Messages

1

Article Discussions / Re: IBM OS/2 Release History

« on: December 05, 2022, 11:08:27 pm »

I'll have to double check, but I seem to recall there was an OS/2 within the V2 releases which had Windows 3.0 support (as opposed to 3.1).  While I never had a copy of this one, I seem to recall reading about it in one of the OS/2 books that I have.

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Applications / Re: OpenSource WishList

« on: September 14, 2022, 08:24:37 pm »

From what I understand, Libreoffice is not going to happen.  Not long after they split the code base off from OpenOffice to create Libreoffice, the Libreoffice folks stripped out all the OS/2 specific code which would have been required to get it to compile under OS/2.  From what I understand, it would be a huge amount of work to put that code back in.

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Setup & Installation / Re: Well ArcaOS 5.0 is probably the last version for me.

« on: June 01, 2021, 08:04:49 pm »

I suspect I already know the answer to this, but I seem to recall reading years ago (probably 15 to 20 years ago - back when IBM still had a few people working on OS/2's kernel) that someone at IBM was looking into updates / modifications to OS/2's kernel to allow it to enable and use PAE mode - at least from the standpoint of allowing memory above the 4GB barrier to be fully used by the system.  Does anyone have any idea what might have become of this?

I'm guessing the current ramdisk option we have is using PAE to some extent to allow that memory to be accessed.  I'm just wondering if my memory of the supposed IBM work on PAE in the kernel is correct/incorrect, or if it was tried and just didn't work reliably which is why we now have the ramdisk option (as it does work well).

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Setup & Installation / Re: Well ArcaOS 5.0 is probably the last version for me.

« on: May 30, 2021, 11:51:29 pm »

So, for you "OS/2" is dead.

I can't remember who it was, but someone once said that if we had 1 additional OS/2 user for every time it was declared "dead" we'd have more users then Windows users.  Some days I think there might be some truth to this LOL!

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Setup & Installation / Re: Win-OS/2 installed on non-boot drive

« on: May 29, 2021, 06:29:15 pm »

WinOS/ is pretty simple - Windows 3.1 was always fairly easy to move to a different drive / folder, as long as you move the entire contents of the \windows (in this case \os2\\mdos\winos2) folder and all sub folders.

I have not tried this so your mileage might vary, but I know that the winos/2 path has to be in the path of the autoexec.bat file for things to work properly. Also there is a win.ini and system.ini in the winos2 folder - they are all text files so do a quick edit of them and search to see if the folder is referenced anywhere.  If it is then update it to reflect your new path.

Also check your config.sys file and update any path references there.

You may also have to update objects on the WPS, but I'm not 100% sure of that. 

I recall back in the Warp 3 red spine days - the version of Warp that used your existing installation of Windows 3.1 - you could specify in the OS/2 setup  and install where you had your Windows 3.1 installed.  I admit that I'm not in front of my OS/2 machine right now and I can't recall if that option exists in the Warp 4 / eCS / ArcaOS setup.

Just out of interest, why are you wanting to move the WinOS/2 install?  It really doesn't take up that much room on the boot drive and by leaving it alone it'll for sure work as designed.

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Setup & Installation / Re: Well ArcaOS 5.0 is probably the last version for me.

« on: May 29, 2021, 06:18:11 pm »

That is true! I think with my sleepy brainI did not read Lars his response correctly.
In my opinion this a pretty good solution. And I do not know if other OS/2 users that would object to having a JFS partition limited in size to 2 TB ?
At least we can now use discs bigger then 2 TB and with GPT without having being able to either user the hard drive or having to wipe it as GPT is not supported. It should make dual booting with Windows 10 easier then all the limitations that MBR disc layout has.

Roderick

Back in the days before JFS and LVM we had a similar situation with HPFS.  If memory is correct HPFS partitions were limited to 64GB, above that you had to create another partition with an additional drive letter.

7

Setup & Installation / Re: How to reverse a failed driver installation

« on: May 22, 2021, 04:31:14 am »

For Warp 3 I definitely recommend installing Fixpak 40 - it is the last officially released Fixpak for Warp 3.

If you are running the blue-spine version of  Warp 3, or if you are running the red spine but don't have the WinOS/2 sub-system installed, then it is possible to install Fixpak 43 for Warp Server 4.  Warp Server 4 was based on the Blue Spine version of the  Warp 3 code base (in other words, it came with  the WinOS/2 stuff), and while the *client* version of Warp 3's last Fixpak was Fixpak 40, the Server version received a few more fixpaks, up to Fixpak 43.

