OS/2 ver 2.0 Installation: Difference between revisions

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May 10 1992
#REDIRECT[[OS/2 Version 2.0 Installation]]
 
By Aaron Roll 416-395-0085
 
A week ago I purchased from a retailer, a copy of OS/2 Ver. 2.0 Upgrade.
First  of  all  I was reading the documentation ( which is very dull  and
confused) specifically the "installation guide". I was reading the manual
a few times more and realized that no help is coming from this stuff ( my
profession  is  Computer Systems Analyst  and serves as  consultant  for
companies  at Toronto area) and decided to install the OS on my  computer
in the way of trial and error.
In  the  Prefix I would like to say that I do not familiar with the  full
version  of IBM OS/2 Ver  2.0 and may be things are different there,  but
our issue her is the upgrade version (DOS to OS/2).
 
I  would  like to add that I was and I am a true believer of the full  32
Bit OS for IBM and compatible computers as a definite replacement for DOS
OS.
I  do  not like to tell you about the frustration I had trying to  figure
out  how  to  make the job done ( it takes long long evenings  to  decide
which  is the right way to install OS/2 2.0 Upgrade) and instead to  jump
right away to the process itself.
  My computer is IBM comp. 386/33, 5 Mb basic and extended memory, 124 Mb
Hard drive, 1- 1.44 Mb 3.5  A: Floppy, 1-1.2 Mb 5.25 B: Floppy, UVGA card
and monitor, Running DOS 5.0.
I decided to choose this configuration for my OS/2 - DOS environment:
C: drive as OS/2 partition,
D: drive as primary DOS partition
E: drive as extended DOS partition.
the  reason for that  will be clearer in the following paragraphs, it  is
extremely important to have this three main partitions installed.
Before  proceeding, Make 3.5 1.44 Mb diskette bootable  with  DOS  5.0  (
FORMAT  A:  /S) and copy to this diskette all the important DOS  commands
(like FDISK, FORMAT, SYS and so on.
 
I  am  assuming  that  the  reader  familiar  with  DOS  operations  and
particularly  the  usage  of FDISK , FORMAT and  SYS  commands.  Just  to
mention:  A) by FDISK delete any partition (after backing up every  peace
of  important program and data ) on the hard drive. B) create the desired
partitions.  C) reboot ( from A: drive with bootable diskette,  that  you
prepared ahead of time ) . D) format the partitions (C: with FORMAT c: /s
and D:, E: with FORMAT d: /s, FORMAT e:).
 
I partitioned the hard drive and formatted it as follow:
C: drive 50 Mb primary DOS partition and DOS OS installed.
D: drive 14 Mb extended DOS partition and (yes,yes !!) DOS OS installed.
E: drive 60 Mb extended DOS partition.
 
 
 
 
OS/2 installation Page 2
 
The  reason for another DOS OS on drive D: is that the OS/2 Upgrade  must
have  DOS  OS installed when it start the installation process  and  that
fine  to  have  it  on  C:  drive.  Unfortunately  the  process  of  OS/2
installation  needs to partition the hard drive again if  you  want  OS/2
Boot  Manager and HPFS (High Performance OS/2 partition) to be installed.
Assuming  you did that,  you have to reboot  the computer and  start  the
process  again, but OOPS !! the DOS OS deleted by the OS/2 partition  and
therefor  can  not come up again unless you have another  DOS  OS  on  D:
drive,  installed by you ahead of time, as I mention above.
 
After  all  these  preparations,  now comes  (  at  last)  the  time  for
installing OS/2 2.0 Upgrade on your machine.
 
