Installing ArcaOS

[b***@gmail.com]

Hi:

I guess I could develop this topic privately with
Arca support, who have been very prompt and helpful,
but I think it would serve our community much more
being public.

I have a franken system dating from OS/2 3.0, and
updated with newer packages including 4.52, eCS 2.1 and
2.2. I like the way it is, and I did not like many of
the UI changes brought forth since 3.0, many which I
considered a feeble response to the Windows 95 and the
ilk.

My drives date back to the old days when a full OS/2
install took about 30 MB, and all the boot partitions
had to be within the first 1024 cylinders.
Subsequently, with new installations, I was able to
increase my HPFS boot partition sizes using PQPM
(Partition Magic), and I made a new 600 MiB partition
for eCS 2.1.

This all seemed to suffice until now attempting to
install ArcaOS. My T60 has a 512 GiB SSD, and I
thought I would install on the 600 MiB JFS partition.
However, no matter what I tried, ArcaOS minimally
requires a 1000 MiB partition to continue installing.
I guess the 1024 boot requirement is obsolete. So, I
then considered making a new partition at the end of
the drive. I am pretty sure that PQPM (DOS boot) would
not work with my drive and JFS. I thought I was hooped
until I saw 'Resize' on the install root menu. {:-)
However, 'Resize' would not work anywhere on the SSD
drive. It appears somewhat ironic to me that ArcaOS
seems to be oriented more to supporting legacy
hardware, when it requires (drive) resources which
legacy systems do not have. Especially on a 'Custom
Install', the limitations should be circumventable.

My primary desire for getting ArcaOS installed was
to steal the new Panorama video driver, so (maybe) OS/2
could get the proper 1920X1080 24 bit video that the
legacy XP drive supports, as my T60 is limited to
1680X1050 on the external monitor.

I could see that my attempt to hack Panorama in from
the WPI files was doomed, so I thought I would use ANPM
to cleanly do it. I installed the ANPM WPI from the
DVD, but it miserably failed, as it required several
external libraries and applications, and I could see
that it was only a VX-REXX wrapper for WPI and YUM. I
am not a big fan of dependencies, and I see them as a
continuing and confusing problem for OS/2.

As it stands, I would like to install ArcaOS
separately, and steal useful parts for my main OS
partition. From reading user reports, I am not
confident that ArcaOS would/could supplant my current
system. The two immediate fixes that I would like to
see, are the removal of the 1000 GiB installing
requirement, and fixing "Resize".

thanks!
Baden

[Doug Bissett]

Post by b***@gmail.com
I guess I could develop this topic privately with
Arca support, who have been very prompt and helpful,
but I think it would serve our community much more
being public.
I have a franken system dating from OS/2 3.0, and
updated with newer packages including 4.52, eCS 2.1 and
2.2. I like the way it is, and I did not like many of
the UI changes brought forth since 3.0, many which I
considered a feeble response to the Windows 95 and the
ilk.
My drives date back to the old days when a full OS/2
install took about 30 MB, and all the boot partitions
had to be within the first 1024 cylinders.
Subsequently, with new installations, I was able to
increase my HPFS boot partition sizes using PQPM
(Partition Magic), and I made a new 600 MiB partition
for eCS 2.1.

I would be very surprised if PQPM would actually do what you need, but
I never used it, so I really can't comment.

Post by b***@gmail.com
This all seemed to suffice until now attempting to
install ArcaOS. My T60 has a 512 GiB SSD, and I
thought I would install on the 600 MiB JFS partition.
However, no matter what I tried, ArcaOS minimally
requires a 1000 MiB partition to continue installing.

Correct...

Post by b***@gmail.com
I guess the 1024 boot requirement is obsolete.

Yes, it is. I can boot ArcaOS from the end of a 1 TB drive, but that
may depend on BIOS support.

Post by b***@gmail.com
So, I
then considered making a new partition at the end of
the drive. I am pretty sure that PQPM (DOS boot) would
not work with my drive and JFS. I thought I was hooped
until I saw 'Resize' on the install root menu. {:-)
However, 'Resize' would not work anywhere on the SSD
drive.

