Hi folks, I've run into a rather annoying issue. I have a good system to run os/2 on that can't really be used for much else at the moment, and I get the OS installed fine, got to set the desktop to svga and all that and had networking running without problems, but applying FP15 (which is needed for most semi-recent software to work) throws it in a reboot loop while loading the kernel (at the initial OS/2 boot message in text mode, before the boot bitmap). I have tried 3 times to install with different partitions and a different os/2 CD just in case, but the problem remains. The fixpak installs, in gui mode from harddisk. It reboots once, processes the locked files without problem. It then, still in text mode, briefly gives an error on not being able to find a SYS file that it tries to load from config.sys (VW32-something, it's displayed very briefly) and immediately reboots, and from that point on keeps rebooting. The system is an HP Vectra VL, p1-200MMX, 192 MB ram, 2.4 GB harddisk on primary IDE master, CD on sec. master. All standard hardware is present in that machine (including the unrecognised ISA sound card) and in it is also a 3com etherlink III card for networking. I tried to find info online about this but it seems to be an uncommon problem. If you need any more details about the system (which has run win2000 fine for a long time, no hardware issues of note) just ask! Thanks in advance, Mark

UPDATE: I tried FP14 with the same result, this one from verified disk images. The brief error message is about VW32S.SYS before the final reboot, after processing locked files. The end result for me at the moment is that I seem to only be able to run an unpatched os/2 warp 4 on this system. something changed in the kernels supplied with the FP's that make it reboot upon boot. The problem with that lies with any GCC compiled program won't run on an unpatched OS/2 (glibc links to an unspecified function in a system file) unless they are compiled statically linked. this seriously cuts back on my software choices (and honestly, I don't want to use the barely functioning webexplorer to browse anywhere if I can help it ;-) ) If anyone has any idea about a workaround for this problem, knows a fix, or can offer any alternative way to install the fixpaks on this machine or even do some kernel hacking, I'm all ears.

When you see the cursor blob with "OS/2" in the top left corner during boot start-up. enter the two-key combination "ALT-F2". This will display the BASEDEV device driver names in the bottom left corner during boot. You can achieve the same affect by creating a file named "ALTF2ON.$$$" in the root directory of the boot drive (usually drive C on the hard drive, or installation diskette 1 during install). Anyway, make note of the last BASEDEV device loaded b/4 problem begins, as this may be the device driver causing the problem. Another thing to try is to enter the following in you config.sys file on installation diskette 1 of the fix pack, this will force the fix pack to use drivers from the installation diskette rather than from the fix pack: COPYFROMFLOPPY=1 Good luck.