Tag Archives: warpstock

Arca Noae Status Update: Wi-Fi Drivers

We are aware that many people have been asking about availability of drivers for new wireless networking adapters. If you’ve followed our driver roadmap and our Warpstock presentations, you might be aware of the fact that these drivers are still in development.

Wi-Fi drivers are by their nature considerably more complex pieces of code than wired ethernet drivers. As a result, they take a considerably longer time to build than wired ethernet drivers. The complexity and multi-functionality requirements of Wi-Fi drivers, and the radically different architecture of unix (or Linux) means that Wi-Fi drivers cannot be created by simply compiling a FreeBSD driver for OS/2 as is generally possible for MultiMac wired ethernet drivers. Wi-Fi drivers need to be developed specifically for OS/2, with the capability to handle expected wireless communication protocols and be manageable by XWLAN, the de facto standard for Wi-Fi device and profile management on the OS/2 platform. All of this work is extremely time consuming and requires comprehensive knowledge of Wi-Fi operations and OS/2 networking.

ArcaOS 5.1 is the first version of OS/2 capable of not only booting on modern UEFI hardware with or without the availability of a Compatibility Support Module (CSM), but also the first to be able to access – and indeed, boot from – GUID Partition Table (GPT) disk layouts. All of this work was prioritized above Wi-Fi driver development, under our guiding philosophy of “if the system can’t boot, not much else matters.”

As addressed in our FAQ, the standard workaround for lack of a Wi-Fi driver is to use a small wireless bridge device. Indeed, this is not a solution, but a workaround until such time as Wi-Fi drivers are available for more modern chipsets.

We understand that wireless drivers are very important to a some of our users. We are doing what we can to address that need while simultaneously continuing to improve the ArcaOS experience overall. We appreciate everyone’s continued patience.

Warpstock 2023 videos now available

Videos of Warpstock 2023 presentations from earlier this month, including Arca Noae staff and developers featuring the latest ArcaOS news and how-to sessions are now available on YouTube in the WarpEvents channel.

Video topics include:

  • ArcaOS Roadmap
  • High-Resolution OS/2: The Sequel
  • ArcaOS 5.1
  • Is ArcaOS a DOS Gaming Mecca?
  • ArcaOS under and next to VMWare ESXi
  • UEFI vs Traditional BIOS: Which is Right?
  • …and much more

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a brief post to send our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends. The Arca Noae family is sincerely grateful for all the support you show for us and for our mutual platform of choice, ArcaOS. It was great to see and hear from so many of you while we were at Warpstock in Orlando, earlier this month.

We have news concerning the upcoming release of ArcaOS 5.1. Our required infrastructure enhancements continue, and we anticipate the release of ArcaOS 5.1 in the very near future. Look for a post here concerning upgrade and new license purchase options.

Be safe, and enjoy this Thanksgiving in good health with close friends and family.

Join Us at Warpstock 2022 in Orlando

Warpstock 2022 will be live once again, November 4-6 at the Country Inn & Suites, Orlando Airport. Arca Noae staff and developers will be there with the latest ArcaOS news and how-to sessions, as well as a host of other OS/2 experts ready and willing to share their knowledge and expertise.

Register before August 1 and receive a $30 Early Bird discount on a full conference registration or $20 on a daily conference registration! Spouses/family members/guests/office mates attending sessions also receive great discounts, and non-attending guests are FREE. Students with valid student ID are welcome to attend sessions at no charge, with full benefits! (This is a great opportunity for Computer Science majors and aspiring young developers and engineers to gain some exposure to a platform which is still in use in the manufacturing, finance, and insurance sectors around the globe today.)

Major topics of discussion this year will center around ArcaOS 5.1 and new disk and installation options. As always, we welcome questions and feedback from both new and experienced users.

Warpstock 2021 Online

Tune in to Warpstock 2021 Online

Warpstock 2021 will happen online at 12:00pm EDT (16:00 UTC) this  Saturday, September 18.

Sessions will be a mix of live and prerecorded presentations, in 45-50-minute slots, scheduled to start on the hour.

David Azarewicz, Lewis Rosenthal, and Alex Taylor will be among those presenting this year on a variety of topics of interest concerning ArcaOS 5.0 and 5.1, device drivers, UEFI, GPT, and more.

Questions may be posed via YouTube Chat as well as IRC during the event.

The WarpEvents YouTube channel is the place to watch the event stream.

The URL for the #warpstock IRC channel is: ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/warpstock (TLS encrypted),
or irc://irc.libera.chat/warpstock (plain text), or https://web.libera.chat/  (web interface, type #warpstock into Channel field).

The conference is entirely free this year, and no registration is necessary.

