Subj : IBM Public Later OS/2 Installer
To   : All
From : Mike Luther
Date : Fri Jun 24 2005 10:30 am

As promised:

As far as I can remember and per my notes, in the IBM hardware web pages on the 
IBM ThinkPads and not restricted to SWC or Passport Advantage, I found the 
following updates.  These were also on the SWC as well if you got to it in the 
device driver or support section, but came out originally as support for the 
hardware part of the ThinkPads:

  3-18-00  12:44a      5082           0  WARP4IU.TXT
  3-18-00  12:45a    929213           0  WARP4IU1.EXE
  3-18-00  12:46a   1055338           0  WARP4IU2.EXE

Unless I get chastised for being wrong, and have to yank them, they are on 
1:117/3001 in the IBMINFO section.  These are revised installer floppy 
diskettes for the two floppy diskettes needed to install Warp prior to the CD 
run, together with the text instruction file that was with them when I picked 
this up.

You will also need to be sure that the CONFIG.SYS file on these diskettes has 
the SET COPYFROMFLOPPY parameter added properly to it.

As well, depending on this and that, for those people using Adaptec SCSI hard 
disk controllers in the 2940U2 game upward for larger than I think 32GB disks, 
it may be necessary to replace the needed Adaptec SCSI hard disk controller 
with a later version.  This is *ABSOLUTELY* necessary also,even if you have 
previously installed OS/2 with these controllers, for changes which were made 
to CHKDSK32.DLL and the HPFS file system right around FP12 and later.  
Otherwise, after years of faithful use with HPFS, some day you may wind up with 
CHKDSK tossing files into FOUND0 which do not belong there, for no reason at 
all.  At which point, you will have to archive the data on that partition, 
reformat it and start all over to stop this madness.

So on the 1:117/3000 BBS you can find the Adaptec device driver pack for the 
minimal level of the changes needed to get this fixed.  It is in the IBMINFO 
secion of the BBS as:

   9-28-02   7:08p    451388           0  7800FAM.EXE

Extract this into a slush directory and take a look at it to see what all is 
needed to replace older files for these drivers on your Adaptec SCSI driver 
controller box.  In it, for example are:

   4-10-02   5:19p    154140           0  AIC7870.ADD
  10-17-01  10:55a    156412           0  AIC78U.ADD

IBM also, back about this time, replaced the Adaptec SCSI device drivers in the 
SWC and now Passport Advantage paid-for-support service site. There was 
controversy, per my recall, at that time, over whether the 7800FAM.EXE pack 
which was released by Adaptec on their support site was really all that was 
needed.  Those which are stable here I use on the various boxes are actually:

   4-24-02   2:30p    154140           0  AIC7870.ADD
   1-18-02  12:45p    156412           0  AIC78U2.ADD

Notice these are even LATER than the ones in 7800FAM,EXE above, scowl. Why?  
Because as you'll eventually discover, the only way to get the actual latest 
above is part of the SWC and Passport Advantage membership.  These as far as I 
can figure out, got updated in Device Driver Fix Pack 2 and later in DDVR Fix 
Pack 3.  Whether the above are actually really required as opposed to the ones 
in 7800FAM.EXE is unknown to me.  The file sizes are the same.  But as I have 
found out from close work at this, that even though the file size is EXACTLY 
the same, even one byte difference in the file content with IBM has made the 
differnce between smashed systems and perfection.

    This is PRECISELY an example of how it becomes necessary to
    bite the bullet and subscribe to some form of IBM service
    support for OS/2 to best keep it mission critical as we
    know and use it ..

As well, sigh ..

Because of the large size for AIC7870.ADD and AIC78U2.ADD, there is a space 
available problem which can result on the IBM install diskettes. Thus to get 
the required files on them, if you use these Adaptec products, you may have to 
actually delete other SCSI driver files and the SNP files for those you do not 
use, to make room for the above files!

Plus, one of the other major issues with FP12 through FP15 for those with the 
Adaptec products, is that the UTILITY diskettes for these system run into 
trouble with these drivers and the space they use.  If anyone here needs help 
with this issue, we need to start a separate thread for that in my view.  It 
gets biggee messy.

I will note that the CURRENT FixPack 5 for MCP1/2 has all of this fixed in the 
UTILITY disk creation toolset for MCP2 on OS/2.  I actually created a set of 
disks for one box at one of my Houston hadn-hold sites just yesterday needed 
them with absolutely no problem.  I did not have the time to test whether the 
Warp4 FP17 disk creation utility was now clean, but will later test this and 
report back here.

Again, just trying to help here.



--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike @ 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Ziplog Public Port (1:117/3001)

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