Author Topic: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.  (Read 514 times)

UberCoder

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Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« on: September 03, 2025, 10:58:56 pm »
Hi all. New member.

I'm trying to re-install Warp on a PC from early 2000. Back then it was my work development machine. I bought it from my employer when they did an IT upgrade and put WinXP on it. Now I'm trying to return it back to a Warp box.

It's a Patriot machine running a K6-2 with 288Mb of RAM and a (not original) 4Gb HDD setup with a 300Mb partition for the OS.

I've verified that the hardware all works by installing Win98 on the machine. I'm now trying to install Warp 4.52. This is not going well.

As far as I can see, the installation process is running without any errors. Its  just that its running extremely slowly. For example, it seems to take around 24hours to format the HDD and to complete the 1st round of file coping from the CD to the HDD. I let it run, but after 48hrs it had yet to get to the GUI portion of the process.

It's not the file transfer that's slow, it's the whole installation process. Even with the CD out of the drive, it's slow to do anything.

I have tried with a different set of installation CDs. Same result.

I have tried it with a different HDD. Same result.

I did try copying the relevant data to the HDD and installing from there, booting from floppy disks modified to look for the data on the HDD. This failed as the HDD for some reason couldn't be accessed. I tried replacing the IBM IDE driver with the 'danis506' driver but this just caused the FDD to stop working.

Unfortunately the machine's BIOS doesn't support booting from USB.

So...I know the hardware all works. I assume the installation ISOs/CDs are good, since I've tried 2 different sets with the same results. I'm getting no errors (when booting from the CD), so what could be causing the process to run so slow?? What can I do fix it?

And don't forget that this machine (albeit with a different HDD) ran Warp 4 back in the day...so I know its possible.

Cheers & TIA

P.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2025, 01:04:26 am »
How did you partition the machine, as in what program did you use? It's really important to do all partitioning with OS/2 tools, lvm in the case of OS/2 4.52.
Also how is the HD and CD/DVD drive connected to the system? I vaguely remember problems with some setups and best to have them on separate IDE connectors, both as master IIRC.

nyao

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2025, 05:32:00 am »
Hi.
Is the format HPFS?
I remember that performance dropped dramatically if it wasn't JFS.
With ArcaOS, the formatting never finishes, so I gave up even with a 2GB install partition and used JFS.

Dave Yeo

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2025, 05:46:14 am »
Hi.
Is the format HPFS?
I remember that performance dropped dramatically if it wasn't JFS.
With ArcaOS, the formatting never finishes, so I gave up even with a 2GB install partition and used JFS.

Warp 4.52 doesn't support booting JFS.

UberCoder

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2025, 10:22:22 am »
The machine only has 1 IDE controller. The HDD is master, the CD, the slave.

The format selected was HPFS

The partitioning was done under Dos (fdisk) as the LVM tool didn't seem to work. The dialogue for select the size of a new partition didn't work. I could see it flash briefly on screen, then disappear.

I guess it could be worth going back and deleting the partition and trying again from scratch.

*UPDATE* That didn't work. I managed to successfully run through the LVM tool and create a new partition for the OS....its still running slow as a dog.

*UPDATE-2* strictly speaking, its a little faster. It managed to complete the HPFS format in about 30mins and has reached the start of the 1st file copy phase in about 50mins. However, the actual file copying seems no faster. It tool nearly 5 mins to copy the 1st file(!) 
« Last Edit: September 04, 2025, 12:58:53 pm by UberCoder »

JTA

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2025, 03:13:14 pm »
Review this old post:

www.os2world.com/oldforum/index.php?topic=1402.0

I'd tend to agree with the old post's comments that you've got some IDE issues that win98 can get past, and OS/2 cannot. Don't know if you'll need two IDE controllers to separate hdd and cd, or if it's a jumper issue, or data cable issue. But, read the whole thing and see if their tips on IDE are of use ...

Hope this helps ...

JTA

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2025, 03:29:33 pm »
Second possibility is to redo your OS/2 boot cd (assuming you're booting from a stock cd) ... try looking at a site like:

  www.os2usr.org/w4bootcd.html

and then rebuild a new OS/2 4.52 boot cd using all their their suggestions, and the latest drivers for hardware.

The article is a point in time for an older v4 install, but hopefully you can sort thru what's needed for 4.52

Hope this helps ...

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2025, 03:43:03 pm »
I agree with Dave Yeo. It's likely a partitioning error from what was on the disk before. You really need to wipe the drive to get past it. In the past, I used DFSee to do the trick. If your computer can boot Puppy Linux, then the bootable version of DFSee will work to wipe the drive.

If the OS/2 installer can't partition the drive, stop and fix that. OS/2 can quick-format HPFS one of those drives in under 30 seconds. If that's not the situation, then waiting 24 hours for an install won't result in a nice system anyway.
Expert consulting for ArcaOS, OS/2 and eComStation
http://www.blondeguy.com

Dave Yeo

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #8 on: September 04, 2025, 05:13:30 pm »
Dfsee is a good tool. Not loading here right now, https://dfsee.com/dfseemedia.php There are options for a bootable CD ISO and even bootable floppies IIRC as well as the USB stick.
Edit: fix typo

RTAN

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #9 on: September 04, 2025, 10:03:15 pm »
ClearHDD is another great tool to clear a drive - I use this all the time to quickly wipe a drive before installing OS/2 and it works great.

