OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: Mike Kölling on February 05, 2016, 07:25:36 pm

Title: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 05, 2016, 07:25:36 pm
Dear All,

I just want to let you know about my effort to install OS/2 (eCS v.2.1) on a new Thinkpad X250. Goal was to transfer my existing system from Thinkpad X200 to new X250, dual boot Win & OS/2 via AirBoot. On X200 I have working installation with latest drivers from Arca Noae. Not working on the X200 are Bluetooth and built in camera. Everything else including Ethernet, WiFi and USB are working fine.

Installation on X250 from USB-CD/DVD-ROM failed. eCS v2.1 startet up to maintenance screen bot no HDD was found. eCS v2.2 BetaII even did not start up from CD/DVD-ROM.

By suggestion from Sigurd I tried to clone my existing system using DFSee. :) This finally worked after some trouble with partition alignment.

Status now on X250 is a working eCS v.2.1 with ACPI showing 4 cores, full support of native screen resolution via PANORAMA, working USB (mouse and thumb drive tested as well as USB keyboard in docking station) after disabling USB3.0 in BIOS. Not working at this time is network (neither Ethernet nor WiFi). It will need more investigation what might be possible there.

If there is any progress I will let you know.
Greeting from Potsdam / Germany,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Martin Iturbide on February 05, 2016, 08:47:27 pm
Hi Mike.

Thanks for sharing. I will like to set up a wiki page about the Thinkpad X250 and eCS with your comments.

Can you share some more information about your Thinkpad X250, like the full model number of the laptop? Name of the internal devices (Video, Webcam, sd card reader, audio, etc)? or the hardwareID of the devices?

Here it is the page: http://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/ThinkPad_X250 (http://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/ThinkPad_X250)
If you want to edit it you can use your same forum UserID and Password for the Wiki.

Regards
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 06, 2016, 02:03:16 pm
Hi Martin,

I made some edits on the wiki page according to PCI.exe (with pcidev.txt 20140303 form Hobbes) and some data from Lenovo.

Best regards,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on February 06, 2016, 04:32:34 pm
On the X200, did you use GenMU to get WiFi support for the Intel 5100?

Pity about no network on the X250. Kind of makes it ornamental to me.
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 06, 2016, 05:24:17 pm
On the X200 there was a 5300agn card installed. I exchanged it to 3945abg which was supported by GenMAC out of the box. I first tried to use the 5300 in unsupported mode but had bad luck. I had to use a patched BIOS (Zender BIOS) to enable the 3945 card. Otherwise it would have been black listed by the BIOS. Strange because it is an IBM/Lenovo approved card.
I guess I have to go same direction with the X250. Not sure if there is a patched BIOS already available. I will have to check.
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Doug Bissett on February 06, 2016, 08:15:12 pm
Quote
I had to use a patched BIOS (Zender BIOS) to enable the 3945 card.

It seems that Lenovo only enables two, or three current cards, that they want to support. Not very smart in some ways, but it does make supporting the device easier, for them.

Is there a reliable way to get back to the original BIOS? You do invalidate your warranty by using anything else, and when you do need warranty, you may not be able get back to the original BIOS. If you are really lucky, it may not be worth their time to try to find out, but if they do, repairs can cost a lot more than simply using an external WiFi device. I use a D-Link DIR-506L, which didn't cost much more than a 3945. It is also useful for other things (one is that it can act as a backup battery for my cell phone). The only down side, is that it is another piece of hardware to carry around (but it isn't any bigger than a package of cigarettes).
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 06, 2016, 11:03:35 pm
Hi Doug,
Zender BIOS is based at the original ones. And of course you can update the BIOS back to official ones from Lenovo using the flashing tool. So no big risk. I use the ASUS W330n (https://www.asus.com/Networking/WL330N3G/) for cases I have only Ethernet available and need WiFi.
Greetings,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 25, 2016, 07:35:31 pm
Just to let you know that I got the built-in Ethernet of the X250 now running.
I tried my luck and just patched the Arca Noae driver "e1000b.os2" to accept the [8086:15A2] instead of [8086:5A15].
I write this now on my X250 using the built in Ethernet. :)
Greetings from Potsdam/Germany,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Martin Iturbide on February 25, 2016, 10:37:15 pm
Thanks for updating the wiki Mike.

It would be very nice if you can also get some time to test the webcam with USBECD (http://home.hccnet.nl/w.m.brul/usbprobe/index.html) :)

Regards
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Wim Brul on February 26, 2016, 07:22:08 pm
It would be very nice if you can also get some time to test the webcam with USBECD (http://home.hccnet.nl/w.m.brul/usbprobe/index.html) :)

It is better to try and use my Webcam Support (http://home.hccnet.nl/w.m.brul/uvcvideo/index.html) programs because these do not require any changes to your config.sys file.
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 26, 2016, 08:30:05 pm
Hi Brul, webcam starts but crashes shortly after.
Regards,
Mike
(http://WebCamX250_01.jpg)
(http://WebCamX250_02.jpg)
(http://WebCamX250_03.jpg)
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Wim Brul on February 28, 2016, 03:37:24 pm
Hi Brul, webcam starts but crashes shortly after.
Regards,
Mike

Hallo Mike,

The UvcView program is experiencing a timeout error. Try running it with  one core (http://www.os2.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=670&p=3800&hilit=uvcscope#p3798) enabled only.

