OS2 World Community Forum
OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: Dan Eicher on July 09, 2025, 06:27:04 pm
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I'm trying to upgrade myself to a T43 laptop with Arca.
I try to boot from ARCA511 USB stick. I get a White underline in the top right corner and things stop. (no other text).
I tried to boot off of a DVD that I made.
Same symptom, but I saw some harddrive activity on the HD status light.
What I have tried:
Boot live GParted - wiped the drive, only installed a MSDOS partition table.
Same Thing.
Boot live GParted - formatted the disk to JFS
Same Thing.
Reset BIO's to defaults, saved and rebooted.
Same thing.
Booted an MBR - Linux 18.04 stick.
Booted to installer fine.
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It's weird, the boot should go further. My T42 is a bitch to boot the USB but DVD boot has always simply worked.
Did you check the md5sum on your ISO, does sound like a corrupted ISO. Sometimes USB sticks have subtle errors, especially if old, but you're getting the same with the DVD boot.
You can always request a new ISO build from Arca Noae.
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ArcaOS-5.1.1-en.iso
24df5a033db55593efc72f1c1d8bfee3 ArcaOS-5.1.1-en.iso
I also tried the 5.1 boot thumb drive I used to install originally on a different thinkpad, and it failed in the same way.
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My T43 1871-W8M works okay, but won't run the software that requires Pentium4 support.
I have seen the flashing cursor, on various machines. It usually means that the BIOS settings are not correct, or the media was not created correctly.
The first thing to do, is avoid using anything (GParted), other than OS/2 tools, to do anything with the disk drive. It ALWAYS ends up wrong (but that probably isn't causing the problem). You do need to get booted to OS/2 to use the tools.
So, some questions:
How did you create the USB stick? (you may want to try again, and carefully follow the instructions).
How did you create the DVD?
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Arca Noae provides good tech support. You could try that.
GParted is a mistake, but it should not stop the USB stick from booting. And you should be able to boot and zero out the disk to undo the damage from GParted.
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I think he has had https://mantis.arcanoae.com/view.php?id=3798 (https://mantis.arcanoae.com/view.php?id=3798) open since the 27th with no one jumping in. Lewis is the T4x expert and likely been busy with the web site upgrade.
I think Doug is on the right track with not properly creating the stick. See what Dan says.
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For the USB Stick, I followed the directions included with the bundle.
The file called readusb.txt using .\dfsanwin.exe -q run aosboot.dfs <snip>
For DVD creation, I used CDBurnerXP - burn iso, pointing to ArcaOS-5.1.1-en.iso.
In the past couple of years, I've updated both main and cmos batteries, and updated to the latest bio's revision I could find on thinkpad forum.
The ubuntu and gpart was not added to confuse the issue, but simply to demonstrate yes, I can boot from the usb port, yes I can boot from dvd and yes, the drive is seen and can be read from and written to.
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I also wanted to add, I've watched all the David Azarewicz video's I could find on the the tube.
Including those talking to BIOs, CSM, UEFI and using the minilvm tool for install.
The challenge is, I'm not even getting a splash screen.
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Can you try your media on a different computer? You don't have to actually do an install, just see if your media boots.
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Forgot to ask, are you getting the first menu where you have a choice of booting from the HD or the stick? If not I'd consider the stick broken.
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WinXP may be causing the problem. There was something, recently (which I can't find), about older windows failing to set the USB stick correctly (it won't boot, not resolved). There could be something wrong with the way it burns DVDs too.
You could try one of the Linux versions, that will boot from a CD/DVD, to create the USB, or DVD media.
Note that the T43, that Lewis has, is the "other" model. Mine is an 1871.
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Maybe my T43 just need a timeout.
I went back,
access ibm > Reload Defaults, F10 Save and Continue
access ibm > F12 load from cdrom
Install started up.
Install complained about the disk something about last something or other.
Disk Util in installer just went back to the main screen, guess it wasn't able to deal with the issue.
Put in Gparted cdrom
Reboot.
Killed off the JFS partition I made (probably a linux jfs anywho) to test the HD. Made sure I had a 'ms dos' partition scheme on drive.
'ms dos' being what gparted calls it.
Saved all, rebooted.
Installer started. Said use the whole thing. First round through I said verify. I let it run for 30 minutes, and it was still on 0%.
Restarted install, didn't hit optional checkbox for verify while installing.
Installed finished.
So. I'm good.
Thanks to all for their suggestions.
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If issue 3798 is yours, can you comment that you got it working and I'll resolve it. Glad you got it working.
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Dave, I added a note to the ticket.
Thinkpad forum recommends that to speed up operation, you boot from the internal HD and put data on a PC Card with a compact flash adapter, like:
Compact Flash to PCMCIA Ata Adapter CF to PC Card Adapter PCMCIA Ata Adapter for Cf 2 Card (Come with 512MB CF Memory Card)
Can someone point me to some docs on how to get this up and seen under ArcaOS 5.1.1?
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Dave, I added a note to the ticket.
Thinkpad forum recommends that to speed up operation, you boot from the internal HD and put data on a PC Card with a compact flash adapter, like:
Compact Flash to PCMCIA Ata Adapter CF to PC Card Adapter PCMCIA Ata Adapter for Cf 2 Card (Come with 512MB CF Memory Card)
Can someone point me to some docs on how to get this up and seen under ArcaOS 5.1.1?
With OS/2 I would stay away from that as far as I could. The cards I not easy to setup and they are slower then USB I think.
Thinking about this you would need to play around with the PCMCIA drivers and possibly some drivers from Veit Kannegesier.
