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OS/2 2.1 installation questions

S

superorc

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Oct 21, 2011
Messages
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Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Hello there. I was lucky enough to find a copy of OS/2 2.1 for Windows for free with sealed disk packs. I am tossing around the idea of installing it to a 486 HP Vectra. As the earliest OS/2 version I have played around with was OS/2 Warp 3, I have a few questions that maybe some members more knowledgeable about the earlier versions can answer.

I installed a Sound Blaster Pro 2 in the Vectra and was wondering if OS/2 2.1 has support for it. It also has a separate Creative Labs ISA IDE card to support a CDROM drive. I was wondering if that card, which uses the SB-IDE driver in DOS, is compatible with OS/2 2.1 as well. I have found drivers, but I think they only support OS/2 Warp 3 or later for both of them.
 
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OS/2 2.1 had no IDE CD drive support at all, and few SCSI controller drivers. I believe there are drivers for some SCSI adapters and even a driver for IDE CD drives somewhere...I once tried to install 2.1 then said forget this and went with Warp Server 4.52.
 
Once upon a time I had OS/2 2.1 "for Windows" installed on a system with an IDE CD-ROM and a Sound Blaster Pro 2 card. I'm pretty sure the SBPro was natively supported by the Multimedia add-on, but I did have to download a special driver disk for the IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM from one of IBM's forums on CompuServe. Of course that forum is now long gone, and I recently gave the entire OS/2 package including that disk to a friend, but I'm sure a copy of it is still floating around online somewhere.

Edit: Looks like Frank has already provided the link to it!
 
I tried it once with a DECpc 486 system once and the install stop error'd because of a BIOS incompatibility. I did however get much better luch obviously with a PS/2 55SX and even some oddball Aambra system in which OS/2 saw the SCSI off the bat. Unfortunately OS/2 comes with absolutely no networking support. That was extra.
 
Yeah I completely forgot about Hobbes. Lots of OS/2 related stuff. And BTW: even if you have just the floppies available it is possible to create CD that can be used insted of swapping about 15 or disks in and out. I've done it many times. And if you need Networking pick up Warp Connect.
 
Is there any software for OS/2 2.1 floating around any more? I know that the software situation was much better than with OS/2 1.x, but most of what can be found online requires at least Warp 3 plus some late FixPack and is only really happy with Warp 4 plus a later FixPack. Certainly, I know that Trials of Battle (a cool hovertank shooter and my main reason for maintaining an OS/2 VM) needs Warp 4...
 
madcrow said:
Is there any software for OS/2 2.1 floating around any more? I know that the software situation was much better than with OS/2 1.x, but most of what can be found online requires at least Warp 3 plus some late FixPack and is only really happy with Warp 4 plus a later FixPack. Certainly, I know that Trials of Battle (a cool hovertank shooter and my main reason for maintaining an OS/2 VM) needs Warp 4...
Click to expand...
A quick look in my floppy heap turned up "A L P H A FOUR version 2". That's a data base and comes on three 3.5" disks. Similar to dBase III but a little more refined.

Late edit: On further review, the above may not be the OS/2 version. I did have the A4 data base for OS/2 but I need a little time to verify what's what.
 
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A few items that came with Warp 3 and Connect(as mentioned above) Bonus Pack may well work on 2.1 as well. IBM Works, Hyper Access a terminal program, for example. You could try Norloff's site too http://www.os2bbs.com/ Most if not all of it should be on Hobbes though.
 
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