eComStation 2.2 Beta First Impressions

[Martin Iturbide]

Since today it is available for download "eComStation 2.2 Beta ISO" for software subscribers.

I was recommended to that if we found bugs to open it on the bugtracker (of check if it was already reported):
http://bugs.ecomstation.nl/my_view_page.php

Also take notice of the recommendations on "http://www.ecomstation.com/support/ecs22beta.phtml"

Please post your first impressions. Give all detail you can !!

[solarsea]

A hardware compatibility list for 2.2 would be great to have.

I intend to buy myself a H&S license once 2.2 is out and I'd to know if I have to change anything on my machine to get it running properly.

[Pete]

Hi Stanislav

If you post details of your hardware (mainboard chipset, lan, audio, video) there is a chance that you will get responses telling you what works - and what does not.

As far as I am aware we do not have USB3 or SATA3 support.
There is a good chance that audio will work with the uniaud driver and video with the Panorama driver (VESA mode); lan could be a problem, you may have to get a supported lan card to put in a PCI slot.


Regards

Pete

[Roderick Klein]

Get a system with an Intel mainboard chipset and ethernet NIC for wired support and you should be OK.

Roderick Klein
Mensys B.V.

[Davorin]

ISO file disappeared during loading?

[Roderick Klein]

Well we had slight hick up :-(

We put the ISO online at 16:00 hours Amsterdam. But at 22:30 we withdrawn the ISO.
As I type this a new one is being uploaded. We discovered what I would call a critical defect.

The defect was in the fact that when installed to hard disc the two files \os2\boot\ usbohcd.sys and usbehcd.sys where still the IBM version.
We missed ONE pack file in which the files are. \os2image\disk_5\usb was correct.
Os2image\bundle0 missed an update.

The joys of IBM installer framework. Its pretty complex stuff.

Sorry for the inconvience. The new ISO just finished uploading and will be accessible within 10 minutes again.

Roderick Klein
Mensys B.V.

[guzzi]

I tried to install it today. It came as far as the disk test in phase 1. Reported incomplete  LVM info on disk 1 and 2 and told me this is normal on a non-eCS system. This computer runs eCS though. It offered to fix the problems, I clicked ok (have a backup). After that I started the install again and it said drive 1 was ok, but 2 still had errors. Didn't show any partitios to install to. I broke the installation off and rebooted from harddisk. Bootmanger showed the wrong drive letters, but the system booted. Used DFSEE to fix the LVW info and reinstall bootmanager. Next try when I have more time and have figured out what's wrong with the lvm setup.

[Roderick Klein]

PLEASE PLEASE open a bug report. Otherwhise forum postings can not manage this!!

Sitting between the developers and forums make it just about impossible to make proper bug resolving possible.

In this case do an LVM /startlog:driveletter:\directory\log.txt. And put that in a ticket!
In combination with that disc layout we can find out whats wrong possibly and put the exact error message in the ticket
that the disc checker reports.

Roderick Klein
Mensys B.V.

[Pete]

Hi All

I would love to give my first impressions but install failed to continue when I refused to complete a "Base path..." (UNIXROOT) entryfield.

I do not want the software and therefore do not need a UNIXROOT value.

I have reported this as a bug and hope that it will be fixed for the GA.

I do realise that I could have completed that field and then taken care to make sure that none of the software relying on UNIXROOT got selected for installation but I do not think install should stop there simply because the install routine is programmed to expect an entry.

I think the installer should recognise the empty path and *not* offer for installation any software relying on that path.


Regards

Pete

[Roderick Klein]

Well that's not how the installer works. The page previous (the page before you specify the UNIXROOT path), thats where you need to make the selection. Click on the + for "System extensions"
"Then software compatibility extensions" and under "unix ports framework" You can switch the between the two options.

Because the option is select by default to install RPM (which is needed for ODIN and QT 4 and Java) on the next page that option is displayed
"the unixroot path".

So you can disable that option BUT you will not get Java 6, QT 4 and ODIN and Flash.

Roderick Klein
Mensys B.V.

[Pete]

Hi Roderick

I'll give that a try.

No, I do not want any software installed by yum/rpm - or yum/rpm installed. I already have the apps you mention, plus more, installed without the benefit of yum/rpm to a non-boot drive.

I'll simply take a WPS2REXX backup of my ecS2.1 Desktop, modify the cmd files generated by the backup and run only the cmd files required to create application/folder Desktop icons on my ecS2.2 Desktop.

It is a fairly simple way of "migrating" a working Desktop to a different drive.


Regards

Pete

[Pete]

Hi Roderick

The page you refer to is "Next" not "Previous" therefore it is necessary to complete the UNIXROOT field even though it is unwanted and unneeded.

As regards installation: needs a little bit of work I think.

1] DOS was deselected but there is a populated \os2\mdos directory and DOS drivers loaded at boot.

2] JAVA was deselected but I discovered that java11 gets installed anyway in \os2\java\java11

3] The correct NIC was detected and preselected during installation but the system has no connectivity after installation
This may be due to the use of a genmac driver listed as UNTESTED in the genmac help but as the help does not give any useful details about installation - the Manual installation page basically says "run the WPI file" - I cannot check config.sys entries. I can, however, point you to a driver that works fine with this nic Marvel 88e8056 http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/network/m88e8056.zip

4] What happened to the options to "use pretty clock" and the good search tool pmseek.exe - did I miss them somewhere?

