Installing Warp on a Toshiba 2545XCDT Laptop

Last month I discussed in some detail my process for choosing a laptop computer to run OS/2 - http://www.os2voice.org/VNL/past_issues/VNL0999H/vnewsf7.htm. This month I'll look at installing OS/2 (Both Warp 4 and Warp Server ebusiness) on the unit I bought - a Toshiba Satellite 2545XCDT.

This laptop model has an AMD K6-2 333Mhz CPU, 64meg RAM, 14.1" TFT active Matrix Display, 4.1 Gig IBM Hard Drive (DKLA-24320), S3 Virge MX (Mobile5) Video with 2 Meg of RAM. This unit has a built in Lucent Technology 56K v.90 win-modem (don't snicker, it actually works under OS/2, albeit only at 33.3 so far), 2 PCMCIA slots for 2 type II or 1 type III PC Cards, A floppy, a 24X CDROM, parallel and serial ports, Infrared port, USB port, 84 key keyboard and an external video connector. Also has a Yamaha OPL3-SA3 Sound chip set, with a microphone, headphone and line-in jacks. Oh and an AccuPoint (same as the IBM Track Point) as well as a PS/2 mouse/keyboard port. And of course the microsoft tax - windows 98 pre-installed.

Installation of Warp

I decided to try Warp Server ebusiness first, assuming that all the required drivers were onboard to make it a quick basic install. I tried the bootable CD that comes with WSeb, but the Toshiba couldn't boot from it. So I switched to the base server install CD and used the Installation diskettes instead. Using LVM (WSeb's replacement for FDISK) I deleted the windows partition, and created a bootable partition and made it installable. Besides having more recent versions of drivers, WSeb also allows the option to Long Format an install partition, before proceeding with the copying of files. it takes longer but it is indeed better in the long run.

The install went fine, it didn't however identify the sound chipset, but did ID the video as S3 and wanted to install the SVGA S3 driver. For Warp 4 the Install gave me an error saying the "Mouse Device" wasn't functioning, but I found that by telling it to return an error to the program twice, it would get by the error screen. Warp 4 also ID'd the video as S3 SVGA, but selected the 864/868 driver, which I changed to VGA, and the install also thought the sound card was an SBPro/Crystal 4231 both of which I removed. For PCMCIA I selected the TP345C/CS (for Warp 4, I just selected the Toshiba T2400CS/CT PCMCIA selection). During the network install I deselected the File & Print networking, but did install TCP/IP.

I have an IBM PCMCIA Home and Away combined Fax Modem(14,400)/Ethernet Card(10BT), and I copied the driver from a diskette made from a driver file set on hobbes - ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/network/etccha.zip. I modified the parameters for the card to use IRQ10, COM3, COM address 3E8. WSeb rebooted, copied a bunch of files, then tried to reboot itself again, but didn't. Cntrl-Alt-Delete didn't work. This problem didn't exist under Warp 4. I powered the unit off (It beeps for a while before actually turning off, so I suspect some sort of APM problem) and then on again and Wseb came up in 640x480x16 colors, Yuck. Total time for the Warp Server ebusiness install, including the Long Format was just under an hour and WSeb installs Java 1.1.7A Runtime and Netscape 4.04.

I then installed the S3 driver I downloaded via the Notebook/2 site, which was from Sager's FTP site - http://www.sagernotebook.com/ftp/video/os2_s3.zip Selected S3 Diamond Multimedia Systems High Refresh Ratesas the monitor type which allowed me to set 1024X768X64K colors at a refresh rate of 75Hz. I also tried the Scitech Display Doctor http://www.scitechsoft.com/ GRADD based video driver. It installs and runs, but wouldn't let me select any refresh rate other then 60Hz. When I contacted Scitech they stated that support for the S3 MX chipset wasn't complete for LCD panels yet.

