It was a damp and cloudy Tuesday, just before the Christmas holidays, I received the package from the FedEx driver who displayed a strange knowing smirk on his face. It was from IBM, one of his "regular" clients, and he knew what an operating system upgrade meant to Big Blue's clients. I signed for the package and thanked the driver. He left in somewhat of a huff; no holiday tip. He had gotten use to this, OS/2 users were unusually skeptical, and I was in no mood for holiday chit-chat.
I unwrapped the package carefully which consisted of two CD-ROM's containing the "Client" version of OS/2 Warp v4.51 or as it was better known on the street as the "Convenience Pak" or simply "14.062_W4". As innocent as these disks appeared, little did I know what awaited me in the days ahead. I planned on installing the new version on two computers: my trusty yet tired IBM ThinkPad 365XD with a Pentium 133mhz processor and 32mb RAM, and; my two year old IBM Aptiva E-500 with 96mb RAM. Both were Warp 4 "Clients" with FixPak 8 only. Some of you may remember me discussing problems with installing OS/2 on the Aptiva over a year ago, particularly where I couldn't get my sound card running. I initially had problems installing the ThinkPad drivers too. I also found that FixPak 9 clobbered both machines, which is why I didn't advance past FP8. But that is another story.
I realized the end of the year was no time to be experimenting with new software. I didn't want to spend the holidays screwing around with the operating system. I could ill-afford to botch any year-end jobs I had planned to run, but curiosity got the better of me and so, I went for it. The first thing I noticed was that this version of OS/2 was definitely NOT a FixPak, but a major release. If I had been a new user, I wouldn't have worried, it would have probably installed flawlessly, but as an experienced user I had to be on my toes. I therefore quietly closed my office door, pulled the shades, took the phone off the hook, lit a cigar and quietly reviewed the README file.
There are essentially seven steps to installing the FixPak:
STEP 1 - PREPARATIONS
I began my odyssey by first backing up key OS/2 Files, as well as other important personal files I might need in case of a problem. I checked for adequate disk space, and most importantly I reviewed and recorded my hardware settings; e.g., Display Adapters, CD-ROM, Printers (you'll need this as you go through the installation). The smart users will also backup their README.TXT file on the C: drive (just rename to something like README.SAV).
STEP 2 - CREATE INSTALLATION DISKETTES
Next, I produced the three installation diskettes as per the README instructions. This is where I discovered that this would be a full installation as opposed to a FixPak. Essentially, the install would behave the same way as the first time I loaded OS/2 Warp 4 back in 1996.
STEP 3 - STARTING
As I began the installation, the computer first checked to see if certain components of the old operating system were installed which must be removed in order to properly install the Convenience Pak, including:
When prompted, do not label or re-partition the hard drive. However, new users may want to do this.
I noticed there were some new installation options in the "Setup and Installation" section, including:
STEP 4 - MIGRATE CONFIG.SYS
This was a slick visual way to migrate old specs to the new, but be careful if you have unusual parameters in it. For example, I originally had problems accessing the sound card on my Aptiva. Consequently, I used a little known trick of specifying the COM ports and IRQ settings, such as:
This alone hangs up the computer at boot time (leaving only the main OS/2 Warp screen showing). As it turned out, this would continue to haunt me.
STEP 5 - REBOOT AND INSTALL TCP/IP (automatically)
Following this, the operating system started up correctly and I was off and running, including:
STEP 6 - REBOOT AND INSTALL MULTIMEDIA
Although the multimedia on my ThinkPad came up alright, alas, I still had no sound from my Aptiva, a major disappointment for me.
STEP 7 - JAVA INSTALLATION (automatically)
The computer properly installed the latest version of the Java Virtual Machine, 1.1.8 (representing Java 1.3). The installation went quite smoothly.
NOTE: To check your current version of Java on your machine, type the following at the OS/2 command prompt:
OTHER NOTES:
1. The new version installed the Macromedia Flash Player for OS/2, a handy web browser plugin for "flash" multimedia web pages from InnoTek Systemberatung of Stuttgart, Germany.
2. Regrettably, there were no new OS/2 related bitmaps. Although this is far from being a mandatory feature, it would have added a touch of class, particularly from a marketing perspective.
3. The supporting documentation is primitive. The old README file contained a lot more tips for fine-tuning. The new README.TXT (which supersedes your old copy on the C: drive) is only concerned with the current version. Fortunately, IBM has provided a support page called IBM Additional README Items for Warp 4 and Warp Server for E-Business Convenience Packages. Although I didn't find a lot of help yet for my specific problems, I suspect this will become an important web page.
4. I ran into some problems on my Aptiva accessing Lotus SmartSuite for OS/2. Whereas my ThinkPad is okay in this regard, something got clobbered on my Aptiva. It is quite possible that it was my own fault though and I will investigate it further.
5. Again, my modem is a mess on the Aptiva. I still cannot figure out how to configure it. Consequently, I cannot access the Internet as a result of this. Remarkably, FaxWorks Pro for OS/2 finds the modem correctly and works fine.
6. I was somewhat surprised Project Odin was not included in the Convenience Pak (the independently run project providing special Win32 support to OS/2 for running Win32 apps under OS/2).
Prior to installing the Convenience Pak, I had the Project Odin software running fine on my machine. However, the installation of the Convenience Pak negated Odin so I tried to reinstall the Odin software (the latest official version is 0.05 Alpha).
After re-installing Odin, I still received the following message at boot-up:
I checked to be sure the WIN32K.SYM file was in the following directories:
Should be:
Despite these corrections, I still received the error message, which only leads me to believe that the Convenience Pak is not compatible with Project Odin. Perhaps I'll try it again with the WarpIN 0.9.5 software, but I won't hold my breath.
Its been a few weeks since I installed the Convenience Pak. Winter is slowly turning
into Spring down here in Florida. The herd of election reporters have gone home and we're
getting ready for baseball. I'm still learning the new features of OS/2, including the
Journaled File System, but it would be premature for me to comment one way or another
on it. IBM has finally updated news regarding the new release in their
Software Choice for OS/2 Warp web page, which bears reading.
Occasionally, the phone will ring or I will get an e-mail from other OS/2 users asking my opinion on the new release. Normally, I answer, It'll cost you doll-face." And it does too. This release is not for the faint of heart. It was not a clean install as I had gotten use to with past OS/2 installations, but this may be due to the hardware I use (IBM). This version of OS/2 is for people who believe in the virtues of OS/2 and have a substantial investment in the operating system like I do. Despite the problems I encountered in the installation of the product, I still believe it is the right thing to do. Bottom-line, its a good-faith effort by IBM to demonstrate they have no immediate plans to abandon the operating system.
OS/2 CONNECT MIRROR SITE
One last note, you can now access our publication on a mirror site in Europe, courtesy of the good folks at OS/2 World dot Com. The URL for the mirror site is: http://www.os2world.com/connect/
Keep the Faith!
Copyright © M&JB 2001
