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OS/2 install woes on 5162

pkhoury

pkhoury

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
290
Location
Bandera, TX
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.
 
Not tried installing OS/2 myself, one thought though, Can you disable the floppy controller on your WD1006 ? and put the original 16-bit IBM MFM controller in an 8-bit slot and connect your floppy drive's to that, See if that makes a difference.
 
pkhoury said:
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.
Click to expand...
PK, I think the minimum requirements for OS/2 were at least a 386. I used to run OS/2 at work but it was on a Gateway 486, and that was only for a short time as management want to hang with NT 4.0. I still play with OS/2 once in a while as well as NT.
 
OS/2 1.x works fine on a 286 with at least 2 megs of RAM.

Since he's getting a disk-read error, whatever problem it is, it's related to something wrong with the hardware (or the disk).
 
Malc said:
Not tried installing OS/2 myself, one thought though, Can you disable the floppy controller on your WD1006 ? and put the original 16-bit IBM MFM controller in an 8-bit slot and connect your floppy drive's to that, See if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
I should have clarified and stated that I have not tried the WD1006 yet. The error I get is using IBM's crappy MFM controller card.
 
krebizfan said:
OS/2 1.x will run on a 286. I had OS/2 1.0 installed on a 5170 and OS/2 1.1 through 1.3 on a Model 60. 5162 is definitely listed as supported for OS/2 1.0 according to https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/IBM_OS/2_Standard_Edition_1.0

I don't know what the cause of the problem is. Could you provide more information like the version of OS/2 and if original disks are being used?
Click to expand...
I'm using disk images on a Gotek floppy emulator. I've also tried with a physical floppy drive (Teac) and disks made from images, and got the same error. Yet those disks will boot up on my ThinkPad.
 
Timo W. said:
OS/2 1.x works fine on a 286 with at least 2 megs of RAM.

Since he's getting a disk-read error, whatever problem it is, it's related to something wrong with the hardware (or the disk).
Click to expand...
Didn't know it's 2MB of RAM. I know 1.0 requires 4MB for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure 1.0 also sees only a maximum 32MB partition, and crashes when over 8MB is installed in the machine (so I'm using like 6.8MB total).
 
pkhoury said:
Didn't know it's 2MB of RAM. I know 1.0 requires 4MB for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure 1.0 also sees only a maximum 32MB partition, and crashes when over 8MB is installed in the machine (so I'm using like 6.8MB total).
Click to expand...

I doubt 1.0 needs 4 MB of RAM. The 5170 that ran a phone service had a mere 1.5 MB for its use of OS/2 1.0. That did require turning off the DOS compatibility box which caused its own issues since the updates to the database were done with a DOS program.

It is a long shot but I suggest trying a set of 5.25" images instead, just in case the 1.44 MB images were somehow set to look for PS/2 specific hardware.
 
So I tried again with a WD1006 controller and got the same error message. The same exact disk image works just fine in Oracle VirtualBox (latest version on Windows 10). To rule out a bad disk image, I might try booting up via the Gotek on one of my PS/2's I still have left (via an adapter cable).
 
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