Installing RAMFSOS2

USB Flash Drive (4 GB) / FAT32 / From Windows 10
I had been trying to install RAMFSOS2 to boot from a 4 GB USB Flash drive and doing this from Windows 10 (64 bits)


 * Check that the USB Flash drive is formatted on FAT32
 * It may be necessary for you to prepare your USB Flash to be read by OS/2. You can read Prepare the FAT32 USB Flash Drive.
 * Change its name to OS2BOOT
 * Unzip all the contents of the RAMFSOS2 zip file to a temporary folder and copy the files to the root of the Flash Drive.



Now it is the turn of the FreeInst tool to modify the USB Flash booting. It is very important that you run FreeInst from other location outside USB Flash drive. Remember the "temporary folder".


 * Go to the \Tools\FreeInst directory (On other copy outside the USB Flash Drive)
 * Run "fi-w32.exe" as Administrator.
 * Select Y if you are sure to continue.




 * Select the drive where you are going to install FreeLdr




 * Select 1) to install New MBR for FreeLDR on a Partition




 * It will ask for the drive number. Your USB Flash Drive can be 2 or 3 depending on how many HDDs your machine has.




 * It will ask you on which partition to install it. If you only have one partition (primary) on your USB Flash you can select #1.



It will give you some message like:



It will write the FreeLDR to your Flash drive and show this message for example:
 * Now on the on Main Menu select "2) Install FreeLDR on a Partition"



At this moment your flash drive is ready to boot FreeLDR and boot OS/2 from it. When you boot the flash drive it will give you several options on which OS/2 configuration you want to boot.

Setting FreeLdr to boot from USB Flash
The default setting for RAMFSOS2 is set to boot it from the CD/ROM, you need to change that so it can boot from your USB Flash in FAT32.

On your USB Flash go to \boot\loader\os2.cfg and change:

; ---===presets===--- ; for CD/DVD ;toggle select F=0 ; for usb flash with fat32 toggle select F=3 A=1 D=2 c=0 ; for usb flash with jfs ;toggle select F=2 A=1 D=2 c=0 ; for Hard disk boot ;toggle select F=3 A=2 D=0 u=0 c=2

On the FreeLdr menu (red menu) you will notice on the boot that the settings are just like this configuration.

Stuck on LOCATECD.SYS
When booting the USB Flash you may get stuck on "locatecd.sys" and it asks you to add the OS/2 CD-ROM and press enter.

1) It may be that you forget to set FreeLdr to boot from the USB Flash.

2) It may be some issues with some USB Flash drives. You may try a different flash drive to see if it works.

Links

 * How to Boot From a USB Drive in VirtualBox