Installing OS/2 or eCS w/o 3.5" disks

Post by ML
An old laptop without 3.5" disk drive, no bootable CD-ROM drive,
no swappable harddisk. Is there, despite this, a possibility to
install OS/2 or eCS, e.g. with a certain type of external CD-ROM
drive?
TIA!
---

You could try a network install, if you (a)can get a PCMCIA network card
and (b) have a desktop machine with network, OS/2-eCS and a CD-ROM. You
can't install from most external CD-ROMs, except perhaps a SCSI unit
(needs a SCSI PCMCIA card though)

Stuart

2006-03-28 14:45:43 UTC

You could try a network install, if you (a)can get a PCMCIA
network card and (b) have a desktop machine with network,
OS/2-eCS and a CD-ROM.

Thanks, I'll try that! The laptop has a PCMCIA network card indeed,
recognized by the to be deleted Windows XP, and I somehow should be
able to access a desktop machine's CD-ROM drive.

---

Srtgray

2006-03-28 20:19:26 UTC

You could try a network install, if you (a)can get a PCMCIA
network card and (b) have a desktop machine with network,
OS/2-eCS and a CD-ROM.

Thanks, I'll try that! The laptop has a PCMCIA network card indeed,
recognized by the to be deleted Windows XP, and I somehow should be
able to access a desktop machine's CD-ROM drive.

If you have eCS, check out the Beta forum for the updated Floppy disk
programme. It can create the required floppy disks automatically. For
plain Warp 4, the instructions at
http://www.tavi.co.uk/os2pages/reminst.html are excellent.

Stuart

Bob Eager

2006-03-28 20:50:23 UTC

You could try a network install, if you (a)can get a PCMCIA
network card and (b) have a desktop machine with network,
OS/2-eCS and a CD-ROM.

Thanks, I'll try that! The laptop has a PCMCIA network card indeed,
recognized by the to be deleted Windows XP, and I somehow should be
able to access a desktop machine's CD-ROM drive.

If you have eCS, check out the Beta forum for the updated Floppy disk
programme. It can create the required floppy disks automatically.

Don't think he has a floppy drive...

Post by Srtgray
For
plain Warp 4, the instructions at
http://www.tavi.co.uk/os2pages/reminst.html are excellent.

Yes, they are! :-) Note that they are really for the Convenience Packs,
although I suspect they will be fine with Warp 4.

--
Bob Eager
begin 123 a new life...take up Extreme Ironing!

Lutz

2006-03-29 12:06:53 UTC

You could try a network install, if you (a)can get a PCMCIA
network card and (b) have a desktop machine with network,
OS/2-eCS and a CD-ROM.

Thanks, I'll try that! The laptop has a PCMCIA network card indeed,
recognized by the to be deleted Windows XP, and I somehow should be able
to access a desktop machine's CD-ROM drive.

I wonder how you did install any operating system on it?
Any old laptop has a diskette drive but if its missing I would dig out the
harddisk drive and attach it to another computer via an
IDE-40-44- or an IDE-USB-adapter. Than xcopy OS/2 on it.
---------------

2006-03-29 14:56:54 UTC

Post by Lutz
I wonder how you did install any operating system on it?

I didn't, wondering too. It now runs Windows XP (guess how,
e.g. with 57 MB of RAM), and I think there's an original
copy of Windows 98 in \WIN98. The network install didn't
work for me, BTW (that required token ring, for one?).

Post by Lutz
Any old laptop has a diskette drive but if its missing I
would dig out the harddisk drive and attach it to another
computer via an IDE-40-44- or an IDE-USB-adapter.

Too bad the harddisk drive is located in a "strange" cover,
Loading Image...

, with the
connector in an (unusual, to me) angle of 90 degrees. If
that wouldn't be the case, I may have used another laptop
with a "regular" harddisk drive bay.

I may be lucky tonight, and get myself an external disk
drive. I tried one before, but that had the wrong kind of
connector, despite belonging to an old ThinkPad too. Not
easy to find, but I just may be lucky to find one... :-/

---

Srtgray

2006-03-29 15:45:57 UTC

Post by Lutz
I wonder how you did install any operating system on it?

Post by Lutz
Any old laptop has a diskette drive but if its missing I
would dig out the harddisk drive and attach it to another
computer via an IDE-40-44- or an IDE-USB-adapter.

Too bad the harddisk drive is located in a "strange" cover,
http://i19.ebayimg.com/03/i/05/c5/b6/34_1_b.JPG, with the
connector in an (unusual, to me) angle of 90 degrees. If
that wouldn't be the case, I may have used another laptop
with a "regular" harddisk drive bay.
I may be lucky tonight, and get myself an external disk
drive. I tried one before, but that had the wrong kind of
connector, despite belonging to an old ThinkPad too. Not
easy to find, but I just may be lucky to find one... :-/

Nope, shouldn't need TokenRing (I've done it over ethernet). IS this a
Thinkpad? Let us know what model, it may help.

Stuart

2006-03-30 14:06:35 UTC

Post by Srtgray
Nope, shouldn't need TokenRing (I've done it over ethernet).
IS this a Thinkpad? Let us know what model, it may help.

