OS/2 and eComStation Support

[Marty Stanquist]

I had a few questions regarding OS/2 and eCS support. I'll be getting an
inexpensive refurbished PC for testing purposes and I just wanted to
understand the system requirements.

1). Are the installation disks CD's or DVD's?

2). What OS versions do we need to test? For eCS, is everyone now using
v2.0?

3). I think this PC will suffice, do you agree?

Dell OptiPlex GX520/SFF, Celeron D (336) 2.80 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HDD,
CD-ROM

or should I get this one?

Dell OptiPlex 740/SFF, Athlon 64 X2 (4400+) 2.20 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 70 GB HDD,
DVDRW

4). Is the OS stable on a multi-core cpu?

5). If the installation cannot find the right driver, does it pull one from
the web?

Marty

[Paul S. Person]

On Sun, 6 May 2012 02:45:07 -0500, "Marty Stanquist"

Post by Marty Stanquist
I had a few questions regarding OS/2 and eCS support. I'll be getting an
inexpensive refurbished PC for testing purposes and I just wanted to
understand the system requirements.
1). Are the installation disks CD's or DVD's?
2). What OS versions do we need to test? For eCS, is everyone now using
v2.0?
3). I think this PC will suffice, do you agree?
Dell OptiPlex GX520/SFF, Celeron D (336) 2.80 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HDD,
CD-ROM
or should I get this one?
Dell OptiPlex 740/SFF, Athlon 64 X2 (4400+) 2.20 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 70 GB HDD,
DVDRW

When I purchased a new OS/2 machine, the vendor (who at one time was
selling and supporting OS/2) advised that the original OS/2 Warp 4.0
diskettes installed a version that could not run with more than 0.5GB
RAM. By the time FP15 came out, this limit was lifted.

So, in either case, you are /definitely/ looking at eCS, not OS/2 as
such.

Others can answer your questions about eCS. Since I am running OS/2
Warp 4 FP15, I really do not know the answers.

Post by Marty Stanquist
4). Is the OS stable on a multi-core cpu?
5). If the installation cannot find the right driver, does it pull one from
the web?
Marty

[Frank Beythien]

Post by Marty Stanquist
I had a few questions regarding OS/2 and eCS support. I'll be getting an
inexpensive refurbished PC for testing purposes and I just wanted to
understand the system requirements.

I'll refer to eCS version 2.x (2.1 is latest)

Post by Marty Stanquist
1). Are the installation disks CD's or DVD's?

CDs, you only need the first one, 2 + 3 are optional. I don't think
you'll need them for OW testing.
But OS/2 + eCS is not free, you need a license.

www.ecomstation.com

Post by Marty Stanquist
2). What OS versions do we need to test? For eCS, is everyone now using
v2.0?

Probably, but I don't think it matters for OW testing purposes..

Post by Marty Stanquist
3). I think this PC will suffice, do you agree?
Dell OptiPlex GX520/SFF, Celeron D (336) 2.80 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HDD,
CD-ROM

Absolutely. Until 2010 I used a pentium 500Mhz with 256Mb Memory and 2
8Gb disks and Warp 4, which took 12+ hours for a 'build rel2' without
much swapping.

Post by Marty Stanquist
or should I get this one?
Dell OptiPlex 740/SFF, Athlon 64 X2 (4400+) 2.20 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 70 GB
HDD, DVDRW

My concern would be to check whether the different components ( LAN,
graphics, sound if wanted) are supported before buying.

Post by Marty Stanquist
4). Is the OS stable on a multi-core cpu?

Perhaps :-) There are mixed reports, but the ACPI driver development is
work in progress in the eCS betazone.

Post by Marty Stanquist
5). If the installation cannot find the right driver, does it pull one
from the web?

No, it's up to you to find the driver (if it exists).
Perhaps the hardware database on

ecomstation.ru

gives some clues. Or Steven Levine can help.

I switched from eCs to eCs in Virtualbox running on Ubuntu.
For eCS in VB the processor must support hardware virtualization.
Jiri made some changes to the build server (bld\build\server). I'm in
the process to catch up and make the build server run on eCs in VB.

Frank

[Dave Yeo]

Post by Frank Beythien

Post by Marty Stanquist
I had a few questions regarding OS/2 and eCS support. I'll be getting an
inexpensive refurbished PC for testing purposes and I just wanted to
understand the system requirements.

I'll refer to eCS version 2.x (2.1 is latest)

Post by Marty Stanquist
1). Are the installation disks CD's or DVD's?

CDs, you only need the first one, 2 + 3 are optional. I don't think
you'll need them for OW testing.
But OS/2 + eCS is not free, you need a license.

There is a very good chance that Serenity (sp?) would give out a free
license for OpenWatcom as they do ship it as part of eCS (on disk#2)

Post by Frank Beythien
www.ecomstation.com

Post by Marty Stanquist
2). What OS versions do we need to test? For eCS, is everyone now using
v2.0?

Probably, but I don't think it matters for OW testing purposes..