In order to be able to able to install anything above Fixpak 40 on the client OS you'll need to grab a little utility from Hobbes which will tweak the syslevel files so that the fixpak installer thinks it is installing to a version of Warp Server.  Search hobbes for:

b120.zip

and that'll do the needful.  If you go above Fixpak 40 then you'll also need to install the device driver fixpak.  It is then that they separated the device driver updates from the main fixpak to make them a separate "device driver" fixpak.  I think the latest DD fixpak that'll install on Warp 3 is Device Driver fixpak 2.

As for the Cirrus Logic card, it appears there is a device driver for that video card on Hobbes.  If you search for:

CL_54xx_041.zip

I don't have such a card so I can't really try this, but a lot of those drivers had to actually be installed with a utility called ddinstall (or maybe it was ddinstal - I can't remember and I'm not sitting at my Warp machine right now, so I'm just going by memory).  There is probably a readme in the video card zip file.

Chances are the video driver won't work on a stock install of Warp 3 with no fixpak installed.  Many of those device drivers needed at least Fixpak 17, although admittedly 17 was a very buggy fixpak - I'd just go right for FP40 and skip all the others.  FP 40 was (is) extremely stable and adds a lot to Warp 3 (including the SIQ fix, the 32 bit chkdsk for HPFS, the ability to use Win32s Version 1.25, the ability to use GRADD and Scitech Display Doctor, an early version of Open32, and more).  I still have a few Warp 3 - FP 40 machines running that I maintain and they are rock solid stable.

8

Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: SIO2K Ray Gwinn

« on: March 11, 2021, 12:19:46 am »

It is only a question of how two identical registered copies will behave against each other. Ray, if I remember correctly, had protection so that it would not work and thus prevent theft :-(

I'll verify it, but I need a few hours to get another computer up and running with ArcaOS.

Please do give it a try to verify, but from what I know it *should* work fine, at least the SIO2K version.

Keep in mind that while it is certainly functional and works well, from what I remember SIO2K was still considered by Ray to be in a beta/testing (but still good enough for paid registered versions) state at the time of 2.0.3.  One of the email exchanges that I had with him at the time suggested that he'd be okay with me installing it on more then one of my machines but didn't want me to distribute it to other people (which is why I wanted to be sure we had permission from Ray before just uploading it here).  As I mentioned earlier I was one of the few people providing him with Warp 3 testing / functionality feedback on the driver and had it installed on both my Warp 3 and 4 machines.  If there was to be a protection issue then I suspect he'd have indicated as such and I would probably have run into issues running the same driver on more then one machine.

Glad to hear it works for you!  It is always better to have something boot and not have to press the any key during bootup.

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Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: SIO2K Ray Gwinn

« on: March 06, 2021, 06:00:06 am »

Hi all,

I found my registered versions of both SIO 1.60d and SIO2K (Version 2.0.3).  As far as I can tell this version of SIO2K may be one of the final ones to be sent out by Ray.  I had stayed pretty up to date with releases.  Checking my emails from that time (2002) I had been providing Ray with feedback on my testing of the driver on Warp 3.  This driver does work with properly with Warp 3 with Fixpak 40 (at least it did in 2002).

The ZIP's are close to original as possible with the addition that I've added the screen shot of the discussion that Martin had with Ray giving permission to distribute the registered version of SIO2K.

As far as I can tell they should work and show up as registered at boot, but if someone can grab these and do a quick install / test to confirm that the registration comes through in the ZIPed files then that would be a positive thing (at one point I think SIO used a hidden key file for registration if memory serves, but I could not find such a file in these installs.  In my own testing they both seemed to work showing the registered version, my install method was to unzip the files in a folder and modify the config.sys per the documentation). 

Martin - presuming these installs run registered as expected, if you'd like to add them either to the online wiki / information that you maintain here at OS2World or to Hobbes I'm good with that.

Cheers!

10

Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Re: SIO2K Ray Gwinn

« on: March 05, 2021, 06:12:34 pm »

Hi,

I know that I have a registered copy of both the last 1.60d build and SIO2K on my system. I don't have it handy right now, but I should be able to find both this weekend.  I'll be happy to upload it as Ray has given his blessing to do so.

Martin - if you've got a copy of the message from Ray authorizing this I'd like to include it in the ZIPs, just so that people don't think I'm inappropriately violating Ray's copyright.

Cheers.

11

Setup & Installation / Re: [SOLVED?] QuickTime in Win-OS/2 possible?

« on: August 18, 2020, 12:08:04 am »

I can't recall if it is needed for Quicktime for Windows 3.1 to work, but you might need Microsoft's Video For Windows runtime addon.  This also gives early .AVI support along with a slightly enhanced Microsoft Windows Media Player.

