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OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: clh333 on March 23, 2018, 10:28:50 pm

Title: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 23, 2018, 10:28:50 pm
Hello to all.  I am a new member of this site but a long-time computer enthusiast. 

When OS/2 was first introduced I obtained a copy of Warp 3 but never succeeded in installing it.  Instead I stayed on the Microsoft path.

Recently I decided to try again.  I built a '586 AMD - based machine, VLB with SIS 471 chipset, 65 Mb memory, DTC 3274VL SCSI controller, SCSI HD and CD player, Microsoft serial mouse.  The machine will boot to MS-DOS.

My Warp installation materials consist of two 3.5-inch floppies and a CD.  I can run the floppies and get to the point of being instructed to insert the CD.  When I complete the installation from CD and am instructed to remove one floppy (the second) and insert the other (the first) installation hangs.

I'm doing something wrong but I don't know what.  People at the Vintage Computer Forum suggested that I ask here.  I would appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Thanks.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Roderick Klein on March 23, 2018, 11:08:12 pm
When you get the OS/2 boot blob press ALT F2 key combination to see which driver its loading.
The fact that DOS boots is not a garentee that OS/2 will boot since DOS leans on the BIOS to run.
OS/2 uses its own drivers. Warp 3 is from 1994 I do not know if without updating the boot diskettes with new IDE driver etc. You can get this to boot. Warp 3 is to long ago for me, sorry.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: ivan on March 23, 2018, 11:33:23 pm
Do you have the drivers disk for the scsi card, it should have the OS/2 drivers on it.

You will then need to add that driver to Disk1 and edit the config.sys to include that driver and also add set copyfromfloppy=1 as the last item of the config.sys otherwise you get what you are seeing at the moment.

the set copyfromfloppy=1 tells the install program to copy all the drivers from the disk which includes the driver for your scsi adapter.  without that driver your cd will not work when the installer changes from DOS to OS/2.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Dave Yeo on March 23, 2018, 11:47:35 pm
There are updated boot disks here, ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v3.0warp/english-us/warpinst/warpinst.exe (http://ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v3.0warp/english-us/warpinst/warpinst.exe) which might help.
Scsi drivers are here, http://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/scsi/dtcscsi.zip (http://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/scsi/dtcscsi.zip). You might have to ask for a login to get them. Follow Ivan's advice to install them.

Often helps to do the minimal install at first, eg no sound card and once up and running, use selective install to add other stuff. Sometimes helps to go into your BIOS and make it as generic as possible by doing things like turning off the cache. Once installed you can turn them back on.
Let us know how it goes.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 24, 2018, 01:24:04 am
Thank you all for your suggestions.  I will try them and let you know how it goes; I'll need a login first.

FWIW the DTC is (reportedly) register compatible with the Adaptec 154x, and OS/2 uses the Adaptec driver.

Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 24, 2018, 01:29:06 am
Do you have the drivers disk for the scsi card, it should have the OS/2 drivers on it.


I have the driver disk, but it does not have OS/2 drivers on it,; only for DOS and Novell.  I have read that OS/2 uses the Adaptec 154x drivers instead.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Dave Yeo on March 24, 2018, 03:16:28 am
I have read that OS/2 uses the Adaptec 154x drivers instead.
[/quote]

Have you tried installing with the Adaptec drivers?
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 24, 2018, 12:37:05 pm

Have you tried installing with the Adaptec drivers?

I am following the procedure as prompted by the installation routine.  I had thought that routine was inventorying the machine hardware and building a custom config.sys file as part of the installation.  If I could complete the installation I might inspect the config.sys file and verify there is a call to the adaptec driver, but I don't know how to manually install it.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: ivan on March 24, 2018, 03:34:53 pm
Having dug through my archives I have found a couple of drivers for the DTC card that may or may not work - they are stated to be for OS/2 v2 and later.

All I can say is to try them and see.

