Installing OS/2 Warp 4

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by gozar, Jul 17, 2006.

  1. gozar

    gozar Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I have my original copy of OS/2 Warp from 1994(!) and am wanting to install it in Parallels. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the CD is bootable, and for some reason Parallels doesn't like using a USB floppy drive.

    Any ideas on how to get started? I've already got W2K and XUbuntu working, three more VMs to go (OS/2, BeOS, and MS-Dos/Windows for Workgroups 3.11) :)
     
  2. VTMac

    VTMac Pro

    Messages:
    340
    I haven't installed Warp since 1995, but if I remember correctly, many versions of Warp installed on top of Win 3.1. So as a guess, you may need to install Win 3.1 first, then Warp. But that's just a guess. Also, you may look for a utility on the Warp CD that would produce a set of boot floppies. I believe that was another option. Good luck!
     
  3. MatthewR

    MatthewR Member

    Messages:
    45
    Solution

    Make images of the three floppy disks using your USB floppy drive. I really don't know what tool to use to make them in Parallels image format, just that you'll need them to be so. Then, mount the image from disk 0 and boot the VM from that. Change the image mounted on the floppy drive in the VM to disk 1 and then disk 2 as the boot progresses. You'll eventually end up back with disk 0 mounted and all the files actually installed from CD.

    The images for the boot disks are on the CD and there is a bisex (DOS and OS/2) application for writing the images. So, perhaps the easiest way to get those into the Parallels image format would be to boot up your Windows VM, mount the CD, then use the tool on the CD to write out each disk image to the emulated floppy, changing out the image for the VM floppy between each. Then you should be able to use those to boot the VM you are going to install OS/2 on.

    Alternatively, you could try a bootable CD image. OS/2 CDs became bootable later in life. IIRC, Convenience Packs 1 and 2 are bootable. You can also make your own bootable CD with some work. You can even build in a FixPak to the custom boot CD wit the right tools, except the right tools run in OS/2 only.
     
  4. sjette

    sjette Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
  5. perpendicular

    perpendicular Bit poster

    Messages:
    9
    Open a terminal (Applications>Utilities) and use dd to make floppy images.
     
  6. berniewalp

    berniewalp Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    I followed MatthewR's advice, went through the 3 OS/2 Warp installation boot floppies in sequence, but then ran into this OS/2 error message:

    SYS0039: the C: device is not ready.

    How can I tell the OS/2 VM that drive C: means the hard disc?
     
  7. berniewalp

    berniewalp Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Wait! Solved. I needed to have the CD-ROM assigned to image /Library/Parallels/Tools/vmtools.iso
     
  8. berniewalp

    berniewalp Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    WOW! I have OS/2 on my Mac laptop. Warp never looked nicer.
     
  9. MatthewR

    MatthewR Member

    Messages:
    45
    Glad to hear it works. I still haven't tried it myself. I need to stop waiting to see what VMware gives us and just try some more OSes in Parallels.
     
  10. Andrew @ Parallels

    Andrew @ Parallels Parallels Team

    Messages:
    1,507
    Don't forget to install GENGRADD video driver to get SVGA resolutions and install parallels tools for OS/2 from vmtools.iso .
     
  11. antblog701

    antblog701 Junior Member

    Messages:
    13
    A bit late to this topic, but if you don't have an external USB floppy disk drive, you can try following method to create disk images (for floppies).

    Use a Windows/DOS machine or the one under Parallels.
    running CDINST.BAT from the OS/2 Warp 4 Installation CD root folder, then
    download dd from http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite/dd.htm

    and for each disk use following command:
    Code:
    dd if=\\.\a: of=OS2W4-disk1.img bs=1440k
    dd if=\\.\a: of=OS2W4-disk2.img bs=1440k
    dd if=\\.\a: of=OS2W4-install.img bs=1440k
    (source: http://sites.mpc.com.br/ric/qemu/index.html )
     
  12. mgpws

    mgpws Junior Member

    Messages:
    17
    Or if you really need to keep OS/2 like me, just buy Ecomstation. For the price of the upgrade, I can install from the CD and have all the IBM maintenance on so there is no need to apply fixpacks and loads of individual fixes. I installed in under Suse 10.1 and plan to install on a Mac. I am very glad to see someone installed OS/2 on a Mac! Thanks!
     
  13. trekker

    trekker Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I realize this thread is a few years old, but I cannot find /Library/Parallels/Tools/vmtools.iso. I'm using 16.5.
    Thanks!!
     

Share This Page