eCS 2.1 Guest in Virtual Box

[David Hart]

For years I have been using Virtual PC for OS/2 and Windows and able to bet sound and networking.  I have a collection of at least 25 operating systems with most of them having networking.

Recently I purchased a DELL 8700 with 32 Gig of RAM and i7-4790, 3.6 GHz processor.  It came with Windows 8 thinking I could run Virtual PC and copy the virtual machines over but naturally MS stopped supporting that and replaced it with Hyper-V.

Since I could not convert the OS's I re-installed a few with Virtual Box.  When I got to eCS 2.1, I followed the instructions I found at http://os2notes.net/os2virtualbox4.html but I cant get the networking to work.  I have tried using the PCnet-Fast III network card using the AMD PCNet Ethernet Family Adapter and that did not work although the driver did appear to load on the boot screen.  I also checked other Virtual Machines and found there was an Intel PRO/1000 Network driver with the Intel PRO/1000 Desktop and it too seemed to indicate that the driver loaded but also would not connect.

Has anyone out there been able to get the virtual NIC to work?

thanks
Dave

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi David.

Let me know if I understand it right. You are running eComStation 2.1 as a guest on Windows 8.1 host.
If that is correct, eCS 2.1 networking works fine with VirtualBox with Windows host.

I have some information here: http://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/VirtualBox_Guest

I'm running the VM as a PCNet Fast III on the host side of VirtualBox, sorry that the screenshot is in spanish.
On eComStation 2.1, I'm using the "PCnet-FAST III" driver that is included on the eComStation Installer. The driver that I'm using is "\IBMCOM\MACS\PCNTND.OS2", (The same AMD Driver you are using) but I don't know why it is not working for you.

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Here it goes the same screenshot in english.

[Martin Iturbide]

By the way, I'm using "Bridge" configuration on this case, but "NAT" mode also works on other OS/2 VM's that I have.

Regards

[David Hart]

Martin,

Thanks very much for the reply.  So far everything you have explained is what I have.  I did go back and reinstall again and I think I got closer. This is the status of lan0 now:

ifconfig lan0
lan0: flags=b863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,MULTICAST,BRIDGE,SNAP,LOOPBRD>
METRIC 1
INET 192.168.1.4 NETMASK 0Xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255

This seems like its up.  The network status of the machine shows data going out but nothing coming back (number of bytes).

There is a network settings (global I guess) for VirtualBox that allows creation of NAT Networks that I have added Network CIDR: 192.168.1.0/24 and unchecked DHCP and Supports IPv6.

Another thought is that  for some reason something isn't connecting to the host network interface but just for the eComStation box.  Very strange.

Any ideas?

thanks again,
David

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I don't have any other ideas. I checked VirtualBox Global config and I have everything blank on "NAT" and the virtualbox adpter on "host-only" (check screenshot).

Do you have the Virtual Box Adapter installed on Windows?

Do you have some time to install other OS as a guest and see if the network works on that other OS?

Regards

[David Hart]

I have 9 other OS's installed and networking does work.  They all use NAT so it should work for eCS as well.

Now, I got an idea to create another VM and booted with the 2.2 Demo disk.  The first boot seemed to hang reading a "nif" file.  After that I tried changing from the default NIC to Intel PRO/100 MT Desktop and that did connect with the eCS 2.2 demo disk. 

Maybe there is something wrong with the configuration of the VM itself.  I will try removing the VM but not the files and then recreate it from scratch. Whatever it is, its something very unusal.  I'll keep poking around.

Do you think that the there are some updates to the NIC drivers that the 2.2 demo disk has that might help?

thanks,
David

[David Hart]

Making progress....

I recreated a VM and used the existing virtual hard disk.  Now, I am getting an IP Address with DHCP.  The IP address assigned is 10.0.2.15 which is from VirtualBox DHCP server.  I'm not able to connect to my lan or outside.

I'll do some more checking.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi.

I'm using eComStation 2.1 with "PCNTND.OS2" version: April-29-2005 3:12p  88,570 bytes.    
The NIF file says it is version 4.05. This one works for me.

NICPAK has "PCNTND.OS2" from: 11-03-2000  4:35p        90,625 
The NIF file says it is version 4.05 too.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-viewer.php?dir=/pub/os2/system/drivers/network&file=NICPAK_2007-02-07.zip
I haven't tried this one.

On other VM on VirtualBox I'm using "IBM PCI Ethernet Adapter Driver [IBMEANDI.OS2]" also using "PCNet Fast III" on the host, and it also works.
1-13-1997  11:23          82,730           0  ibmeandi.os2

Regards.

[David Hart]

It must have been something corrupted with the configuration file for that VM.  The other VMs are still working as well.

Thanks again.