The final config.sys is built from the one on Disk 1 (the second install disk) and the information you give during the install process (this information is taken from the various screens that ask you about the equipment that makes up the computer).

To add any external driver you make a copy of Disk 1 and make changes to that.  Copy the driver you want to add to the copy of disk 1 (make room by deleting some of the redundant cd drivers, chincds1.add, hitcds1.add, lms206.add, mitfx001.add etc.  You must also remove the entries for all the drivers you delete from the config.sys.

While you are editing the congig sys add the driver you added to the disk to the basedev section and add set copyfromfloppy=1 as the last item of the config.sys.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Bogdan on March 24, 2018, 05:34:45 pm
The DTC 3274 VL seems to use a different chipset than the 3270VL. So there will be no luck with either the included Adaptec 1540 (AHA154X.ADD) nor the latest DTC (DTC3280.ADD) drivers. Perhaps it's a better idea to try the QLogic chipset drivers.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 24, 2018, 05:55:44 pm
Tried again today: Booted from floppies and halted at the point where I am prompted to insert the CD. Pressed F3 to get to a prompt. From the A: prompt I was able to move to the C: drive and inspect its contents, which looked like a pretty complete installation of OS/2. There were /OS2 and /IBMVESA and /PSFONTS directories. There was a lengthy CONFIG.SYS file with reference to the ADAPTEC154x.ADD driver; pretty much what you'd expect.

I created text files on a floppy, which I formatted with OS/2, of all these contents and then began installation again from a warm start and floppy A: installation diskette. I went all the way through the "easy" installation process, which proceeded as far as prompting me to remove the disk in drive A: and press ENTER. When I did so the machine performed another warm boot and got to the point shown below.

OS2 !! SYS01475
OS2 !! SYS02027

_

are displayed and the machine will boot no further.

Don't know why. Suggestions? Thanks.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: ivan on March 24, 2018, 06:29:01 pm
The first sys message says that os2boot can't be found
The second says insert a system diskette and restart the system

Looking at your text files you are about half way through the install but the essential files OS2BOOT, OS2KRNL, OS2LDR, OS2LDR.MSG, OS2LOGO, OS2VER and possibly IBMLVL.INI (this is from memory) are missing.

In this situation you should go back and start over using the advanced install.  When you get to the FDISK page format the HD with HPFS file system  and continue from there.

I am most probably forgetting/missing some things it has been a very long time since I installed warp 3 and that was the connect version.  I might have a HD from one of those installs somewhere in the garage but even if I could find it I don't think it would be much help.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Bogdan on March 24, 2018, 08:19:53 pm
OS2 !! SYS01475
OS2 !! SYS02027

Don't know why. Suggestions? Thanks.
It seems the installation routine utilised IBMINT13.I13 as a fall-back. But without information about the capacity of the hard drive and the partition scheme everything is vague.

The generic procedure should be:

1. Make a copy of the second disk (called "Diskette 1")
2. Put the correct ADD driver to this disk
3. Modify the CONFIG.SYS so that the first two lines contain:

SET COPYFROMFLOPPY=1
BASEDEV=QL40OS2.ADD /V

4. Use the modified "Diskette 1" for local installation
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 25, 2018, 04:16:52 pm
The first sys message says that os2boot can't be found
The second says insert a system diskette and restart the system

Looking at your text files you are about half way through the install but the essential files OS2BOOT, OS2KRNL, OS2LDR, OS2LDR.MSG, OS2LOGO, OS2VER and possibly IBMLVL.INI (this is from memory) are missing.

In this situation you should go back and start over using the advanced install.  When you get to the FDISK page format the HD with HPFS file system  and continue from there.

