Installing OS/2 Warp 4.51...
OS/2 Warp 4.51 was released by IBM in November, 2000 through the IBM Software
Choice subscription update program and was the first of what IBM termed
the "Convenience Packs" for OS/2. The basic functionality of OS/2
Warp 4 was retained but some significant features were removed and some new
features were added.
Warp 4.51 was distributed by IBM on two CD-ROMs, one labelled 'Version
4.51 Installation' and one labelled 'Version 4.51.' These will be
referred to as the 'Installation' and 'Program' CDs here. The Installation
CD is bootable directly from the CD if your computer supports that (most
newer machines do). To begin the install, however, CD booting must
be enabled in the BIOS of your machine. This is done by accessing the
BIOS setup screen (usually done by pressing the 'DEL' key at boot) and verifying
that your CD-ROM is enabled as a boot device. If your hard drive does
not have any other bootable OS's installed on it, that is all that is required.
However, if you have another bootable OS installed on your hard drive and
the boot order specified has the CD-ROM booting AFTER the hard drive, you
need to disable booting from the hard drive (temporarily) so that booting
will occur from the CD-ROM. Otherwise, your machine will continue
to boot from the hard drive.
Once your machine is set to boot from the CD-ROM, you are ready to begin.
Insert the Installation CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and power up the machine.
You should see the O/2 Warp Blue Screen appear. At the lower left
corner of the screen the words 'Internal Revision 14.062_W4' should appear.
This is verification that your CDs are truly for the Warp 4.51 client version
of OS/2. Warp 4.51 installation conists of four steps:
- Create or identify the Installation Volume and set it as 'installable.'
- Transfer Installation Files to Hard Disk
- Make Installation Choices
- Install final drivers.
Create or Identify the Installation Volume and Set
it as Installable
After the OS/2 Warp blue screen disappears, you will likely see a
rather scary message saying:
WARNING: VCU has detected corrupted partition
tables on physical drive xx.
This may be repeated several times depending on how many different partitions
or other hard drives are present. Then you may see:
WARNING: VCU has detected corrupt partition
tables on one or more physical drives. If you continue, data on these
drives may be lost. It is recommended that you back up all data before
continuing. Do you wish to continue Y/N?
It is always a good idea to have a backup of data on your hard drive but
don't panic. This is merely a test of your cardiac function to verify
that you are of sufficiently stout heart to join the OS/2 cabal. Press
'Y' and plunge ahead to...
VCU created xx LVM compatibility volume(s).
The system must be restarted so that the volumes
can be recognized during system installation.
Remove the diskette from Drive A
Insert the Installation Diskette into Drive A.
Press and hold the ctrl, alt, and delete keys to reboot.
Ignore the messages about diskettes if you are booting from the CD-ROM.
Warp 4.51 includes a new method of assigning drive letters and disk partitions
to volumes called the 'Logical Volume Manager' (LVM) and this is your first
introduction to it. Any existing partitions that you had on
the disk should be unaffected this change. LVM has merely written
some additional information that it needs to each partition in a place that
other OSs don't look. Don't let first impressions put you off.
This rather cold and frightening beginning is not typical. If you use
LVM again, you will become very fond of its power and flexibility.
Reboot your machine and continue to...
The blue OS/2 Warp screen appears again, then a new screen appears, telling
you to insert the OS/2 Warp CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. You should
remove the Installation CD and insert the Program CD. (Note:
at the bottom of the screen, there is also an option to push F3 to reach
a command prompt. Booting to the command prompt from the installtion
CDs can be useful at times so you should note that this capability is there.)
At this point, a new screen appears, welcoming you and thanking you for
your purchase of OS/2. Push Enter and the installation process kicks
off.
Next you will see a screen titled 'Installation and Volume Selection.'
This screen will tell you which drive that OS/2 wants to install itself
on. Usually, it will pick the first partition on the first drive and
call this 'Volume C.' If this is acceptable as an OS/2 volume (i.e.
no other OSs are installed there), you can press 'Enter' to 'Accept the Volume'
and skip the rest of this paragraph. However, if you do NOT want to
install on this partition/Volume, you can select the 'Specify a Different
Volume' option which will bring up the... yes... Logical Volume Manager.
This powerful weapon will let you pick any partion on your drive for OS/2
or create or delete partitions. This will assume that your are unfamiliar
with LVM and just want to put OS/2 in a safe nook so that you can explore
its uses. Use the down arrow key to highlight 'Specify a Different
Volume' and push 'Enter.' A warning screen will appear warning you
that changing a volume will destroy the data in the volume. Push 'Enter'
again (only push 'Enter' once!) and the LVM screen appears. If you
have a ZIP drive or other removable drive installed, an unfriendly screen
appears first, though, which states
Physical Disk (xx):
The partition table on this disk may be corrupt.
