• eCS won't boot : Driver not licensed?? (Used to work fine)

    From atomic.frog@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 16 20:10:56 2019
    My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.

    It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _
    is_ eComstation and I do have a license.

    It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.

    I have a clone of the drive (unfortunately much older, so data not up to date) and when I plug that into the laptop, it has no trouble booting to eCS.

    What are my options? I'm hesitant to re-install. Typically I put all my data on a separate logical drive but the pain of having to re-install all my apps is a big headache (plus I'm not sure if some of the data is on the boot drive).

    Alt-F1 will come up, but booting to just the command prompt won't even work, it comes up with the same message.

    Any tips? Suggestions? I'm not opposed to buying ArcaOS if that can somehow recover my system by re-installing. I still have the eCS disks (I think...?) but not sure what I can do to recover, hesitant to put it in yet.

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  • From rklein46@roadrunner.com@21:1/5 to atomic.frog@gmail.com on Wed Jan 16 21:45:31 2019
    ALT-F2 at the boot blob should list the drivers as it tries to load
    them. This may help you determine which driver it is having trouble
    with. But I would strongly suggest that you download DFSee (Windows,
    Linux, bootable CD image, or one of the other options) and copy/clone
    the partition(s) you are having problems with, so you have a good backup
    before you make any changes. If you can boot the older clone of the
    system, and access the bad drive externally, you could do an XCOPY /H /O
    /T /S /E /R /V to another partition to preserve your data.

    Ron Klein

    In <066be390-c1b0-4b9f-8b5e-2b449f311e60@googlegroups.com>, on 01/16/19
    at 08:10 PM, atomic.frog@gmail.com said:



    My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS
    as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit,
    openSUSE and PCBSD.

    It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently
    had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot
    eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed
    for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This _is_ eComstation and I do
    have a license.

    It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and
    then stops.

    I have a clone of the drive (unfortunately much older, so data not up
    to date) and when I plug that into the laptop, it has no trouble
    booting to eCS.

    What are my options? I'm hesitant to re-install. Typically I put all my
    data on a separate logical drive but the pain of having to re-install
    all my apps is a big headache (plus I'm not sure if some of the data is
    on the boot drive).

    Alt-F1 will come up, but booting to just the command prompt won't even
    work, it comes up with the same message.

    Any tips? Suggestions? I'm not opposed to buying ArcaOS if that can
    somehow recover my system by re-installing. I still have the eCS disks
    (I think...?) but not sure what I can do to recover, hesitant to put it
    in yet.
    --
    ----------------------------------------------------------- rklein46@roadrunner.com
    MR/2 Internet Cruiser Edition for OS/2 v2.67
    ArcaOS 5.0
    -----------------------------------------------------------


    --- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Pete@21:1/5 to atomic.frog@gmail.com on Thu Jan 17 15:16:52 2019
    Hi

    atomic.frog@gmail.com wrote:
    My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.

    It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2. This
    _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.

    It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.


    This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for
    the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

    If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver
    could decide that it is not installed on ecs.

    I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are
    no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are unmangled text.


    Regards

    Pete




    I have a clone of the drive (unfortunately much older, so data not up to date) and when I plug that into the laptop, it has no trouble booting to eCS.

    What are my options? I'm hesitant to re-install. Typically I put all my data on a separate logical drive but the pain of having to re-install all my apps is a big headache (plus I'm not sure if some of the data is on the boot drive).

    Alt-F1 will come up, but booting to just the command prompt won't even work, it comes up with the same message.

    Any tips? Suggestions? I'm not opposed to buying ArcaOS if that can somehow recover my system by re-installing. I still have the eCS disks (I think...?) but not sure what I can do to recover, hesitant to put it in yet.


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From atomic.frog@gmail.com@21:1/5 to Pete on Thu Jan 17 21:01:06 2019
    d


    On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 7:16:54 AM UTC-8, Pete wrote:
    Hi

    a****com wrote:
    My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.

    It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2.
    This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.

    It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.


    This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for
    the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

    If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could decide that it is not installed on ecs.

    I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are
    no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are unmangled text.


    Hmm...that sounds like it might be the easier option. I will try to boot from my even older T40p with that as an external drive. I'm a bit hesitant to boot from the cloned drive because I think I've seen funny things happen before doing that since I've
    mounted a drive with exactly the same objects duplicated...

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From atomic.frog@gmail.com@21:1/5 to atomi...@gmail.com on Sat Feb 2 18:43:09 2019
    Ok, still no luck.
    I'm not sure which driver thinks it's borked, it scrolls through all of them and then clears the screen.
    I see the Integrated ACPI Support Driver for eComstation v 3.18 has loaded
    and then it is
    Power Management for eComstation v1.31
    and then it says "This driver is licensed for use only in conjunction with eComstation..."

    It might be the JFS driver if I recall what a good boot looks like, but then if that's the case, how did it get this far?

    I tried booting with my good disk and this "bad" one connected as external but it only sees my data partition (also JFS). I tried booting with eCS 2.1 CD#1 but same problem, the C:\ drive where everything boots from doesn't seem to be visible.

    Any other tips?
    Can I re-install eCS but no format? I have DFSee but not sure what could be broken...this disk is good, all the other OS boot fine. eCS starts the boot at least and the last I recall this computer had always been booting eCS just fine (it was my primary
    OS until I switched laptops).



    On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 9:01:07 PM UTC-8, atomi...@gmail.com wrote:
    d


    On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 7:16:54 AM UTC-8, Pete wrote:
    Hi

    a****com wrote:
    My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.

    It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2.
    This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.

    It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.


    This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

    If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could decide that it is not installed on ecs.

    I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are unmangled text.


    Hmm...that sounds like it might be the easier option. I will try to boot from my even older T40p with that as an external drive. I'm a bit hesitant to boot from the cloned drive because I think I've seen funny things happen before doing that since I've
    mounted a drive with exactly the same objects duplicated...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dave Yeo@21:1/5 to atomic.frog@gmail.com on Sat Feb 2 20:37:56 2019
    atomic.frog@gmail.com wrote:
    Ok, still no luck.
    I'm not sure which driver thinks it's borked, it scrolls through all of them and then clears the screen.
    I see the Integrated ACPI Support Driver for eComstation v 3.18 has loaded and then it is
    Power Management for eComstation v1.31
    and then it says "This driver is licensed for use only in conjunction with eComstation..."

    It might be the JFS driver if I recall what a good boot looks like, but then if that's the case, how did it get this far?

    The early boot is taken care of by the minifsd (file system driver)
    which just has enough intelligence to load files from \ \os2 and
    \os2\boot. IIRC, it loads the ACPI.PSD and then the basedev's eventually loading the JFS support and handing it off to it.
    JFS.IFS should be licensed for all OS/2 versions.


    I tried booting with my good disk and this "bad" one connected as external but it only sees my data partition (also JFS). I tried booting with eCS 2.1 CD#1 but same problem, the C:\ drive where everything boots from doesn't seem to be visible.

    Any other tips?

    Have you tried running LVM from the eCS CD? Almost sounds like a LVM
    problem or a partition is not aligned properly. You could try running
    DFSee and see what and if any errors it finds. If you payed for DFSee,
    you can ask Jan for help.

    Can I re-install eCS but no format? I have DFSee but not sure what could be broken...this disk is good, all the other OS boot fine. eCS starts the boot at least and the last I recall this computer had always been booting eCS just fine (it was my
    primary OS until I switched laptops).

    Not if it can't see the partition.
    Dave

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  • From Barbara@21:1/5 to atomic.frog@gmail.com on Sun Feb 3 21:31:52 2019
    On Sun, 3 Feb 2019 02:43:09 UTC, atomic.frog@gmail.com wrote:

    Ok, still no luck.
    I'm not sure which driver thinks it's borked, it scrolls through all of them and then clears the screen.
    I see the Integrated ACPI Support Driver for eComstation v 3.18 has loaded and then it is
    Power Management for eComstation v1.31
    and then it says "This driver is licensed for use only in conjunction with eComstation..."

    It might be the JFS driver if I recall what a good boot looks like, but then if that's the case, how did it get this far?

    I tried booting with my good disk and this "bad" one connected as external but it only sees my data partition (also JFS). I tried booting with eCS 2.1 CD#1 but same problem, the C:\ drive where everything boots from doesn't seem to be visible.

    Any other tips?
    Can I re-install eCS but no format? I have DFSee but not sure what could be broken...this disk is good, all the other OS boot fine. eCS starts the boot at least and the last I recall this computer had always been booting eCS just fine (it was my
    primary OS until I switched laptops).



    On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 9:01:07 PM UTC-8, atomi...@gmail.com wrote:
    d


    On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 7:16:54 AM UTC-8, Pete wrote:
    Hi

    a****com wrote:
    My machine is Thinkpad T61p, it had been my daily driver and I used eCS as my primary OS. It actually quad-boots eCS (JFS), Win7-32bit, openSUSE and PCBSD.

    It went idle for a while when I upgraded to a new laptop but recently had to boot it up to grab some data. However, when it tries to boot eCS, it stops saying that the driver (which driver?) is only licensed for eComstation and won't work on OS/2.
    This _is_ eComstation and I do have a license.

    It got past ACPI? Says 1 processor active and then something else and then stops.


    This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

    If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could decide that it is not installed on ecs.

    I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are unmangled text.


    Hmm...that sounds like it might be the easier option. I will try to boot from my even older T40p with that as an external drive. I'm a bit hesitant to boot from the cloned drive because I think I've seen funny things happen before doing that since I'
    ve mounted a drive with exactly the same objects duplicated...


    I can second Dave's LVM suggestion. A few months ago I had a very similar problem when 3 out of 4 of my bootable partitions would boot, but one refused. All had worked perfectly for 2 or 3 years until this happened.

    My fix was to insert the eCS installation CD as if I were going to wipe and reinstall the operating system. Then when it came to the part early in the install where you could switch to the "Management Console" I had LVM "Check Partition - Write corrections to disk". Then of course abort the install. I'm
    sure there are easier ways to use LVM.

    I'd also had Dfsee checks done, and for some reason it did not catch the LVM error. Or if it did, I didn't know how to read it and make the correction from there.

    I believe the boot process makes up things when it gets lost, and pointing out something like a bad driver just means it can't find it.



    --
    Barbara

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  • From Andreas Schnellbacher@21:1/5 to Pete on Sat Mar 9 12:34:46 2019
    On 17.01.19 16:16, Pete wrote:

    This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for the file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

    If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could decide that it is not installed on ecs.

    I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are unmangled text.

    Another guess: I find it more likely that these files are involved:

    ?:\OS2\ecsreg.ini
    ?:\OS2\ecsreg11.ini (since eCS 1.1)
    ?:\ecs\dll\SECURIT2.DLL

    --
    Andreas Schnellbacher

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  • From atomic.frog@gmail.com@21:1/5 to Andreas Schnellbacher on Sun Mar 10 20:02:49 2019
    On Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 3:34:49 AM UTC-8, Andreas Schnellbacher wrote:
    On 17.01.19 16:16, Pete wrote:

    This is a but of a guess but the only way I know of that eCS can be distinguished from OS/2 would be for an eCS driver/software to check for the
    file [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG

    If the above file is missing - or maybe corrupt - I guess an ecs driver could
    decide that it is not installed on ecs.

    I think the 1st thing I would do is a chkdsk just to make sure there are no filesystem problems then double check the existence of the [BootDrive]:\ecs\ECS_INST.FLG file and that the contents of the file are unmangled text.

    Another guess: I find it more likely that these files are involved:

    ?:\OS2\ecsreg.ini
    ?:\OS2\ecsreg11.ini (since eCS 1.1)
    ?:\ecs\dll\SECURIT2.DLL

    So I cloned the drive first, then booted with the eCS 2.1 CD and tried to fiddle with the various recovery tools and options

    There did seem to be some LVM error so I let it fix that and re-booted. Still no luck, but then I noticed that in the process it had also somehow lost a drive letter, so I re-assigned C: to the drive and re-booted again... and success! Up and running
    again!

    Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

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