I returned to the installation this morning and began anew with Installation Diskette, followed by Diskette1, followed by the CD.  I came to the installation type and selected "Advanced".  I opted to run FDISK from there. Attached images illustrate what I found at that point:

PartnBad1.jpg shows the screen presented as soon as FDISK opened.  As you can see there is a warning about a corrupted partition table. 
PartnBad2 shows that my only option was to delete the partition. 
PartnBad3 shows the screen after exiting from FDISK.  Having deleted the partition I had no other option but to restart.
PartnBad4 shows the message that was displayed after restarting, loading from ID, D1 and CD.  I repeated the reboot.
PartnBad5 shows the message that was displayed after a second restart, loading from ID, D1 and CD.  At this point I am in an endless loop and shut down the machine.

I think I need to run FDISK independently of the installation process.  How would I do that?  Alternately I could run DOS FDISK or FreeDOS FDISK but I'm not sure that would help.  I could also wipe the drive with KILLDISK.

What do you recommend?  Follow Bogdan's procedure first?

Thanks for your replies.

Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: ivan on March 25, 2018, 06:07:31 pm
The main thing is that it is seeing your hard disk.

Now to try and fix the problem.  go to http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-browse.php?dir=/pub/incoming/ and download dfsee150.zip and use that to make a bootable dos floppy, boot with that floppy and use dfsee to write a new MBR and delete the old partition tables.  It should then allow you to use the advanced install fdisk to setup the HD as you want it and after a reboot the install should proceed as normal.

Note:  It is also possible to use dfsee to setup the partitions on the HD.  If you do then there must be one partition marked as 'startable'.

If you have added or removed any drivers to Disk 1 then you must edit the config.sys to reflect that and set copyfromfloppy=1 should be the last item if you have added any driver otherwise that driver will not be copied to the HD.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Doug Bissett on March 25, 2018, 09:22:30 pm
I didn't read every word in this thread, so it may have been suggested already, but look in the BIOS for something suggesting "virus protection". What that does, when set, is prevent writing to the boot sector. Not a good thing when you are trying to change the disk layout.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Bogdan on March 26, 2018, 12:18:22 am
Doug's advise can be extended to the SCSI host adapter BIOS. The used hard drive is quite big for this particular SCSI adapter. Different mappings can restrict the usable disk size. Not a problem for OS/2 at all. But it becomes a problem if you wan't to IPL from the local drive unit. So the install volume has to be below cylinder 1024.

You can try from command line: FDISK /NEWMBR

Otherwise replacing the hard drive unit with a model with lesser than 8GB and reducing the installed RAM to 16 MB should be the best option to install from the original diskettes.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Fahrvenugen on March 26, 2018, 03:44:03 am
Hi,

A few thoughts.

If you have not already, grab warpinst.exe from IBM and copy replace older files on your boot disk(s) with files in the archives. Especially anything dealing with SCSI since you're working with a SCSI system - with perhaps the exception of the drivers that actually work with your SCSI card.  You can grab this file from:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v3.0warp/english-us/warpinst/

Yes, IBM still has OS/2 files available on its FTP servers!

The system memory should not be a problem.  The main issue with Warp 3 was that if the system had more then 64 MB, then Warp would not see memory above 64 MB. Once installed and up and running you can use patchldr from Hobbes to see the "extra" memory - up to 512 MB as I recall (the Warp 3 kernel has  a 512 MB limit)

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=patchldr&pushbutton=Search

For the hard disk, there is a limit on how big the boot drive partition can be in Warp 3.  The boot partition for OS/2 must be with the first 1024 cylinders of the disk - if the end of your boot partition is beyond the first 1024 cylinders then the install won't complete, the system won't boot.

For starters - try the install using the Advanced install, go into FDISK when it lets you do so, and delete all partitions on the drive.  Select the option to write the changes to the disk and then reboot - power down, boot back up with your floppies selecting the Advanced install.

After the reboot see if it'll let you install Boot Manager and create a parition on your drive.  Your boot partition does not need to be very big.  Remember this is Warp 3 which came out originally in 1994.  200 MB is adequate for the OS install, in fact the original manual recommends 25 to 55 MB for the boot partition (although I do recommend more since - after you get things like TCP/IP, stuff from the bonus pack, and Fixpak 40 installed you'll need more then 55 MB).  Assign your Boot partition as Startable and assign it as Drive C (if FDISK doesn't do this already, I can't recall - it has been a few years since I did a Warp 3 install from original install disks).  Exit FDISK and select the option to write the changes to disk.

