Networking OS/2 guest (Warp4) in VPC2004?

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Bo Berglund - 23 Jul 2008 23:57 GMT

I need to use a VPC 2004 guest created using a preinstalled VHD file
with OS/2 Warp 4 for some software testing.
The VHD holds an OS/2 installation complete with the VPC 2004
Additions (hence my use of VPC2004).

Part of these tests are network related and therefore I need to
install/configure/use the network card inside the OS/2 guest.
Specifically I must be able to map a few drive letters in the OS/2
guest to shares on a few servers on the real physical network and then
read/write files on the shares.

I have created a new guest for OS/2 and pointed it towards the VHD
file I was given. I adjusted the RAM to 128 Mb and I have set the
network card to use the Broadcom NIC on the laptop I use.

So now my task seems to be to install networking for the DEC 21140A
network adapter inside OS/2, right?

My problem is that I know nearly nothing about managing an OS/2
machine so I would really appreciate some links/instructions on:

- How to install network support on OS/2
- How to install NIC driver for DEC 21140A in OS/2
- How to enable TCP/IP networking in OS/2 with DHCP
- How to create a mapped drive to a Windows Server share on OS/2

Has anyone done this and is willing to share the experience?

I have looked in the System Setup window for something related to
networking but with no success...

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Bo Berglund - 25 Jul 2008 19:16 GMT

>I have created a new guest for OS/2 and pointed it towards the VHD
>file I was given. I adjusted the RAM to 128 Mb and I have set the
>network card to use the Broadcom NIC on the laptop I use.

... snip

>I have looked in the System Setup window for something related to
>networking but with no success...

Anyone????
This is what I have done so far concerning networking:

I have modified the OS/2 guest to use "Local only" networking.
Restarted te guest afterwards.
I have checked the network config through using the following path:
- doubleclick the "OS/2 system" icon
- doubleclick the "System Setup" icon
- doubleclick the "MPTS Network Adapters and protocol services"
- Click OK and then "Configure"
- Select TCP/IP configuration and click Configure
- Select Network interface parameters and click Configure
Now the list shows 4 LAN adapters and the #0 is ACTIVE
IP address is 192.168.0.7
So I guess that the guest runs on this IP address, right?
- Cancel/exit all the way out.

I have also created an XP-Pro SP1 guest on "Local only" with IP
address 192.168.0.10.

Now, when I try pinging these two from the other *nothing* happens!
There is no reply at all, only timeout in XP and nothing in OS/2 until
I do Ctrl-C....

Is not the Local Only setting supposed to make simultaneously running
guests able to communicate with each other?
In both guests I can ping its own IP address and get a reply, but as
soon as the other guest's IP is used there is no reply whatsoever. :-(

How am I supposed to use the Local Only setting to communicate between
two guests running at the same time????

Reply to this Message

Robert Comer - 25 Jul 2008 19:46 GMT

>I have modified the OS/2 guest to use "Local only" networking.
>Restarted te guest afterwards.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>So I guess that the guest runs on this IP address, right?
>- Cancel/exit all the way out.

That all looks okay, it's been so long since I've seen it, though it
should be 1 adapter and maybe 3 protocol lines in the configuration. I
have an OS/2 VM at home I can fire up later and check.

Do you have another Windows VM you can try and se if your local only
connection is okay? (talking between two XP vm's to see if it might
not be OS/2 that's the problem.)

>Is not the Local Only setting supposed to make simultaneously running
>guests able to communicate with each other?
>In both guests I can ping its own IP address and get a reply, but as
>soon as the other guest's IP is used there is no reply whatsoever. :-(

As long as it's on the same machine, that's my understanding of it. I
very rarely have used local only, and only for one machine to make it
think it had an active LAN connection rather than communicating
between two VM's...

Signature

Bob Comer

>>I have created a new guest for OS/2 and pointed it towards the VHD
>>file I was given. I adjusted the RAM to 128 Mb and I have set the
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>How am I supposed to use the Local Only setting to communicate between
>two guests running at the same time????

Reply to this Message

Bo Berglund - 25 Jul 2008 23:09 GMT

>>I have modified the OS/2 guest to use "Local only" networking.
>>Restarted te guest afterwards.
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>should be 1 adapter and maybe 3 protocol lines in the configuration. I
>have an OS/2 VM at home I can fire up later and check.

Thanks, that would be great!

>Do you have another Windows VM you can try and se if your local only
>connection is okay? (talking between two XP vm's to see if it might
>not be OS/2 that's the problem.)

Did that (see below)

>>Is not the Local Only setting supposed to make simultaneously running
>>guests able to communicate with each other?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>think it had an active LAN connection rather than communicating
>between two VM's...

