WordPerfect Install on OS/2

[Rich Walsh]

* MEM.EXE
See attached. Its output may be interesting but it isn't going to help you fix anything.

* "Drive not ready" popups
Add "AUTOFAIL=YES" to config.sys. It makes "Return error code to program" the default rather than doing a popup every time.
While you're at it, add "SUPPRESSPOPUPS=C". When an app crashes, the details will be written to C:\POPUPLOG.OS2 rather than the screen.

* WordPerfect install error
This is wierd. You say you start the installation using a .CMD file which is an OS/2 "batch file", yet the thing is using DOS to install the files (OS/2 does not have TSRs, only DOS does). I haven't used DOS in 30 years, so I can't be of much help but you may want to add/update these entries in config.sys (these are the default settings in an ArcaOS install):
RMSIZE=640
DOS=LOW,NOUMB

[KevinP]

Did you download Theseus4? It's the version that works on OS/2 v4.5+
Open it, got to System-->General System-->General System Information, it will open a new window. Take a screen shot of that window.
Or use the menu Mark/Find to mark the window down to

Code: [Select]

30. QSV_VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT  = b8000000
and paste it here.
BTW, most all that you installed with ANPM won't take any memory unless you open programs that you installed.

Yes, I installed Theseus4.

My output is:  30. QSV_VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT = a0000000

[KevinP]

* MEM.EXE
See attached. Its output may be interesting but it isn't going to help you fix anything.

* "Drive not ready" popups
Add "AUTOFAIL=YES" to config.sys. It makes "Return error code to program" the default rather than doing a popup every time.
While you're at it, add "SUPPRESSPOPUPS=C". When an app crashes, the details will be written to C:\POPUPLOG.OS2 rather than the screen.

* WordPerfect install error
This is wierd. You say you start the installation using a .CMD file which is an OS/2 "batch file", yet the thing is using DOS to install the files (OS/2 does not have TSRs, only DOS does). I haven't used DOS in 30 years, so I can't be of much help but you may want to add/update these entries in config.sys (these are the default settings in an ArcaOS install):
RMSIZE=640
DOS=LOW,NOUMB

Thanks for the mem file.  I will attach a picture of the output.

I have included the AUTOFAIL and POPUP parameters in my config.sys

RMSIZE and DOS=LOW,NOUMB were already set like this.

I read comments in the "OS/2 Tips & Tricks" wiki that mentioned setting DOS_HIGH and DOS_LOW to ON.  I tried those but it did not work; on boot there were error messages saying the parameters were not installed or something like that.

[KevinP]

BTW, most all that you installed with ANPM won't take any memory unless you open programs that you installed.

What about the Innotek Runtime?  I installed that as well.  Some of the programs I recently installed that I had not installed before (but are older OS/2 programs) are IBM Works and Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0.   I'm trying to think of things that are different on this installation from previous attempts when WordPerfect loaded.

[Dave Yeo]

BTW, most all that you installed with ANPM won't take any memory unless you open programs that you installed.

What about the Innotek Runtime?  I installed that as well.  Some of the programs I recently installed that I had not installed before (but are older OS/2 programs) are IBM Works and Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0.   I'm trying to think of things that are different on this installation from previous attempts when WordPerfect loaded.

They only use memory when running. You're mem output looks reasonable and most things should run fine. Where did you get the WordPerfect installer? As Rich said, it sounds like a DOS memory problem.

[KevinP]

Where did you get the WordPerfect installer? As Rich said, it sounds like a DOS memory problem.

I'm not entirely sure but probably the Internet Archive:  https://archive.org/details/wordperfect5.2os21993

[KevinP]

There's also a copy of WP 5.2 on Vetusware.com but I don't remember if I got mine from there or not.  There appears to be a Canadian English version 6.1 on ECSoft2 site.  I can try that.  Maybe I can get by in Canadian English, eh?

[Dave Yeo]

There's also a copy of WP 5.2 on Vetusware.com but I don't remember if I got mine from there or not.  There appears to be a Canadian English version 6.1 on ECSoft2 site.  I can try that.  Maybe I can get by in Canadian English, eh?

Well, it'll fix your spelling
Downloading WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2 from https://winworldpc.com/product/wordperfect/5x-os-2, a 200MB ISO

[KevinP]

I'll try that.  The file on the ECSoft2 site is actually only "OS/2 Integration Tools".  The memory issue with WP has come up before in this forum (apparently) but it was with someone installing it in a Virtual Box.  The readme in the Integration Tools says that it will work with WP v5.x and 6.x.  There are other mentions of WP v6.x working fine under the Windows programs in OS/2 so maybe I should try that.  I will just have to find a WP 6.x installer which shouldn't be hard.  I have an original disk for 7.x for Windows 3.1 so that might be worth a try too.