Or maybe the Danis506.add has some support for it . I think its 15 years ago I last worked with PCMCIA on OS/2.
Thoughts from other people ? My personal opinion its not worth the headache.
BTW do you have an SSD in the T43 ? Or a disc with revolving platters ? You can install an SSD I think in T43 if you have not done so.
That will make that old machine fly if it does not have an SSD in it yet.
Roderick
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>BTW do you have an SSD in the T43 ? Or a disc with revolving platters ? You can install an SSD I think in T43 if you have not done so.
No workey for me. Per Thinkpad Forums.
Some people have luck with using m2>ide sleds. Maybe it depends on model of ThinkPad, maybe it's the m2 adapter, tends to be in the air.
I also tried a real transcend solid state ide drive.
Receipts: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=137515
Also, if you very electronically talented, you can convert a T43 to run SATA, but that's above my pay grade and no one does that thing commercially.
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My T43 1871 has n IDE interface, so SSD is not possible. It wouldn't do any good anyway, because it would be limited to the bus speed.
PCMCIA is possible, but it is also slow, even if you could find suitable hardware.
I have 1.5 GB of memory, which works well. You need at least, 1 GB to avoid excessive paging. I think 2 GB is maximum, in that machine.
Bottom line is that it is an OLD machine, with many limits.
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>BTW do you have an SSD in the T43 ? Or a disc with revolving platters ? You can install an SSD I think in T43 if you have not done so.
No workey for me. Per Thinkpad Forums.
Some people have luck with using m2>ide sleds. Maybe it depends on model of ThinkPad, maybe it's the m2 adapter, tends to be in the air.
I also tried a real transcend solid state ide drive.
Receipts: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=137515
Also, if you very electronically talented, you can convert a T43 to run SATA, but that's above my pay grade and no one does that thing commercially.
Or just a google search for SSD PATA
I find this brand: Transcend Industrial PSD330
They have SSD up to 256 GB.
Roderick
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Weren't some of these T4x BIOS's locked to a limited list of hard drives?
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The T43 is not just locked to certain drives. It uses some function that just isn't present in most IDE drives.
You can substitute a hard drive for the CD drive. That interface has fewer limitations. The T43 is SATA internally and goes through a PATA converter to support its list of IDE drives.
I used to be able to import brand new 120 GB IDE hard drives that had the function, but China ended the program that allowed it. Plus the USA is not as good about China imports as it used to be. (Not to be political. Just the facts regarding this and a few other parts for old computers.)
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Lewis has a T43 that he has installed a SSD in so it can be done. BUT - if you consider the price of an SSD for that machine, and compare that price to a later model Lenovo, such as a T530 - you can get an entire used T530 for less than you can get a PATA - SSD. I just checked ebay and there is a 15" T530 for $50 or best offer. It doesn't have a HDD but you can get a new 1 TB SATA SSD for $70 - both together are less that what you would probably pay for the PATA-SSD.
Everything except wireless on the T530 works with AOS 5.1, including seamless WIN-OS/2. For wireless you have to use one of those adapters that plugs into the wired network socket. The boot up time on the T530 is actually faster than the resume time on the T43p. As for which keyboard is better - I like the T530 better but I know others like the T43 keyboard better. The T530 keyboard can be replaced with a lighted keyboard - mine cost about $25 - I don't think there is a lighted keyboard for the T43.
So while the T43 is a very nice machine, you can probably get a much later, better performing Lenovo laptop for less money than upgrading the T43 hard drive. Just a thought.
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Ok Doug, I love to play with ThinkPads, $50 is an ok impulse buy.
Spec's say it can take 16GB, with ArcaOS be unhappy if it finds more than 4GB, or would it just ignore?
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Ok Doug, I love to play with ThinkPads, $50 is an ok impulse buy.
Spec's say it can take 16GB, with ArcaOS be unhappy if it finds more than 4GB, or would it just ignore?
ArcaOS will give you the option to use the 12.5 GB's (usual is about 3.5GB visible to the system) as a ram disk. System Setup-->Ram Disk. Otherwise, it'll ignore it.
I like using JFS on my ram disk. It is a bit tricky to set up, so ask if the default choices of FAT32 or HPFS aren't acceptable.
The ram disk isn't the fastest due to the overhead of entering and exiting PAE, but handy for a scratch disk and for tmp files
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> System Setup
That came up today, in my play.
I couldn't figure out how to find that in PM, or start it on the command line.
Can I buy a vowel?
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> System Setup
That came up today, in my play.
I couldn't figure out how to find that in PM, or start it on the command line.
Can I buy a vowel?
In AOS, it is in Computer (Desktop-->Computer) and a shadow in the xcentre, middle icon to the right of the CPU usage widget. Older OS/2's, it would be on the desktop.
You can't easily open it from the cmd line. The WPS keeps most of its info in Extended Attributes (xattr's) and the ini files. Do a dir /s on your desktop and you'll see mostly directories with lots of EA's and empty files.
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Command line to open System Setup, adjust drive letter as needed.
oo /O "W:\Desktop\Computer\System Setup" I
oo -h for usage[/code]
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Hi @Doug Clark,
I wanted to give you an update.
I received the $50 dollar T530 (2392-45U), I already had an Samsung EVO 250GB SSD on the shelf.
I spent another $75 on 2x 8GB Kingston Memory Sticks, a CMOS battery and a Main Battery.
I upgraded the machine, and installed Arca OS 5.1.1 - it runs very well.
Thank you for your suggestion.