I'd like to hear how this works out for you. I have a boxed copy of OS/2 but I have not yet dared to install it for one simple reason, it's the floppy version, and holy crap that is a lot of floppies. 🤣

I'll keep this topic updated. I'm temped to just try it with the IBM. Using IBM hardware seems appropriate.

The one thing you really need to look out for, is harddrives larger than 8gb.
Unless you can get a hold of the modded install-disk's number 2 and 3.
Or it's just number 1. Anyway... Just search for the modded three floppy-disks for Warp4 installation.
I had it running on an Asrock K7s41 with a 2100 or 2300 athlon or duron (over 3 years ago, can't remember).

What hardware did I use then. Well... Matrox G400 for once. Then some sort of realtek 100mb netcard and some generic noname dvd-rom drive.
I had it running with 256mb DDR1 Ram installed in the motherboard, and the bios enabled for Os/2 installation.
It ran absolutely wonderfull, and it was running Win98SE too, using the Os/2 boot-manager. Really great machine for some highend retro Action.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

I'll keep this topic updated. I'm temped to just try it with the IBM. Using IBM hardware seems appropriate.

Just check the IBM machine for Os/2 compatibility. I remember that they used to sell IBM computers, that were incompatible with Os/2.
I just don't remember what the reason for it was.

brostenen wrote:

The one thing you really need to look out for, is harddrives larger than 8gb. Unless you can get a hold of the modded install-d […]
Show full quote

The one thing you really need to look out for, is harddrives larger than 8gb.
Unless you can get a hold of the modded install-disk's number 2 and 3.
Or it's just number 1. Anyway... Just search for the modded three floppy-disks for Warp4 installation.
I had it running on an Asrock K7s41 with a 2100 or 2300 athlon or duron (over 3 years ago, can't remember).

What hardware did I use then. Well... Matrox G400 for once. Then some sort of realtek 100mb netcard and some generic noname dvd-rom drive.
I had it running with 256mb DDR1 Ram installed in the motherboard, and the bios enabled for Os/2 installation.
It ran absolutely wonderfull, and it was running Win98SE too, using the Os/2 boot-manager. Really great machine for some highend retro Action.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

I'll keep this topic updated. I'm temped to just try it with the IBM. Using IBM hardware seems appropriate.

Just check the IBM machine for Os/2 compatibility. I remember that they used to sell IBM computers, that were incompatible with Os/2.
I just don't remember what the reason for it was.

How far does OS/2 Warp 4's hardware compatibility go? Like, who were the best/worst manufacturers for OS/2 support, and who continued making device drivers for it after Warp 4 was launched?

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

How far does OS/2 Warp 4's hardware compatibility go? Like, who were the best/worst manufacturers for OS/2 support, and who continued making device drivers for it after Warp 4 was launched?

I really don't know. I have seen Socket 478 board's back in 2003 that could handle Os/2.
My Asrock K7S41 (Socket-A) can handle Os/2, yet my Asrock P4V88 can not handle Os/2.
CPU speedwise, I think it really is of no big deal. Other than some FSB speed issues.
400 to 500 FSB should be within the range, just as with Win98SE.
(had issues with DualChannel and 800mhz FSB, as Win98 would not boot at all)
Windows NT is really close related to Os/2, so you might look for NT3.51/NT4 hardware.

GFX is easy... G400 goes, and perhaps Radeon up to 8000 or 9600.
For sound. The SB-Live has only basic driver support.
I guess cards from before SB-Live will do. ISA cards have Os/2 support.

I found some good guides:

http://www.elstel.org/OS2Warp/InstallUpdate.html

http://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-ultimate-museum-pc/

brostenen wrote:

Just check the IBM machine for Os/2 compatibility. I remember that they used to sell IBM computers, that were incompatible with Os/2.
I just don't remember what the reason for it was.

Yes, I read something on this as well. I guess I'll just try in the next few weeks. Fortunately I have the machines just sitting here, so no need to invest anything but my precious time 😀

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Yes, I read something on this as well. I guess I'll just try in the next few weeks. Fortunately I have the machines just sitting here, so no need to invest anything but my precious time 😀

Yeah...
People used to say: "They make computers, that dosent even run their own operating system", back in the 90's, when people used an arguement for making fun of IBM. Even issues regarding incompatibility in the hardware section, was used to persuade people not to buy IBM machines.

What was the fastest system around in 1996-1997? Pentium 200mmx or P-Pro 180 or 200? Hard for me to remember. Probably something like that with 256 or 512mb RAM if you are going for a dream machine.
Multiple processors if you want extra bragging rights.

I think Matrox had pretty good driver support for OS/2.

As others have mentioned, keep the HD under 8GB.

I recall OS/2 being particularly finicky with CD-ROM drives.

snorg wrote:

What was the fastest system around in 1996-1997? Pentium 200mmx or P-Pro 180 or 200? Hard for me to remember. Probably some […]
Show full quote

What was the fastest system around in 1996-1997? Pentium 200mmx or P-Pro 180 or 200? Hard for me to remember. Probably something like that with 256 or 512mb RAM if you are going for a dream machine.
Multiple processors if you want extra bragging rights.

I think Matrox had pretty good driver support for OS/2.