Enter-continue
Yes, you are correct. This is another unfriendly LVM warning to verify
that you are ready to be one with it. Of course you are. You
laugh at danger, so... press Enter and...
Physical Disk (xx):
The system is not able to use this disk.
Enter-continue
Another warning! No one has ever said that LVM is not determined
to keep out the unworthy! Plunge on, though, by pressing 'Enter' and...
A volume of the following size must be set installable:
[xxx megabytes]
Enter-continue
Okay, this is not as unfriendly. LVM is starting to trust you.
Don't let it down. Press 'Enter' and you will penetrate into the deepest
corners of LVM...
The Logical Volume Management Tool - Logical View
Look closely at the screen that appears with this title. This is
the main screen for LVM and a lot of information is displayed here.
Every existing partition on every hard drive will be listed first.
Each of these partitions will have been assigned to a 'compatibility' volume
and a drive letter will be assigned to the volume. The drive letters
will be listed next to the volumes for each partition. The size of
each volume, in megabytes, will be listed at the far right of the screen.
The type of volume (either 'Compatibility' or 'LVM') will be shown for each
volume. Your volumes will all be listed as 'Compatibility' as the
default type of volume unless you or someone else has created an LVM volume
previously. The last volumes shown in the list will be drives such
as a ZIP or other removable media drive, CD-ROM drives, and the like.
Each of these will also have a drive letter associated with it. Use
the arrow keys to move the cursor to the volume that you wish to use to install
OS/2 and push 'Enter.' A list of options will appear. Move the
cursor down to the 'Set the volume installable' selection (which should have
white letters) and push 'Enter.' The menu list will vanish and you
will be returned to the main screen. The volume status will now be
shown as 'Installable' and you are ready to install. Not too difficult,
right?
Warp 4.51 comes with a special piece of
IBM Software called the 'Boot Manager" which allows you to have two
or more operating systems (i.e. Windows XP and OS/2) installed on
the system. If you use the Boot Manager, you will see a blue
menu at boot which will show you the installed operating systems and
allow you to select which one you would like to boot with. If you
want to install the IBM Boot Manager, should select 'Install Boot Manager'
from the list of options that appear when you highlight any existing volume
and press 'enter.' The Boot Manager partition will automatically
be created at the top of the free space avalable using the smallest size
possible (1 to 10 MB depending on the physical size of the hard drive.)
But what if your disk drive does not have any partitions on it? Of
what if the volume shown covers only part of the drive and you want to put
OS/2 on the remaining usused 'free space?' Then, the 'Logical View'
screen does not show an usable volume and you need to switch to the LVM
'Physical View' screen. Push F5 (listed in the options at the bottom
of the screen) and the 'Physical View' screen toggles into view. Every
physical disk drive installed in your system will be listed (including your
ZIP drive and CD-ROM drive) along with the free space available on the drive.
Hard drives will be listed first in the list and are the only things which
concern us at the moment. Use the arrow keys to highlight the disk
drive that has free space that you wish to create a partition with and push
'Enter.' A small pop-up screen will pop up that you will use to change
the name of the drive from 'D-1' to something more friendly like 'Big Girl.'
You can change the name if you wish but that's not why we're here.
Push the 'tab' key and a second cursor appears at the bottom of the screen.
Every partition that is assigned on the disk drive highlighted in the top
half of the screen will be listed in the bottom half list followed by the
available free space. Use the arrow keys to highlight the free space
and push 'Enter.' A pop-up menu appears with only one option--'Create
a new partition.' Since that IS why we are here, push 'Enter' and
another pop-up menu appears with the options 'Logical Partition' or
'Primary Partition.' Since we are using LVM and assigning our own
drive letters, it really does not matter which you pick. I make them
all 'Logical Partitions.' Select your choice, push 'Enter' and another
pop-up menu appears with 'Create at the end of free space' or 'Create at
the beginning of free space.' Again, it does not matter much which
you pick. If you create partitions at the end of free space, you will
fill in from the back with any remaining free space left towards the 'front'
of the disk drive with the reverse true for the other selection. Make
your selection, push 'Enter' and another pop-up menu appears with 'Enter
a name for the partition.' Enter a name you like in the box provided
and push 'Enter.' A new pop-up appears with 'Enter the size for the
partition' with the maximum free space available shown in the box.
If you push 'Enter,' all of this space will be used. If you wish to
use less, enter the size you want and then push 'Enter.' Voila!
You have created your first LVM partition.