Finally I installed the Yamaha OPL3 sound driver from Toshiba's FTP site -http://www.csd.toshiba.com/tais/csd/support/files/download/p660snd2.exe. This install asks for all the parameters for the sound card, so it's a good idea to look at these settings in the BIOS. you can access the System BIOS by holding the Escape key while powering on the unit, then hitting the F1 key. Make sure all the fields are correct. I missed one (the SB Pro emulation had the wrong value) and not only did the driver not load, but the WPS wouldn't come up. I booted to a command prompt, looked at the CONFIG.SYS and made that change and rebooted to full sound. Total time for install to this point approximately 1:15 Minutes. One problem I ran into with a later install to another partition, was that sound did not work at all. I tried several different drivers from the NoteBook/2 site. I made different changes in the BIOS. I reinstalled Warp 4 and WSeb several times. All my installs had the same problem. Nothing worked but when I tried to play a sound the system appeared to go through the motion, just no sound. Finally in desperation I turned to the manual. What I found out was that there was an external speaker volume control on the side of the computer that I had never noticed before. Ack, all the time I wasted and it turned out that either I or one of my children had turned down the volume. Well hopefully someone will get some benefit from my lapse in judgement and check for the obvious, before proceeding to all kinds of drastic non-solutions.

PCMCIA Support

Next I looked at PCMCIA. Plug and Play for PCMCIA showed both PCMCIA cards (The Best data 56K modem and the IBM H&A NIC/Modem). The Best Data modem was listed as a Modem, COM1, IRQ4, 3F8. The IBM card shown as Ready, but was shown as I/O, using IRQ10, and 3E8. That is actually correct, since the IBM driver controls this card. As per the directions I downloaded from Hobbes- ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/comm/homeaway.zip. The COM port didn't work yet, since I still had to change CONFIG.SYS to use the special version of COM.SYS, which would find the port.

The Best Data modem worked on COM1, but I wanted to change that since I didn't want to tie up COM1 or IRQ4 since I thought I may need this for either the built in Serial port or perhaps some day for IrDA (Infrared) support. It took me a while to figure out how to do this since I couldn't find much documentation. What worked was to go to the C:\OS2\SCR directory, and making a copy of the MODEM_4.SCR script. I named my copy MODEM_4A.SCR since I guess I lack imagination. Next edit this script, changing the first line to something different so you will know this is your script.

Then change the line

;* val.irq=3,4

;* val.irq=3,4,9

Also change the line

ReqIRQ(0,3)

ReqIRQ(0,9)

In both cases make sure you only add/change available IRQs by first listing all IRQ's in use by typing the following two commands at an OS/2 command prompt RMVIEW /IRQ and RMVIEW /IRQ /DC
Finally change the line

SetupCOM(0xFF)

SetupCOM(4)

This will make the driver configure for COM4.

Then save your changes. Now run the Auto Configurator (AUTOUTL2.EXE) in the PnP for PCMCIA folder. Under Available Cards, select the card script you just setup, and then select the Edit button. Make sure the fields are correct. In my case I want I/O Port1 to be 0x2E8, IRQ Level to be 9 and COM No. to be 4. Make any changes required, and select OK. Now select the Add button and your new card script will appear in the Selected Card list. Select Save, It will ask you if you are sure you want to update AUTODRV2.SYS. Say Yes. You will then get a message saying AUTODRV2.SYS was updated successfully. You then need to restart the computer for the change to take effect. Now PnP for PCMCIA should show COM4, Modem and Ready. At least it worked in my case. I then used InJoy to test both modems and they worked. If there are any IRQ or address conflicts then the resources tab for the card will most likely be empty.

The excellent reference book OS/2 Warp Unleashed (by David Moskowitz, David Kerr, et al, copyright 1995, by SAMS Publishing) has part of a chapter devoted to setting up PCMCIA under Warp 3. It appears to be the same for Warp 4. Here are some quotes from the book that I found helpful (from Page 1065-1066):

"PCMCIA Card Services is an industry-standard set of programming interfaces for PCMCIA Client Device Drivers (CDD). The driver statement in CONFIG.SYS is as follows:

BASEDEV=PCMCIA.SYS

This driver provides a layer between the CDD and the hardware-specific PCMCIA Socket Services device drivers. there are no parameters for this device driver, and it must always appear in your CONFIG.SYS file before the Socket Services device driver statement."