As others have mentioned, keep the HD under 8GB.

I recall OS/2 being particularly finicky with CD-ROM drives.

I ran Os/2 Warp 3.0 on an 80486dx2 with 8 megabyte of ram and VL-Bus controller and VL-Bus GFX back in 1995.
SideJR-Pro and CL-5428 with 1 megabyte of ram. Warp 4.0 need at least 16mb Ram in order to run smooth.
Os/2 4.0 (Merlin), jumped up in minimum requirement, and I remember the review articles talked about that in 1996.
128mb was a big amount of ram in 1997/98.

I first had the retro virus around 2009 and OS/2 Warp 3 and 4 was among the first OSs that I tried at that time.

The machine was a PIII 1000 Coppermine on Gigabyte Via chipset motherboard with 1 GB RAM. In my experience, Matrox display cards (anything including and below G400) and 3Com 905 NICs have very good OS/2 support. OS/2 Warp 4 has its own drivers for SB16 and AWE32 cards. I used a 4GB partition on a 30 GB IDE disk first, and then a same size partition on a 35GB SCSI disk, both in multiboot setups, without issues (Adaptec has very good OS/2 support, too). Never had any issues with CD-ROMs, I was using an Asus 32x burner.

I was a complete noob when it comes to OS/2 though, so, for example, I never managed to connect it to internet due to not so correct networking setups.

Recently did a fresh install of OS/2 v4 on this K6-2 350 box with 256megs of ram, Which runs win2k normally. It was a piece of cake, so decided to see how my old v4 FP14 4gig hdd installation went. I'm typing this on an early version of firefox called FireBird I installed back in 2002 or thereabouts on a completely different system. It's not ideal so will see if I can get SeaMonkey up and running. No issues with cdroms at all either.

Using a SMC ISA nic at present until I find a suitable supported pci nic. Having Scitech display driver installed makes it easier to move the hdd from one sytem to the other. I've ran this hdd on 4 different systems so far. The sound card that will go into this will be a SB16 as it's been set up in OS/2 from my old installation and I'll fit an early APG graphics card.

Purely setting it up for nostelgic purposes with a bit of fun in the process.

I've got v3 set up, no fixpacks, on my DECpc with 486dx2/66, 16megs of ram, SB sound card, DE-220 nic on a 400meg hdd with v4 servers network client which is better than the the"Connect" offering because it gives you DHCP support.

Both systems are connected up to my bb router via a 10/100BaseT switch which is alo shared with my 286/12 running dos/win3.1/trumpet winsock with a GeniusLan nic and my 386DX25 which runs WfW 3.11 with TCP32b installed using another DE-220 nic. There's also a P200mmx RH Linux 7.3 in the mix.

First advice I'd give is update disks 1 & 2 and make sure all your hardware is supported and performing well. Al Savages guide will be useful as well http://asavage.dyndns.org/os2/warp4install/warp4install.html From my limited experience even with compatible hardware OS/2 can trip up at times.

To say Windows NT and OS/2 are closely related couldn't be farther from the truth..but is likey the a system that plays nice with NT should work fine in OS/2. No point in having multiple cpus though. NT supports that out of the box OS/2 certainly doesn't.

The Blue Spine v3 Connect box has a leaflet advising Aptiva owners to contact an IBM service reps. A quick search shows a number of fixes for certain models from changing ram, bios changes to a software fix.

Hmm memory does funny things. Discovered I had Mozilla on here so can now insert bics from this boxx.

It took me ages to find an affordable copy of OS/2 Warp 4.0. I ended up with the version that comes with a pair of headphones but the the headphones were missing from the one I bought, which is why the price was reasonable but I think the price still should have been higher since even versions that didn't come packed with the headphones are hard to find.

There's always eComStation for those who want a similar experience but with less hassle. It's compatible with almost everything.

OS/2 - what a blast from the past. I remember it being bundled with my Vobis Pentium 60 plus applications(including a ?Borland? C Compiler)... all LOST unfortunately.
Recently the father of a friend of mine gave me OS/2 Warp 4 and a Celeron laptop. I will try the ecomstation version though. There seems to be a version of gcc and some assembler available for it.

Btw - ecomstation ... what a name.

Snayperskaya wrote:

There's always eComStation for those who want a similar experience but with less hassle. It's compatible with almost everything.

And costs more than Windows.

sliderider wrote:

Snayperskaya wrote:

There's always eComStation for those who want a similar experience but with less hassle. It's compatible with almost everything.

And costs more than Windows.

So what? Linux is free as well. This is an OS/2 thread ya know 😜

Look like the only player on os2warp4 to deal with hardware mixing for module would be ultimod gus edition, found nothing about the creativeLabs emu?k. Does os2warp4 support well midi with soundbank management ? Midi Mapper ? I was considering installing it on a ppro200mhz 96mb ram, but the demo scene support seem so minimal it doesnt even list on pouet.net...

The AWE drivers for OS/2 support loading soundfonts BUT they have to be in SBK (v1) format since the AWE Control Panel for OS/2 doesn't appear to support SF2 (v2) files. Creative includes a full driver stack for OS/2 including full Win-OS/2 support on their ISA cards.