Bootable Warp4 Installation CD-ROM

2005-sept-26

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Requirements
3. Features
4. Downloads
5. Links

1. Introduction

If you get some hands on a good old OS/2 Warp 4-CD, maybe on ebay and give this nice OS a try (first OS with build in voice recognition ;-) You may wonder why this CD is not bootable and you have to create these install disks, but here is the solution - a bootable Warp4-CD. A bootable CD with the latest driver included is not only more comfortable it save you time and some headaches, because you don't have to update the old driver on the install disks (e.g. IDE driver for big hard drives) or fiddling with floppy disks. It addressed the following issues installing with original install CD-ROM: no support for hdd greater 8GB, traps during boot, problems installing with more than 512MB RAM, no support for usb mices/keyboards, install without floppy drive not possible, newer SCSI adapter not supported, current nic drivers not included on install and more. This package is made for you, just unpack, burn the updated CD and install ! The updated CD can be created on Windows (ASPI driver required), OS/2 or Linux (not tested).

To use this update package you need the create instructions (-> see downloads), therein you can find the step-by-step create instruction and tips for installation.

2. Requirements

CD-Writer (+ ASPI driver on Windows)
CD-R(W) disk
about 600 MB free harddisk space
OS/2 Warp 4.0 Install CD
(UN)RAR 3.0 or higher
at least some time ;-)

3. Features

The Package is enabled for Base OS/2 Fixpaks and TCP/IP 4.1¹ (32bit stack), latest Feature Installer (FI) is already included.
¹= send me a mail if you are interested in TCP/IP 4.1, install is a little bit tricky...

The update package is compatible to IDE/SCSI based systems and has the following features:

Boot Menu for installation
enhanced driver set
FAT32 aware (no 'unable to operate on hard disk or disk drive...' error due unknown partition types)
Extended Partition Support (for partitions beyond 1024 cyl -> new partition types)
ibm1s506.add V4.95 / danis506.add V1.7.2 with SATA support
merged ibmidecd.flt/ibmatapi.flt build 10.85
latest FDISK build 14.82
warp4 kernel 14.100c (stable)
free basic USB support (keyboard, mouse and memory stick - USB 1.x only)
pnp install for approved nic drivers (all new drivers are included)
install on SCSI only systems (pnp for all Adaptec/LSI (Symbios) UW/U2W/U160/U320 SCSI controller)
install will work on AMD Athlon64/Opteron systems (32bit mode)
easy fixpak install
maintenance facilities like chkdsk and FC/2
workaround for phaseI problems with SYSINST2
removed old components for faster install

The advanced install is now active on default, but the plain IBM install is still available.
The package was tested against various kinds of workstations with different hardware, included were multiboot systems with FAT32 and NTFS partitions around based on Pentium4 and AthlonXP processors.
If you have any comments write a mail !

4. Downloads

The new update package v2.1 is now ready for testing, supported OS/2 versions:

OS/2 Warp 4 English
OS/2 Warp 4 German
OS/2 Warp 4 Italian
OS/2 Warp Merlin Convenience Pack (MCP) English
OS/2 Warp Merlin Convenience Pack (MCP) German
WSeB/ACP support planned

Some beta tester aren't enough, theres more demand for feedback and maybe donations..., all you have to do is sending a mail to get help and download information, thanks.

Package	Instruction	last update
Update Package 2.1 ¹ all versions (18.1 MB)	included	09/26/2005
Bootimage for WSeB/ACP/ACP2 Installation CD-ROM (3.8MB)	Replacement for shipped images, maintenance facilities incl. full chkdsk on hpfs/jfs drives, FC/2 and backup/restore with ZIP (press F1->F2 at boot)	07/28/2004
LVM/JFS Update 2 for installed OS/2 4.5x systems (2 MB)	unpack files in root (boot drive), no official release, use on your own risk!	10/12/2003
FreeDOS 8 bootable CD (2 MB)	unpack file, place add. tools in subdir \disk1, create CD using the cmd file	-

5. Links

[1] How to create an OS/2 Warp 4 boot CD
[2] Creating an OS/2 Boot CD
[3] CD Boot/2
[4] Update CD
[5] create bootable OS/2 CD's

€ w4bootcd.html

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