Ancient OS in Virtual PC - IBM OS/2 2.0

This is the first of my posts about running ancient operating systems in virtual environment. I chose the first OS/2 release that can succesfully run inside MS Virtual PC 2007. Previous versions (mostly programmed by Microsoft!) are very picky about hardware and end up in either traps or lockups.

It was great improvement over 1.3 versions, had nice GUI and was very fast and stable. Of course 15 years later it looks pretty outdated, but it is still fun to use and experiment.

The OS was distributed on 22 (twenty-two!) 3.5 floppy diskettes (15 for OS and 7 for printer drivers), plus batch of 17 disks for XR_6100 Service Pack. I wonder what was the mortality rate of these disks, because now not only floppies are more expensive than DVD-R media, but out of the 10 in a pack at least two are dead just when unpacked. But the possibility to use VFD images makes the installation much much easier and safe.

To install, just choose 32MB RAM and 256MB HDD - at the time of release this was the high end configuration. Then just simply follow the instructions on the screen. Create the disk partition and restart. Boot from the install disk again. Format the offered partition with HPFS - this will take some time, because unlike later versions of OS/2, this one formats thoroughly the whole disk. Continue to swap the disks (or mount the images, whichever is more comfy for you) until another restart. This time, the GUI kicks in!

I choose to install everything (29MB). Virtual PC emulates S3 Trio 32/64 adapter, but driver for this card is compatible only for OS/2 2.11 and newer - so we have to stick with VGA only. Forget about CD-ROM support -  this was added in service packs for 2.1 release.

At the end of installation, you are given choice to either install fresh Win-OS/2 desktop, or migrate from MS Windows 3.x. Since we have new installation, choose Install standard Win-OS/2 desktop.

When it comes to printer, just select Do not install default printer. Remove the floppy and final reboot - and we're done!

One of the unforgettable memories is the tutorial guide "How to use the mouse".

After the basic installation is finished, time for some more disk swapping and installing the XR_6100 Service Pak. In these pre-Warp versions, ServicePaks are installed differently - just boot off from the first CSF disk, and sort of repeat the installation again.