OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 10:42:05 am

Title: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 10:42:05 am
I am trying to install OS/2 warp 4.52 on a IBMx3200 but the installer stops with the error message attached.

The machine has a Xeon 3040, 2GB RAM, Adaptec raid controller and ATI ES1000 video card, more specs here:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/overview-ibm-system-x3200

Not sure if it's a hardware issue, I've heard that OS/2 is very picky regarding video cards.

I know that ArcaOS might perform better on this relatively (to 4.52) hardware but I got the machine almost for free and spending money on a licence makes very little sense (even if I would love to try it).

I've been able to successfully install Ubuntu and Windows 10 so far.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Mathias on August 18, 2020, 11:38:49 am
Hi Francesco! : )

Question is, at which point of the installation routine does that appear? Right when booting, or way later? And if so, when?
What did you do/set up before?

Mathias
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 11:46:59 am
It appears about 15 seconds after the OS/2 welcome screen shows up.

Before the installation I wiped the two drives and set RAID to 1.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Mathias on August 18, 2020, 12:55:32 pm
I suppose this has nothing to do with the graphics card; At this early phase grahpics are either 80x25 text mode or 640x480 graphics mode, which all VGA cards (and BIOSes) can do.

I've faced a similar error display, when installing OS/2 Warp 4 on a very old notebook. I suppsed hardware is being scouted at the start, which fails in an error.

Let's wait for other opinions and for people who can actually read numbers on the error details.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 01:58:34 pm
Let's wait for other opinions and for people who can actually read numbers on the error details.

Sure, in the meanwhile I might try to use a standard IDE hard drive instead of the SATA raid controller.....
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on August 18, 2020, 03:37:06 pm
I got a 3100 to run the then latest eCS 2.2 beta 2 by putting in an IDE hard drive.

(Totally not worth it if you pay for your own electricity. A brand new Lenovo ThinkCentre would be cheaper in a year.)

Actually I had 8 of them and 2 failed in 24/7 use. USB Mouse and Keyboard will be problematic, but kind-of work.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 03:51:17 pm
(Totally not worth it if you pay for your own electricity. A brand new Lenovo ThinkCentre would be cheaper in a year.)

I know, these kind of projects are very far from rational, I chose that machine because it was dirt cheap and it looks great on my desk close to a SGI Fuel....

I will give it a try with a IDE hard drive then.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: ivan on August 18, 2020, 05:13:09 pm
Your screen shot shows a trap 000e which is a page fault - something couldn't be found in memory.  Assuming your memory is good the problem could be the RAID  controller which needs a driver to be recognised.  From my experience with several servers that have dedicated raid controllers you need a single disk as the boot disk because the RAID controller is not normally a boot device.

Your idea of using an IDE drive should work and if you have the driver for the RAID controller that should also work after the machine is booted up.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 05:20:56 pm
Good to know that, I will try with an old IDE drive and see if things get better!
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 18, 2020, 08:34:11 pm
Here's what I have done:

- connected a SATA drive (IDE drives are buried in a drawer and hard to find), RAID plugged it: same error
- SATA drive and removed the RAM sticks not marked IBM, RAID plugged in: same error
- SATA drive and removed the RAM sticks not marked IBM, RAID *not* plugged in: the installer gets a little bit further but I get the error message "found a drive greater than 8GB" and some other errors, see attachment.

I've already updated the firmware to the latest version so I guess the 8GB limitation is related to OS/2, what should I try now? The chance of finding a 8GB drive are slim and using a USB drive on a USB 1.1 port doesn't look promising...
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Dave Yeo on August 19, 2020, 01:20:58 am
You just need to upgrade the disk driver. Simplest I think is to get updated install disks here, http://web.archive.org/web/20060926010038/http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/inst_diskettes.html (http://web.archive.org/web/20060926010038/http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/inst_diskettes.html). Perhaps the ones for Warp Server for Ebusiness will work for OS/2 4.52.
Or download https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/ibmide12062003.zip (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/ibmide12062003.zip) and replace the versions on your install disks. If room is needed, you can remove a scsi driver and rem it out in config.sys. Also need to add COPYFROMFLOPPY=1 (if I'm remembering right) to config.sys so that the versions on the install disk are copied to the HD.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060926010038/http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/ (http://web.archive.org/web/20060926010038/http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/) has lots of other update info, lots of the URLs have gone away but given the file name, Google is your friend.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 19, 2020, 08:48:42 am
Very interesting!

I will do what you suggested and post the results.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 20, 2020, 02:41:08 pm
I am getting there, slowly but steadily.....  ;)

I modified the Disk 1 as described in the link with the files from ibmide12062003, the installer goes through the Installation disk, then asks for Disk 1 and then for Disk 2 but then stops with the attached error message.

Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: ivan on August 20, 2020, 03:51:12 pm
When I was installing OS/2 on some of our servers I found I needed to update the install disks and use https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/danis506r187.zip (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/danis506r187.zip) in place of the ibm driver and adjust the config.sys to use it.  Don't forget to edit the snoop.lst to fit with the edited config.sys.

Somewhere in my archives I think I still have the disk images that worked from that time - let me know if you think they would help.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on August 20, 2020, 03:59:34 pm
Once I added a SATA hard drive, I was able to install on x3100 from eCS disks with no changes. I had USB problems.

If your USB does not work, try USB on the internal connector.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 20, 2020, 08:21:02 pm
Somewhere in my archives I think I still have the disk images that worked from that time - let me know if you think they would help.

It would be great to have the chance to try those images!
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 20, 2020, 08:24:03 pm
Once I added a SATA hard drive, I was able to install on x3100 from eCS disks with no changes.

Interesting, there's hope!

I guess that my problem is still related to the hardware, maybe I will try to use a IDE drive instead of SATA.

Am I supposed to partition the drive before installing OS/2 or is it possible to do it with fdisk during the installation? I know it looks like a silly question but I have never installed OS/2 before but I always heve goosebumps when I see the warped OS/2 logo....  :-*
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: ivan on August 20, 2020, 11:20:46 pm
To use an SATA disk you need the OS2AHCI.ADD driver and it must be mentioned in config.sys as a BASEDEV.

Depending on the size of the drive it would be a good idea to setup the partitions first.  If you have another working computer and an external SATA/USB adapter you can DFSee to do the job (just read the instructions carefully first).  Fdisk that comes with OS/2 will also do the job, always assuming you have the correct drivers installed.

BTW, I seem to have missed which version of OS/2 you are trying to install.  I ask that because I have iso images of Warp 4 and Warp 4 CP that allow booting and installing from the CD and can make them available if you are interested (built with bootAble)
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Martin Iturbide on August 20, 2020, 11:58:37 pm
FYI: There is an old (2011) free compiled driver of  OS2AHCI.ADD here (https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/os2ahci_v0-1-4.zip).
Honestly, I had never tried to update an installation diskette or boot CD image with it.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Dave Yeo on August 21, 2020, 01:28:51 am
The Dani driver referenced earlier supports many older SATA chipsets. I'd try that next.
During install, you will get a chance to use fdisk or the LVM manager with Warp v4.52 to partition the disk. Only use OS/2 tools to do the partitioning, so if you were also going to install Linux or Windows along side OS/2, partition from OS/2 and then install to the existing partition.
Title: Re: Problematic OS/2 installation on IBM x3200
Post by: Effediesse on August 21, 2020, 09:12:51 am
BTW, I seem to have missed which version of OS/2 you are trying to install.  I ask that because I have iso images of Warp 4 and Warp 4 CP that allow booting and installing from the CD and can make them available if you are interested (built with bootAble)

That would be great, at least to rule out possible mistakes on my side.

During install, you will get a chance to use fdisk or the LVM manager with Warp v4.52 to partition the disk. Only use OS/2 tools to do the partitioning, so if you were also going to install Linux or Windows along side OS/2, partition from OS/2 and then install to the existing partition.

Glad to hear that, I hope top get to fdisk or LVM soon....

By the way, I have no other OS/2 machines around so creating and/or modifying images from OS/2 is not a viable option to me.