How to install eCS (OS/2), for real

[dandrake]

This is the first installment, a general view of the specific stuff I'm about to post.

It's specifically about eCS v1.2R -- Media Release, whatever that meant. The title mentions OS/2 in general because this may be a useful thing to work from. With the details of something that actually worked, it should be easier to figure out differences than to flail about.

It's very good that Parallels provides support for v1.2 specifically, but there are lots of things that aren't obvious in making it work. And when they provide specifics, they don't generally distinguish what applies to what version. Unfortunate, but this is a probably tiny market that can hardly repay the costs of really detailed support data. Which is what forums are for.

The instructions that start in the next post are stuff that worked for me. I've tried to provide them in full gory detail, though not to explain the whole eCS installation process. If you haven't been through that process a few times on the proper hardware, it may not be worth trying it under Parallels.

And among all the nitpicky details, some are probably unnecessary. The procedure could be cleaned up and streamlined. Somebody really should do that, but I've invested all the time I can in this project.

And if there are errors or omissions, be sure to share them here!

 

[dandrake]

Here is a pretty close transcription of the notes I took during an installation of eCS v1.2R. To be able to do that, I made several attempts at installation and got indispensable help from the support group. Good thing I took this on during the 30 days of free phone support. Most of the good stuff is from a remote control walk-through of a full installation.

Here it is, starting from the very beginning, and containing some stuff that could be skipped, probably, but this worked.

0. Start from nothing, because some things won't work if done in the wrong order.

. Find your eCS license data, which v1.2 needs in order to install. I got mine in the email that had my invoice and receipt. Copy it to a floppy disk; I copied the whole e-mail, and it worked fine, since the installer is smart enough to recognize the important point. It shouldn't matter what computer you make the floppy on.

. Insert the installation DVD in the Mac's drive. Connect the USB floppy drive, *empty*, no disk in it yet.

. You may want to turn of Time Machine, so you don't get interrupted by little boxes informing you that the process may slow down because TM suddenly started running.


1. Now we start setting up the installation process.

. Start Parallels.

. Do File -> New. Select the icon for installing a new copy copy of Windows, etc. Select Continue.

. It will not recognize what installation disk this is. Select Other from the drop-down list, and take eComStation 1.2.

. On the next screen you can assign the new Virtual Machine whatever name you want in place of "eComStation 1.2" or whatever. And select the location to install in, if you don't like their default.

. Check the Customize box. Continue.

. A new window shows you the data so far. Hit Configure.

. A configuration window pops up. Here you could change the name again, I think.

. You can change things here like the RAM size and number of processors. Isn't 256 MB awfully small?

. Go to the next tab, marked Options. Most of this stuff you can change later, and it's a good idea to take defaults on the first run-through. "Backup" offers a checkbox to suppress backups with Time Machine; I have never found it to work, though.

. Note that Modality can change settings applicable to when you decide to run the VM as a plain window on the Desktop. If you hate transparency as I do, you can change it here, or do it later.

. Now go to the Hardware tab. Most of this should be left alone. In particular, don't worry about its slightly odd Boot Order.

. But select the FLoppy Drive item now. Check the 1.44 MB USB drive, and keep Connected checked. If you hadn't plugged in the drive before starting, you may get into problems here and later.

. Look at Hard Disk 1. It has a name assigned already, and size of 2 MB, and the "Expanding" feature.

. If you select Edit, you get an apparently meaningless warning, followed by the chance to change the disk size if you want to.

. Back in the Hardware tab, select Network 1 if you want to have a network at all. Yeah, this can be done later, but why?

. Click on the item that says Shared Network; this brings on a dropdown list. Currently, "Shared Network" will be selected. Go down past the grayed-out "Bridged Network:" and select "Default Adapter". This is the main secret to making a network work.

. Now just close that window, getting back to the gray screen.


2. Now you start installing the stuff.

. Hit Continue.

. It now starts reading the disk, which offers the three-line choice of what to do; select the second line, in which you modify the hardware setup it will use. It will then read the simulated install floppies and finally bring up a colorful text page of menus. This piece of interface isn't very intuitive, and doesn't work exactly right. But I think the following will work:

. Page Down twice, and I suddenly realize that I used a non-Mac keyboard when I installed, and I don't know how to do Page Down on a normal one. Command-downarrow doesn't seem to be working.

This will be continued when I have more information. Sorry about that, but it's too long anyway.