Here's the Vogons thread:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=27285

And here's the direct link to ClearHDD:
https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=8595

Pop it on a DOS boot floppy, boot with the disk and run the following to clear drive 0 (the first IDE drive in the system):

A:\>ClearHDD 0

UberCoder

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #10 on: September 04, 2025, 10:42:52 pm »
SO...my activities for the evening, thus far:

I downloaded and booted from the DFSee floppy disk and deleted the pre-existing partition as suggested.
I then attempted to reinstall OS2 - this failed completely with some errors about a corrupted partition table. It was unable to build a new partiton.
I then booted into Dos and used Fdisk to create a new Primary Dos partition.
I then re-started the OS2 installation (without formatting the Dos partiton). Using the OS2 LVM, I was now able to successfully delete the Dos partition & create a new 'Installable' partition for OS2.
I am currently waiting for the OS2 installation process to get round to prompting me to select a format type, etc...Its not looking promising. Once again its running extremely slowly...

Just spotted RTAN's post and link to ClearHDD (thx). I've killed the install attempt (above) run ClearHDD on the machine & restarted the install. Partition creation passed uneventfully and I'm back back to waiting for the format type prompt, now. The the process does feel as if it's been running a little quicker...we'll see. 

I'll leave it to run over night, but if its still copying files tomorrow morning, I think I'll scrap the whole thing and see about trying to install eCS2.1.

UberCoder

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2025, 08:12:56 am »
and here's the result....no change. If anything, its slower!

The more I think about it, I don't think its a disk/ide issue. Its more that the whole system is slow and any slow dis access is a by-product of that. However, I did a Win98se install as a comparison, earlier in the week, and it installed in around 30mins, so the machine itself is entirely functional.

All this leaves me at a loss...in 30+years of playing around with PCs both professionally and at home, I've never come across an OS install that appears to make no complaints, but just runs at small percentage (1%..? 5%..?) of what it should run at. It really feals like its runnnig at 4.5Mhz, rather than 450Mhz.

I think I'll try 1 last time, this time with a different HDD, and if that's not successful, I think I'll accept defeat.       

*UPDATE* 1st alternative HDD failed - BIOS didn't reccognise the CF <-> IDE adapter. moving on to try a 'real' HDD...   

*UPDATE 2* Annnnd no. Different HDD same problem. Switching to try my luck with eCS2.1...wish me luck! 

*UPDATE 3* And eComStation 2.1 doesn't work either...I suppose I should be grateful that it only tooK 2 hours to fail, rather than 2 days. Anyway, I'll start a new thread...

Thanks all for your input. 

P.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2025, 02:08:06 pm by UberCoder »

Lars

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2025, 01:58:01 pm »
Have you checked that (memory) caching is enabled in BIOS?
I seem to remember for old PCs that this could be turned off and on.

In general I would have a look at what the BIOS offers. There also sometimes existed something like a switch "OS Select For DRAM > 64MB" which you might need to turn OFF (weird, ain't it?).

If you have something like "cache BIOS" or "BIOS shadowing" then turn that OFF.  OS/2 does not make much use of the BIOS. Your system memory (and also memory cache) is better used for other things.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2025, 02:14:22 pm by Lars »

JTA

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Re: Extremely slow Warp 4.52 installation.
« Reply #13 on: September 05, 2025, 04:01:11 pm »
This is a really old system, and I believe you are trying to boot a really old OS (if it's 4.52 stock) ... both of these are most likely out of sync with what you installed on it back in the day (warp 3, 4?).

If you were able to get 3 or 4 (or something) on it back then, then perhaps check to see if that can be repeated today, and then look into the upgrade processes to finally get to 4.52 plus fixes. This gets you to a known starting point. Save that image (for reload), and test in other directions ...

I'd think you need a more modern boot CD, such as in the links provided ... this is the only way I can think of to get all the fixes into place that have occurred over the years, for the installer routines. Even then, it's a gamble, given the weird combinations of hardware & bios, not the least of which is IDE issues, master/slave, installer switches, etc.

Only other thing I can offer is to possibly try a HDD-based install (and get the CD drive off the bus), where you put all the installation files into a mount-point, and arrange to kick off the install from that directory with some boot diskettes. There are instructions that can be searched for on the 'net, if you feel like gathering all the modern pieces, creating an install dir, and giving it a shot. This would possibly bypass much IDE (CD Drive?) grief ... certainly another data point.

If you have a real love for the old hardware, and are willing to keep trying, you'll eventually hit on a winning combination. It will take time, but it's why we explore all the old stuff in the first place ...

If you just wanted to see OS/2 running, and explore it a bit, consider virtualization. I run OS/2 in a VM (ArcaOS, 4.52, etc. all the way down to 1.xx) ... it's much easier to try out combinations, at virtual/vm speeds ... no hardware issues, no browser issues (see the virtualization subfolder on this forum).

Hope this helps ...