Running OS/2 under Virtualbox

[TrevorPH]

Just a post to say that the last version of VirtualBox where I can make everything work under OS/2 is 2.0.4

As of 2.0.6 and all subsequent releases, USB support for hard disks (the only thing I need) is broken.

As of 2.1.0 and all subsequent releases, my OS/2 Boot Manager puts out a message at boot time saying "Disk 2 is not ready" and then waits for a keypress to continue.

As of 2.2.2 (the current latest) screen redraws and mouse movement is incredibly slow and it's almost unusable.

Back to 2.0.4 for me (again).

Host o/s Centos 5.3 i386 on an x3220 Xeon (q6600 equivalent) with 6GB RAM.

[ppgrainbow]

Running OS/2 under VirtualBox requires Intel-VT/AMD-V enabled in the settings and hardware virtualisation enabled in the BIOS.

If you want to run OS/2, I would recommend using Virtual PC 2004 or Virtual PC 2007 with the latest service pack.

Unfortunately, Windows Virtual PC will require Intel-VT/AMD-V enabled at all times in the BIOS and many PCs do not have Intel-VT/AMD-V capable settings in the BIOS and it would be a shameful flop that many PCs will be unable to experience Windows XP mode under Windows 7 host.

[S.SubZero]

I have OS/2 4.52 in a VM, and I haven't had any redraw speed issues even up to 2.2.2. It draws fast and runs fine.

I don't use USB in my guests, so my knowledge on that is very limited.

[ppgrainbow]

That sounds good so far.

[TrevorPH]

I have OS/2 4.52 in a VM, and I haven't had any redraw speed issues even up to 2.2.2. It draws fast and runs fine.

I don't use USB in my guests, so my knowledge on that is very limited.

Are you running under Linux or Windows? Mine is Linux host, OS/2 guest using SNAP 3.1.8.

[ingo2]

Similar here (Warp 4.52):

As of 2.1.0 and all subsequent releases, my OS/2 Boot Manager puts out a message at boot time saying "Disk 2 is not ready" and then waits for a keypress to continue. This even happens if I just move the vdi (which runs fine in 1.6.6) to the newer versions of VBox.

I have filed a bug for that here: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/3911

Please support the fixing of this nasty beheaviour by adding your comments to that bug. Hoping this draws attention to the matter. I also have a suspicion, see here: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 449#p69449

[TrevorPH]

I have OS/2 4.52 in a VM, and I haven't had any redraw speed issues even up to 2.2.2. It draws fast and runs fine.

I don't use USB in my guests, so my knowledge on that is very limited.

Are you running under Linux or Windows? Mine is Linux host, OS/2 guest using SNAP 3.1.8.

Had a chance to test this under Windows XP today and most of my issues listed above are not present there. I get a bunch of others instead

I installed 2.2.4 on XP and then copied an eCS disk image over from the linux system and set that up. It boots up about 1 time in 3 usually - either hitting "VirtualBox.exe has encountered a problem and must close" or terminating the VM with an error. When it does boot, the screen redraw is at an acceptable speed and my USB hard disk is detected and does appear to work OK.

Still get the Boot Manager "disk 1 is not ready" problem but I was expecting that.

Haven't tried 2.2.4 on Linux yet but the changelog doesn't list anything that looks like it might fix any of my problems there.

[ppgrainbow]

I have OS/2 4.52 in a VM, and I haven't had any redraw speed issues even up to 2.2.2. It draws fast and runs fine.

I don't use USB in my guests, so my knowledge on that is very limited.

Are you running under Linux or Windows? Mine is Linux host, OS/2 guest using SNAP 3.1.8.

Had a chance to test this under Windows XP today and most of my issues listed above are not present there. I get a bunch of others instead

I installed 2.2.4 on XP and then copied an eCS disk image over from the linux system and set that up. It boots up about 1 time in 3 usually - either hitting "VirtualBox.exe has encountered a problem and must close" or terminating the VM with an error. When it does boot, the screen redraw is at an acceptable speed and my USB hard disk is detected and does appear to work OK.

Still get the Boot Manager "disk 1 is not ready" problem but I was expecting that.

Haven't tried 2.2.4 on Linux yet but the changelog doesn't list anything that looks like it might fix any of my problems there.

