OS/2 Warp 4 doesn't install on VirtualBox 1.5.x

[Ken Yee]

Hangs on diskette 2 after reboot after partitioning, so you can't install OS/2.

Also tried using TrueImage to bring disk image over to VirtualBox and it crashes w/ a stack dump, so it seems it's impossible to run OS/2 Warp 4 on this version of VirtualBox...

[Ken Yee]

virtual box log file for installs

[Ken Yee]

A few other comments:

• when you start a virtual machine, you should be able to mount both a floppy and CDROM (current UI allows either or but OS/2 uses both)
• in the virtual machine settings, the ability to turn off VT-x should be disabled for OS/2 guests (Frank Mehnert mentioned that an OS/2 guest requires VT-x or SVM)

[ts@…]

Hmm, i cant acknowledge this.

We were able to install os/2 via installation diskettes on 1.5.2 and 1.5.4 (we actually did with diskette images for speed reasons)

os/2 disk 2 includes the config.sys and device drivers, maybe you should check there witch driver makes the problem.

press <f2> just when os/2 starts to boot (just in the beginning, when the white os/2 sign light up before boot splash screen) Then os/2 will output every driver load in a line at the bottom.

[Ken Yee]

Replying to [email protected]:

We were able to install os/2 via installation diskettes on 1.5.2 and 1.5.4 (we actually did with diskette images for speed reasons)

Hmm...that might be why it worked for you. I used the three original boot diskettes (boot + disk 1/2) with the CD so it reads stuff off the CD during the installation process after it does the partitioning. I'll try again w/ the diskette images copied to my hard drive. I'll bet it's some weird interaction w/ OS/2 IDE CD driver trying to use the VirtualBox CD device in which case it's still a bug...

ken

[Ken Yee]

Found some time to try this again w/ a diskette only install w/ no luck :-P Here's what I did in VirtualBox 1.5.4 (running on Athlon X2 if that matters):

• create a new VM for OS/2 Warp and take all defaults (64KB memory) including creation of a new boot disk (2GB)
• boot VM and mount disk0.dsk from \diskimgs\os2\35 (off the OS2 Warp 4 CD)
• mount disk1.dsk as prompted
• mount disk2.dsk as prompted
• choose "easy installation"
• mount disk0.dsk and reboot
• mount disk1.dsk as prompted
• mount disk2.dsk as prompted

And it gets hung up here as well :-P Reboot a few times and go through this process again and it finally asks for disk3.dsk and surprisingly, I can finish the install after pointing at the 14 disk images on the CD. Then it asks to remove the diskette and press Enter which I do but it doesn't reboot, so I finally give up and tell VirtualBox to reset the VM. At this point, OS/2 reboots cleanly :-) And then asks me for the next gazillion diskettes :-P

Feels like there's a bug, but it's an intermittent one :-(

And on bootup of the OS/2 desktop, cchmain.exe crashes. Reboot, pop an OS/2 prompt and it crashes after I type in mkdir.

p.s., in the Mount Floppy dialog, it'd be nice if we could add multiple images at once instead of one at a time which gets tedious and if it would list *.dsk instead of just *.img.

[Ken Yee]

Also tried to install the guest additions and it complains that it can't find file "KEE" on the config.sys line w/ vboxguest.sys in it. And in startup.cmd's vboxservice.exe, it gets a fault and stops. I was hoping to get a folder shared so I could copy information back and forth but it looks like that doesn't work in OS/2...

[Juergen Ulbts]

Replying to kenyee:

Also tried to install the guest additions and it complains that it can't find file "KEE" on the config.sys line w/ vboxguest.sys in it. And in startup.cmd's vboxservice.exe, it gets a fault and stops. I was hoping to get a folder shared so I could copy information back and forth but it looks like that doesn't work in OS/2...

KEE is a kernel extension which allows OS/2 developers to create 32-Bit drivers, so you won't find it on the CONFIG.SYS. Programmers might want to look here: ​http://www.edm2.com/index.php/OS2_API:KEE

KEE came with OS/2 WarpServer for eBusiness in 1999 (aka Warp 4.5). Warp 4 is from 1996, so you don't have it out of the box. The KEE stuff has been added to OS/2 Warp 4 with a Fixpack but I can't tell you which one (if I have to guess I would say Fixpack 13).

[Frank Mehnert]

Is this issue still relevant?

[Frank Mehnert]

No response, closing.