He then goes on to explain the Socket Services device driver and it's parameters (Page 1066):
"Socket Services provides a standard interface to many different PCMCIA hardware chip sets. "

Some of the more useful parameters for the Socket Services driver (which can vary depending on your chipset. The older Toshiba driver is IBM2TOS.SYS, the standard driver is SS2PCIC2.SYS) (From Page 1066 of OS/2 Warp Unleashed):

/E
The device driver displays a copyright statement and version number when it initializes

/Sn=x
Indicates the number of PCMCIA sockets, x, on a given PCMCIA adapter,n. The adapter number can be either 0 or 1 , and there can be up to 4 sockets on each adapter.

/Cn=x
Indicates what interrupt level, x, to use for status changes on a given adapter, n. Staus changes are events such as insertion or removal of a card. This interupt is used to signal to other software that an event change took place.

/N:IRQ0
Disables checking for IRQ0 value at adapter or socket initialization.

/IRQn
Selects whether IRQ trigger level is high or low. n takes the value H for high and L for low. the default for ISA bus systems is high.

/APOFF
This disables hardware automatic power on/off control for the PCMCIA card.

/PH
This changes the return code from bad socket to busy when you try to access a socket that is not accessible, or one that contains an ATA hard disk that OS/2 started from.

/IOn=xxx
This changes the IOCS16 control line connection from the PCMCIA card itself to the socket control chip set. this is necessary for some PCMCIA cards that do not generate the signal on this control line. xxx indicates the socket number(s) to make the change on adapter n.

/MEMn=xxx
This changes the MEMCS16 line from addresses A23-A12 to addresses A12-A17 for the socket xxx on adapter n.

/RIn=xxx
This changes the modem ring indicator signal from the PCMCIA I/O card to the system status change line.

/IGn=xxx
This tells the PCMCIA Socket services device driver to ignore sockets xxx on adapter n. This is useful if you do not want this device driver to access a given socket, perhaps because you have another device driver that controls it.

/NCn=xxx
OS/2 will treat the sockets xxx on adapter n as if they were not connected to the system

This book is copyrighted 1995, so there may be different/additional parameters by now, but this is at least of some help I hope. I'd advised getting a copy of OS/2 Warp Unleashed if either from a used book source or perhaps from your local library to read more on PCMCIA support as I have only quoted a small part of the sction covering the topic. Also this book, even though it was written for Warp 3, remains a great resource for users of newer versions, since unlike a lesser OS that changes dramatically from release to release, OS/2 evolves gracefully. Hopefully someday a revised version will be released.

If the standard PCMCIA driver doesn't seem to be work for you, then you have several options to try. On the Notebook/2 site http://www.os2ss.com/users/DrMartinus/Notebook.htm there are links to special PCMCIA drivers as well as an FAQ on setting up PCMCIA on Thinkpads. There is also a set of directions for using the packed PCMCIA drivers on the Warp 4/WSeb installation CD. These are located in directory x:\OS2IMAGE\DISK_17 Go to a command prompt, create a directory and then switch to the directory you want to store the unpacked drivers and type
UNPACK x:\OS2IMAGE\DISK_17\PCMCIADD x:\whatever\dir\you\created
Then you need to try each driver in place of the socket services driver installed.

If that still doesn't work you can try to find older versions of the PCMCIA drivers. John Buckley reported on Warpcast <http://www.warpcast.com> that he found a version of ss2pcic2.sys that finally allowed him to use a PCMCIA modem on his Dell Latitude CPi notebooks ( which uses the TI 1131 chipset). This version of the Socket Services driver can be found at ftp://ftp.uni-leipzig.de/pub/os2/boulder/os2/os2ddpak/ss2pcic2.exe

Finally there is a commercial Cardbus driver available for OS/2 from TouchStone - http://www.tssc.de/cardware.htm. I'm not clear on how this driver differs from IBM's Cardbus driver available on DDPakOnline - ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/os2ddpak/playwill.exe. Only comment on the site about the OS/2 Warp version is the following: "A Socket Services Driver compatible with Warp 3 and Warp 4 Card Services is available for corporate customers. The Socket Services drivers supports over 60 PC Card Adapters including all popular CardBus Adapters from Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Ricoh and others." There is only a trial version for NT, so you have to buy this on faith. From what I have heard the documentation is not very good, and no support is included. The NoteBook/2 site stated that the driver is 100DM or about $60US. I didn't have the need for this driver, so I didn't try it. I'd suggest trying all the other mentioned alternatives first. If anyone has had experience with this driver please send your comments to editor@os2voice.org.

