My solution: Install the dual-boot version of OS/2 on another machine, boot to DOS, copy the resulting system to the Libretto, then dual-boot back to OS/2. The entire process took me about 2 hours, and is pretty straightforward. This solution is not Libretto-specific, and so it may work on other machines with problematic floppy drives.
Requires: An "OS/2-friendly" machine with an empty primary partition of at least 35MB, software for manipulating partitions (I used "System Commander Deluxe"), and a way to transfer a 12MB file from the "friendly" machine to the Libretto (I used an Iomega parallel-port zip drive).
Note 1: The version of OS/2 I'm installing is Warp 3 Connect, installed via cd-rom. I'm installing it on a Toshiba Libretto 50.
Note 2: I do not have a cd-rom drive for my Libretto, so I "make do" by using another machine to copy relevant files from the cd-rom to a zip disk. You'll need to alter the following directions if you plan to use a cd-rom drive.
Disclaimer: I make no guarantees about the following procedure.
I also obtained the OS/2 driver for the Iomega zip drive (in os2v234.exe from Iomega) and an updated OS/2 video driver for the Libretto (in os2227.zip from Chips and Technologies), and copied them to diskettes. Note that the "proper" sound driver for the Libretto's OPL3-SA2 chip (os2v304.exe from ftp.yamahayst.com) does not work, as it requires a "control register base I/O port" address of 390h, but the Libretto 50 BIOS (v6.50) allows only 370h or 380h. I have not yet found a way to get the sound to work.
Since I was going to complete the installation from the zip drive, I copied the directory \os2image from the installation cd-rom to the zip disk (this totalled 52MB and took 15 minutes). I also unzipped the OS/2 video driver update os2227.zip (obtained above) to a directory on the zip disk.
Note: If you already have dual-boot OS/2 installed on some machine, you may be able to just transfer that installation to the Libretto. To try this, be sure the line BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD appears in every OS/2 CONFIG.* in your installation, and skip to the next section. Don't forget to rejoin the EAs of your source system!
I started with an empty FAT primary partition of size 250 MB (I only needed 35MB), labelled OS/2, which was my D: drive.
I booted from my DOS diskette, ran SYS D: to install the DOS system files, created the directory D:\DOS, copied COMMAND.COM into D:\DOS, then created the file D:\CONFIG.SYS with the single line SHELL=\DOS\COMMAND.COM /P and the file D:\AUTOEXEC.BAT with the single line SET COMSPEC=\DOS\COMMAND.COM . This all allows the dual boot feature to be set up properly. I then copied the OS/2 zip drive driver file os2v234.exe (obtained above) to D:\TEMP.
I then installed a minimal version of OS/2 on this partition. First I hid all other partitions (so the install program would think that the C: drive was this partition). I then booted the OS/2 installation disk from drive A, put in diskette 1 and the CD-ROM when prompted, and chose "Advanced Installation" and "Specify a different drive or partition". I then set my 250MB partition installable, named it "OS/2", exited, saved and exited. I then accepted the drive, did not format the partition, and waited 4 minutes while system files were loaded. I removed the diskette when prompted, then chose (via the System Commander menu) to boot back into the OS/2 partition. I then chose:
Mouse: PS/2 Serial Device Support: Yes Primary Display: Video Graphics Array (VGA) Seconday Display: None Advanced Power Management: No CD-ROM: OTHER Multimedia: None (by removing "Device to be installed") PCMCIA Support: No Printer: None SCSI Adapter Support: Noneand clicked OK. I then deselected all the installation features except "Change File Attributes" (in "Optional System Utilities"), chose install, deselected "Add existing programs ... ", chose not to install networking support, and the installation completed. Before shutting down, I edited C:\CONFIG.SYS, adding the line BASEDEV=IBM1S506.ADD after the two BASEDEV=IBM?FLPY.ADD lines (this is needed to access the Libretto's hard drive).
I then rebooted to the OS/2 partition and began the installation of the Iomega zip driver. I changed directories to c:\temp and ran OS2V234, then EXTRACT. I then ran DDINSTAL, chose C:\TEMP\DISK2 for the source and C:\ for the destination, clicked INSTALL and chose the OAD driver. I then deleted all the files in C:\TEMP. The rest of the installation will occur on the Libretto.