Lots of people are still using Warp v4.5 or eCS 1.2 but unless you want
to support SMP it doesn't matter.

Post by Frank Beythien

Post by Marty Stanquist
3). I think this PC will suffice, do you agree?
Dell OptiPlex GX520/SFF, Celeron D (336) 2.80 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HDD,
CD-ROM

Absolutely. Until 2010 I used a pentium 500Mhz with 256Mb Memory and 2
8Gb disks and Warp 4, which took 12+ hours for a 'build rel2' without
much swapping.

Post by Marty Stanquist
or should I get this one?
Dell OptiPlex 740/SFF, Athlon 64 X2 (4400+) 2.20 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 70 GB
HDD, DVDRW

My concern would be to check whether the different components ( LAN,
graphics, sound if wanted) are supported before buying.

Sound will work. Video might only work in VESA (unaccelerated) mode
which shouldn't matter for testing OW. The LAN should be researched and
may require eCS 2.1 to get the newest driver or be unsupported. Can
always plug in an older PCI network card.

Post by Frank Beythien

Post by Marty Stanquist
4). Is the OS stable on a multi-core cpu?

It depends on the chipset with Intel the best supported though lots of
people are running multi-core AMD successfully. Some systems work well
and others not so much. eg I just booted up and both cores were using
close to 100%, rebooted and things are fine.

Post by Frank Beythien
Perhaps :-) There are mixed reports, but the ACPI driver development is
work in progress in the eCS betazone.

[...]
Dave

[Steven Levine]

On Sun, 6 May 2012 21:06:56 UTC, Dave Yeo <***@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi guys,

Post by Dave Yeo
There is a very good chance that Serenity (sp?) would give out a free
license for OpenWatcom as they do ship it as part of eCS (on disk#2)

Marty. Please contact Roderick Klein <rwklein at mensys.nl> to
discuss a developer license for eCS. Tell him I sent you.

Serenity is the founder of eComStation, but day to day development and
support is now done by Mensys and the resellers.

Post by Dave Yeo
Lots of people are still using Warp v4.5 or eCS 1.2 but unless you want
to support SMP it doesn't matter.

It depends on your hardware. Modern systems often require ACPI to
boot properly.

Marty, I've passed your Dell question along to my friend Jerry who is
very knowledgable about which Dells and eCS.

Steven

[Marty Stanquist]

I just sent Roderick Klein an email regarding the developer licenses. My
dedicated PC finally arrived and is now up and running. I ended up getting
this one:

Dell Optiplex 620 SFF, Pentium4 3.0 GHz, 2GB Ram, 80GB Disk, DVD, Sound ,
Serial, Parallel, Audio, 8USB ports

It runs Windows XP really well, so I expect it will run eCS similarly. I'm
looking forward to working with all of you on the builds soon.

Marty

"Steven Levine" wrote in message news:11p86vVJT4Oe-pn2-***@slamain.slainc.com...

On Sun, 6 May 2012 21:06:56 UTC, Dave Yeo <***@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi guys,

Post by Dave Yeo
There is a very good chance that Serenity (sp?) would give out a free
license for OpenWatcom as they do ship it as part of eCS (on disk#2)

Marty. Please contact Roderick Klein <rwklein at mensys.nl> to
discuss a developer license for eCS. Tell him I sent you.

Serenity is the founder of eComStation, but day to day development and
support is now done by Mensys and the resellers.

Post by Dave Yeo
Lots of people are still using Warp v4.5 or eCS 1.2 but unless you want
to support SMP it doesn't matter.

It depends on your hardware. Modern systems often require ACPI to
boot properly.

Marty, I've passed your Dell question along to my friend Jerry who is
very knowledgable about which Dells and eCS.

Steven

[Steven Levine]

On Thu, 24 May 2012 06:08:01 UTC, "Marty Stanquist"
<***@att.net> wrote:

Hi,

Post by Marty Stanquist
I just sent Roderick Klein an email regarding the developer licenses.

Mensys has been on overload for the last month or so. I have reminded
Roderick he owes you a response. Hopefully, this will happen next
week.

Steven

[Marty Stanquist]

Thanks. This sounds great. I can't wait to get started. eCS will be a
priority along with RDOS and Window 7. I'll let you know when I hear back
from Roderick.

Marty

"Steven Levine" wrote in message news:11p86vVJT4Oe-pn2-***@slamain.slainc.com...

On Thu, 24 May 2012 06:08:01 UTC, "Marty Stanquist"
<***@att.net> wrote:

Hi,

Post by Marty Stanquist
I just sent Roderick Klein an email regarding the developer licenses.

Mensys has been on overload for the last month or so. I have reminded
Roderick he owes you a response. Hopefully, this will happen next
week.

Steven

[Marty Stanquist]

Roderick Klein sent me a license key and download link today. I have extra
machines, so I'll install ECS 2.1 and the latest Perforce server and will
begin compatibility testing. This will not yet involve the Open Watcom
server. We'll do that upgrade later. I'll keep everyone posted as things
progress.

Marty