I discarded my XP guest and created two new ones. This time I used
differencing disks for them to keep my disk footprint lower.
I also configured the NIC on each to have a fixed IP address
(192.168.0.10 and 192.168.0.20). The NIC was set to Local Only as
before of course.
Previously I had DHCP enabled with the alternate config being the
fixed IP with the same addresses as above. Now I have the IP directly
on the mainTCP/IP config.

Now I can ping the XP guests from one to the other using either the
guest names (XP1 and XP2 respectively) or their IP addresses.
So this proves that Local Only actually works.
I can also ping the OS/2 guest at 192.168.0.7 from each XP guest. :-)

From the OS/2 guest I can ping the two XP guests as well, but *only*
using the IP address. When I try ping XP1 I get a "host unknown" error
in OS/2.

Question:
Is there a hosts file on OS/2 so that I can enter the name - IP
translation into OS/2?

My next step will be to try to map the XP1 Public share to a drive
letter on OS/2, but then I need to use the \\XP1\Public syntax and I
think it will fail if OS/2 cannot resolve XP1 to the correct IP
address....

Reply to this Message

Robert Comer - 26 Jul 2008 01:52 GMT

>Previously I had DHCP enabled with the alternate config being the
>fixed IP with the same addresses as above. Now I have the IP directly
>on the mainTCP/IP config.

That never works well for me with XP, I always use either straight
static or straight DHCP...

>From the OS/2 guest I can ping the two XP guests as well, but *only*
>using the IP address. When I try ping XP1 I get a "host unknown" error
>in OS/2.

Not all that much a surprise I, you'd probably have to run your own
DNS server or use the hosts file like you suggest below. Make sure
one of those protocols install in OS/2 is NETBIOS over TCP and it may
work like you wanted.

>Question:
>Is there a hosts file on OS/2 so that I can enter the name - IP
>translation into OS/2?

Yes, it's in: C:\tcpip\dos\etc

But you can put it in the second page of the hostnames tab in the
TCP/IP configuration dialog. If you use the hosts file, you have to
checkmark the use hosts file before nameservers on the second page of
the hostnames tab.

>My next step will be to try to map the XP1 Public share to a drive
>letter on OS/2, but then I need to use the \\XP1\Public syntax and I
>think it will fail if OS/2 cannot resolve XP1 to the correct IP
>address....

I wasn't able to get it to map anything at all just now. I wonder if
you'd have to go NETBEUI, but that's probably outside the scope of
your project.

Signature

Bob Comer

>>>I have modified the OS/2 guest to use "Local only" networking.
>>>Restarted te guest afterwards.
[quoted text clipped - 58 lines]
>think it will fail if OS/2 cannot resolve XP1 to the correct IP
>address....

Reply to this Message

Bo Berglund - 26 Jul 2008 07:18 GMT

>>Question:
>>Is there a hosts file on OS/2 so that I can enter the name - IP
>>translation into OS/2?
>
>Yes, it's in: C:\tcpip\dos\etc

Well, my OS/2 install does not even have a C:\tcpip directory....
I have tried looking elsewhere but with no success.
There is also no c:\dos directory...

I did find an etc dir c:\mptn\etc, but it does not contain a hosts
file.

>But you can put it in the second page of the hostnames tab in the
>TCP/IP configuration dialog. If you use the hosts file, you have to
>checkmark the use hosts file before nameservers on the second page of
>the hostnames tab.

My TCP/IP Configuration does not contain a tab/page named hostnames...
It is simply a dialog box with a radio group:
o Network interface parameters
o Routing information
o Domain name service
And then there are buttons for Close, Configure, Cancel, Help.

By choosing one of the above and then Configure one gets to the next
level and here is the list of NIC adapters and the IP address, but no
tabs or anything like that...

By the way, in another configure path I got to "Adapter and Protocol
Configuration" where I think I can see that "IBM OS/2 NETBIOS OVER
TCP/IP" is available.

Reply to this Message

Bo Berglund - 26 Jul 2008 07:43 GMT

>>>Question:
>>>Is there a hosts file on OS/2 so that I can enter the name - IP
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>I did find an etc dir c:\mptn\etc, but it does not contain a hosts
>file.

UPDATE:
After I consulted Wikipedia on the hosts file and got a different hint
I found a file in c:\mptn\etc named resolv2, which I opened.
It contained:
nameserver <ip address> (this is an unreachable address)
nameserver <ip address> (this is an unreachable address)
so I added
XP1 192.168.0.10
XP2 192.168.0.20

saved it and then also copied it to another file named hosts

Then restarted OS/2 and tried ping XP1.
But the same unknown host message appeared, unfortunately :-(

Reply to this Message

Robert Comer - 26 Jul 2008 12:26 GMT

I just don't know, but it sounds like it's not a full install or
something. You sure you have V4 and not V3 of OS/2?