A win-Modem under OS/2?

Now onto the Lucent modem. I certainly considered this a waste of silicon when I found out it was a win-modem, but I knew there was a driver for LTMODEMs for ThinkPads. Could this work on my Toshiba? Well I downloaded the original LTMODEM driver from hobbes, and that didn't work at all. Then recently I heard that a new version was out on hobbes, so I downloaded and tried it. ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/modem/ltm_5553.zip The documentation stated that it was only tested with Thinkpad 390e's and Thinkpad 570's, and no word on non-IBM models so I was experimenting.

It installed without any problem changing the config.sys by adding 3 lines to the beginning. It loads two drivers and runs an executable. It didn't work with the SIO replacement driver when I tried it, but worked fine with COM.SYS. On reboot, I received an error saying that C:\OS2\MDOS\vemm.sys could not be loaded. In conversing with the author, Eric Bentley, he suggested REMing out the Vltmodem.sys line which provides DOS support. Since I don't run any DOS communications programs, no big deal, and that fixed that error. The LT Modem driver found the internal modem on COM2, and InJoy was able to dial using it, albeit only at 33.3Kbs. The author is working on a v.90 version on his own time, which will hopefully be out soon.

So now I have 3 modems working with this laptop, and still a COM1 port available as either an external serial or Infrared port. Is anyone actually using the Infrared port for anything useful? If so I'd like to know if it's worth investigating further.

I'm certainly happy with this Toshiba. If you attend Warpstock 99, stop by the VOICE booth and I'll show it to you. If you are in the market for a laptop, I'd highly recommend this model as a good value and a good choice for OS/2 despite the fact that Toshiba refuses to support that platform.

Dr. Martinus' NoteBook/2 site - http://www.os2ss.com/users/DrMartinus/Notebook.htm

Toshiba Satellite 2545XCDT - http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Toshiba.woa/wa/ssDownload?series=204

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/E	The device driver displays a copyright statement and version number when it initializes
/Sn=x	Indicates the number of PCMCIA sockets, x, on a given PCMCIA adapter,n. The adapter number can be either 0 or 1 , and there can be up to 4 sockets on each adapter.
/Cn=x	Indicates what interrupt level, x, to use for status changes on a given adapter, n. Staus changes are events such as insertion or removal of a card. This interupt is used to signal to other software that an event change took place.
/N:IRQ0	Disables checking for IRQ0 value at adapter or socket initialization.
/IRQn	Selects whether IRQ trigger level is high or low. n takes the value H for high and L for low. the default for ISA bus systems is high.
/APOFF	This disables hardware automatic power on/off control for the PCMCIA card.
/PH	This changes the return code from bad socket to busy when you try to access a socket that is not accessible, or one that contains an ATA hard disk that OS/2 started from.
/IOn=xxx	This changes the IOCS16 control line connection from the PCMCIA card itself to the socket control chip set. this is necessary for some PCMCIA cards that do not generate the signal on this control line. xxx indicates the socket number(s) to make the change on adapter n.
/MEMn=xxx	This changes the MEMCS16 line from addresses A23-A12 to addresses A12-A17 for the socket xxx on adapter n.
/RIn=xxx	This changes the modem ring indicator signal from the PCMCIA I/O card to the system status change line.
/IGn=xxx	This tells the PCMCIA Socket services device driver to ignore sockets xxx on adapter n. This is useful if you do not want this device driver to access a given socket, perhaps because you have another device driver that controls it.
/NCn=xxx	OS/2 will treat the sockets xxx on adapter n as if they were not connected to the system