This 1 is my fault: I accidentally installed the "enhanced file dialog" thingy. How do I get rid of that and reinstate the old file open/save dialog?


Regards

Pete

[Alex Taylor]

As regards installation: needs a little bit of work I think.

1] DOS was deselected but there is a populated \os2\mdos directory and DOS drivers loaded at boot.

This is correct.  We have investigated this in the past.  You will notice that it is not a proper (full) MDOS installation. 

However, a few minimal files for VDM are always installed.  (It is the IBM installer that does this automatically.)  We've found that there is no way around this, as they are required by some core OS components (I believe GRADD requires VDM support; IIRC something else does too, possibly APM or somesuch).

2] JAVA was deselected but I discovered that java11 gets installed anyway in \os2\java\java11

Also correct.  The selectable option in the installer refers to OpenJDK (Java 6) only. 

Java 1.1.8 is now always installed.  This was discussed a couple of years ago in a problem ticket, although I don't have the reference handy.  Certain system components and configuration tools simply do not work stably with any later version of Java.  Attempting to allow flexibility in this just caused too many ongoing problems and compatibility issues.  Given how small and unobtrusive a minimal Java 1.1 installation is, it was decided to simply install it always.  Please note that it is tucked out of the way in a system directory, and adds absolutely nothing to CONFIG.SYS or the environment.

I'm aware that some users will be unhappy about this.  This is one of those issues where it's just impossible to satisfy everyone.  Trying to compromise just led to unhappiness and confusion anyway.

If you're really determined to excise Java 1.1.8 from your system (although it will gain you nothing besides 20 MB of disk space), you are free to uninstall it (from the Feature Install Base tree).

4] What happened to the options to "use pretty clock" and the good search tool pmseek.exe - did I miss them somewhere?

They're still there, in the same place as always: the Install/Remove folder, eComCenter Install/Configure.

This 1 is my fault: I accidentally installed the "enhanced file dialog" thingy. How do I get rid of that and reinstate the old file open/save dialog?

Also see the Install/Remove folder.  I believe the QuickGuide mentions this.

[Doug Bissett]

I am really undecided about eCS 2.2, and the way that it installs. I managed to get the first version of the eSC 2.2 install CD ISO, just before it was replaced by what appears to be an older version (not sure what that is all about, I wish I had not erased the first download). The first version did a pretty decent install into VBox (latest) under Win7. However, since it was, apparently, an incorrect installer, USB wouldn't work in VBox, and I decided to change some options, I tried the second ISO. Five times, and I still couldn't get it to install properly. I use the ISO in VBox, and it does check out okay.

One of the problems was that I missed turning off the RPM/YUM junk (well hidden, in a not so obvious place). The installer crapped out in the middle of phase 2, because it couldn't install ODIN.

Another problem, is that I set up VBox for two processors, and enabled the options that work with ACPI (works in eCS 2.1 in the exact same virtual machine). The installer would not recognize the two processors, and it would not install ACPI, even when I changed to Modern, with ACPI, instead of Virtual Machine.

Then, I changed VBox to use SATA/AHCI controllers.  The pre-boot stuff worked okay, but eCS stopped shortly after the logo went away. More work to do with that configuration.

So, back to the old default setup. ECS installed, without ACPI, without SMP,  and it somehow identified the virtual Intel gigabit NIC as an IBM NIC. Even eCS 2.1 got that right.

Okay. On to the real machines.

First attempt was on an old machine. I can't get that thing to read the DVD (not sure why, it was working). Abandoned that, for now.

Okay, try the Lenovo ThinkPad L530. First, there is a bad version of the USBEHCD.SYS driver, that won't work with USB mouses (at least on the two machines that I have that use that configuration). I am now looking at a "Press Enter to continue..." message, because Uniaud failed to load. This sort of works in eCS 2.1, but I need to use the later version of Uniaud, or it won't load (doesn't work properly anyway). Pressing Enter does nothing. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing. I guess it is power off, and start again, leaving sound out of it, but not today, I have other things that need to be done...

[Andreas Schnellbacher]

However, a few minimal files for VDM are always installed. (It
is the IBM installer that does this automatically.) We've found that
there is no way around this, as they are required by some core OS
components (I believe GRADD requires VDM support; IIRC something else
does too, possibly APM or somesuch).

Java 1.1.8 is now always installed. This was discussed a couple of
years ago in a problem ticket, although I don't have the reference
handy. Certain system components and configuration tools simply do not
work stably with any later version of Java. Attempting to allow
flexibility in this just caused too many ongoing problems and
compatibility issues. Given how small and unobtrusive a minimal Java
1.1 installation is, it was decided to simply install it always.
Please note that it is tucked out of the way in a system directory,
and adds absolutely nothing to CONFIG.SYS or the environment.

I'm aware that some users will be unhappy about this. This is one of
those issues where it's just impossible to satisfy everyone. Trying to
compromise just led to unhappiness and confusion anyway.

I'm sure it's time to replace both the IBM installer and the FI
installer - since a really long time. Unfortunately we're still
trying to get the eCS installer copy the selected files to the HD.
Instead we should concentrate on replacing system components. How to
install them is clear: Copy them to HD - it's as "easy" as unzip an
archive file after processing the selected options while regarding
the recognized HW.

Time to free resources - replace the installers!