Anyway, to get to the TCP/IP configuration dialog I was talking about,
you just right click on the desktop, select "system setup", and then
there should be an icon with a name of "TCP/IP Configuration (LAN)"

But without the /tcpip directory something is not right.

When you configured MPTS for the adapter and that NETBIOS over TCP/IP,
did you also install the protocol TCP/IP?

Signature

Bob Comer

>>>>Question:
>>>>Is there a hosts file on OS/2 so that I can enter the name - IP
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>Then restarted OS/2 and tried ping XP1.
>But the same unknown host message appeared, unfortunately :-(

Reply to this Message

Bo Berglund - 26 Jul 2008 14:49 GMT

>I just don't know, but it sounds like it's not a full install or
>something. You sure you have V4 and not V3 of OS/2?

I am pretty sure it is Warp4, but how can one see this? Is there a
function like ControlPanel/System on Windows where this can be viewed?

>Anyway, to get to the TCP/IP configuration dialog I was talking about,
>you just right click on the desktop, select "system setup", and then
>there should be an icon with a name of "TCP/IP Configuration (LAN)"

I can bring up system setup all right. The icons available in this
window are (in random placement on the window):
- MPTS Network Adapters and Protocol Services
- DDNS Configuration
- DHCP Monitor
- Scheme Palette
- Solid Color Palette
- Mixed Color Palette
- Font Palette
- Create Utility Diskettes
- Power
- Sound
- Add Programs
- Spooler
- Country
- System
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- System Clock
- UPM Services
- Install/Remove
- Hardware Manager

>But without the /tcpip directory something is not right.
>
>When you configured MPTS for the adapter and that NETBIOS over TCP/IP,
>did you also install the protocol TCP/IP?

My dilemma is that I have not installed the OS/2 myself at all. I was
given the VHD file with the OS/2 installation already done and I
"just" want to complete it with the network share ability for testing
some aoutomation software that has to run (on Windows) against the
OS/2 target system. The interaction is via a shared folder on a
Windows machine (drive letter in OS/2 and a UNC path in Windows).

Anyway,
if I go to MPTS Network.... in System Setup I can select an item named
"TCP/IP configuration" and use the Configure button.
Then I can configure "Network interface parameters" where the IP
address is listed (192.168.0.7).
I also can ping the OS/2 guest on this address from the XP machines,
so definitely TCP/IP is running.

In LAN Adapter and Protocol Configuration there is a list of Protocols
in the upper right of the dialogue. It lists (in this order):
- NetWare NetBIOS Emulation over IPX
- IBM IEE 802.1
- IBM OS/2 NETBIOS
- IBM Netware Requester Support
- IBM OS/2 NETBIOS OVER TCP/IP
- IBM TCP/IP

In the "Current Configuration" ox in the lower left part it lists:
- Digital Semcon. DC21X4-based Eternet Adapter....
- 0 - IBM OS/2 NETBIOS OVER TCP/IP
- 0 - IBM TCP/IP

I have made a few screenshots of the dialogs and attached these, hope
they will come through....
And as far as I am concerned the Netware items are not needed, there
is no Netware used where we will use our software...

Reply to this Message

Robert Comer - 26 Jul 2008 16:34 GMT

>I am pretty sure it is Warp4, but how can one see this? Is there a
>function like ControlPanel/System on Windows where this can be viewed?

The default wallpaper says OS/2 Warp for one thing, <g>

If you do "ver" from an OS/2 command line (just like windows), with
the proper service pack it should say "The Operating System/2 Version
is 4.50"

>I can bring up system setup all right. The icons available in this
>window are (in random placement on the window):

That looks normal, just no TCP/IP configuration, but maybe I copied
that there from "Programs" -> "TCP/IP Internet LAN" folder, it's been
a LONG time since I set this up.

>Anyway,
>if I go to MPTS Network.... in System Setup I can select an item named
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>I also can ping the OS/2 guest on this address from the XP machines,
>so definitely TCP/IP is running.

Curious, that's not what I see, I can't change any tcp parameters from
MPTS except for "Network interface Type", which I have never changed.

>In LAN Adapter and Protocol Configuration there is a list of Protocols
>in the upper right of the dialogue. It lists (in this order):
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>- IBM OS/2 NETBIOS OVER TCP/IP
>- IBM TCP/IP

That I do see.