Now you need to create a volume that contains your new partition.
This is where people sometimes get lost. Push F5 to return to the logical
view screen. Shock! Your partition that you just created is
not listed anywhere. There's still no volume listed with it.
The volumes listed at the top of the screen are for volumes that you don't
want to touch or change. And there are no options anywhere to create
a volume. What to do? No problem...push 'Enter' with one (or
none) of the volumes highlighted that are listed at the top of the screen.
It does not matter which volume is highlighted. This will bring up
an options menu for volumes. If there are no volumes existing, the
only option that will be 'white' will be 'Create a New Volume.'
Pushing 'Enter' brings up a pop-up with 'Create a volume that does not need
to be bootable' and 'Create a volume that can be made bootable.' Since
we want to install OS/2 on the volume, select the 'can be made bootable'
option and push 'Enter.' Another pop-up appears that has a list of
Volume (not Drive!) letters. You can pick any letter that is listed
here and that also has a white color to signify its virginal status.
Generally, you should pick a letter towards the top of the list but that's
not required. Move the cursor with the arrow keys to select your letter
of preference and push 'Enter.' A pop-up appears with 'Enter a name
for the volume.' Type in your preferred volume name and push 'Enter.'
You are transported back to the 'Physical View' LVM screen and a new little
blue box appears in the center of the screen which says
Choose a disk to be used to create the volume.
Instructions are displayed below.
This is a little confusing because you already know that volumes are created
from 'partitions' and not disks, right? But what this is asking you
for is to tell it which disk to use to find your partition on.
Push 'Enter' to make the box go away and the highlighted cursor jumps to
the list of physical disk drives. Move the highlighted cursor to the
disk drive that has the partition you created on it and your partition name
should appear in the list of partitions on that drive at the bottom of the
screen. Push 'Enter' and a pop-up appears with the option 'Use existing
partition.' Select that option and push 'Enter.' Another pop-up
appears with a list of the unused partitions available on the disk drive.
Highlight your partition and push 'Enter.' Another pop-up appears with
'Enter a name for the partition' with the name you have already given it
listed. Push 'Enter' to keep the name (if you still like it) and...voila!
You have created your first LVM volume. You will also have been returned
to the 'Logical view' screen without being told (LVM is being playful) and
your new volume will be listed in the list at the top of the screen along
with the volume letter you have given it. There's only one more little
thing you need to do before you can begin installing...set your shiny new
volume to be 'Installable.'
Move the cursor with the arrow keys to highlight your new volume and push
enter to bring up the volume options menu. Move the cursor to highlight
the 'Set the Volume Installable' option and push 'Enter.' The pop-up
should go away and your new volume should now have a status of 'Installable.'
You are done with LVM and can begin installing Warp 4.51!!
Push F3 to exit. Another little pop-up will appear asking if you want
to save your changes. Select 'Save your changes and exit' and you
can go to the 'Copy Installation Files' section below and begin installing.
Note: A major difference between LVM and the previous versions
of FDISK found in OS/2, Windows, and DOS is that in LVM, you can create
partitions, delete partitions, etc. and your changes are not finalized until
you exit LVM. By contrast, in FDISK versions, your changes are final
as soon as they are made and they cannot be undone. The LVM approach
of its-not-final-until-its-final provides you with an opportunity to play
with LVM a little bit to get familiar with it without having your changes
actually made to your disk.
A brief note about LVM...
In the beginning,
each hard disk came with one 'partition' that covered the entire disk.
A handy DOS tool called FDISK was used to create the partition for the drive
(Windows OS still use this) and the FORMAT command was then used to format
this partition with the FAT file system. After formatting,
the drive was assigned the letter 'C' by DOS. As drives became bigger,
people began wanting TWO partitions on the drive. FDISK was up to
this challenge and allowed you to create such on your drive. As drives
became cheaper, people began wanting TWO drives in their system. FDISK
could still cope with this...sort of. Then came Windows, OS/2, Windows
NT, Windows XP, HPFS, NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, Linux...Hmmm. Life is getting
complicated.
LVM is a new IBM approach to making OS/2 Drive Letter assignments that
has no effect on the drive letters used by non-OS/2 operating systems.
In LVM, there are three entities, physical disk drives, partitions, and volumes.
Disk Drive: The physical disk drive with the wires connected
to it.
Partition: A fenced-off portion of a disk drive. This
fenced-off portion could cover the entire disk drive or only a portion of
it.
Volume: One or more partitions that have been assigned a drive
letter by YOU using your powerful helper and friend... LVM.
Your LVM objective is to fence in every part of every disk drive in your
system by creating partitions that cover all of the real estate.
