Topics

1

Setup & Installation / Is FixPak 5 for WSeB 4.52 available anywhere?

« on: October 13, 2024, 12:34:08 am »

I'm installing WSeB 4.52 for [insert sensible reason here  ] and naturally I'll like to apply the most recent FixPak. As I understand it the final released FixPak was FixPak 5 or XR_E005. FixPak 6 was never released as final code.

I can find FixPak 3 on os2site.com at the following link but I can't find FixPak 5 anywhere at all:

https://www.os2site.com/sw/upgrades/wseb/index.html

Does anyone know if they ever made that publicly available, or is the reason that I can't find it because it required a Software Choice subscription?

Thanks,
Richard.

2

Applications / Any way to increase mouse tracking speed other than the regular System applet?

« on: August 29, 2024, 12:33:45 am »

Hi,

I run OS/2 Warp 3 on real hardware: an aging IBM PC 300GL.

I was previously using a Microsoft Home Mouse (serial) and it was fine, but I had to crank up the mouse tracking speed to maximum in the regular Mouse applet in the System settings.

I've subsequently swapped to a Microsoft Basic Mouse (PS/2) and the tracking speed is noticeably slower. So much so that even with tracking speed at maximum it moves really slowly across the screen.

I've re-run Selective Install and told it that I'm now using a PS/2 mouse instead of a Serial mouse but unfortunately that's made no difference.

Is anyone aware of any other method or application that will allow me to crank up the tracking speed *even more* than what the built-in Mouse control panel applet allows?

Many thanks,
Richard.

3

Applications / Does anyone have a recommendation for an FTP client for "old" OS/2?

« on: July 16, 2024, 11:04:40 am »

Does anyone have a recommendation for an FTP client for traditional OS/2, i.e. v2.x or Warp 3? It would probably need to be freeware because most of the trialware apps no longer have a way to pay to register them!

I'm aware of Netdrive and its (S)FTP plugin but I'm after something for traditional old-school OS/2 rather than 4.52 or for using with ArcaOS.

I've presently been using the Hethmon Brothers FTP Server to "push" files to my physical OS/2 machine, but I'd very much like to find an FTP client I can use to "pull" files from the FTP server component setup on my QNAP NAS. It'll also probably need to be plain old FTP rather than SFTP.

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks,
Richard.

4

Marketplace / Is anyone presently offloading any OS/2 software?

« on: March 26, 2024, 10:08:22 pm »

Hi all,

I recently posted here about a few very specific OS/2 applications I was looking for.

I'm actually trying to build my collection of OS/2 editions and applications so if anyone has *any* OS/2 editions or any other OS/2 software that they're thinking about selling (but want to avoid the pain that is eBay) then please direct-message me, either now or at any time in the future.

For example I know that Sigurd recently posted some box photos of WSEB but I expect you're not interested in selling that are you Sigurd??? :-)

Thanks all,
Richard.

5

Programming / REXX IDE recommendations?

« on: March 25, 2024, 07:48:48 pm »

Does anyone have a recommendation for a REXX IDE, and preferably one that runs on traditional OS/2 (i.e as opposed to one that needs the libraries included with ArcaOS)?

IDE is perhaps the wrong word, I really just mean something that has good syntax highlighting or can even highlight errors.

For syntax highlighting: similar to how Notepad++ can do this on Windows

For highlighting errors: similar to what Microsoft Visual Studio does in Windows

Any suggestions or recommendations are welcome, free or paid!

Thanks,
Richard.

6

Marketplace / Does anyone have OS/2 2.11 on CD-ROM that they want to sell?

« on: March 18, 2024, 09:53:07 am »

Does anyone have a boxed copy of OS/2 2.11 on CD-ROM that they want to sell, Either English (US) or English (UK)?

I missed-out on one on eBay recently and whilst I know it's available on Archive.org I'm looking for the real article. Preferably boxed and still sealed, although that might be something of a unicorn!

Thanks,
Richard.

7

Programming / Getting started with OS/2 development - any recommendations?

« on: December 22, 2023, 11:12:27 pm »

I have an amateur/hobbyist background in VB.NET but have also written some applications in Python (for Linux), in PHP (for Linux and Windows) and in C (for DOS). I'd like to start experimenting with development for OS/2 but I don't really know a good place to start. I know I'll need OpenWatcom as a compiler.

I actually though REXX might be a good place to start so I purchased SAMS Teach Yourself REXX in 21 days and I have... well... taught myself REXX in 21 days. For example I've created a few scripts which run successfully to help with applying Fixpaks to a new installation.

In the old OS/2 Professional Magazine there were many adverts for VX-REXX, and I know there was also VisProREXX as a competitor for a while. I also have a boxed copy of IBM VisualAge C++ v3 courtesy of a very generous person right here via the OS2World marketplace.

Would anyone have any recommendations for where to start? Equally, does anyone know if there's a legitimate way to obtain either VX-REXX or VisProREXX anymore since I expect they've long since been abandoned now? I've been keeping an eye out for them on eBay but haven't seen them come up at all.

Any recommendations would be welcome!

Thanks,
Richard.

8

Setup & Installation / Is anyone interested in a guide for creating an OS/2 2.1 Installation CD-ROM?

« on: December 17, 2023, 10:56:58 pm »

I recently picked up a boxed edition of OS/2 2.11 on 3.5" disks. This is the fairly rare OS/2 2.11 which is essentially OS/2 2.1 with Fixpaks, I don't believe it's the other OS/2 2.11 (i.e. the SMP version).

I also have OS/2 2.1 on CD-ROM and since the CD-ROM really just contains the contents of each floppy disk in appropriately named folders I was convinced that I should be able to find a way to turn my OS/2 2.11 floppy disk version into one that I could install from CD instead.

Moreover I naturally wanted to use a regular ATAPI/IDE CD-ROM drive, and of course I wanted large hard drive support as well.

So by slipstreaming the official IBM updated IDE and ATAPI drivers and by making lots of mistakes along the way, I actually managed to get it to work!

That is:

• I created a CD-ROM containing the contents of each floppy disk, the printer drivers, the display drivers and MMPM.
• I created a modified Diskette 1 which supports large hard drives and ATAPI/IDE CD-ROM drives.
• I modified the config.sys on my modified Diskette 1 to actually use the CD-ROM rather than floppy disks for Diskette 2 onwards.

It was one of those things that probably took me an awful lot longer to accomplish than any time that I actually saved by being able to install from CD instead of from floppy disk! Nevertheless I was pleased to get it working, and it's given me a much better understanding of OS/2's installation and boot process.

I took plenty of notes along the way but they're only in Notepad and they could probably do with a little tidying-up before being posted for anyone else to follow. And whilst I did all this with OS/2 2.11 I expect the same steps would work to convert a regular OS/2 2.1 floppy disk edition into a CD-ROM installable version.

Would anyone be interested in a write-up of this process, or would this be useful for the Wiki at all?

Richard.

9

Marketplace / Does anyone have BackMaster 3 (with Iomega Ditto 2GB support)?

« on: November 05, 2023, 11:57:26 am »

Does anyone happen to have a copy of MSRDev BackMaster 3 that they'd be interested in selling? It looks like it's one of the few (maybe the only!) backup programs that will work with my Iomega External/Parallel Ditto 2GB tape drive.

I know there's a BackMaster 3 demo on Hobbes (thanks Martin!) but that's only the demo and is limited to backing-up approx 5MB.

Alternatively if anyone knows of another OS/2 backup program that works with an Iomega Ditto 2GB I'd be keen to hear about it. This is for use with OS/2 2.1, Warp 3, and Warp 4.

Thanks,
Richard.