virtualized hardware for OS/2 Warp 4.0/4.5

[Raven]

I completed my install of Warp 4.0 and installed the fixpack later.

I found during the install that FDISK doesn't like hard drives over 2GB. Is the SCSI controller supported in Warp 4? I can get a collection of 2 gig drives that way.

Is the Intel NIC supported? In my Windows and Linux guests I use 1 AMD and 1 Intel. That way I can tell them apart more easily than if I had 2 AMDs or 2 Intels.

Is it possible to use USB in Warp 4.5 or does that require eCS?

[michaln]

I found during the install that FDISK doesn't like hard drives over 2GB. Is the SCSI controller supported in Warp 4? I can get a collection of 2 gig drives that way.

Correction. The IDE driver supplied with original OS/2 Warp 4 does not like hard drives over 2GB. Yes, it should be possible to use a SCSI controller (BusLogic) and use a bigger drive and/or more drivers. Or get updated installation floppies with newer IDE drives and use a bigger IDE drive.

This is not an issue when installing OS/2 Warp 4.5--with that release it's no problem to install on a 40 or 100GB disk.

Is the Intel NIC supported?

If you find the right driver, it should work. I don't believe it shipped with any IBM OS/2 release but was available from Intel (E1000.OS2 was the core driver file name).

Is it possible to use USB in Warp 4.5 or does that require eCS?

Possible, yes. Can you get it, hard to say. Most of the USB bits were part of IBM's subscription program. Also, with USB it's not possible to make blanket statements like "USB is supported". Some devices will work, some won't--this is largely a function of the drivers available for an OS.

[Yoda]

I completed my install of Warp 4.0 and installed the fixpack later.
found during the install that FDISK doesn't like hard drives over 2GB.

Yes, that is a limitation of the OS, you installed. Later fixpacks fix that,
or you can just download the better drivers from Hobbes.

Is the Intel NIC supported? In my Windows and Linux guests I use 1 AMD and 1 Intel. That way I can tell them apart more easily than if I had 2 AMDs or 2 Intels.

Intel drivers for 1G can be downloaded from Intel or IBM (may require a subscription). However, they are not reliable when using Vbox.
Stick to the AMD driver - there are no problems with them (included with every OS/2 release).

Is it possible to use USB in Warp 4.5 or does that require eCS?

You can download more recent USB drivers from Hobbes from GPL developers. They should work with every OS/2 release.

Hobbes: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu (where you find all OS/2 related software)

[michaln]

However, they are not reliable when using Vbox.

Can you characterize that? I never had trouble with the drivers from Intel. And they're faster.

[Yoda]

However, they are not reliable when using Vbox.

Can you characterize that? I never had trouble with the drivers from Intel. And they're faster.

I have no doubt, they are faster; but if you have 2 interfaces, one of them usually stops working.
I can't remember the exact details, because I tried both the one from Intel and the ones from IBM;
they both give different problems, when running with 2 interfaces.

I have used Intel with 1 interface - and that seems reliable; but with 2, only the good old AMD
are rock solid.

[michaln]

OK, I don't think I ever tried doing much with more than adapter. You might have mentioned that to the OP because I doubt many users are interested in using more than one emulated NIC.

How certain is it that it can't possibly be a driver bug? The E1000 driver is relatively new and probably not nearly as battle-tested as the AMD PCnet driver.

[Yoda]

OK, I don't think I ever tried doing much with more than adapter. You might have mentioned that to the OP because I doubt many users are interested in using more than one emulated NIC.

Right, but OTOH, Vbox still defaults to AMD driver for OS/2 and eComstation - and that is not a bad choice

How certain is it that it can't possibly be a driver bug? The E1000 driver is relatively new and probably not nearly as battle-tested as the AMD PCnet driver.

I agree - especially since the Intel and IBM drivers for same NIC behaves different. That is also why, I have never raised this as a bug against Vbox.
Trying to do that against Intel or IBM is most likely completely hopeless
My hope goes to the chance, that somebody some day will port the paravirtualized driver to OS/2

[michaln]

Right, but OTOH, Vbox still defaults to AMD driver for OS/2 and eComstation - and that is not a bad choice

They work out of the box, and that is a very big plus Same reason why XP guests default to PCnet. Users who try to be clever and use the E1000 emulation quickly discover that it's not so easy to get a driver inside the VM with no networking.

I agree - especially since the Intel and IBM drivers for same NIC behaves different. That is also why, I have never raised this as a bug against Vbox.

Yes, the fact that the different drivers fail differently is a bit suspicious, yeah.

My hope goes to the chance, that somebody some day will port the paravirtualized driver to OS/2

I wouldn't hold much hope for that, the number of people capable of writing an NDIS2 driver is probably very low.

[Raven]

You can download more recent USB drivers from Hobbes from GPL developers. They should work with every OS/2 release.

What are the correct drivers to use? I got usbhcd197.zip and they do not work. I get an error message on each that the driver was not installed and the CONFIG.SYS line was ignored. The README did not specify which order to load the drivers. I tried a few possibilities but nothing made any difference.

I am now running Warp 4.5 with Fixpack 15, Device Driver Fixpack 2, WR_8423 and WR_8425 for MPTS, UN_0980 for TCP/IP, and IP_8414 (also for networking). This meets the only listed requirement of Fixpack >=13.

[Yoda]

You can download more recent USB drivers from Hobbes from GPL developers. They should work with every OS/2 release.

What are the correct drivers to use? I got usbhcd197.zip and they do not work. I get an error message on each that the driver was not installed and the CONFIG.SYS line was ignored. The README did not specify which order to load the drivers. I tried a few possibilities but nothing made any difference.

Grab
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2 ... cfg082.zip
It should do the correct setup of config.sys for you.