Category Archives: Arca Noae

Website issues impacting new and renewal orders

Our most recent website updates (mandatory, for security reasons) seem to have led to some instabilities. We have worked to manage the situation while we continue to solve the underlying problem(s). In the interim, customers may experience intervals of exceptional slowness on the site and there is a potential for failed payment processing.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If your order fails to process, please try again.

Meanwhile, we believe we have solved the issue with renewal orders not properly displaying the required credit card input fields for payment. Renewal orders should add the renewal to the cart and land on the Shop page. From there, proceed to checkout. If you find that your link has taken you to the checkout page directly, select the link there to visit your shopping cart, then use the Proceed to checkout button (or use the Renew button for your subscription from your Download Center).

At times, changes to our website are forced upon us by the software developers, generally in response to a security concern. It is impossible to predict how an update to one facet of the site may impact something else. We do our best to handle these situations when they arise, and appreciate your patience.

More credit card processing news

As we mentioned previously, we continue to receive reports of failed credit card payment attempts, generally caused by lack of card type selection during checkout. The card type is not selected because the radio buttons are not presented consistently.

We have just updated to the latest version of the credit card payment gateway plugin for the site, as this seems to address several rendering issues, per the plugin’s changelog.

So, if you are still experiencing payment processing difficulties, please follow the steps previously suggested (clear cache and cookies, then restart browser completely). This should allow the new gateway content to render.

As always, if you continue to have problems making credit card payments, please let us know. We’re here to help.

Difficulties with credit card payments? Try clearing browser cache

It seems that after our major site backend upgrade in July, some customers have experienced difficulty when processing card payments through our Stripe gateway. The issue manifests itself as a payment failure, sometimes with a message about “no card type selected.” (The gateway should provide a set of radio buttons to select the type of credit card being used. If this is not visible in order to make the selection, the payment cannot be processed, and is considered a failed payment.)

We are continuing to monitor this situation, as it is inconsistent. It appears, however, to be related (at least in some cases) to outdated browser cache (potentially from the older version of the Stripe payment gateway).

Should you experience problems when attempting to process a credit card payment on our site, please clear cache and cookies and then restart your browser and return to your shopping cart to check out. (Restart the browser completely; exit the application and start it again, not just the tab or window pointing to your shopping cart at Arca Noae.)

If the problem persists, please feel free to contact us for assistance.

Main site upgrade complete – all services available

Thanks to everyone who gave us the time required to get things properly sorted and address our site upgrade and login issues.

We are pleased to announce that as of yesterday afternoon, all services are back up and running as expected, and all logins work for the main site, the bug tracker, and the subscription RPM and WarpIN repositories.

If you have a subscription coming up for renewal, now is the time to see to it! Or, if you’ve heard about ArcaOS, but don’t yet have a license and a personalized ISO in English, German, Spanish, or Russian, now is the time to get one!

Status update on web services

Thanks for everyone’s patience throughout this process!

We are pleased to announce that the upgrade of the main site has gone well, and all services hosted on the main site (the store, customer portals, wiki, FAQ, static pages, etc.) should all be working as expected.

That said, due to a major security enhancement introduced in the most recent versions of WordPress (which runs this site), when an existing user logs into the main site, his or her password will be rehashed, and all new users will have their passwords hashed using the new algorithm. This means that until we complete some other changes, once these new password hashes have been stored in the database, logging into the bug tracker will not be possible. This same issue impacts subscription RPM and WarpIN repositories.

As soon as we have addressed these latest security changes, we will post a follow-up here. In the interim, new ISO requests, support renewals, and downloads from the Download and Renewals Center should all be working as expected.

Major website updates this afternoon

A breaking change by our credit card processor necessitated the upgrades of several of our website components today. This work is ongoing, and may impact ordering, payment, subscription downloads, and other functions of our main website over the next couple of days. Our other servers (bug tracker, code repository, RPM and WPI repositories, email, and FTP) are not impacted by these changes.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause. No bug reports are requested at this time. We will continue to keep everyone posted as we continue the process, however.