[KevinP]

Both the .ISO's on Internet Archive and WinWorld have the same .cmd installer (or, at least have "a" .cmd installer) so I would likely have the same issue using them.  The .zip from Vetusware has 7 floppy images so that might work better.

[KevinP]

WordPerfect 7 for Windows 3.1 would not complete its installation but it tried.  It got to a point of registering shared components (.dll's) and hung up on one particular .dll.  On the suite this was at 28%.  I tried installing just WordPerfect but it hung up at the same .dll.  So, I tried installing v5.2 from the floppy images downloaded from Vetusware.  The installer there is an .exe.  I got the same memory error as I had been getting when using the OS/2 .cmd installer.  On v5.2 there must be some program that I have installed which is using the memory needed by the WP installers because I had earlier been able to install v5.2 just fine. 

[Dave Yeo]

So I downloaded the ISO, mounted it and tried to install. Got the out of memory error same as you. It must have been ported straight from DOS/Win3.1 as it also had the TSR message like it was using DOS. I had lots of memory.
I tried creating a 1GB partition and installing to that as lots of old programs puke when the free disk space is over 2.1GB. Same error but it did make me consider that the problem is that the WP installer is using a signed INT which means that when querying free memory and it is over 2GB, the returned number is negative, which I think is the problem.
I'll try limiting the memory here and test.

[Dave Yeo]

OK, limited the system memory to 512MB and tried again. No errors and the install seemed to go fine.
Unluckily the install is broken, it did not update config.sys and did not unpack one DLL,

Code: [Select]

[C:\wpos2]wpos2
SYS1804: The system cannot find the file OS2SHCWP.
The DLLs are in C:\wpcos2 and in there I see OS2SHCWP._LL. Hmm renamed it to OS2SHCWP.DLL and WordPerfect started, asked for a license number with text saying it will run fine but the number is needed to later update and pressing enter, WP started fine.
To work around the lack of DLLs being found I entered,

Code: [Select]

[C:\wpos2]set BEGINLIBPATH=c:\wpcos2
[C:\wpos2]wpos2.exe
OS/2 uses the kernel directive LIBPATH to search for DLLs, could have edited config.sys and added c:\wpcos2 to the LIBPATH statement which at one point was the only way to do it. Now a days we have the environment variables BEGINLIBPATH and ENDLIBPATH to add directories to the LIBPATH.
If I was interested in using WP regularly, I would create a wpos2.cmd file containing the above statements and create a program object pointing to the cmd file.
eg

Code: [Select]

@echo off
set BEGINLIBPATH=c:\wpcos2
wpos2.exe
and put wpos2.cmd in c:\wpos2.
So in summary, you have too much memory. Unluckily you have no easy way to decrease it. Maybe running lots of stuff would allow it or removing some of the SIMMS to have less memory. Here ArcaOS includes an updated os2ldr and a utility, memlimit.exe allowing to limit the memory seen by the system. Unluckily can't share them due to license.
Edit: I assume that limiting your memory to 2GB would be good enough to install WP

[Dave Yeo]

Actually, a bunch of stuff is in c:\wpcos2. Better cmd file,

Code: [Select]

@echo off
SET PATH=C:\wpcos2;C:\wpos2;%PATH%
SET BEGINLIBPATH=C:\wpcos2;C:\wpos2
wpos2.exe
exit
I also see MIRRORS._LL in c:\wpos2, should be renamed to MIRRORS.DLL I assume.
This cmd file should work from anywhere on the system.
I don't know if the installer should have added other stuff to config.sys. I never installed any printer drivers along with WP
Edit: And of course, no objects on the desktop here.

[KevinP]

OK, limited the system memory to 512MB and tried again. No errors and the install seemed to go fine.
. . . I assume that limiting your memory to 2GB would be good enough to install WP

Thanks, Dave.  I can easily remove one or two of the RAM sticks and try the installation. 

I mentioned that I saw a site or post from someone who said they had run WP 6.1 in OS/2.  I would like to know how they did it.  I downloaded a WP 6.1 ISO (the suite of programs).   A few of the components, like the spreadsheet, Paint, DRAW!, and Chart, seem to work.  At least they start up; I did not test functionality.  But, the actual WordPerfect word processor does not work.  During the installation it tries to access two OS/2 .dll's.  It gives you the option of skipping them or canceling the installation.  I chose to skip the files.  The program then would not initialize.  OS/2 Add Programs did find it and added a shadow (?)/object to the Start Menu but it won't actually start.  There is a Custom Installation option which allows some editing of file paths but the installation still tries to access two OS/2 files.  There may be a way to change that but I cannot do it.  If I can get WP 5.2 installed on this "vintage" installation I will call it good and then when I get AOS I will see about the more recent installations.