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IBM Stuff
- Thread starter krfkeith
- Start date
gobabushka
Well-known member
just go to bootdisk.com, and make a floppy for dos 6.22. then run fdisk and see if they see the hd
Anonymous Freak
Well-known member
PS/1s are basically generic PCs. No funky custom anything inside.
PS/2s are a whole different ball of wax. The hardware is horribly incompatible, using the funky (but at the time, technically superior,) MicroChannel architecture. They don't have a BIOS like modern computers, you had to boot from a special "Option Diskette" to make any hardware changes, including changing the amount of RAM! Which means: Do not remove a single piece of internal hardware from that machine!
The most useful versions of OS/2 (2.0 and later,) require a 386, so the Model 30 is out. (I had a Model 30 back in the day with a 386 upgrade card in it, and forced OS/2 2.0 to install on a machine that was really far too low-spec for it.) Really, on the 286, your best bet is MS-DOS 6.22 with Windows 3.11. If you can get a copy of OS/2 1.3, that would work, but it's not a very 'usable' OS. (Although Windows NT 4.0 still retained enough OS/2 underpinnings to be able to run OS/2 1.x applications!)
I don't know what the PS/1 Expert has inside, but a quick search makes it appear to be a 486. That, of course, should be able to run even OS/2 Warp 4 acceptably. (There are still people using OS/2 4 as a primary OS, and Firefox is still actively developed for OS/2, the OS/2 ports known as "Warpzilla".)
PS/2s are a whole different ball of wax. The hardware is horribly incompatible, using the funky (but at the time, technically superior,) MicroChannel architecture. They don't have a BIOS like modern computers, you had to boot from a special "Option Diskette" to make any hardware changes, including changing the amount of RAM! Which means: Do not remove a single piece of internal hardware from that machine!
The most useful versions of OS/2 (2.0 and later,) require a 386, so the Model 30 is out. (I had a Model 30 back in the day with a 386 upgrade card in it, and forced OS/2 2.0 to install on a machine that was really far too low-spec for it.) Really, on the 286, your best bet is MS-DOS 6.22 with Windows 3.11. If you can get a copy of OS/2 1.3, that would work, but it's not a very 'usable' OS. (Although Windows NT 4.0 still retained enough OS/2 underpinnings to be able to run OS/2 1.x applications!)
I don't know what the PS/1 Expert has inside, but a quick search makes it appear to be a 486. That, of course, should be able to run even OS/2 Warp 4 acceptably. (There are still people using OS/2 4 as a primary OS, and Firefox is still actively developed for OS/2, the OS/2 ports known as "Warpzilla".)
Mike Richardson
Banned
(Off Topic) why does OS/2 get Firefox and not OS 9?
techfury90
Well-known member
Yep. Only the model 50 and higher had MCA. The "option disk" (correctly called "Reference Diskette") for each particular machine is very easy to get anyway...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2
More like only the model 25 and 30 used an AT style bus. The rest (the majority) used MCA.
The main feature is that it's probably the best performance you are going to get (expansion wise) with a 286 based machine. Also, most software will have no problems running on it as IBM was the standard (good choice for an OS/2 box).
The main negatives?
* All the sound cards for MCA were crap
* You have to source a driver for every little bit of hardware and install it to your option disk (would have been hell in the pre-telecommunications era). You need to run the config program EVERY time you change your hardware configuration.
* You need special PS/2 RAM for some models
* No IDE on some of the earlier models & no easy way to mount drives internally
More like only the model 25 and 30 used an AT style bus. The rest (the majority) used MCA.
The main feature is that it's probably the best performance you are going to get (expansion wise) with a 286 based machine. Also, most software will have no problems running on it as IBM was the standard (good choice for an OS/2 box).
The main negatives?
* All the sound cards for MCA were crap
* You have to source a driver for every little bit of hardware and install it to your option disk (would have been hell in the pre-telecommunications era). You need to run the config program EVERY time you change your hardware configuration.
* You need special PS/2 RAM for some models
* No IDE on some of the earlier models & no easy way to mount drives internally
Anonymous Freak
Well-known member
I haven't run FireFox on my OS/2 equipped 486 because mine doesn't have Ethernet. It would be nice to get a MicroChannel Ethernet card for it, though.
And yeah, I had forgotten that the Models 25 and 30 were both AT/ISA architecture, not MicroChannel. So not nearly as bad to deal with.
And for any moderately recent web browser, RAM is king. iCab runs just fine on my 33 MHz 68LC040 with 40 MB RAM (Duo 280c), but runs like crap on my 100 MHz 603e with 8 MB RAM (PowerBook 5300). (Last night, I tried to load Google News, and the hard drive was thrashing, with no screen updates at all, not even the clock, for over 10 minutes before I force-quit iCab.) Both machines running 7.6.1 with Speed Doubler, RAM Doubler, and RAM Charger. The Duo uses an EN/SC through a minidock, the 5300 uses a WaveLAN card. I'd love to get an Ethernet microdock; and I've read somewhere that someone hacked some third-party microdock to have a PCMCIA slot! That would be the ultimate Duo.
And yeah, I had forgotten that the Models 25 and 30 were both AT/ISA architecture, not MicroChannel. So not nearly as bad to deal with.
And for any moderately recent web browser, RAM is king. iCab runs just fine on my 33 MHz 68LC040 with 40 MB RAM (Duo 280c), but runs like crap on my 100 MHz 603e with 8 MB RAM (PowerBook 5300). (Last night, I tried to load Google News, and the hard drive was thrashing, with no screen updates at all, not even the clock, for over 10 minutes before I force-quit iCab.) Both machines running 7.6.1 with Speed Doubler, RAM Doubler, and RAM Charger. The Duo uses an EN/SC through a minidock, the 5300 uses a WaveLAN card. I'd love to get an Ethernet microdock; and I've read somewhere that someone hacked some third-party microdock to have a PCMCIA slot! That would be the ultimate Duo.
Aoresteen
Well-known member
The PS/2 reference disk functioned like the Systen 7 enablers. The drivers for the onboard hardware (serial ports, video, ect) were all strored on the disk. The critical piece were the Micro Channel card drivers known as ADF (Adapter Description File). Without it the MC cards would not work.
I used as PS/2 Model 70 and a PS/2 Model 80 and both were good computers. OS/2 2.0 would not load on my PS/2 80. SOmehow IBM shipped it with an old obsolete SCSI card and eventually they replaced it so I could load OS/2!
I used as PS/2 Model 70 and a PS/2 Model 80 and both were good computers. OS/2 2.0 would not load on my PS/2 80. SOmehow IBM shipped it with an old obsolete SCSI card and eventually they replaced it so I could load OS/2!
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