Regards, Wim
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 28, 2016, 07:12:05 pm
Hallo Wim,

ACPI.PSD with MAXCPU=1 and MAXCPU=2 brings the error message camrea not found (see picture).
Running uvcview.exe as the only program it was now stable for about 3 minutes before crashing (with all4 kernels).
(http://X250_000.jpg)

Greetings from Potsdam/Germany,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Wim Brul on February 28, 2016, 08:49:30 pm
Hallo Mike,

Quote
ACPI.PSD with MAXCPU=1 and MAXCPU=2 brings the error message camrea not found (see picture).

May be you tried in the meantime some of my Webcam Test programs? That might be the cause of that error message.
When you define usbecd.sys in your config.sys to gain access to your webcam then ucvview.exe cannot find that webcam anymore.

Quote
Running uvcview.exe as the only program it was now stable for about 3 minutes before crashing (with all4 kernels).

You could try and use uvcscope.exe (http://www.os2.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=670&p=3797&hilit=uvcscope#p3797) instead.

Groeten uit Uithoorn,
 Wim
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 29, 2016, 04:45:00 pm
Dear Wim,
I haven't used the usbecd.sys so far.
I will give uvcscope.exe a try and will report.
Greetings from Potsdam/Germany,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on February 29, 2016, 05:27:28 pm
Sorry, uvcscope.exe does not work for me as well.
Regards, Mike
(http://X250_001.jpg)
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Wim Brul on March 01, 2016, 12:06:14 pm
Sorry, uvcscope.exe does not work for me as well.
(http://X250_001.jpg)

Perhaps your webcam is not recognized at all anymore. In that case it is also not shown by usbres.exe and USB Dock. It seems to me that you need to revert your system back to the point where you were able to run uvcview.exe for about 3 minutes.
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on March 01, 2016, 04:55:25 pm
Hi Wim,
I have now tested both programs uvcscope & uvcview with the latest USB drivers from Lars (v10.202) and from AN (v11.13).
In both environments both programs starts but  the video freezes after some seconds with the already posted error message.
I couldn't repeat the three minutes run time for uvcview.
I guess I shall try a clean environment, but that is a little bit tricky for the X250 because I have to clone the OS using DFSee.
If I have time I will give it another try and will stop for now testing the camera.
Hartelijk dank voor uw hulp.
Greetings form Potsdam/Germany,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Wim Brul on March 01, 2016, 06:14:17 pm
Hi Mike,

Quote
I have now tested both programs uvcscope & uvcview with the latest USB drivers from Lars (v10.202) and from AN (v11.13). In both environments both programs starts but  the video freezes after some seconds with the already posted error message. I couldn't repeat the three minutes run time for uvcview.

Thank you for your testing and reporting. It clearly shows that these webcam programs cannot run reliably in a multicore environment. Other people have run into the same problem with their webcams in such an environment. Unfortunately I cannot recreate that problem because I have only single cpu hardware to test with.

Quote
I guess I shall try a clean environment, but that is a little bit tricky for the X250 because I have to clone the OS using DFSee. If I have time I will give it another try and will stop for now testing the camera.

Don't spend more time on it since I really don't know how to solve the problem.

Best regards,
Wim.


Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on March 08, 2016, 06:26:56 pm
With the new Mulitmac package (Multimac-20160201.exe) from Arca Noae comes an e1000b.os2 driver for my LAN chip. So my patch of the older e1000b.os2 is no longer needed to use the LAN function of the X250.
Thanks to AN for the great support.
Greetings from Potsdam/Germany,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on March 10, 2016, 01:52:12 am
The X250 has a VGA port. Does that work for an external monitor?
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on March 10, 2016, 09:13:35 am
I use the VGA port on the docking station. I have the  Lenovo ThinkPad Pro Dock - 90W, EU (FRU: 40A10090EU).
Just tested now the VGA port on the device. It is working there as well.
I haven't tested the Mini-Display port, because of now hardware with such an interface.
Greetings,
Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Mike Kölling on March 17, 2016, 12:44:21 am
Dear All,

Status-Update: Thanks to Wim Brul the built-in camera is now working! He does a great job.

Greetings, Mike
Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Greggory Shaw on March 17, 2016, 06:18:27 am
Dear All,

Status-Update: Thanks to Wim Brul the built-in camera is now working! He does a great job.

Greetings, Mike


Hi Wim, thanks for all the hard work that you done for OS/2 !

I was wonder about 'Hello' in Firefox - web video ? - https://webrtc.org/  - it supports every browser & included in over 700+ apps !

Ever think about partnering with VOICE (is looking for projects) or Blue Lion to get 'Hello' in Firefox working ? With your awesome programming skills (did you do the cam work in assembly?)


The video quality on eCS is even better then Windows version (Logitech), thx !

Greggory


Title: Re: Thinkpad X250 & eCS
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on March 23, 2016, 02:42:21 pm
Thinking about this thread, I headed over to the Lenovo website. The x250 is already gone. The x260 eliminates VGA support.

I had hoped that the pace of new introductions would slow with the decline of the PC market.