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As many of you know, I have been working with the many versions of OS/2 since 1990 (that's version 1.2 for those of you keeping score). In all those years, I have seen many types of technical problems with the operating system from a developers point of view, but never have I seen a significant operating failure. I always saw OS/2 as that reliable "crash-proof" system you could have confidence in. Until recently. A funny thing happened to me which caused a major crash of the operating system and, frankly, I'm not sure what really happened. During bootup, the system stalled during the execution of the CONFIG.SYS file when it tried to load the Workplace Shell:
I got an odd message stating that the Workplace Shell could not be started and was then thrown into a strange blank gray screen I had never seen before. The computer was then simply dead in its tracks. At first I thought this was some sort of strange accident, but when it kept reoccurring, I realized I had a serious problem on my hand. Little did I realize though what troubles awaited me. My first reaction was to install my trusty backup files (see the "Tricks" section) using the F2 command prompt at time of startup. Alas, my backup files didn't do the trick, nor could I see anything wrong with the PMSHELL.EXE (file size and time stamp seemed proper). I also couldn't find any hardware errors or insufficient resources. I was simply shot down. Hard pressed for a quick fix, I decided to reinstall OS/2 and this is where the fun and games began. Many of you remember that I have an IBM Aptiva E-500 which I purchased three years ago. You may also remember the difficulties I had installing the operating system on the Aptiva. Nonetheless, through perseverance and sheer willpower I was able to successfully load OS/2 and turned my Aptiva into a dazzling machine. Over the years, I applied several FixPaks to OS/2 until a snag developed after FixPak 9. I tried to implement Convenience Pak 4.51 introduced about a year ago, but this only gave my computer fits. Consequently, I settled into OS/2 4.0 with FixPak 9, which is what I was now forced to reinstall. I won't bore you with the technical details of reducing drive partition sizes, or re-installing my ATI Rage chip set, or creating a special OS/2 Installation Disk 1 for the Aptiva, or the special COM.SYS syntax for the CONFIG.SYS file. All of these problems I faced and conquered in the past. The biggest problem was simply installing OS/2 itself. I must have tried to install it at least 12 times on my computer, always with a premature exit to the installation process. As you probably know, there is basically two parts to the OS/2 installation process: the basic desktop and operating system, and; installing network services (including TCP/IP). The first few times through, the network services section would cause the termination. I therefore, installed the basic operating system without any TCP/IP or networking capability with the idea that I could easily install it later. Wrong. I had forgotten how to do this and documentation was non-existent. Fortunately, I stumbled across C:\IBMINST\NPCONFIG.EXE representing the "Selective Install for Networking". I found this by watching where the installation program kept crashing and sniffing around within C:\IBMINST\. After many false starts and crashes, I finally got OS/2 and FP9 reinstalled. I still don't know what caused the initial crash of the Workplace Shell; although I primarily attribute it to gremlins, it could have perhaps been a virus for all I know (drop me a line if you have an idea). But there has got to be a cleaner way of re-installing the software aside from massive backups. Its a good thing I take notes. If I hadn't, I would have had to re-discover the tedious process of installing OS/2 on the Aptiva. My only advice to others: backup your key files, including the PMSHELL.EXE, and pray to God you don't ever crash like I did. Keep the Faith!
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Copyright © 2002 M&JB