Warpstock Europe 2021

Join us for Warpstock Europe 2021 Online

Warpstock Europe 2021 will begin online at 14:00 UTC this coming Saturday, June 5. (For quick reference, that’s 10am EDT/7am PDT in the US and Canada, and 16:00 CET.)

Sessions will be a mix of live and prerecorded presentations, with the presenters available to answer questions in realtime, submitted during the event via IRC. See the Warpstock Europe website for details.

The Warpstock Europe YouTube channel is the place to watch the event stream. This channel should be viewable with any ArcaOS release, using Firefox or SeaMonkey, or any other device or OS you might want to use.

IRC Channel on Freenode: #WSE2021.

The conference is entirely free this year, and no registration is necessary.

Both Lewis Rosenthal and Alex Taylor will be among those presenting this year.

Warpstock 2020 Online

Tune in to Warpstock 2020 Online

Warpstock 2020 will happen online at 9:00am EST (14:00 UTC) this  Saturday, November 7, for those in North America and western Europe, and sessions will repeat in a second block beginning at 8:00pm EST (01:00 UTC, Sunday, November 8) for those in the Asia/Pacific region and eastern Europe. Each block should only be 3-4 hours in length.

Sessions will be a mix of live and prerecorded presentations, with the presenters available to answer questions in realtime, submitted during the event via IRC or YouTube chat.

The WarpEvents YouTube channel is the place to watch the event stream. This channel should be viewable with any ArcaOS release, using Firefox or SeaMonkey, or any other device or OS you might want to use.

IRC Channel: irc://freenode/warpstock

The conference is entirely free this year, and no registration is necessary.

Both David Azarewicz and Lewis Rosenthal will be among those presenting this year.

Warpstock 2019, November 8-10, Orlando, Florida

Join Us at Warpstock 2019 in Orlando

Warpstock 2019 will be held November 8-10 at the Country Inn & Suites, Orlando Airport. Arca Noae staff and developers will be there with the latest ArcaOS news and how-to sessions, as well as a host of other OS/2 experts ready and willing to share their knowledge and expertise.

Register in the next 24 hours (before June 1) and receive a $30 Early Bird discount on a full conference registration or $20 on a daily conference registration! Spouses/family members/guests/office mates attending sessions also receive great discounts, and non-attending guests are FREE. Students with valid student ID are welcome to attend sessions at no charge, with full benefits! (This is a great opportunity for Computer Science majors and aspiring young developers and engineers to gain some exposure to a platform which is still in use in the manufacturing, finance, and insurance sectors around the globe today.)

Warpstock 2018, Calgary

Arca Noae at Warpstock 2018 in Calgary…and an ArcaOS Sale

This year’s Warpstock event is scheduled for September 14-16 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.There will be several sessions devoted to getting the most out of ArcaOS and OS/2, in general.

To celebrate this year’s event, Arca Noae will be running a sale on ArcaOS personal and commercial licenses for the duration of Warpstock, Friday through Sunday. This is a great time to get in on this fresh and exciting OS/2 release or to pick up additional licenses for more stations. ArcaOS 5.0.3 was recently released, and the first beta for 5.0.4 is already in testing. Version 5.1 is scheduled for release in 2019, with a host of new features planned, including NLVs for several popular languages.

More information about Warpstock, its history, past speakers and presentations, and this year’s event may be found on the Warpstock site.

If you can’t join us in Calgary, be sure to watch the live feed on the WarpEvents page on YouTube.

Once there, locate the WarpStock 2018 Live Stream URL.

Users with OS/2 can watch the stream in two ways:

  1. Firefox with Flash pointing to the WarpEvents site; or
  2. Grab the YouTube URL and play it in VLC (preferred; get the latest VLC, ported by KO Myung-Hun, from Hobbes).

To ask questions during the live event, use the #netlabs channel on IRC.

There will be up to date information on OS/2 World and the following social networks:

Warpstock 2017, Toronto, Ontario

Want to learn more about using ArcaOS? Come to Warpstock 2017 in Toronto!

Warpstock as an event has been around since 1997. Since its inception, the goal of Warpstock has been to educate and expose users to OS/2, its available software, and how to get the most out of the environment. In addition, Warpstock has always been a great venue for meeting developers and engineers involved with OS/2 and its derivative operating systems, including eComStation and ArcaOS.

This year’s Warpstock event is scheduled for September 8-10 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Several key members of the ArcaOS development team will be on hand to present, answer questions, and take suggestions to improve the operating system as we continue to move toward the 5.1 release, planned for later next year.

More information about Warpstock, its history, past speakers and presentations, and this year’s event may be found on Warpstock’s site: http://www.warpstock.org.

Come join us in Toronto!