Resize does not work with HPFS, or JFS. It only works with NTFS and
FAT32. It also requires that the end of the partition does not contain
anything, so it can shrink it. That can be a challenge on older
computers that haven't been maintained.

Post by b***@gmail.com
It appears somewhat ironic to me that ArcaOS
seems to be oriented more to supporting legacy
hardware, when it requires (drive) resources which
legacy systems do not have. Especially on a 'Custom
Install', the limitations should be circumventable.

I agree, that the 1000 MiB restriction is not good, but it is the
choice of the Arca Noae techs, so it is enforced. The main reason for
that, is that they seem to think it is a good idea to have the
UNIXROOT stuff on the boot drive. IMO, that is NOT a good idea, but I
am not in a position to argue (and it is selectable). If you do have
the UNIXROOT stuff on the boot drive, 1000 MiB is likely to become
pretty tight, at some time in the future. They originally wanted to
enforce 4 GB. Personally, I use 1536 MiB partitions, and I recomend
not even trying to use smaller partitions for boot drives.

I will note that ArcaOS is oriented to supporting OS/2 in new
hardware. If you wish to use antique hardware, you are better off
using older versions of OS/2 that use less resources.

Post by b***@gmail.com
My primary desire for getting ArcaOS installed was
to steal the new Panorama video driver, so (maybe) OS/2
could get the proper 1920X1080 24 bit video that the
legacy XP drive supports, as my T60 is limited to
1680X1050 on the external monitor.

That is not a very good reason to install ArcaOS. You would be better
off to purchase the Arca Noae driver package, and ANPM is free.

Post by b***@gmail.com
I could see that my attempt to hack Panorama in from
the WPI files was doomed, so I thought I would use ANPM
to cleanly do it. I installed the ANPM WPI from the
DVD, but it miserably failed, as it required several
external libraries and applications, and I could see
that it was only a VX-REXX wrapper for WPI and YUM. I
am not a big fan of dependencies, and I see them as a
continuing and confusing problem for OS/2.

You did something wrong, if it didn't work. Panorama does not need
ANPM, and ANPM is self supporting for install. As for dependancies
being "a continuing and confusing problem for OS/2", you are probably
right, but the other option is to not update anything, and give up
trying to browse the internet. ANPM was created to make it easy to
manage what RPM/YUM does, and most of the time, it does a good job of
eliminating the confusion.

Post by b***@gmail.com
As it stands, I would like to install ArcaOS
separately, and steal useful parts for my main OS
partition. From reading user reports, I am not
confident that ArcaOS would/could supplant my current
system. The two immediate fixes that I would like to
see, are the removal of the 1000 GiB installing
requirement, and fixing "Resize".
thanks!
Baden

As I stated earlier, you would be far better off to get the driver
package, rather than trying to lift parts from ArcaOS. There are
probably dependancies that you will never figure out.

ArcaOS will work on older hardware. I have installed ArcaOS on my old
IBM ThinkPad A22e, which is a P3, with 30 GB HDD, and 256 Meg of
memory (originally win 98). It works, but the memory (256 meg is max)
limits how well it works. If the running program(s) all fit into the
256 meg memory, it works very well. As soon as it needs to page, it
slows down to an unusable mess, taking 15 minutes to load an average
web page in Firefox. That is mostly the fault of the bloated, windows
based, Firefox, but we really don't have much of a choice if you want
to surf the internet. I have another old machine, a Dell P4, with 512
meg of memory. That works okay, although it also has a problem if it
starts to page. Fortunately, that doesn't happen as often as I
expected (it is only a test machine anyway).

Another option, is to install it in a virtual machine. I use Virtual
Box, which works well, but you need a machine capable of running
Virtual Box, with the VT-x/AMD-V support.

[Barry Landy]

Posting at the top on one point.

Once upon a time I used to use PQPM. I strongly advise not to use it but
to get DFSEE instead. It is too long ago to recall the details but PQPM
totally screwed up my partition tables and I successfully recovered
using DFSEE. AFAIR too much data overloaded PQPM.

