you can use the mouse in the bios setup screens, but when the mouse is plugged into the serial port (using the PS/2 to serial adapter) it does not work in the bios setup screens.  It does work in OS/2 however.