OS/2 install woes on 5162

[pkhoury]

Not sure if anyone else has successfully installed OS/2 1.x on an XT Model 286 (5162)? I've tried, both with a Gotek and a physical 1.44MB Teac drive, and both fail. I get this error message: "A disk read occurred. Insert a system disk and restart the system"

It doesn't matter whether it's IBM OS/2 or Microsoft OS/2. Oddly, I had problems booting up Xenix, but QNX for 286 works. I haven't yet tried another hard drive controller. I'm very partial to the WD1006, and would be willing to take a 601 error at boot over IBM's craptastic MFM controller.

 

[CP/M User]

Unsure sorry, sounds like you're trying to read a 1.44Mb Disk from a 720Kb drive?
My old XT computer doesn't have enough memory even for OS/2 1.x, I vaguely recall reading about 1.x needing a 286 Minimum, 386 Recomended, the 286 would need 2Mb Minimum I think. The old XT I had only supported 720Kb 3.5" Disks, the card had a set of DIP switches to configure the Drive Setup, there might of been cards to support 1.44Mb, though I never got around to those because people were throwing out their unwanted 386s/486s.

 

[pkhoury]

Unsure sorry, sounds like you're trying to read a 1.44Mb Disk from a 720Kb drive?
My old XT computer doesn't have enough memory even for OS/2 1.x, I vaguely recall reading about 1.x needing a 286 Minimum, 386 Recomended, the 286 would need 2Mb Minimum I think. The old XT I had only supported 720Kb 3.5" Disks, the card had a set of DIP switches to configure the Drive Setup, there might of been cards to support 1.44Mb, though I never got around to those because people were throwing out their unwanted 386s/486s.

Negative. Trying to read a 1.44MB disk from a 1.44MB drive. The XT 286 (5162) is also not an XT. I'm honestly not even sure I understand your reply, really. It's basically an AT class machine in an XT case, but unlike the 5170, the CPU is 6MHz with 0 wait states (5170 is 8MHz and 1 wait state apparently). I also get the same problem in a 5170.

 

[krebizfan]

Is there any way you can set the Gotek to emulate a 1.2 MB drive and install from 5.25" disk images? I know that OS/2 1.x will run on a 5162. I also recall that IBM placed PS/2 specific hardware drivers on the 1.44 MB install media. It may be possible to patch the 3.5" install media to include drivers that let OS/2 continue loading for 3.5" disks on a 5162 but I don't remember how and I can't find an OS/2 1.x information source on that.

The only IBM 5162 I saw OS/2 used on did not have a 3.5" drive so I have no direct experience with that combination. How far along the install process do you get before getting the message?

 

[pkhoury]

The message appears before the disk even tries to bootstrap. I haven't tried a PS/2, but I also don't really have a usable PS/2 (I've been trying to sell off most of my PS/2 stuff, keeping a few things here and there). I can get the same disks to work on a ThinkPad, but IIRC, they won't work on a non-IBM BIOS machine. MS-OS/2 works fine. I suppose I could try and get 5.25" images and see if that works. I also thought of installing to a PS/2 and then imaging the hard drive with David Gesswein's MFM emulator, then use that file on my DREM, though there's no guarantees that will work, either.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Can you furnish a dump of the diskette's boot sector? Perhaps there's something there.