 

[dandrake]

section 2 of the actual instructions

Back again. Picking up in item 2, where we have the eCS display to change the installation config.
BTW, 2 should really be labeled "Configure the installation hardware" or something.

Yes, Function-downarrow is Page Down on the Mac keyboard, at least the one I'm using.

. Page Down twice, then, using Fn-downarrow or whatever works.

. This gets you a page with 3 lines marked "Controller:"

. Hit up-arrow 3 times. On a non-Mac keyboard this may not work right, and require using the Tab key once, then the Shift-Tab.

. Now you're supposed to be looking at a line for (E)IDE/ATA(PI) compatibility mode IBMS506; with some parameters on the next line, starting /A:0. Good. You need this.

. TAB twice, then do up-arrow 3 times. This get you a pair of lines just like the first pair.

. Option-Control, which lets your keybaord-mouse focus escape from the Parallels environment.

. On the bottom border of that window, there are several little icons. Choose the one that looks sort of like a keyboard, at the left of the row. Select F10.

. In the new box that appears, hit Return. To do this, I believe you will first have to click in the window to give focus back.


3. You are now starting to begin the instllation. I hope it's pretty familiar to you.

. It will ask whether you want to do a validity check on the install disk. Probably not.

. It reads the disk, and fairly quickly brings up the very first page of the real installer, which lets you approve of the keyboard etc. When you've approved that and agreed to the license, you get a screen with options on what to do next. Take Easy Install, and hit Next.

. It's time to enter your specific license code.

. Put your floppy disk in the drive. Give it a few seconds to initialize. Select "Import registration data". BTW, it's said to be impossible to *change* a floppy in OS/2 running under Parallels, without rebooting the OS/2. This is part of the reason for the picky instructions here.

. Now you can find your file (on drive A, of course) and select it. The data appear.

. Next.

. Select the Installation Volume window. Take New volume. And this is direct from my outline:
- It opens a window showing the new Virtual Disk.
- Volume -> Create New. Create a bootable volume? Yes. Next.
- Make it C: and make a name for it if you like.
- Keep the size and Primary, and Finish
- Hit the big X in the upper right. Yes you do wish to save.
- Now it shows the unformatted C: and has it selected. Next
- This page allows you to format... and it says in red that you've
selected that volume. Accept or reject the checking for errors;
I'm sure it's a waste of time, but not much time.
- See its big warning in red, go on; in seconds the thing is
formatted. OK. Next.

, The next three pages are Locale and Hardware and Sound support. Skip them.

Nest is Network, and here things get put off for a while, as it's getting late.

 

[dandrake]

Instructions, section 3 of 3

In fact, there's not much left at this point. We're at the network configuration, in which there's one important point.

If you are installing from a v1.2 R disk, or probably from anything later, you have the right NIC adapter available. If not, you'll have to finish the installation and then pick up the driver. It is available in prl-tools-other.iso , a CDROM image file that you can assign (when your VM is shut down) with the Configuration dialogue. I think that this file is always among the options listed for the drive in the configuration window, and my efforts to find it were superfluous. Anyway, after connecting the drive to it, you can reboot the vm and drill down in the disk (see directory ndis2os2) to find the RTL driver and go through whatever dialogue your OS/2 version uses to change the NIC driver to this one.

. When you get to the hardware selection in the v1.2 installation, scroll down till you find the entry for RTL8029. Install it, which I think means hitting the Change button. Don't bother with the other config data on that screen, because it's all handled automatically.

. It may be worth your while to make other choices in this network section, like installing a userid and password to replace the default values for the peer network.

. From here, it's pretty much the normal eCS installation. Annoyance: Once the thing starts rebooting, it will start complaining that it can't load some RSJ files. Or do you have SCSI support on your Mac? That seems to be the problem it detects. Naturally, you'll want to delete RSJ references in your config.sys as soon as you've got a working system with an editor. Or whatever.

. When the thing gets to rebooting really seriously, it will scan for a DHCP server. If you have your local network connected and have DHCP enabled, it should find that, and you'll have your TCP/IP network available as soon as you've booted. Wow.


There you are. You'll have a raw, freshly installed eCS system, and you can start civilizing it to your taste. There are a few more non-obvious things about the Parallels connection, which will be worth discussing if anybody else uses this system. Meanwhile, it works impressively well in most things, and there even some operations that it performs much *faster* than my native eCS system.