That's quite odd...I was hoping that you filed a bug report regarding your problems running OS/2 as a guest. I'm saddened to say that VirtualBox 2.0.4 was the last version that worked for OS/2 Warp 4. Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 may also be the last version that will work for OS/2 Warp 4 as well.

[TrevorPH]

I was hoping that you filed a bug report regarding your problems running OS/2 as a guest.

I have but I don't think the situation is as bad as you seem to think. On windows XP, just about everything works that I tried except that it wasn't keen on the initial boot up which is where all the problems occurred. Once booted it seemed OK.

On Linux post 2.0.4, I cannot get USB hard disks to be seen by the guest but otherwise everything works as expected. I raised a bug a long time ago but it's never even been looked at - http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2850

The Boot Manager error msg occurs under both host o/s's from VB 2.1.0 onwards.

[stormchaserbh]

As of 2.1.0 and all subsequent releases, my OS/2 Boot Manager puts out a message at boot time saying "Disk 2 is not ready" and then waits for a keypress to continue.

I currently use VB 2.2.4 on Vista host, and recently began trying to recreate some of my ol' OS/2 setups by installing Warp 4. I noticed that on the diskette swaps during installation, it would appear to be unresponsive when I changed diskettes and pressed Enter. I found that if I unmounted the floppy, then remounted it and pressed Enter again, the system would then register the diskette change and proceed. Not sure if it's related; wanted to pass it along.

[ppgrainbow]

As of 2.1.0 and all subsequent releases, my OS/2 Boot Manager puts out a message at boot time saying "Disk 2 is not ready" and then waits for a keypress to continue.

I currently use VB 2.2.4 on Vista host, and recently began trying to recreate some of my ol' OS/2 setups by installing Warp 4. I noticed that on the diskette swaps during installation, it would appear to be unresponsive when I changed diskettes and pressed Enter. I found that if I unmounted the floppy, then remounted it and pressed Enter again, the system would then register the diskette change and proceed. Not sure if it's related; wanted to pass it along.

I had a feeling that the reason why OS/2 Warp 4 doesn't work with Virtual Box 2.1.0 (and later) is the requirement of Intel VT-x and AMD-v. And since OS/2 Warp 4.52 only works with Virtual Box, OS/2 Warp 3 and 4 users have been left out in the cold, literally. And due to numerous issues regarding the design limitations of OS/2, I personally believe that OS/2 support maybe dropped in future versions of VirtualBox.

[jhoffler]

I'm not sure what you mean that OS/2 Warp 4 doesn't work with Virtual Box 2.1.0 (and later). I'm running Warp 4 FP17 on VirtualBox 2.2.4 under OpenSuse 11. My only problem (which existing long before 2.1.0) is that I have to do a 2-step boot process. OS/2 always locks during boot when I first start the VM. I send in ctrl-alt-del and it reboots fine.

[ppgrainbow]

I'm not sure what you mean that OS/2 Warp 4 doesn't work with Virtual Box 2.1.0 (and later). I'm running Warp 4 FP17 on VirtualBox 2.2.4 under OpenSuse 11. My only problem (which existing long before 2.1.0) is that I have to do a 2-step boot process. OS/2 always locks during boot when I first start the VM. I send in ctrl-alt-del and it reboots fine.

According to TrevorPH, OS/2 Warp 4 doesn't seem to work as it did with older versions of VirtualBox. Neither OS/2 nor eComStation works at all on VMware.

[TrevorPH]

I'm not sure what you mean that OS/2 Warp 4 doesn't work with Virtual Box 2.1.0 (and later). I'm running Warp 4 FP17 on VirtualBox 2.2.4 under OpenSuse 11. My only problem (which existing long before 2.1.0) is that I have to do a 2-step boot process. OS/2 always locks during boot when I first start the VM. I send in ctrl-alt-del and it reboots fine.

Do you have the OS/2 Boot Manager installed? As of 2.1.0+ it puts out an error message and pauses waiting for input

Do you have USB devices attached to the guest? As of 2.0.6+ I cannot get any of my USB hard disks to be recognised by the guest.

[ppgrainbow]

Do you have the OS/2 Boot Manager installed? As of 2.1.0+ it puts out an error message and pauses waiting for input

Do you have USB devices attached to the guest? As of 2.0.6+ I cannot get any of my USB hard disks to be recognised by the guest.

I'm not running OS/2 on VirtualBox. I'm only running it on VirtualPC 2007.

It would be best to run OS/2 on either VirtualPC or Qemu.