>In the "Current Configuration" ox in the lower left part it lists:
>- Digital Semcon. DC21X4-based Eternet Adapter....
>- 0 - IBM OS/2 NETBIOS OVER TCP/IP
>- 0 - IBM TCP/IP

Same here.

>I have made a few screenshots of the dialogs and attached these, hope
>they will come through....
>And as far as I am concerned the Netware items are not needed, there
>is no Netware used where we will use our software...

Where are you finding the icon to configure TCP from, that's a lot
different than what I have?

14.062_W4 is the same version of OS/2 that I have.

Signature

Bob Comer

>>I just don't know, but it sounds like it's not a full install or
>>something. You sure you have V4 and not V3 of OS/2?
[quoted text clipped - 67 lines]
>And as far as I am concerned the Netware items are not needed, there
>is no Netware used where we will use our software...

Reply to this Message

Bo Berglund - 26 Jul 2008 15:39 GMT

>I just don't know, but it sounds like it's not a full install or
>something. You sure you have V4 and not V3 of OS/2?

When I boot up the guest it displays the following on the lower left
corner of the display:
Internal revision 14.062_W4

I think this indicates some version of Warp4...

Reply to this Message

Bo Berglund - 27 Jul 2008 17:46 GMT

>I need to use a VPC 2004 guest created using a preinstalled VHD file
>with OS/2 Warp 4 for some software testing.
>The VHD holds an OS/2 installation complete with the VPC 2004
>Additions (hence my use of VPC2004).

... snip ....

>- How to install network support on OS/2

Not needed, TCP/IP networking was already installed.

>- How to install NIC driver for DEC 21140A in OS/2

Not needed, already there.

>- How to enable TCP/IP networking in OS/2 with DHCP

Had to switch from DHCP to fixed IP because I am testing in Local Only
mode

>- How to create a mapped drive to a Windows Server share on OS/2

This was the remaining task after getting the TCP/IP set to a fixed
address.

I have now managed to do it and here are the steps for future
reference:

A. On the Windows XP machine where the share is located:
---------------------------------------------------------
1) Make sure the XP PC name is max 8 chars in length

2) Make sure the XP PC is attached to a Workgroup with a max length of
8 chars

3) Create a local user account on the XP PC to be used from the OS/2
system. Give it a name with max 8 char length.

4) Create a folder to be shared and share it using a share name with
max 8 char length.

B. On the OS/2 Warp 4 PC:
--------------------------
1. Check that the NIC is configured with the NETBIOS OVER TCP/IP
protocol.
- Rightclick desktop and select System Setup
- Doubleclick the "MPTS Network Adapters and Protocol Services" icon
- Click OK and Configure
- Select "LAN adapters and protocols" and clicl Configure
In the "Current Configuration" box there should be the DC21X4.. NIC
and two protocols:
IBM OS/2 NETBIOS OVER TCP/IP
IBM TCP/IP

2. Check the TCP/IP settings
- In the last step above, instead select the "TCP/IP Configuration"
item and click Configure
- Select Network Interface parameters and click Configure
- Note the IP address or change it to one that is compatible with the
LAN you are in.

3. Create the connection to the shared folder
- Doubleclick the "Connections" icon on the desktop
- Open the Network node
- Open the Network Services node
- Doubleclick "Shared resources and Network connections" node
A multi-tabbed dialogue is now shown, were the final steps can be
done:

3.1 Change the primary domain name (workgroup)
In the Identity tab the primary domain name is shown.
Change this to the name of the workgroup configured on the XP PC.
If a change is made then restart the OS/2 PC.

3.2 Map a drive letter to the shared folder on XP PC
- In the Connections tab click "Create connection..."
- Select Type=Directory and Location=Server
- As server name select the XP PC name from the drop-down list or type
in its name
- The available shares should now appear in the Resource list
- Select the wanted share
- Select the Local drive letter from the box
- Check the "Connect to resource at logon" checkbox
- Click OK
The shared folder will now be mapped to a drive letter on OS/2

REMAINING ITEMS NOT YET SOLVED
==============================
A) How can I change the OS/2 PC name?
I don't want to keep the current stupid name DG75KC2JA....

B) How do I activate the use of the hosts file for TCP/IP?
Through googling I have found the hosts file on OS/2 to be:
C:\MPTN\ETC\HOSTS
I also have fond mention of a SET directive to add to the config.sys
file in order to let hosts have precedence on name lookup:
SET USE_HOSTS_FIRST=1

But I cannot make the OS/2 PC use the hosts file anyway. Even though I
have added the XP guests to the hosts file ping still displays an
"unknown host" message....

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