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Did something stupid. Please help!

Started by millese, 2010.11.25, 06:41:11

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millese

O.k. so here is what I did I have a harddrive with os2 warp4 v 4.5 I believe. When I start it, it boots to the  boot manager you can boot to dos (this is used as a service option to fix os2 issues I think), or the other is the os2 installation. So what I was doing was taking another drive with the exact same boot loader setup, but with an older version of os2 and hooked it up as a slave. When I did this I now showed another os2 installation to choose from and because all the drive assignments shifted it cacked at country.sys in config.sys. Soooo, I booted to dos and went into what used to be d: drive now the E drive and changed changed every reference in the config.sys file to E: from D: and rebooted. When I did this it booted all the way to where the desktop would be but it had workplace shell, Your Desktip could not be found in the os2.ini file. An attempt will be made to create a temporary directory. If this fails, an os/2 window will be displayed. I cancelled and it launched an os2 window, but with a jacked up desktop. After I was done with the other drive I put config.sys back, but the desktop is still not working. Any ideas on how to get this back? Sorry for my long winded explination. Thanks

DougB

Quotethis is used as a service option to fix os2 issues I think

Probably not. OS/2 should be installed onto an HPFS file system, which is not likely to be usable by DOS, although there is an ancient HPFS driver for DOS, that I wouldn't put much faith in.

QuoteI booted to dos and went into what used to be d: drive now the E drive and changed changed every reference in the config.sys file to E: from D: and rebooted

It isn't that easy. After you change all of the drive references in CONFIG.SYS, you would also need to change all of the drive references in the INI files. Chances of getting all of that right is close to zero.

You *might* be able to get back to where you started, by doing Alt-F1 immediately after you select the system to boot. That should get you a menu screen where you can restore a saved configuration (pick the newest one, unless it is current, in which case you are probably screwed. Of course, that isn't going to help if the drive letter has changed. Try it with only one disk at a time (plugged as MASTER), and the drive letter  should be correct.

millese

Thanks for the help. These are extremely old computers probably 15 year or more and os2 is loaded onto a dos partition with a seperate hpfs partition for data. I can go into dos and modify os2 files. I understand what you said about the .ini files, but that doesn't explain why it didn't go back when I changed the config.sys file back to original and removed the slave hd. Thanks again for the reply!

millese

I don't know whats contained in the os2.ini file, but would it make sense that when I booted after changing all drive references in config.sys and booted that there was a reference to the D: drive desktop D:\desktop in the os2.ini that no longer was valid and that the system then modified the os2.ini to look in the e: drive for the desktop and created a temp desktop file. Then when I switched everthing back to normal the os2.ini no longer has the correct reference to the correct desk top? When I clicked on help at the workplace shell it called out a program to access and make changes to the os2.ini file, maybe I can open this file and find something obvious. I think there was also an archive directory that may have a backed up os2.ini file that I could try replacing it with. Any thoughts?

DougB

Put the drives in the machine, one at a time, and be sure that they are jumpered as MASTER. Then, it will either boot, or not. If not, use Alt-F1 when you see the "boot blob" (it will be a black on white, text block, that says "OS/2", in the upper left corner of the screen). That will get you to a menu where you can restore saved configurations (if any were actually saved, and if they haven't been overwritten with bad ones - in that case use the original one). NOTE: that you may not be able to see the 'boot blob", if the screen blacks out while switching modes. In that case simply assume that it is there, immediately after pressing enter on the Boot Manager screen. You have about 1 second. If all goes well, that should get you back to where you started.

BTW, there are two basic INI files OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI. The best way to edit them is to use REGEDIT/2 (REGEDIT2.EXE), IF that exists on the system (it came with later fixpacks for warp 4 I think), but you will need to be booted to OS/2 to use it. There are other INI editors available, but you will still need to be booted to OS/2 to use them. Look at HOBBES: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/ where you will find most things for OS/2.

Thoughts:
I suppose that you don't have the install media for OS/2. If you do, I would simply do a new install. It would be a LOT easier than trying to do what you describe.

Since OS/2 is installed on a "dos partition" (I assume you mean a FAT16 file system), I am inclined to believe that you have Warp 3, which is from the early '90s. That can still be useful, but not as useful as warp 4, from the mid '90s. If it is warp 3, you should update to fix pack 42. If it is warp 4, you should get fix pack 14 (I think that was the latest free one), plus some other things, but you still need to make it work first.

Being an experienced OS/2 user, I would suggest that I wouldn't even bother to attempt to change the drive letters, even though I have a pretty good idea of what is needed to do it. You, as a new user, probably haven't got any hope of doing it, simply because you don't have the experience of working with the system, and trying to help you in a forum like this, is very time consuming, and  I, for one, just don't have the time to do it. If you can get one, or the other, of those systems to work, you will want to back it up, then play with it. If you decide that you like OS/2, I would suggest looking seriously at eComStation, and some newer hardware to run it, but do the research to find out what does, and doesn't work, before committing to something new. Remember, that Google will find lots of information, but you will probably have a lot of trouble trying to sort out the good information from the bad.

Have fun...

RobertM

If you can follow the instructions DougB gave you to get things working, the next thing you should do is remove your master disk, leave the slave attached, boot off the OS/2 v4.5 disks, and change the drive letters assigned to the slave disk to ones that will not conflict. Check for any bootmanager partition and remove it from the SLAVE disk.

Then, shut down, unplug the slave disk, plug back in the master disk, boot back off the OS/2 CD again, and re-assign the drive letters to the proper ones for the master disk. Then, go in and check the BootManager settings and make sure they are correct. Also, change your timeout to something decent (default of 30, or something that will give you time to select a boot device). Also, set the BootManager screen to "Advanced" so it shows you a little more information on the drives. Note the size of the proper boot drive/partition during these steps.

