From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Subject: Re: Bad Karma? The install adventure continues!
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 02:56:12 GMT

In article <54345@hydra.gatech.EDU> ce1zzes@prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Sheppard) writes:
>I'm close to giving up installing OS/2.  Almost nothing's working right!
>Particulars: 20 Mhz 386sx, 200 meg IDE, EGA display. Computer has Intel chipset
>and AMI BIOS, and 11 megs of memory.
>I've wasted hours and hours on this, installing it again and again.  Each time
>I get a different problem!  The current problems:
>1.  No printer object was created for my default printer.  Help system,
>    documentation, etc. are absolutely no help, because it assumes the
>    appropriate objects were already created.  I've got an Apple Imagewriter
>    II on my computer, but the vast majority of os2 drivers are Postscript.
>    Windows supports my printer, but to use that printer driver from 
>    Windows, I have to install the Win-os2 support.  Bad news, Win-os2
>    apparently doesn't support EGA.  See below.

To create a printer object, open the Templates folder and drag the
Printer object to your Desktop.  Select the IBMNULL driver and the
appropriate COM or LPT port.  (Use IBMNULL for your Imagewriter II.)

>2.  I set up Dual boot, and os2 DRIVES doesn't see the MSDOS partition.
>    OS2 partition is HPFS, MSDOS is FAT.

How did you partition your hard drive?

>3.  The first time I rebooted after install, I got the tutorial window.  I
>    clicked Exit, and the system locks up.  This has happened often.  When
>    I reboot, it reports an allocation error with SWAPPER.DAT, then about
>    ten minutes later, I _finally_ get a desktop after an unhelpful generic
>    dialog box: "Cannot find file."  This time around, I notice I now have
>    two objects called 'os2 desktop'.

You aren't trying to install over a previous beta, are you?

>4.  I can live without the seamless Windows support for now, but why can't
>    I even have full-screen Windows for an EGA?  (Selecting full-screen windows
>    gets me a full-screen DOS session for a moment, then a 'fatal error code 
>    10' or nonesuch message, before closing.)  This is a bad incentive to
>    move up to VGA. Even if costs are plummeting, that's several hundred
>    dollars more to spend, and this EGA has lot of life left in it!
>    Please, no 'you should spend the $65 to get a VGA card' jabs, because
>    the card's not the expensive part, it's the monitor!  VGA is just _not_
>    an option for me right now.  MS-Windows supports my EGA just fine.
>    You'd think that with the warehouse full of clones they tested os2 on, 
>    that just one of them would have an EGA display.

Do not allow OS/2 2.0 to migrate your Windows desktop if you are using
Windows 3.1.  Could that be the problem?  The "Fatal Error Code" is a
Windows errors which indicates a bad driver (probably a Windows 3.1
driver that crept in there).

>5.  Where is the ATM support?  All I get are a piddling few bitmap screen 
>    fonts.  I also have to manually switch the applets default font to EGA,
>    but this is a minor nuisance.

ATM support is automatically installed.  For OS/2 it is all but
invisible -- you don't even know it is there.  For Win-OS/2 there's an
ATM control panel.

To install new typefaces on the OS/2 side, select OS/2 System, System
Setup, Font Pallette, Edit Font..., Add.  For Win-OS/2, use the ATM
control panel.

>I've almost lost count of the number of times I've installed os2 (about 8!!
>times now, I think), and I get different results every time.  Just before
>my last install, every time it booted, all of the settings boxes activated,
>the device-driver install activated, the system install activated.  I start
>to close the windows, and I get a SYS3175 error (I forget), and the windows
>open again!  (Looked like it got the Startup folder confused with the Install
>folder, cause all the windows that opened matched the contents of the Install
>folder.)  A couple of installs before that, no objects came up on the desktop 
>at all.

Allow OS/2 to reformat your destination partition if you do yet
another install.  Also, don't migrate your Windows 3.1 desktop.

>On top of all this, it's just too darn slow!  windows take a while to open,
>programs take a while to start.  Not what I expected.  I think I've risked
>damaging my floppies when closing its drive window, because I naturally
>assume it's done accessing the floppy when the window closes.  Nope, gotta
>wait another 20 seconds or so for os2 to finish closing the floppy.  I
>missed that a few times already, wanting to quickly look at the contents of
>my floppies and swapping them before the previous one's finished closing.

To prevent this, turn off Lazy Writes.  Remove the ",LW" parameter
from the DISKCACHE statement in your CONFIG.SYS file.  If you are
using OS/2 2.0 on a machine with less than 6 MB RAM, DO NOT use HPFS.
Make sure all your partitions are FAT, and make sure there is no IFS
line in your CONFIG.SYS (or it is REMmed out).  Increase the DISKCACHE
to improve disk I/O (if you have the RAM to support a larger cache;
don't get crazy).  Disable Window Aniation (in OS/2 System, System
Setup, System) to prevent "exploding windows" (which takes up some
CPU).  Defragment your FAT partition(s).

-- 
Timothy F. Sipples       Keeper of the OS/2 Frequently Asked Questions
sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu  List, available via anonymous ftp from
Dept. of Economics       128.123.35.151, directory pub/os2/faq, or via
Univ. of Chicago  60637  netmail from LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET.
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc