Question:

Answer:

• eComStation can install directly from CD on many systems. No install diskettes are required.
• There is a preboot configuration menu This allows the bootable CD to work with a wide variety of special case hardware.
• The full WPS is available during the install. You have access to a command line session or the drives folder, as needed.
• LVM is used to manage disk media. You are no longer forced to rely on drive letter assignments based on partition type or drive number.

The typical install problems fall into several classes:

• LVM setup is not foolproof.
• Data on removable media can be destroyed.
• LAN networking installation requires attention.
• NIC driver installation requires attention.
• WiseMachine is not always intuitive.

Some of these you might recognize from the old Warp installer. This is because the eCS installer still uses parts of the Warp Installer.

LVM Setup

It appears that it is possible to bypass the VCU run or for VCU to fail without an explicit error report. The indication that this may have occurred is that the install drive selection dialog will show no installable drives or the LVM status display will show volumes without the expected drive letters.

To correct this, open a command line session and run VCU. Use the copy at \os2image\disk_2\vcu.exe on the eCS CD#2. There is also a copy at \eCS\vcu.exe on the eCS CD#1 which you should not use. Serenity forgot to include a copy of vcu.msg. If VCU attempts to report an error, you may not get a useful error message.

VCU will also fail to run if the drive has been shutdown dirty. If this happens, run:

  chkdsk /f

Data on Removable Drives

Peer Networking Setup

The installer appears to use the IBMPEERS domain name as an indicator of the install type. If you change this, the installer may do a Lan Requestor install rather than a Peer install and you will not get the correct set of login objects.

The installer ignores whatever user id and password you supply and uses the values USERID and PASSWORD, so you might as well supply these values so you know what to use later.

NIC Installation

After you have completed the initial install, don't forget to run MPTS and change the adapter to match the NIC you have installed.

WiseMachine Usage

WiseMachine is good at redeploying the applications it knows about. It's a simple drag and drop operation to redeploy an application.

However, deploying an application is not the same as installing an application. When you deploy an application you are recreating the desktop objects and, possibly, updating config.sys entries. This is helpful if you have lost some desktop objects. However, it's only a subset of what needs to be done to install an application.

WiseMachine can install some applications, but is still a work in progress for consistent operation. To install an application, you need to know if WiseMachine can install the application and you need to know which menu to use. Many of the applications you will want to install will be found under the Utilities -> Selective Install menus. A few applications can be installed from the left-hand Application window.

When installing from the left-hand window, there is a problem with the "meat." This is WiseMachine's term for the actual application code. When you attempt to install an application from the Application window, WiseMachine will supply a default Source directory. This is where the "meat" is supposed to be. The default directory is rarely correct. You need to point WiseMachine at the "meat" which can be an adventure. Some meat is on the eCS CD's. Some you might have to provide yourself. None of this is fully documented.

None of these issues are show stoppers. They just make WiseMachine more difficult to use, than need be. Mr. KIA is hopeful that, in the near future, Serenity will release a WiseMachine update that corrects this.

Summing Up

The eComStation News Server is probably the best place to start. There are focused newsgroups and your peers will help you get beyond your problems.

There's also the venerable SCOUG Help Mailing List. Several SCOUG members have already installed eCS and can assist you.

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.