Then your objective is to create one or more volumes that include all of
the partitions that you created. Your final objective is to assign
a drive letter to very volume that you created. LVM has one powerful
feature that we have not discussed here. If you create an LVM, rather
than compatibility, volume (this option is found if you select 'Create
a volume that cannot be made bootable' above), the VOLUME CAN INCLUDE MORE
THAN ONE PARTITION. Even more useful is that the partitions can be
on different disk drives. This means that you can plug in a new disk
drive to your machine, create a partition on it, and add that partition to
an existing LVM volume to increase its storage space without changing any
drive letters.
Transfer Installation Files to Hard Disk
Follow the onscreen instructions to remove the Program CD from the machine,
return the Installation CD to your machine, and reboot. Swap the CDs
again as requested during reboot. When the screen showing you the
volume that will be used, appears, your desired volume letter should be shown.
If so, select the volume and press 'Enter.' A formatting screen will
appear giving you the option for a quick format or a long format.
A long format of a large drive can take more than an hour so take a break.
Select the long format, unless you are in a tremendous hurry or you don't
care if your drive media is checked during formatting. You will then
be given an option for the file system to be used. Warp 4.51 supports
three different file systems, FAT, HPFS, and JFS. FAT formatting can
only be used for volume sizes of less than 2 GB. JFS (short for 'Journaling
File System') formatting cannot be used for bootable volumes. Chances
are, therefore, that only option on the formatting screen will be for HPFS.
Select HPFS and press 'Enter.' Formatting should then occur followed
by automatic copying off files to your new volume with no further intervention.
When the necessary files have been copied, your system will attempt to
boot OS/2 from the hard drive to continue the install. If you disabled
the hard drive as a boot device in your BIOS settings as described at the
beginning above, you will receive an unkind message at this point stating
'Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk' or something similar. Don't
insert anything. Instead, reboot your system by pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Delete
keys simultaneously and change your BIOS settings back to the way they were
with the hard disk preceding the CD-ROM drive in the boot order. Then
reboot again and the installation will continue with a boot of OS/2 from
the hard drive. After a brief time, the OS/2 'Setup and Installation'
screen will appear.
Make Installation Choices
Installation Choices are made using the OS/2 'Setup and Installation' screens
automatically appears after OS/2 boots from the hard disk for the first
time. The first of these screens is titled 'System Configuration'
and contains settings for locale (country and keyboard types), system (mouse
type, serial port support, and display choices), and peripherals (CD-ROM,
multimedia device (sound card), printer type, and SCSI adapter support.
The settings shown are based on what the hardware detection found for your
system. Most of these can be left the way the system has set them with
a few significant exceptions that are discussed below. A setting is
changed by clicking on the icon box to the left of the item and then using
the mouse to scroll through the choices.
Country - Select the country that is appropriate for your installation
Keyboard - This is the default keyboard arrangement for your installation.
Select the setting that is appropriate for your installation
Primary Display - If the hardware detection has selected one of
the drivers with the word GRADD included, you can probably leave this for
now. If you are POSITIVE that the device selected matches the device
that your system includes and the hardware detection has selected that,
you can leave the selection unchanged. If you are sure that you know
what your hardware is and your display card hardware is shown in the list,
you can select that device. In all other cases, however, select the
Video Graphics Array (VGA) GRADD or, if that gives problems later,
Video Graphics Array (VGA). If you want to experiment, you can try
the 'Dynamically Selected GRADD drivers' setting which might be useful if
you are unable to find a better driver for your display card after installation.
CD-ROM Device Support - If your CD-ROM device is an older drive,
it may be selected as one of the choices. If the choice is correct,
you can leave it. In most cases, however, you should probably select
IDE CD-ROM or SCSI II CD-ROM depending on which type you have.
Multimedia Device Support - This is the driver selection for your
sound card. There are not a lot of supported sound cards for OS/2
and most of these require that drivers be installed after installion.
If you are POSITIVE that you know what your sound card hardware is and there
is a selection in the list that matches that hardware, you can go ahead
and select it. Otherwise, you should select 'NONE so that no sound
card drivers will be installed. This will prevent the installation
of an incorrect sound driver that will require extra effort to remove later.
You can install the appropriate OS/2 sound driver for your hardware
later after installation is complete.
When your selections have been completed, click 'Next' move to the next
screen. This screen has additional hardware support options. Change
any of these that are required. Generally, however, the hardware detection
is probably correct and you should resist changing any of these unless you
are sure that a change is required.