On Warp 3 installs I've often gone with 500 MB boot drives with success.  Note that making sure the boot partition is within the first 1024 cylinders of the drive should take care of the issue that Bogdan is talking about suggesting a smaller then 8 GB drive.   If Warp can see the drive itself (which is suggested based on the posted screen shots), then it is more likely a problem that the partition is just too big.

Note - if Warp 3's fdisk won't let you partition the drive properly you may have to use something like DFSee as suggested in an earlier post.

If I recall correctly you'll have to reboot again with your floppies, again select the Advanced install.  See if you can get it to the section where it'll let you format the partition - use HPFS - and if it'll do that then hopefully it'll go through the rest of the install.

** On some systems it'll get through the first part of the installation process, will try and boot to the hard disk to continue the process, and it'll fail to boot.  On these systems if it gets through the text-based install but fails to boot to the graphicall install part, try the following:

1.  Boot with your floppies, when it gets to the "select easy install or advanced" it also has an option to press F3 to go to a command prompt/exit.  Press F3

2.  From the command prompt, type:

sysinstx c:

You might need to search around to figure out which floppy the sysinstx utility is on - if I recall it is on either disk 1 or 2, you can do a dir command at the promot to see the floppy directory / contents.

Assuming it does not come up with an error, pull your floppy out and reboot with CTRL-ALT-DEL

Sysinstx is a utility on one of the boot floppies that'll transfer some of the main boot files over to the hard disk specified.  The installation app is supposed to do this for you, but it doesn't always work.

Also a few hints during install.  If you do get to the point of the graphical desktop and graphical install, do NOT try and install video drivers / sound drivers during install.  Just let it do its thing using VGA and such.  I've seen the installer crash while trying to install these drivers during an initial install. You can always install them once your desktop is up and running.

Hope this helps.

Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 26, 2018, 07:35:45 pm
I am happy (and relieved) to report that I eventually succeeded installing OS/2 Warp on my target machine** after many hours of floundering.  I would
like to thank all who responded to my inquiries and requests for help.  Here, in a nutshell, is the source of the problem: the SCSI hard drive.
Apparently this Quantum VIKING II 9 Gb SCSI II drive had been used in a Apple machine before I purchased it from eBay, and there was a remnant of the
old OS, an Apple partition table, that had survived all attempts to eradicate it.  OS2World's Ivan correctly recognized that despite the oddball DTC
controller - nominally register-compatible with the Adaptec 1540 and 42 - the OS/2 installer was recognizing and communicating with the disk.  He
recommended using FDSEE, a powerful program with which I was not familiar (and still am not) to diagnose the problem in communication.
FDSEE pointed out the remnant of the Aplle installation, which had persisted despite my attempts with three separate FDISK utilities to delete all
partitions and reformat the disk.  FDSEE was not able to remove it either, or, better said, I was not able to remove it with FDSEE.  I'm pretty sure FDSEE,
properly configured, could have accomplished the task; PEBCAC, as they say.

In any event I remembered reading in the DTC controller manual that there was a low-level format utility in the DTC BIOS.  I invoked it with DEBUG:
g=c800:5 and we were off to the races.  Formatted and verified the drive, checked and initialized with FDSEE then tried the OS/2 install again. 
Unfortunately, I got into the same reboot loop I had experienced before.  Back into DOS I examined the VIKING disk again with FDSEE, only to find that
the previous configuration I had made was not present.