On a FAT system, extended attributes (EAs) are not kept in files, but in reserved places on the disk. (The "file" EA DATA. SF exists simply to reserve space for the EAs so DOS won't write over them.) Because of this, transferring the system in DOS will destroy the EAs. To work around this, I will use the OS/2 program EAUTIL (which was already installed as part of the system) to split the EAs from their files, then I'll transfer the system and rejoin the EAs back to their files.
I shut down and rebooted to the OS/2 partition and ran DIR/F/S>EASPLIT.CMD then edited EASPLIT.CMD, replacing every C:\ with EAUTIL/S C:\ . I then copied EASPLIT.CMD to EAJOIN.CMD and edited EAJOIN.CMD, replacing every /S with /J. I shut down and rebooted from the installation floppies, pressing F3 to get to a command prompt (this keeps the system DLLs from getting tied up), switched to the C: prompt and ran EASPLIT (to split off the EAs) and then \OS2\BOOT /DOS (to switch to a DOS system).
If your "friendly" machine has Win95 installed, then XCOPY (with appropriate flags) over a Direct Cable Connection may suffice to transfer all files (including hidden/system files). Mine doesn't, and besides I wanted to archive a copy of the system.
I connected a parallel-port zip drive to the "friendly" machine and rebooted from my DOS boot diskette. I ran ATTRIB -S -H -R C:\*.?sf and then deleted the files C:\*.?SF. I then ran the zip GUEST program to get drive letter D, then ran ZIP -rS9 D:\OS2FILES C:\ -x *SWAPPER.DAT to compress all files (except SWAPPER.DAT) in C:\ and its subdirectories into the file D:\OS2FILES.ZIP. (This took 15 minutes and resulted in a file of size 12MB.)
On the Libretto, I set up a 200MB FAT partition labelled OS/2, and hid all the other partitions (so OS/2 thinks it's on the C: drive). I then connected the zip drive to the Libretto, booted from my DOS boot diskette, ran SYS C: to transfer the DOS system files to C:, and ran the zip GUEST program to get drive letter D. I then ran UNZIP -n D:\OS2FILES -d C:\ to restore the system (this took 6 minutes). I then rebooted to this partition, ran \OS2\BOOT /OS2, answered Y, and rebooted again from the (now OS/2) partition to the command line (by pressing ALT-F1 when the rectangle with OS/2 appears in the upper left of the screen, then choosing C). I then ran EAJOIN to rejoin the extended attributes (ignoring all the error messages), then rebooted back to the OS/2 partition. I then ran DIR/F/S EAS.? >EASDEL.CMD and edited EASDEL.CMD, replacing every C:\ with RMDIR C:\ . I then ran EASDEL to delete all the (now unneeded) EAS directories. I then ran DIR/S EAS.? to see if any EAS directories still existed (this would mean that there were extended attributes that had not been successfully rejoined to their parent files), and found only C:\OS2\DLL\BVHVGA.DLL, which I'm hoping won't be a problem. (!)
I then finished the installation of the Iomega zip driver, by changing to the C:\OAD directory, running GENOAD and "scan physical connections", and saving the result to CONFIG. I shut down and rebooted again, and used "Selective Install" in "System Setup" to finish the installation of OS/2, using the zip drive as the source for my installation files.
The floppy drive will not be usable under OS/2, as there are no drivers for it. To get data into and out of the Libretto, I set up a small logical DOS partition from which I can access the floppy drive.
To allow for system maintenance, I obtained BOOTOS2 (found in btos2v902.zip, which is available from Hobbes), ran BOOTOS2 SOURCE=E:\OS2IMAGE TARGET=D and edited the resulting CONFIG.SYS to remove the drive letter D: from all the paths. This creates a minimal boot system on a small (3MB) logical partition, from which I can run e.g. chkdsk.
As I indicated at the beginning, I have no idea how to get the sound working. If you succeed, please let me know!
If you have questions about this procedure, you can contact me at millermj@mail.lemoyne.edu.
This page was last edited on 4/24/98.