The next screen brings up country selection options. Make the selection
appropriate for your system or leave the default setting, and then click
'OK.' The next screen will bring up a selection for the default printer
and the printer port that it will be connected to. Go ahead and select
a printer and a printer port, if one of the printers matches a printer you
will use. If there is not a printer listed that matches yours, select
the 'Do not install default printer' option at the top of the list.
You can add additional printers and OS/2 printer drivers later after installation
is completed without difficulty. If your printer uses a USB port,
select LPT1 for the printer. You will need to install the USB drivers
later. After clicking 'OK,' you will see the OS/2 Software features
selection screen. Most features should have a check mark. Click
the 'more' box to see additional options for each of the features that you
may also want to install. When you are finished, click 'Next' and a
new screen will appear telling your that base operating system installation
and configuration is complete and outlining the next three steps. Click
'next' to continue.
Fill in the personal information requested and click on 'next.' A
screen will appear that says 'Select the services to install.' There
should be check boxes next to 'File and Print Sharing Services,' 'TCP/IP Services,'
and 'Netscape Communicator.' Click 'next' to continue. This will
bring up a configuration page for network settings. Generally, the
only items that need to be configured at installation are the 'User ID and
password' and the 'Network Adapters and Protocol Services.' These will
have red arrows next to them indicating that configuration is required.
Use the mouse to click on the 'User ID and Password' item. A small
screen will open up to enter an ID and password. Enter something in
these boxes that you will remember, even if you do not intend to use your
machine in a networked environment. After you enter this information,
another small screen will pop up with a list of network adapter cards to
choose from. Select the appropriate device for your system or click
'other adapter' to load a driver from a floppy disk. If you do not
have a network adapter card and do not intend to use one, click on the 'No
Network Adapter' selection. Click on 'install' to finish the installation.
Click on 'OK' to verify that you wish to complete the installation.
At this point, a screen will pop up asking for the 'source directory' for
the OS2IMAGE files. You should specify the volume letter for your
CD-ROM drive. Do you remember what letter was assigned to the CD-ROM
drive when you were using LVM? Click on the 'change' button and select
the appropriate volume letter. The drive letter is probably the last
one listed on the 'change' menu. If you specify the volume letter
without the name of the directory (which the box will let you do), the system
will respond with 'The source directory is not valid.' For example,
you must ensure the drive specifier is E:\OS2IMAGE rather than just
E:\ if your CD-ROM is volume E. Click on 'Install' and the final installation
should proceed.
The next thing you will see is the OS/2 Warp 4.51 Desktop! After
the first boot, a box will appear that asks you if you want to install Java
1.3. The default java for Warp 4.51 is Java 1.1.8 and that has already
been installed on your system. If you elect to install Java 1.3, this
will still leave Java 1.1.8 installed and usable on your system as well.
Selecting 'yes' will next bring up a 'creating a new profile' screen
for the Netscape v4.61 browser that is installed by Warp 4.51. This
comes up because Java 1.3 is installed using the Netscape v4.61 browser
and the 'profile' screen is started by Netscape the first it is used after
it is installed. Enter the appropriate information if you have it available
or skip what you lack to enter it later. After you have entered the
data and your profile is created, the browser launches and the Java 1.3
installation screen appears. Select the language you wish to install
with the mouse. When the donut and coffee appear, click the 'right'
arrow at the bottom of the screen and click the 'accept' button for the
license agreement. A screen will appear with Java 1.3 installation
options. Most of these will have a check box. Make sure the java
plugin box at the bottom has a check box. Also, there is a check box
to make Java 1.3 your default Java Virtual Machine. This selection
is up to you but this is probably the preferred choice. After you have
made your selections, click the right-arrow at the bottom of the screen to
bring up the 'ready to install' screen. Click the icon at the bottom
with the arrow pointing to the square thing (supposed to be your disk) and
the installation should wind up.
Finishing Up...
When the installation is complete, your desktop will probably be displayed
in VGA resolution of 16 colors and a resolution of 640 x 480. If you
have a working GRADD driver installed, you can change this to something
more palatable. Double-click on the 'OS/2 System' icon on the desktop
and then double-click on the 'System Setup' icon. Find the 'System'
icon that looks like a little TV set and double click on it.
Select a preferred screen resolution and specify your monitor. Then,
click the slash box at the upper right corner (this ends things in OS/2)
and click on the little red x icon at the bottom of the screen to shut down
the system. Reboot and your display resolution should be improved.
Long-term, you should install improved video drivers as well as sound
drivers (if they were not installed during installation), printer drivers,
etc. See the appropriate locatrions on this site for descriptions of
drivers available and links to driver download locations.
Disclaimer:
Use of any or all of these instructions is entirely at your own risk and
the only entity responsible for any damage to your data, software, hardware,
or life is YOU.