With  OS/2  installation diskette in drive A: (it  must  be  A:-  another
preparation that you might do prior to install OS/2 Upgrade), reboot  the
computer  (you might get a note on your screen during that  process  that
the  program's trial to write to drive A: failed, if that the case choose
"return  error to program" and proceed. The program will prompt  you  for
disk  # 1 and after short time and a few welcome screens you will get  to
the choice screen where you choose option # 2 "format the hard drive" . (
You  can  choose "proceed installation on drive C:" but then you  do  not
have  the choice of booting OS/2 or DOS, you have only on choice  :  OS/2
boot and that it, period).
I choose the options as follow:(it is important to follow precisely)
 
NAME      STATUS      ACCESS          SYS  TYPE        MB
------    startable    primary        boot manager    1
OS/2      bootable    C: primary      FAT              48
DOS        bootable    D: primary      FAT              14
------    none        E: logical      FAT              60
 
the  above represent logical order (my logic) and can be changed. You can
put DOS on C: and OS/2 on D: if you prefer. You can choose the default OS
that  will  come  up  first  at regular bootup  although  it  is  not  so
important,  Boot  Manager gives you the option to choose which  operating
system  will  come  first  at the initial screen  during  regular  bootup
process.
 
After  choosing  the  configuration,  SAVE  and  reboot.(  remember  ??
"Install disk "    in A:).
after  inserting  disk # 1 you are coming to the same point  you  left  5
minutes ago.
This  time during disk # 2's reading, you come to a screen gives you  the
option  to  proceed or to format the disk ( for HPFS or regular  FAT).  I
prefer  naturally the HPFS and choose that option. the program  preparing
the  disk  accordingly  and  proceed  afterwards  with  the  installation
process,  namely:  up  to  disk  # 5 the OS  OS/2,  rebooting  again  and
proceeding  with  choices for file system and disk  #  6  to  #  15  plus
printers device driver at the end of the installation.
 
 
OS/2 installation page 3
 
as  soon  as  the  OS/2  system comes up at the end of  the  installation
process  I  recommends to clear the screen off by clicking on  the  small
icon/sign  at the upper left hand side of the windows ( do  not  use  the
tutorial as recommended by IBM you can come to that later on ).
Push the right hand mouse's button and choose Shut down line form the pop
up menu, choose O.K. wait for verification and reboot your computer, this
time no disk in drive A:.
After  POST ended Boot manager will come up with its menu,  highlight  "
OS/2 " choice and  >ENTER<.
Now you can get the tutorial/documentation/help etc.
 
But  wait a little bit more, before going documentation, activate PMFDISK
command  ( open the OS/2 icon double click on setup icon double click  on
Migrate  icon  and  perform migration for OS/2  programs  (  particularly
PMFDISK)  as of the documentation and on line help. After finishing  that
double click on Additional OS/2 program and activate PMFDISK program.
The hard drive setup appears on the screen as the follow:
 
NAME        STATUS          ACCESS        SYSTYPE        MB
--------    startable        primary        boot manager  1
OS/2        bootable        c: primary    HPFS          48
DOS          bootable        primary        FAT            14
-------      none            d: logical    FAT            60
 
Pay  to your attention that this new arrangement ( of c:; d: drives) have
been  done  automatically by OS/2 and the reason is : OS/2 and  DOS  are
using both the same name for the first drive e.g. C: drive !!!
 
Now  Shut Down OS/2 again at the proper way, reboot the computer with the
bootable  DOS diskette, activate FDISK and first: FORMAT c: /s (  yes  c:
drive,  this  time under DOS is deferent drive than c: drive under  OS/2.
after  making  c: drive DOS bootable , FORMAT d: and reboot the  computer
again, this time Boot Manager menu comes up giving you the choice DOS  or
OS/2  ,  highlight the DOS option and boot by DOS just to make sure  that
every  thing  work properly. Install DOS sub directory on  c:  drive  and
windows on d: drive together with all windows application.
 
The  reason for small ( DOS ) C: drive and large D: drive comes from  the
fact  that OS/2 as well as DOS are using  primary drive C: therefor  OS/2
is  not  able to "see" DOS C:, it is reading its own C: drive and DOS  D:
drive  only,  so  concern OS/2 , DOS C: drive is just a "waist".  On  the
other hand DOS does not " care " where Windows resided.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OS/2 installation page 4
 
Some prefix and conclusions
Intentionally I installed OS/2  2.0 side by side with DOS/WINDOWS 3.1  on
the  same  computer  and  the  same  hard  drive  that  was  partitioned
accordingly, I wanted to compare the two operating systems by myself  and
not to get second hand impression.
When  I  purchased OS/2, my initial intention was to replace  Windows-DOS
base  with  something  that destined to replace DOS  and  UNIX  (which  I
definitely  dislike) in the near future, well , to tell the truth  I  was
disappointed !!!
 