The Download Center is now the Download & Renewal Center

In January of 2023, we introduced the ArcaOS Download Center. After expanding this download center to include all subscriptions and their associated downloads, we renamed it simply the Download Center. However, because this portal has so much more functionality which may not be apparent without visiting it first, we have again modified the name to the Download & Renewal Center.

If you are not familiar with this handy tool, in the left navigation area you should see the Download & Renewal Center link. Clicking it will bring you to a consolidated listing of your ArcaOS licenses and associated downloads followed by your other subscriptions and their associated downloads. Need a new ISO? No problem. Just find your ArcaOS license with active support, and request a new one. In addition, no matter which type of subscription you have, you’ll be able to see at a glance when the subscription is set to expire, and have the ability to simply click a button to renew a subscription. That’s it!

So, if you are using an email client or web mail which for some reason does not properly provide you with a usable link in your renewal reminder email, simply visit your Download & Renewal Center, select the license with expiring support, and click Renew.

Dynamic Icons version 2.5.6 for ArcaOS released

Dynamic Icons has been updated to version 2.5.6, and is now available as part of the Support & Maintenance subscription for your ArcaOS product. Please log into your account and see your ArcaOS order details page to access your software. This update is available for 5.0 and 5.1 ArcaOS licensees with active Support & Maintenance.

Version 2.5.6 introduces a new caching scheme which essentially eliminates duplicated icons, significantly reducing memory overhead and dramatically improves desktop responsiveness. In addition, it is now possible to specify different icon size parameters for Tree and Icon views, a longstanding and often requested enhancement.

For those who rely on Dynamic Icons, this update is a must-have.

Many, many thanks to Rich Walsh for his hard work on this update.

If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation systems and haven’t yet moved up to ArcaOS, this is a great reason to do so now. If you’ve already made the switch, but haven’t renewed renewed your support subscription, this is also a good time. Not sure what’s coming next? Have a look at our product roadmap pages.

Why update or upgrade to ArcaOS 5.1.1?

If you’re holding off upgrading from ArcaOS 5.0 to 5.1 or updating from 5.1.0 to 5.1.1, here are a few things to consder to get you off the fence.

ArcaOS 5.1.1, over a year and a half in development, incorporates over 50 improvements and refinements, from smoother installation and better integration with other operating systems to better stability and usability of the system. Here are a few points to consider from the changelog:

Now available in four languages (with more on the way): English, German, Spanish, and Russian. More comfortable computing in your native language? This is all made easier with ArcaOS 5.1.1.
For existing English installations, upgrading from 5.0 or updating from 5.1.0 could not be easier. Back up your system, boot from the installation media, select the option to update/upgrade, and select your existing installation from the list. The rest of the procedure is automatic.
Multimedia support has been upgraded and enhanced. Not only has the multimedia subsystem been translated to the system language, but if you have a CD collection and a modern PC, ArcaOS now handles digital transfers and supports the GnuDB CD track identification database.
Both remote control of the ArcaOS system and control of other systems from ArcaOS has been greatly enhanced with a new VNC server and client, supporting features found in UltraVNC, such as chat, file transfer, and encryption for web clients.
Of course we’ve also included the latest ACPI and updated device drivers for USB, video, mouse (new, major revision), FAT32 filesystem (for better interoperability and data exchange with other operating systems), and even a new keyboard driver for better operation on more hardware.

In short, 5.1.1 is the most stable, best performing ArcaOS release to date, and provides a truly modern OS/2 computing experience for PCs. It’s also quite at home in a virtual environment, running under Oracle VirtualBox or VMware ESXi or Workstation.

Best of all, for ArcaOS 5.1 licensees with active support subscriptions, the update from 5.1.0 to 5.1.1 is absolutely free. Let your subscription lapse? You can still renew and get the 5.1.1 release for no additional charge. Still running 5.0? Now is a great time to take advantage of the steep upgrade discounts offered to upgraders.

Arca Noae Managing Member, Lewis Rosenthal, to speak at Warpstock Europe 2025

It’s official: Arca Noae’s Managing Member, Lewis Rosenthal, is scheduled be live and in person at Warpstock Europe 2025 in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, May 16-18, to speak about Arca Noae, ArcaOS, new features in version 5.1.1, and future plans for the OS.

More information on this informative event is available on the Warpstock Europe website.