The runtime used to be available freely from Microsoft's FTP site, but it is long gone.  Do a google search for vfw11.zip and you should be able to find a download of it.  Maybe it should get uploaded to Hobbes one of these days.

12

Marketplace / Re: eBay - UK

« on: August 06, 2020, 04:00:50 am »

Colin,
If I bid one more then one item and happen to win more then one, is it safe to guess that you'd  be willing to combine shipping?

13

Setup & Installation / Re: QuickTime in Win-OS/2 possible?

« on: August 05, 2020, 04:22:22 pm »

Hi,

The Windows 3.1 version of Quicktime does work in WinOS/2, however if you are running Warp 3 then you'll need:

-Fixpak 40 installed
-Once Fixpak 40 is installed, install Win32s Version 1.25 in a full screen, enhanced  WinOS/2 session
-After installing Win32s 1.25 you need to do a full reboot to make it work.  Once that's done you can confirm it is working by running Freecell (which should run as long as WinOS/2 is running in Enhanced mode)
-To get Win3.1 Quicktime to work / install, make sure you're running WinOS/2 in Enhanced mode and if I recall correctly it has to be installed in full screen mode (it'll run in seamless once it is installed)

To get Win32s 1.25 you can find this on Hobbes at:

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?dir=%2F&stype=all&sort=type_name&search=w32s125.zip

Also there is reference on the Hobbes file that for Warp 3 Win32S to work you need "warp32s.zip".  This is no longer correct.  Warp32s.zip contains an older version of the driver that allows Win32s 1.25 to run, there were some updates to that driver and it got bundled into a fixpak.  By having Fixpak 40 installed you'll already have the most up to date version of the driver that allows Win32s 1.25 to work in Warp 3.

14

Setup & Installation / Re: OS2 Warp 3 and Warp 4 installation to vintage machines and fixpaks

« on: July 06, 2020, 09:49:55 pm »

Hi,

I just found one of my previous messages where I reference several other posts I made on getting Warp 3 up and running.  If you're looking to get Warp 3 connect up and running and updated, check it out (follow all 4 links)

https://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,1350.msg12753.html#msg12753

15

Setup & Installation / Re: OS2 Warp 3 and Warp 4 installation to vintage machines and fixpaks

« on: July 06, 2020, 07:30:53 pm »

Hi,

You mentioned Warp 3 Connect. Somewhere I had a list of all the updates needed for this, but I can't seem to find that list, so I'm going from memory here.

To get it installed you'll probably need to update the installation disk drivers, at least for the IDE drivers.  Probably the best is to go with danis506.add driver, find it on Hobbes.  As I recall the CD Rom driver that shipped with Warp was also buggy, you can find an update at:

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

For fixpaks, once you get it installed Fixpak 40 is the latest for Warp 3 Connect.  There was / is a hack that'll allow you to install Fixpak 42 from Warp Server, but beware - some people who have used that on some machines with Warp 3 (non-server) have run into stability issues.

Don't install the MPTS that comes with Warp 3 - it is an ancient 16 bit version which is buggy.  Go with the 32 bit version from Warp 4.  It is wr08610 for the base and then there's a fix of wr08621

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/mpts/fixes/english-us/wr08610_conv/

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/mpts/fixes/english-us/wr08621/

Once that's installed there's an additional tcp/ip fix that is on hobbes that can fix other TCP/IP crashes / issues. 

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?search=tcpip43fix&stype=any&sort=type_name&dir=%2F

For the TCP/IP stuff, Warp 3 Connect comes with TCP/IP 3.1.  Once you've installed TCP/IP from Warp Connect you'll want to install UN00959.  There's probably a better way to install it, but IBM's files are still at:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/tcpip/fixes/v3.1os2/un00959/english-us/

If you want Win32s 1.25a support in your WinOS/2, once you've installed Fixpak 40 you can grab that from Hobbes:

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?search=w32s125&stype=any&sort=type_name&dir=%2F

Once that's installed you'll need to do a reboot before it'll work properly.

There is an issue with Warp 3 where on some machines it won't see memory above 64 MB.  If that's the case then run Patchldr on your boot loader.  Actually you can probably just run this anyways even if you don't have the 64MB issue, I've never had it cause any trouble.

https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?search=patchldr&stype=any&sort=type_name&dir=%2F

For SNAP on Warp 3, you'll need Fixpak 40 (or 42 if you decide to go that route)

If you want to use Truetype fonts in Warp 3 there is a Freetype driver that'll do this for you.  I think it is on Hobbes.

I'm sure there are other fixes that I've had on my list, but that's quite a few of them.