On Fri, 23 Jun 2017, ***@gmail.com wrote:

:>Hi:
:>
:> I guess I could develop this topic privately with
:>Arca support, who have been very prompt and helpful,
:>but I think it would serve our community much more
:>being public.
:>
:> I have a franken system dating from OS/2 3.0, and
:>updated with newer packages including 4.52, eCS 2.1 and
:>2.2. I like the way it is, and I did not like many of
:>the UI changes brought forth since 3.0, many which I
:>considered a feeble response to the Windows 95 and the
:>ilk.
:>
:> My drives date back to the old days when a full OS/2
:>install took about 30 MB, and all the boot partitions
:>had to be within the first 1024 cylinders.
:>Subsequently, with new installations, I was able to
:>increase my HPFS boot partition sizes using PQPM
:>(Partition Magic), and I made a new 600 MiB partition
:>for eCS 2.1.
:>
:> This all seemed to suffice until now attempting to
:>install ArcaOS. My T60 has a 512 GiB SSD, and I
:>thought I would install on the 600 MiB JFS partition.
:>However, no matter what I tried, ArcaOS minimally
:>requires a 1000 MiB partition to continue installing.
:>I guess the 1024 boot requirement is obsolete. So, I
:>then considered making a new partition at the end of
:>the drive. I am pretty sure that PQPM (DOS boot) would
:>not work with my drive and JFS. I thought I was hooped
:>until I saw 'Resize' on the install root menu. {:-)
:>However, 'Resize' would not work anywhere on the SSD
:>drive. It appears somewhat ironic to me that ArcaOS
:>seems to be oriented more to supporting legacy
:>hardware, when it requires (drive) resources which
:>legacy systems do not have. Especially on a 'Custom
:>Install', the limitations should be circumventable.
:>
:> My primary desire for getting ArcaOS installed was
:>to steal the new Panorama video driver, so (maybe) OS/2
:>could get the proper 1920X1080 24 bit video that the
:>legacy XP drive supports, as my T60 is limited to
:>1680X1050 on the external monitor.
:>
:> I could see that my attempt to hack Panorama in from
:>the WPI files was doomed, so I thought I would use ANPM
:>to cleanly do it. I installed the ANPM WPI from the
:>DVD, but it miserably failed, as it required several
:>external libraries and applications, and I could see
:>that it was only a VX-REXX wrapper for WPI and YUM. I
:>am not a big fan of dependencies, and I see them as a
:>continuing and confusing problem for OS/2.
:>
:> As it stands, I would like to install ArcaOS
:>separately, and steal useful parts for my main OS
:>partition. From reading user reports, I am not
:>confident that ArcaOS would/could supplant my current
:>system. The two immediate fixes that I would like to
:>see, are the removal of the 1000 GiB installing
:>requirement, and fixing "Resize".
:>
:>thanks!
:>Baden
:>
:>
:>
:>

[Dave Yeo]

Post by Barry Landy
Posting at the top on one point.
Once upon a time I used to use PQPM. I strongly advise not to use it but
to get DFSEE instead. It is too long ago to recall the details but PQPM
totally screwed up my partition tables and I successfully recovered
using DFSEE. AFAIR too much data overloaded PQPM.

Wouldn't be surprised that such an old program would choke on modern
hard drive sizes. I used it a long time back to expand a HPFS partition
and it mostly worked except ever afterwards chkdsk would complain about
minor errors until I reformatted it.
Dave

[Herbert Rosenau]

Post by Dave Yeo

Post by Barry Landy
Posting at the top on one point.
Once upon a time I used to use PQPM. I strongly advise not to use it but
to get DFSEE instead. It is too long ago to recall the details but PQPM
totally screwed up my partition tables and I successfully recovered
using DFSEE. AFAIR too much data overloaded PQPM.

Wouldn't be surprised that such an old program would choke on modern
hard drive sizes. I used it a long time back to expand a HPFS partition
and it mostly worked except ever afterwards chkdsk would complain about
minor errors until I reformatted it.
Dave

I use OS/2 4.52 with 2 GB system, aund up to 64 GB data partition
since 199x with JFS partitions absolutely problemless on a 512 GB HD.

JFS is good for partitions and drives up to 2 TB. I have never used HPFS
since JFS is there.