eCS won't boot : Driver not licensed?? (Used to work fine)

[a***@gmail.com]

My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.

It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.

It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.

I have a clone of the drive (unfortunately much older, so data not up to date) and when I plug that into the laptop, it has no trouble booting to eCS.

What are my options? I'm hesitant to re-install. Typically I put all my data on a separate logical drive but the pain of having to re-install all my apps is a big headache (plus I'm not sure if some of the data is on the boot drive).

Alt-F1 will come up, but booting to just the command prompt won't even work, it comes up with the same message.

Any tips? Suggestions? I'm not opposed to buying ArcaOS if that can somehow recover my system by re-installing. I still have the eCS disks (I think...?) but not sure what I can do to recover, hesitant to put it in yet.

[r***@roadrunner.com]

ALT-F2 at the boot blob should list the drivers as it tries to load
them. This may help you determine which driver it is having trouble
with. But I would strongly suggest that you download DFSee (Windows,
Linux, bootable CD image, or one of the other options) and copy/clone
the partition(s) you are having problems with, so you have a good backup
before you make any changes. If you can boot the older clone of the
system, and access the bad drive externally, you could do an XCOPY /H /O
/T /S /E /R /V to another partition to preserve your data.

Ron Klein

Post by a***@gmail.com
My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS
as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit,
openSUSE and PCBSD.
It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently
had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot
eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed
for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do
have a license.
It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.
I have a clone of the drive (unfortunately much older, so data not up
to date) and when I plug that into the laptop, it has no trouble
booting to eCS.
What are my options? I'm hesitant to re-install. Typically I put all my
data on a separate logical drive but the pain of having to re-install
all my apps is a big headache (plus I'm not sure if some of the data is
on the boot drive).
Alt-F1 will come up, but booting to just the command prompt won't even
work, it comes up with the same message.
Any tips? Suggestions? I'm not opposed to buying ArcaOS if that can
somehow recover my system by re-installing. I still have the eCS disks
(I think...?) but not sure what I can do to recover, hesitant to put it
in yet.

[Pete]

Hi

Post by a***@gmail.com
My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.
It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.
It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.

This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be
distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for
the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver
could decide that it is not installed on ecs.

I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are
no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the
[BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are
unmangled text.


Regards

Pete

Post by a***@gmail.com
I have a clone of the drive (unfortunately much older, so data not up to date) and when I plug that into the laptop, it has no trouble booting to eCS.
What are my options? I'm hesitant to re-install. Typically I put all my data on a separate logical drive but the pain of having to re-install all my apps is a big headache (plus I'm not sure if some of the data is on the boot drive).
Alt-F1 will come up, but booting to just the command prompt won't even work, it comes up with the same message.
Any tips? Suggestions? I'm not opposed to buying ArcaOS if that can somehow recover my system by re-installing. I still have the eCS disks (I think...?) but not sure what I can do to recover, hesitant to put it in yet.

[a***@gmail.com]

d

Post by Pete
Hi

Post by a***@gmail.com
My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.
It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.
It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.

This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be
distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for
the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG
If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver
could decide that it is not installed on ecs.
I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are
no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the
[BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are
unmangled text.

Hmm...that sounds like it might be the easier option. I will try to boot from my even older T40p with that as an external drive. I'm a bit hesitant to boot from the cloned drive because I think I've seen funny things happen before doing that since I've mounted a drive with exactly the same objects duplicated...

[a***@gmail.com]

Ok, still no luck.
I'm not sure which driver thinks it's borked, it scrolls through all of them and then clears the screen.
I see the Integrated ACPI Support Driver for eComstation v 3.18 has loaded
and then it is
Power Management for eComstation v1.31
and then it says "This driver is licensed for use only in conjunction with eComstation..."

It might be the JFS driver if I recall what a good boot looks like, but then if that's the case, how did it get this far?

I tried booting with my good disk and this "bad" one connected as external but it only sees my data partition (also JFS). I tried booting with eCS 2.1 CD#1 but same problem, the C:\ drive where everything boots from doesn't seem to be visible.

Any other tips?
Can I re-install eCS but no format? I have DFSee but not sure what could be broken...this disk is good, all the other OS boot fine. eCS starts the boot at least and the last I recall this computer had always been booting eCS just fine (it was my primary OS until I switched laptops).

Post by a***@gmail.com
d

Post by Pete
Hi

Post by a***@gmail.com
My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.
It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.
It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.

This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be
distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for
the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG
If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver
could decide that it is not installed on ecs.
I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are
no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the
[BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are
unmangled text.

Hmm...that sounds like it might be the easier option. I will try to boot from my even older T40p with that as an external drive. I'm a bit hesitant to boot from the cloned drive because I think I've seen funny things happen before doing that since I've mounted a drive with exactly the same objects duplicated...

