VOGONS


First post, by RJDog

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So, I have this build that I originally was going to do as a Windows NT 4 build, but a fellow Vogoner put me on to OS/2... so now I would like to do an OS/2 build, and maybe dual-boot OS/2 and NT4.

OS/2 is proving to be a challenge, and finding the drivers for my hardware that I want to use for this build also was a challenge, but for the benefit of other Vogoners (if you don't know these already), is this wonderful OS/2 resource I found at the New Mexico State University:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/

And:
https://www.elstel.org/OS2Warp/InstallUpdate.html

I think they had all but one of the drivers I needed there, so I'm feeling pretty good.

My question, however, is around dual-booting. I understand that OS/2 has a Boot Manager, which is great, but how is it best operated? Is it easiest if I have NT4 installed on the computer first, and then install OS/2 beside it and it will detect NT4 and create a menu option for it in OS/2's Boot Manager, or...? Can't seem to find too many online resources on this particular subject.

Reply 2 of 5, by RJDog

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jesolo wrote:

Refer this post of mine where I touched on this topic

Excellent, thanks!
So if I understand correctly, I partition (separate partitions for Boot Manager, NT, and OS/2), OS/2 Boot Manager (is there a separate installer for this, I ask, without having googled it yet), then Windows NT, then OS/2? Or, partition, then install Windows NT and then OS/2 which then installs Boot Manager in that process...

Reply 3 of 5, by jesolo

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It's been some time since I've used OS/2 or Boot Manger.
My understanding (and as I recall) is the you install Boot Manager first and then carry on from there.

Reply 4 of 5, by RJDog

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Thanks for the replies. I guess theres nothing left to do but try it out.... once the piece of hardware I need arrives... waiting for a SCSI cable, as I want to install onto a SCSI disk.

Reply 5 of 5, by RJDog

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So, while I still don't have the hardware to complete the build yet, I realized I do have a computer with VirtualBox that I can just try this out on. What I have discovered is that you can install OS/2's Boot Manager from the install disks onto the harddrive without necessarily having to proceed with the full OS/2 installation. So, on a blank harddrive, I figured the best way was to start the OS/2 installation, and partition the disk using OS/2's FDISK (much nicer than DOS/Windows FDISK, BTW... still not as flexible as, say, XFDISK or something like that though), and Boot Manager is installed using the OS/2 FDISK utility. Install Boot Manager onto the hard drive (it makes an 8MB primary partition), then I made a 2GB primary partition for WinNT C: (NTFS) and a 2GB primary partition for OS/2 C: (HPFS).

That said, I'm having trouble getting OS/2 to boot in VirtualBox (which may just be a VirtualBox issue) so I haven't fully tested the above, but it seems like it should be that easy.