Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/os2/os2instl.arj/OS2INSTL.TXT

Text File | 1992-05-12 | 13.0 KB | 238 lines

Os/2 ver 2.0 Installation                                                              May 10 1992
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 !).

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 ).


OS/2 installation page 5


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 : [phone]