I have a multi-boot system that I am trying to add OS2 4 to it. The system:
BX6
pIII 1ghz
512 MB RAM
Rage128 AIW AGP / Rage128 PCI
2x 40GB drives

To play it safe, I am attempting the install onto an 8GB drive. I will ghost the install to a final partition on one of the 40s if I can or I will keep the 8 GB drive on the system.
I keep reading your posts regarding the DRAM >64MB BIOS setting. This board has that setting, but I am curious to what it actually does. ?? If I set it to OS2, will it affect how the board runs in the other OSs?
I am wondering if this setting (not being set to OS2) is the cause of the problem I am having. OS2 install FDISK does not alllow me to proceed because it can't make a partition. It allows me to delete the 8+GB prime partition, but then it sees the availbale space as only 95Mb and it won't allow any other options.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

You should set it to OS2 for > 64Mb, because OS2 has a particular way of addressing ram > 64Mb. It will not affect your other OS. If you set it to non-Os2 for > 64Mb, then you will have to wait for a very very long time for the installation, try it on the 8Gb HDD and you will know.

The problem with the fdisk is that your diskettes might be outdated, ie, it can not handle large HDD. You need to download from IBM the updated OS2 diskettes.

http://service.software.ibm.com/os2dd/free/extpart/expartw4.exe

or you can search for the updated diskette image from hobbes.nmsu.edu

I used the same method as you when I had problem installing onto big HDD with multiple OS. So what I did was I installed OS2 onto another smaller capacity HDD, clone it into an image file, burn it to CD and then clone the image file back to the bigger HDD with multiple OS.

Also, if you are running windows XP or 2000, you can install the 45 days free trial microsoft virtual PC (formerly connectix) and virtual PC will run any software, including OS2. You can transfer files between OS2 in virtual PC and your XP/2000. You need 512Mb ram for your system though.

Just to add one more thing, below are the links to all the ibm OS2 device driver :

http://www7.software.ibm.com/2bcprod.nsf/WebCat?OpenView&Start=1&Count=300&Expand=27.2#27.2

warp4ist.zip is the updated diskette images :
http://www.os2bbs.com/file_f/fixes4x

Thanks for the speedy response.
Checking out the links you posted... confused. (only slightly I think)
http://service.software.ibm.com/os2dd/free/extpart/expartw4.exe
Is a link to EXPARTW4. Which according to the directions is an update for an already installed system. ??

Downloaded warp4ist.zip. This is the updated installer disk... It looks like it is geared toward Thinkpads, but I suppose that is what it was distributed for. I assume that I start with the install disk I already have and replace the other two. ??

Wow... a heck of a lot of driver updates and fixes! And I thought XP was bad! :-)
If I get it up and running, I'll have to figure out what I actually need. Any good reading available regarding OS2 updates/fixes?

Again, thanks for the help.
Like they say...Try, try again!

The updated boot disks are here:

http://www.warpdoctor.org/downloads.html

IBM Support:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/os/warp/support/

Fairly sure the updated disks at warpdoctor are the same as the ones I downloaded from the previous post.

Install went without a hitch... at least until the reboot. It just sits there "Verifying DMI Pool Data ........" Made sure that I set the hard drive as 1st boot, but still no go.
Was I supposed to install a boot loader first? I didnt see that option during the install. The only thing that I can think of is the fact that I left the partition as is, which is FAT16. Maybe I should have formatted it during the install? I would like it to be installed on a FAT, so I can access it from windows and have the ability to move and resize it with pmagic if needed.

Almost there...yet a mile away.

Did you set the 8GB HDD as primary master ?
When you partition it, did you set it to primary or logical ?

OS2 actually can install to both primary or logical partition, but normally logical partition would be more errors-prone.

You don't have to use the boot loader, just make sure you get a working OS2 first.

You also don't have to update every fixes, just download the latest fixpak and run it.
Fixpak 12 and above should be ok.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?sh=1&dir=/pub/os2/system/patches/fixpack/warp_4

You can also try the Dani IDE driver (I am using it right now), it supports many current chipsets and large HDD :
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-viewer?sh=1&fname=/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/danis506r173.zip
and
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-viewer?sh=1&fname=/pub/os2/system/drivers/storage/danidasd144.zip

Sorry, meant to get back to this quicker.
I was able to install and get past the reboot and into the setup. Seems like everything was self-explainatory, but I must have goofed somewhere regarding hardware or something because when I boot into OS2, it gets to the point: "The locked file device is loaded."
"3Com OS/2 Etherlink III Network Driver v3.0"
It freezes displaying addresses(?) starting with c000009b and ending with FLG=00213297.
Just sits there. Hardware/driver issue?

Most likely driver issue, see if you can get a better from hobbes.

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?sh=1&dir=/pub/os2/system/drivers/network

The best is you remove the 3com network card away and see you can boot into OS2.
That will isolate the problem to purely 3com hardware/driver issue.

I decided to try a fresh install again. I swapped the rage card for a riva tnt. IMO those older ati cards are crap and it was causing unique frustrations with every os that I have installed and switching the card may or may not cause problems with the OS2 install. Well...thats irrelevant, since even after following your advice and pulling the 3com card, it would not boot, yet it did get passed the spot where it was freezing, but froze up with some sort of drive error. Played around with partition hiding and pulling the other drives, but nothing I did helped. Screw it. This time I installed it on the first primary partition of IDE0 instead of the "test" drive.
I installed with all cards pulled except for(obviously)the TNT agp. All(well, almost...are you surprised?) went well and have no problem booting via XOSL.
Booting OS2 I get "SYS2068: 1 messages were lost." Press enter and I get that message again. Then an understandable long pause while it tries to connect to a DHCP server without a NIC. Then I'm up and running! Cool.

The "SYS2068: 1 messages were lost." Driver error?

Reinstalled the 3com NIC and have no problem booting. Is there a way to install it using the OS2 disk? Or do I need to track down drivers?

The NIC should have a number ie 3Cxxx, most drivers are still available from 3COM support.