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:
- Visit your customer portal on the main Arca Noae website. If not logged in, you may do so when accessing the above link.
- From the navigation links on the left, select ArcaOS Download Center to view the list of your ArcaOS licenses and associated downloads.
- Locate the ArcaOS license for the subscription you would like to renew, and click the Renew button. This will add the renewal to your shopping cart.
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 traditional Workplace Shell Startup folder, by default named “Startup” and located in the Computer folder on the desktop; and, if ArcaOS Desktop has been installed,
- the ArcaOS Desktop Startup Folder (default name) which is created on the desktop when the Create ArcaOS Desktop Startup folder button has been used on the Startup page of the desktop Properties notebook (by default, this folder will present a status bar during desktop initialization).
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.
In a word, no.
There are many reasons as to why ArcaOS is and will remain a 32-bit operating system. Mainly, ArcaOS is based on – and indeed includes at its core – 32-bit OS/2 Warp 4.52, as IBM last built it. ArcaOS has certain functions which take advantage of memory space normally outside the address range accessible by 32-bit systems utilizing Programmable Address Space (or PAE), this is not the same as actual 64-bit computing.
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.
ArcaOS 5 includes the OpenJDK runtime environment (JRE). To install the software development kit (SDK) which includes the compiler, visit the Netlabs Trac page for OpenJDK, here.
We can surely look at it. We’ve done this for other companies where a particular component has been replaced by a newer model and the existing device driver is not capable of handling the new hardware. The component manufacturer may not have a compelling business reason to supply an OS/2 driver for the component, but perhaps there is still a need to access it from OS/2 or ArcaOS.
Contact us to discuss your needs. We work under short or long term contract, with full non-disclosure agreements. In short, your information is confidential, and we are dedicated to keeping OS/2 running.
We also provide extended support agreements for companies and enterprises in need of OS/2 talent to maintain their infrastructure.
We can surely look at it. We’ve done this for other companies, both on bare metal and in virtualized environments. Often, we’ve found that the original installation packages (if they ever did exist) are nowhere to be found. We can still work with what you have, given a functional image of an example system.
Contact us to discuss your needs. We work under short or long term contract, with full non-disclosure agreements. In short, your information is confidential, and we are dedicated to making existing OS/2 software continue to be useful.
We also provide extended support agreements for companies and enterprises in need of OS/2 talent to maintain their infrastructure.
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:
- Visit your customer portal on the main Arca Noae website. If not logged in, you may do so when accessing the above link.
- From the navigation links on the left, select ArcaOS Download Center to view the list of your ArcaOS licenses and associated downloads.
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.