A number of people had suggested that the OS/2 install process needed a DTC driver on the installation disk.  It turns out that OS/2 was able and happy
to use the Adaptec 154x driver instead (see attachment) but I thank them for their recommendations.  Without their prompting I would never have
noticed the README.INS file on the installation floppy supplied with WARP.  It read, in part:

  1.0     FORMAT ERRORS WHEN INSTALLING OS/2 ON 4MB COMPUTERS
          ___________________________________________________

  When installing OS/2 on some 4MB computers, you might not
  be able to format the installation partition.  You will
  see the following error message:

    Disk Format Error

  If so, discontinue the OS/2 installation and do the
  following:

  1.  Insert the DOS Setup diskette 1 from a DOS
      package into drive A.
  2.  Turn on your computer.  If your computer is
      already on, press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart it.
  3.  When the DOS Setup screen appears, press F3 to
      display a command prompt.
  4.  Use the DOS FORMAT command to format the
      partition you want to use to install OS/2.  Refer
      to your DOS documentation for information about
      the FORMAT command.
  5.  Begin the OS/2 installation again.  If the
      Installation program asks if you want to format
      the installation partition, select Do Not Format
      the Partition.

I went back into DOS and used FDISK to create a new Primary DOS partition, active, of ~600Mb.  After restarting I formatted that partition, again with
DOS.

The next attempt at installing OS/2 succeeded.  When, after booting from FD1 and the FD2 and finally CD, I was prompted to reboot, this time the reboot
started loading the OS from the hard disk and proceeded with the installation to completion.

I still have software to install and hardware to configure (Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16) and maybe tweak the video driver.  But I have a bootable
OS/2 machine!  I couldn't have done it without your help. 

Thank you all.


** Generic '486 VL "deep green" board, SiS 471/407 chipset, AMD '586 processor, 64 Mb RAM, Cirrus Logic VLB VGA video card, DTC 3274 VL SCSI
controller, Quantum Viking II SCSI HD 9.1 Gb, Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16 audio, Everex 170 I/O card.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: ivan on March 26, 2018, 11:03:53 pm
Congratulations.

It is rather surprising what you find on HDs eBay.  I got a set of 6 for my HP server and when I looked at them prior to making sure they were OK I found some companies complete development data, some of it was interesting but they cleaned up well and have been running WSeB server 24/7 for the past 8 years.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Bogdan on March 26, 2018, 11:35:02 pm
I still have software to install and hardware to configure (Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16) and maybe tweak the video driver.  But I have a bootable OS/2 machine!  I couldn't have done it without your help.
Later Cirrus Logic display drivers are available from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/drivers/video/cirrus.zip
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Dave Yeo on March 26, 2018, 11:39:01 pm
Sounds like you ended up installing to a FAT partition with its limitations such as 8.3 names. I hate to say it but you might want to consider redoing the install to a HPFS volume or else format another partition HPFS and use that for your stuff.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 29, 2018, 05:15:38 pm
I still have software to install and hardware to configure (Intel 8/16 ISA NIC, SoundBlaster 16) and maybe tweak the video driver.  But I have a bootable OS/2 machine!  I couldn't have done it without your help.
Later Cirrus Logic display drivers are available from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/drivers/video/cirrus.zip

I found the driver, thanks.  The card is a Genoa WindowsVGA 24, model 8500VL.  The chip is a CL 5426 and there is 1 Mb RAM on the card.
Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: clh333 on March 29, 2018, 05:30:09 pm
Sounds like you ended up installing to a FAT partition with its limitations such as 8.3 names. I hate to say it but you might want to consider redoing the install to a HPFS volume or else format another partition HPFS and use that for your stuff.

I think this is an HPFS partition.  That's what I specified during installation, at least.  But there's lots more space on the disk.  Eventually I'd like to add another partition; how large can the HPFS partitions be under OS/2 Warp 3?

Title: Re: OS/2 Warp 3 Installation Issue
Post by: Dave Yeo on March 29, 2018, 06:08:49 pm
Good to be using HPFS instead of FAT. It is one of the reasons that OS/2 made a better DOS and Windows.
HPFS is limited to 64 GB partitions and I've heard that for stability they should be a bit smaller, perhaps 60 GB. The main problem with HPFS is the long chkdsk times as the partitions get bigger.