[OS2Guy]

I've recently received several requests from [former] OS/2 users who have moved to Macs [iMacs and Mac Pros] and want to use OS/2 [Warp 4/52] under Parallels. Parallels lists OS/2 Warp 4.52 as an optional format but several who have tried to achieve success with the install have not been successful. I've written to Parallels Tech support but no response has been received. It seems after the initial install setup of an installable volume and return to complete the install, the user is presented with:

Parallels(R) VGA-Compatible BIOS Version 2.01

Parallels(R) 2.5 build 3188 (C) 2005-2007 Parallels Software International Inc.
All Rights Reserved

640 KB Base Memory
262144 KB Extended Memory
Boot from hard drive ... _

And nothing more. The install process halts at that point. So I'm looking for someone, anyone, who is using an Intel Mac who has Parallels and has sucessfully installed OS/2 Warp 4.5[1] or [2] to ask if they will explain the install process and what is needed for a successful install.

Thanks!

Tim...

[sray]

Parallels tech support is non-existent. Post your question at their hidden forum: forums.parallels.com. Just a simple search of "OS/2 Warp" brought up a large number of links.

[OS2Guy]

Originally Posted by sray 

Parallels tech support is non-existent. Post your question at their hidden forum: forums.parallels.com. Just a simple search of "OS/2 Warp" brought up a large number of links.

Subject says it all. Several OS/2 users have been there and one is now desperately seeking advice. The majority of OS/2 Warp posts are for Warp 4 or early versions of eComStation. There is a big difference between Wrp 4 and Warp 4.5 and the eComStation product has an altered version of OS/2.

As a Mac Pro user myself and a former OS/2 user (and well-known OS/2 advocate) I promised to look around the Mac community for someone who has actually accomplished a successful install of OS/2 Warp 4.5 (v4.51 or v4.52, the last official release from IBM) under Parallels. The majority of OS/2 users use these latter two releases and if investing $80 for a product that advertises itself as working with OS/2 Warp 4.5 (and then fails to provide working instructions for such an install) then the buyer should be made aware of any limitations. Does it work? Is there anyone within the Mac community who has had success with the install of Warp 4.51 or Warp 4.52 and if so, how did they accomplish it? So far, those who have Parallels now with new iMacs and Mac Pros cannot get past the install hurdle.

Tim...

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by OS2Guy 

Subject says it all. Several OS/2 users have been there and one is now desperately seeking advice. The majority of OS/2 Warp posts are for Warp 4 or early versions of eComStation. There is a big difference between Wrp 4 and Warp 4.5 and the eComStation product has an altered version of OS/2.

Hey OS/2 guy, is OS/2 available for download or do I need to buy a copy off of ebay?

[OS2Guy]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

Hey OS/2 guy, is OS/2 available for download or do I need to buy a copy off of ebay?

IBM stopped selling it entirely as of January 1, 2007 so there are no sales available. You can buy an altered version called eCS but it remains pretty much beta and the promise of a final eCS release has been put off for over a year now. That investment is costly and there is no guarantee the product will continue or even mature. That user base is incredibly small. It also requires a 128digit registration key whereas IBM's OS/2 Warp 4.52 has no registration or keycode requirements (installs right out of the box). You may be able to find a copy via P2P but the OS/2 community hates it when I say that publicly.

You could post a request to buy a copy of the last IBM release (v4.52) in the OS/2 newsgroups ( comp.os.os2.marketplace ). That release should install on most any hardware. Many OS/2 users are accepting their fate and moving on to Vista. A copy could be had for free or as high as $50, depending on how and why you want the OS. It originally sold via IBM for $200.

Now if you could run v4.52 in a Parallels virtual session thousands of [current and former] OS/2 users would switch to Macs and buy Parallels in a hot minute. Many have spent tons of money on various OS/2 native software and would welcome the ability to utilize it on a Mac.

Good luck,

Tim...

[mfbernstein]

Parallels runs on Windows and Linux as well, so in theory you can also check compatibility of OS/2 4.5 with Parallels by using a regular PC. What works there will in all likelihood work on Mac Parallels, and vice-versa.

[OS2Guy]

Update [ just a little while after writing the above ]

Received a message from leader of the Tech Support Team at Parallels. He has asked for a copy of the last release of OS/2 Warp [ version 4.52 ] to determine and correct the installation problems. I couldn't be happier and thank Parallels for their assistance. This last version of OS/2 is the system most used by OS/2 users today and if Parallels can get it to run in a virtual session there were be many happy OS/2 users who will gladly switch to OSX and Parallels.

I will keep those interested in Parallel's progress on this issue aware with future posts.

Dr. Timothy Martin, "The OS/2 Guy"
Warp City | Home

[inkhead]

OS/2 runs fine on VMware Fusion, if you google for "OS/2 VMDKs" you can even find ready made disk images to download! Fusion is much better at support legacy and beta OSes.

[inkhead]

I don't believe this part of Wikipedia to be true, as OS/2 WARP, v4 and older run great in fusion and on Workstation, but below is some weird history from Wikipedia, looks like a parallels fanboy added it.

:

OS/2 is more difficult to run in a virtual machine than most other legacy x86 operating systems because of its extensive reliance on the full set of features of the x86 CPU.[citation needed] During a pre-launch session (ESX3) with VMware in Oslo, Norway, December 2005, they specifically said that OS/2's use of the CPU's ring 2 was the reason that it would not run in VMware.
A side effect of this is that it is difficult to run OS/2 inside of the popular VMware software product. A beta of VMWare Workstation 2.0 released in January 2000 was the first emulator which could run OS/2 at all. Later, the company decided to drop official OS/2 support,[25] presumably because it would require serious work that cannot be economically justified. It is still possible to boot OS/2 by setting guestOS = "os2experimental" in the .vmx file of the VM (checked with VMware Workstation 3.0 and 5.5[citation needed]), but trying to run different versions of OS/2 leads to frustrating problems most of the time. Versions 1.x will crash immediately with a "TRAP 0000". Versions 2.x are too ancient to recognize the simulated IDE CD-ROM, do not recognize the virtual SCSI hardware and can crash with "TRAP 000C" after some operations. Version 3.0 will just hang on the second installation diskette.[citation needed]
The lack of official VMware support for running OS/2 created the opportunity for a new virtualization company. A large German bank needed a way to use OS/2 on newer hardware that OS/2 did not support. As virtualization software is an easy way around this, they desired to run OS/2 under a hypervisor. Once it was determined that VMware was not a possibility, they hired some Russian hackers to write a host-based hypervisor that would officially support OS/2. Thus the Parallels, Inc. company and their Parallels Workstation was born