Yes, it's a ThinkPad 760EL. And I was very lucky, because I
found the missing parts I needed to comfortably install eCS
or OS/2 Warp 4. The parts were available in the US too, but
they didn't ship to Europe. The installation of eCS failed,
due to an invalid opcode (I didn't try twice, it was already
getting quite late), but Warp 4 seems to work just fine. I'ld
prefer eCS above Warp 4, hence the ng, but I don't need a
fine trick anymore to get rid of the Windows-installs.

---

d***@gmail.com

2020-04-08 21:26:41 UTC

I have Warp CD installation disk, in the box there are floppys to boot from CD, and there are documentation to create boot floppy yourself. But I have a notebook with DVD player, no floppy. I tried to use an USB disk as the boot floppy (from another PC I formatted as DOS bootable, after that I tried to copy all files from the OS2 boot floppy.

But it doesn't work. Is there any way to use USB flash disck as floppy? (install CD should recognize that unit as their installation disquettes)

Or Is there any other way?

Grant Taylor

2020-04-09 00:50:07 UTC

I see multiple issues:

- Using a USB flash drive as a floppy can be problematic. There are
some size issues, BIOS config issues, flash drive config (mode) issues.
- The fact that it probably only works and is detected properly with
the flash drive inserted during boot (BIOS initialization).
- The fact that you likely need multiple floppies to boot and use the CD.

I would suggest a USB floppy drive.

Post by d***@gmail.com
But it doesn't work. Is there any way to use USB flash disck as
floppy? (install CD should recognize that unit as their installation
disquettes)

OS/2 installation disks boot OS/2, not DOS.

I don't remember if OS/2 allows you to install from DOS or not. It may
require booting the floppies.

Post by d***@gmail.com
Or Is there any other way?

If you could combine all the files from the floppies onto one big floppy
and get it to work, you might be able to overcome things and get it to work.

You might be able to get SYSLinux and / or ISOLinux to boot an
intermediary boot loader that will let you chain load files on a custom
CD / DVD.

Check out what ArcaOS CDs do. I think they boot using some of the
aforementioned SYSLinux / ISOLinux tricks.

--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

Dave Yeo

2020-04-12 04:15:20 UTC

Post by Grant Taylor
Check out what ArcaOS CDs do. I think they boot using some of the
aforementioned SYSLinux / ISOLinux tricks.

Actually they do it differently, create a ramdisk and boot from that.
Seems to work well. I think the OS4 guys have a similar setup that might
work.
Dave

Robert Wolfe

2020-04-10 03:30:42 UTC

Post by d***@gmail.com
I have Warp CD installation disk, in the box there are floppys to boot from CD
and there are documentation to create boot floppy yourself. But I have a
notebook with DVD player, no floppy. I tried to use an USB disk as the boot
floppy (from another PC I formatted as DOS bootable, after that I tried to cop
all files from the OS2 boot floppy.
But it doesn't work. Is there any way to use USB flash disck as floppy?
(install CD should recognize that unit as their installation disquettes)
Or Is there any other way?

Which version of OS/2 Warp do you have that you are trying to install?

Dave Yeo

2020-04-12 04:13:32 UTC

Woops, pressed reply instead of followup,

Post by d***@gmail.com
I have Warp CD installation disk, in the box there are floppys to boot from CD, and there are documentation to create boot floppy yourself. But I have a notebook with DVD player, no floppy. I tried to use an USB disk as the boot floppy (from another PC I formatted as DOS bootable, after that I tried to copy all files from the OS2 boot floppy.
But it doesn't work. Is there any way to use USB flash disck as floppy? (install CD should recognize that unit as their installation disquettes)
Or Is there any other way?

Update to ArcaOS, which does install from a USB stick or DVD.
Install in a Vbox environment where you can use virtual floppies then
copy the install to a real hard drive.
There were some scripts floating around to make a bootable CD, might
need an OS/2 install to do it and IIRC, it was tricky to do.
I doubt that even a USB floppy will work as the USB drivers likely don't
load soon enough if your Warp CD even has USB drivers that work (doubtful)
Dave

Ilya Zakharevich

2006-03-29 11:38:06 UTC

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to
ML

You need two things: a partition you can "emergency-boot" to OS2, and
a partition with copies of a directory from CD. To make the first,

a) copy all the boot floppies to root of a FAT hard disk;

a') (better rename os2krnli to os2rknl for smoother operation);

b) Run sysinstx.com from DOS prompt (I hope it runs from there).

Check that the partition boots (maybe you need to change/add some a:
to WHATEVER: in config.sys). The rest should be present here:

http://service5.boulder.ibm.com/pspsdocs.nsf/8d77653332b629ab862563cc005ee09a/9e2009fe42b1cf1986256332007a79e1?OpenDocument

Hope this helps,
Ilya

2006-03-30 14:00:12 UTC

Post by Ilya Zakharevich
a) copy all the boot floppies to root of a FAT hard disk;

It was formatted with NTFS... :-/

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Ilya Zakharevich

2006-03-31 00:39:29 UTC

[A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to
ML