OS/2 is UNSTABLE environment, a short time ( 5 to 15 minutes ) after  you
are  trying  to adjust something , anything , with the operating  system,
everything friezes up without any apparent reason and you have to boot up
again.  It  seems that IBM programmers learn nothing from the educational
experience of Windows 3.0 and its UAE (Unrecoverable Application Error  )
,  how  comes ?? Windows 3.0 launched 2 years ago !! in our terms  it  is
almost a computer generation that passed by.
 
Maybe  the program runs well on IBM native computers, I must presume  so,
otherwise it does not make any sense to throw this program to the  market
( and consider the development and advertisement campaign's costs ! ) But
lets  talk serious,  how many of us are using IBM native computers  ??  (
except  government  departments  that  there  resources  seems  to  be
surprisingly endless) , the answer is obvious, Just a few. From a lot  of
sources  I  hear  about  the same problem, namely  :  the  computer  (IBM
compatible) hangs up frequently.
 
  I  suspect the device drivers supplied by IBM to be the reason for  all
that and specifically the drivers that managing the relations between the
operating system and the computer's BIOSs/ hard drive controllers( of all
variety  and types). You would expect IBM company to address that problem
prior to marketing the program right ? well, wrong as mention before.
 
The  guys there just did not check up the right types and amounts of  IBM
CLONES  (  it  seems that the IBM guys do not like to think  about  such
androgynous) and did not developed bullet proof program.
 
The documentation for the OS/2 2.0 Upgrade is POOR , confused and lake of
basic  items  to  explain and direct the user of the  installation  steps
aside  of totally misleading of installation's directions ( at the  other
hand  the  on line's context sensitive and the general help is  excellent
!).
 
 
 
 
 
 
OS/2 installation page 5
 
The boot up process is painfully slow , just imagine 10 hang ups a day  (
YES !! that the reality ) and you have got about an hour a day dealing up
with boot ups processes.
The  program  is  not intuitive to my taste. for example  I  was  up  and
running  with  Windows  3.0  in  no time without  any  need  at  all  for
documentation or on line help, not to mention Windows 3.1, OS/2 2.0 is  a
concept's relative of Windows Namely : Object oriented OS, but  the  case
is  not  the  case when its come to ease of use and being intuitive,  you
must  use  the  documentation  frequently ( sometime  a  very  frustrated
process ).
 
Who  Said : " DOS better then DOS and WINDOWS better then WINDOWS "?? you
know who !! . Sorry guys I am not convinced !! Try WINDOWS 3.1 and see  ,
you just can not compare the two programs, WINDOWS 3.1 toping OS/2 2.0 by
two  to  three levels ( that not the right article to count  the  precise
differences ).
 
All  in  all  I  think  Microsoft guys were  and  are  listening  to  our
(customers)  problems  and desires much better then  IBM  guys  and  more
important : implementing most of them.
IBM  company on the other hand improved a lot , its not enough but in the
right direction ( after all it is very difficult for that giant to change
direction after so many years they ignored us completely).
 
OS/2  ver. 2.0 is very Powerful OS , I do not have any doubt about  it  ,
may  be  we have to wait for ver 2.1 to get things done properly like  we
had it with Windows 3.1.
OS/2  is  not  for  novices, you have to know what  you  are  doing  when
installing and operating it.
 
I  am  supporting some opinions saying that the combination of  OS/2  for
file server and Windows for  end user, might be a good combination in the
future  provided WINDOWS NT is not going to top OS/2 like WINDOWS 3.1  is
doing to OS/2 in the present.
 
This  document belong to the FREEWARE concept you can use it in any forum
and form you like provided you did not change any thing in its content.
Although  I believe the above installation process is bullet  proof  for
every body ( about 20 time of repeatedly installations and tenth of hours
I  spent  learning the program, are backing up this statement)  I  cannot
assure success for every body, do it on your own risk( nothing much of it
here any way).
 
Aaron Roll
6091 Bathurst St. # 308
Willowdale, Ontario
M2R-1Z3
Tel : 416-395-0085

Latest revision as of 23:40, 28 May 2023