Then plug them both in, boot into the BIOS and make sure the correct disk is set to boot. Often, various BIOS' will change the boot order, in which case, you may actually have been booting off the slave. After that step is complete you can then try booting.

If BootManager does not have the correct boot drive (compare size to the one you set to boot above), then select the correct boot partition, and when OS/2 has booted, start up LVM and change the bootmanager settings to auto-select the correct boot drive, and optionally, remove any choices that are incorrect (ie: any partitions on the slave disk that you do not want to boot).

Hope that helps,
Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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RobertM

#6
Now... onto a hardware/BIOS issue you may or may not run in to:

Some hardware/BIOS setups do not allow selecting the drive you boot off of (they auto-select a drive). Others allow hard drive boot selection in another menu, looking kind of like the choices below:

Boot Device Priority:
- CD ROM/Optical
- Hard Drive
- Floppy
- Etc

Boot Drive Selection:
- WD2000AKS (more specs)
- WD1500AKS (more specs)

In those cases, you need to go into the boot drive selection section and select the correct boot drive. Generally, the information in that section will correspond to the manufacturer's part number of the drive (or at the least, it's model number).




In systems that do not allow you to select a boot hard drive (and default to one of their choosing):
You need to ensure your cabling is correct. Various BIOS's will simply select the first hard drive on the first ("numerically") controller. In those instances, you need to ensure the drive you wish to be master is the master drive on the first controller port.

For instance, in an IDE system, assuming the manufacturer starts numbering at ZERO (like many IBM systems):
IDE Controller 0
- Master connection -> Master/Boot Drive
- Slave connection -> Slave drive or CD ROM
IDE Controller 1
- Master connection -> "Slave" drive
- Slave connection -> "Slave" drive

For IDE, there are two+ methods of doing this, dependent on the age of the machine.  SATA is pretty easy - use the lowest numbered port for the boot drive.
(1) FOR MOST 40 PIN OLDER IDE SUBSYSTEMS:
- Drives should be appropriately jumpered as MASTER and SLAVE and cabled to the Master controller port
- The MASTER drive should always be on controller port 0 (or 1 if your numbering starts at 1)

(2) FOR SOME 40 PIN IDE SETUPS (NOTABLY VARIOUS HP ONES, OR ANY WHERE YOU NOTICE THERE IS A CABLE WIRE CHOPPED):
(these systems implemented a cable select mechanism)
- USUALLY, the MASTER drive is the MIDDLE drive (and not the end like newer IDE implementations)
- USUALLY you will still need to properly jumper the drives, but, unlike newer 80 PIN IDE, note the fact that the master position is reversed - master in center, slave at the end.
--You can determine if your setup fits this criteria by looking at the traces: someplace near the center connector, you will find a small chunk of one of the wires missing.
--I always found it safest to jumper the drives on these systems, as some drives don't properly work with the cable select setup on the 40 pin IDE setups that have them... YMMV.


(3) FOR MOST 80 PIN CABLING ON NEWER IDE SUBSYSTEMS:
- Drives should be set to "Cable Select" and the (drive you intend to be the) MASTER drive should be at the END of the cable
- The SLAVE drive should be on the cable's MIDDLE connector

(4) FOR SATA SYSTEMS
- Start with SATA0 (again assuming numbering starts at zero, otherwise pick lowest number) and put your master there.
- SATA1 (or two if numbering starts at one) becomes the slave drive/device.

Anyway, that's what I can remember on these issues - it's been a while, so apologies for any inaccuracies, but I think I've gotten it all correct. Keep in mind, for #2 above, it is possible that even with a 40 pin cable select setup, (if it was one of the later ones when some machines started going to 80 pin) that the drive ordering was already adjusted to the standard 80 pin setup. If that's the case, your machine will probably sit on the BIOS screen for "ages" when it tries recognizing the drives. Switch the drive positions on the cable, then go into the BIOS and ensure it's showing them in the correct locations. I think I've only seen that once though.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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millese

Robert, thank you for all the info. My issue now is I have removed the slave drive and put my config.sys back to original, but my desktop is still gone. It's not the config.sys that causing my current issue. Something else changed when I modified all config.sys references to the new shifted drive letter and booted that was not corrected when I put everything back to original. If this is just to wacky I understand. Thanks

ivan

You could try the old stand by for missing desktops:
SET DESKTOP=C:\DESKTOP   {use the correct drive letter} in config.sys.

The following is taken from the config tool db:
Sets the path for the Desktop
 
After rebooting run the following REXX script to make the necessary changes to the INI files (for working copy it into a file and name it e.g. Fixdesktop.cmd) :
 
/*FIX BROKEN DESKTOP WITH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE*/
    call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'REXXUTIL', 'SysLoadFuncs'
    call SysLoadFuncs
    call SysSetObjectData value('DESKTOP',,'OS2ENVIRONMENT'),,
    'OBJECTID=<WP_DESKTOP>'
EXIT
 
<<=TIP=>> If the SET DESKTOP variable is not in your config.sys you can use this REXX script to fix a broken desktop (You have to edit line 4: insert instead of e.g.D:\DESKTOP the drive and directory where your Desktop resides, for working copy it into a file and name it e.g. Fixdesktop.cmd).
 
/* FIX BROKEN DESKTOP*/
call RxFuncAdd 'SYSLOADFUNCS', 'REXXUTIL', 'SYSLOADFUNCS'
call SysLoadFuncs
call SysSetObjectData '<Desktop directory, e.g. D:\DESKTOP>',
'OBJECTID=<WP_DESKTOP>'
SAY ' BROKEN DESKTOP FIXED.'
EXIT
 
Hope the above is of some help.

ivan