[Dave Yeo]

Post by a***@gmail.com
Ok, still no luck.
I'm not sure which driver thinks it's borked, it scrolls through all of them and then clears the screen.
I see the Integrated ACPI Support Driver for eComstation v 3.18 has loaded
and then it is
Power Management for eComstation v1.31
and then it says "This driver is licensed for use only in conjunction with eComstation..."
It might be the JFS driver if I recall what a good boot looks like, but then if that's the case, how did it get this far?

The early boot is taken care of by the minifsd (file system driver)
which just has enough intelligence to load files from \ \os2 and
\os2\boot. IIRC, it loads the ACPI.PSD and then the basedev's eventually
loading the JFS support and handing it off to it.
JFS.IFS should be licensed for all OS/2 versions.

Post by a***@gmail.com
I tried booting with my good disk and this "bad" one connected as external but it only sees my data partition (also JFS). I tried booting with eCS 2.1 CD#1 but same problem, the C:\ drive where everything boots from doesn't seem to be visible.
Any other tips?

Have you tried running LVM from the eCS CD? Almost sounds like a LVM
problem or a partition is not aligned properly. You could try running
DFSee and see what and if any errors it finds. If you payed for DFSee,
you can ask Jan for help.

Post by a***@gmail.com
Can I re-install eCS but no format? I have DFSee but not sure what could be broken...this disk is good, all the other OS boot fine. eCS starts the boot at least and the last I recall this computer had always been booting eCS just fine (it was my primary OS until I switched laptops).

Not if it can't see the partition.
Dave

[Barbara]

Post by a***@gmail.com
Ok, still no luck.
I'm not sure which driver thinks it's borked, it scrolls through all of them and then clears the screen.
I see the Integrated ACPI Support Driver for eComstation v 3.18 has loaded
and then it is
Power Management for eComstation v1.31
and then it says "This driver is licensed for use only in conjunction with eComstation..."
It might be the JFS driver if I recall what a good boot looks like, but then if that's the case, how did it get this far?
I tried booting with my good disk and this "bad" one connected as external but it only sees my data partition (also JFS). I tried booting with eCS 2.1 CD#1 but same problem, the C:\ drive where everything boots from doesn't seem to be visible.
Any other tips?
Can I re-install eCS but no format? I have DFSee but not sure what could be broken...this disk is good, all the other OS boot fine. eCS starts the boot at least and the last I recall this computer had always been booting eCS just fine (it was my primary OS until I switched laptops).

Post by a***@gmail.com
d

Post by Pete
Hi

Post by a***@gmail.com
My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.
It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.
It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.

This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be
distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for
the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG
If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver
could decide that it is not installed on ecs.
I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are
no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the
[BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are
unmangled text.

Hmm...that sounds like it might be the easier option. I will try to boot from my even older T40p with that as an external drive. I'm a bit hesitant to boot from the cloned drive because I think I've seen funny things happen before doing that since I've mounted a drive with exactly the same objects duplicated...

I can second Dave's LVM suggestion. A few months ago I had a very similar
problem when 3 out of 4 of my bootable partitions would boot, but one refused.
All had worked perfectly for 2 or 3 years until this happened.

My fix was to insert the eCS installation CD as if I were going to wipe and
reinstall the operating system. Then when it came to the part early in the
install where you could switch to the "Management Console" I had LVM "Check
Partition - Write corrections to disk". Then of course abort the install. I'm
sure there are easier ways to use LVM.

I'd also had Dfsee checks done, and for some reason it did not catch the LVM
error. Or if it did, I didn't know how to read it and make the correction from
there.

I believe the boot process makes up things when it gets lost, and pointing out
something like a bad driver just means it can't find it.

[Andreas Schnellbacher]

Post by Pete
This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be
distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for the
file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG
If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could
decide that it is not installed on ecs.
I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are no
filesystem problems then double check the existence of the
[BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are
unmangled text.

Another guess: I find it more likely that these files are involved:

?:\OS2\ecsreg.ini
?:\OS2\ecsreg11.ini (since eCS 1.1)
?:\ecs\dll\SECURIT2.DLL

[a***@gmail.com]

Post by Andreas Schnellbacher

Post by Pete
This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be
distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for the
file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG
If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could
decide that it is not installed on ecs.
I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are no
filesystem problems then double check the existence of the
[BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are
unmangled text.

?:\OS2\ecsreg.ini
?:\OS2\ecsreg11.ini (since eCS 1.1)
?:\ecs\dll\SECURIT2.DLL

So I cloned the drive first, then booted with the eCS 2.1 CD and tried to fiddle with the various recovery tools and options

There did seem to be some LVM error so I let it fix that and re-booted. Still no luck, but then I noticed that in the process it had also somehow lost a drive letter, so I re-assigned C: to the drive and re-booted again... and success! Up and running again!

Thanks for everyone's suggestions!