No.
ArcaOS requires an x86 CPU, or one which provides x86 services (such as x86-64 CPUs). These include processors from Intel and AMD. More specifically, ArcaOS requires an Intel Pentium Pro or higher or AMD K6 or higher CPU. (Vortex86 processors are not compatible.)
The Raspberry Pi utilizes and ARM processor, which is not compatible with ArcaOS.
For a full list of hardware requirements, see this page.
The short answer is that nothing is wrong. Some systems, when configured to boot from USB devices first will always reboot to the ArcaOS installation USB stickt, and not the hard disk, even when the hard disk has been selected from that menu. The good news is that the workaround is easy: simply remove the USB stick, allow the system to start booting from the hard disk, and reinsert the stick.
Alternatively, if your system provides a key to press to access a temporary boot device menu, press that, select the hard disk, and allow the system to boot normally.
More information is available on this wiki page.
You may reinstate any ArcaOS Support & Maintenance subscription, no matter how long ago it expired, on the order details page for your original ArcaOS order from your customer portal. To access the order details page:
If your subscription expired less than six months earlier, the standard renewal fee will apply, and will extend your subscription for the remainder of the one year term. If more than six months, a higher reinstatement fee will apply, but this is still less than the purchase of a new ArcaOS license, and will provide one full year of support and maintenance from the date of renewal.
Normally, the INI File eXaminer (IFX) runs silently during the boot process to scan and create unattended backups of the two critical desktop INI files, OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI. If errors are detected, it will prompt to either continue to the desktop or to restore one of its backups. However, there may be situations where even valid INI files should be “rolled back” to a previous point. To do this:
During the boot process, before the IFX banner is displayed in the boot messages, press and hold a <Shift> key. Timing is critical: too soon, and something else running during the boot process may interpret the key; too late, and the key may be missed. On very fast systems, it may be easier to step through the boot process first, by pressing <Alt>-<F4> at the boot blob (the while block which appears next to “OS/2” at the very beginning of the boot cycle). This will pause at each device driver load and system RUN or CALL statement (though not when loading base device drivers very early in the boot process).
Note that IFX runs independently of the traditional Workplace Shell archiving option, which may be configured on the Archives tab of the desktop Properties notebook. The archives created with that system may be recovered form the Recovery Choices screen, accessible by pressing <Alt>-<F1> at the boot blob.
There are two different types of Startup folders available in ArcaOS:
The procedure for interrupting each of these is different.
To prevent the traditional Startup folder from processing its content during boot, edit CONFIG.SYS to change:
SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY,REBOOTONLY
to read:
SET RESTARTOBJECTS=NO
Reboot the system.
To stop the ArcaOS Desktop Startup Folder from processing its content:
At desktop init, before the wallpaper or any objects have been rendered, but just as the background color is presented, press and hold a <Shift> key to bring up the Startup panic dialog. Disable the folder processing from there.
Note that timing is critical for the keypress to be processed. Too soon, and IFX may interpret this as the menu request before the desktop is started; too late, and the Startup panic dialog will be missed. Also, generally, if the key is pressed during boot and then released and pressed again, it will be ignored. Likewise, if the key is pressed and held and another key is pressed, it will be ignored. (There are exceptions based upon what type of keyboard is attached to the system; these are general guidelines.)
These two types of folders (and there may be multiples of each type; these directions will stop all instances of either one from running) operate completely independent of one another.
ArcaOS includes a powerful SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessor) kernel with support for up to 64 physical processors or physical processor cores. Processor hyperthreading is not recommended under ArcaOS.
Yes. In addition to supporting internal floppy disk drives for those systems which still have them, the USB mass storage device driver (USBMSD.ADD) provided with ArcaOS includes support for a range of removable disk devices, including external hard drives and solid state drives, USB flash drives (USB sticks or thumb drives), cartridge drives (Zip/Jazz, etc.), and floppy drives (5¼”, 3½”, LS-120, LS-240, etc.).
More information regarding configuration of this support may be found in the ArcaOS wiki, specifically, here and here.
An active ArcaOS Support & Maintenance subscription for the same major and minor version of ArcaOS (5.0, 5.1, 5.2, etc.) will include access to the latest maintenance release for that major and minor version, without the need to purchase any additional software licensing.
Thus, if you purchased ArcaOS 5.0 when first released, and have kept your ArcaOS Support & Maintenance subscription in force all along, you would have had access to download ISOs for 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, etc. simply by accessing the ArcaOS Download Center from your customer portal. To access the ArcaOS Download Center:
Click the Download ISO button next to the ArcaOS license with active support & maintenance.for the version you would like to download. You should receive an email advising you that your ISO is being created, and a short time later, an email containing your unique download link.
An image file of a CD or DVD (or Blu-ray Disc) is commonly called an ISO file or ISO image. It is so named for the ISO 9660 filesystem used for CD media, but the term also applies to the other optical formats.
Sometimes, it is useful to not only burn ISO files to disc but go the other way around, for purposes of transmission or more portable archival storage.
DVD Tools as provided with ArcaOS does not include a direct ISO creation utility, however, the full DVD/CD Toys suite, does. This applet is called Save Image, and works similarly to the Copy Disc applet in both DVD Tools and DVD/CD Toys. (DVD/CD Toys includes a number of very useful features for handling audio discs as well as other handy functions.)
For occasional use or for those who are comfortable at the command line, ArcaOS does include CDRTools, which includes readcd.exe. To use readcd.exe to create an ISO image, open an OS/2 window and type:
readcd dev=0,1,0 -f=<filename.iso> -retries=32 <Enter>
where the value for dev corresponds to the address of your CD, DVD, or Blu-ray drive (you may get the address by using the Device Info applet in the DVD Tools directory) and <filename.iso> is the full path and filename of the ISO file to be created.
DVD/CD Toys is much more user friendly, and if image creation will be a regular activity, it is highly recommended.
On systems with no existing RPM & YUM installation, ANPM should prompt to download and install the base package (the YUM-RPM Bootstrap) upon first program start. The bootstrap itself is a compressed archive of a basic Unix Compatibility Subsystem, with enough functionality for RPM and YUM to function, thus providing the required “back end” for ANPM to install, update, downgrade, and remove installed packages.
Once downloaded, you will be asked to select the drive to be designated as UNIXROOT, and the requisite directories and files contained in the bootstrap will be placed under the root of that volume.
ArcaOS includes a useful Unix Compatibility Subsystem, and does not require the bootstrap to be installed except in rare instances as directed by Support. Likewise, most later releases of eComStation already have a usable Unix Compatibility Subsystem. Early eCS versions and OS/2 Warp 4 which have not had a bootstrap applied to them will need this. Upon first run, ANPM will determine whether the bootstrap is needed, and will download and install it. The bootstrap does not need to be manually downloaded and extracted under any circumstances.