Installing Merlin Convenience Pack 1.0

Merlin Convenience Pack is IBM's first release of their Convenience Pack version of OS/2 Warp 4. Released in November 2000, the software runs on Intel personal computers and servers. This version of the installation has been created especially for use with Blonde Guy's Suntan Special.

My copy of the Merlin Convenience Pack comes on two (2) CD-Roms. I refer to these CD-Roms as the Boot CD and the Install CD.

Installation Procedure

1. Boot the computer from the Boot CD. The first screen tells you to insert the Install CD. Do so and press Enter. The program will load from the Install CD and the Welcome Screen will appear.
2. If anything needs to be prepared on the computer, this is a good time to do it. You may access a full screen command window by pressing F3. If you do so, type "exit" and press Enter to return to the Welcome Screen. Otherwise, press Enter to go on.
3. The OS/2 Warp Installation screen will appear. Press Enter to go on.
4. The Installation Volume Selection screen will appear. Unless it already has the correct volume specified, select "2. Specify a different volume" and press Enter.
5. The Modifying Volumes Warning screen will appear. Press Enter to dismiss this warning.
6. The Partition Table corrupt screen may appear. It did on my system because I have an internal zip drive. This warning usually can be ignored. Press Enter to dismiss this warning.
7. The System is not able to use this disk message may appear. This warning accompanies the previous warning on my system. It is probably referring to the zip disk. This warning can be ignored. Press Enter to dismiss the warning.
8. The next screen explains that a volume of the following size must be set installable. Note the size when selecting a volume for installation. The minimum size is much too small for a proper Suntan Special installation volume. Be generous if possible with the installation partition. I like to provide 3 Gb as a volume size, but that is to allow the applications to also reside on the installation volume. Press Enter to go on.
9. The Logical Volume Manager screen now appears. If the volume you wish to use as the installation volume already exists, select it, and press Enter. Otherwise, create the volume, select it and press Enter.
10. Select the menu option to set the volume installable, and press Enter. Then press the F3 key to exit. Select "Save changes and Exit" and press Enter.
11. The Installation Volume Selection screen will appear again, but this time with the appropriate volume selected. Select "1. Accept the Volume" and press Enter.
12. The Formatting the Installation Volume screen will appear. If this is a newly created volume, then a long format would be appropriate. If this is an existing volume, then a quick format is probably enough. Unless a long format will make you feel more secure, select "3. Perform a Quick Format" and press Enter.
13. The Select a File System screen will appear. Do not even consider FAT. Select "1. HPFS" and press Enter.
14. The Attention: volume may contain data screen will appear, even if the volume definately does not contain data. This is the last installation screen for a while. When you press Enter, the installation program will format the installation volume, copy a lot of files to it, and then reboot the computer.
15. When the computer restarts, the display will be handled by Presentation Manager, and the windows will be the familiar OS/2 GUI. The System Configuration screen will appear. Set the Primary Display to VGA, the CD-ROM Device support to IDE-CDROM, and the Multimedia Device support to None. When the selections are correct, press the Next button.
16. The System Configuration (cont.) screen will appear. Make sure APM is enabled (unless your computer does not support APM, which is unlikely,) then press Next.
17. The Country selection screen will appear. Select the appropriate country and press Next.
18. The Select System Default Printer screen will appear. Select Do not select a default printer and press Next.
19. The Options screen will appear. Most of the selections can be left to their default values. However, press the System Utilities button and ensure that all options are selected. Also, press the Tools and Games button and select Optional Bitmaps. Press next to continue.
20. The Installing OS/2 Warp 4 screen will appear. Press Next.
21. The information screen will appear. Fill in all of the information. On my system, it was filled in already. I do not know how it does this. Press Next.
22. The select services to install screen will appear. I left everything in its default state. Press Next.
23. The configuration screen will appear. This is a screen with a tree of options on the left and a frame with specific parameters for each option on the right. There are a number of tasks to complete on this page. The tasks will be completed from the bottom of the screen and working up to the top. The items on this list make sense only if you have a network adapter.
24. Click the Network Adapters and Protocol Services icon on the tree. At this time, insert the diskette containing your network adapter driver, or be sure of the exact location on the hard drive. Click on Other Adapter, set the location, and let the program copy the driver files. If you have more than one Network Adapter, you will need to repeat the process.
25. Select the TCP/IP Services icon on the tree. Select DHCP Server on LAN if you have that, otherwise fill in the following fields on the right hand side. TCP/IP address is the address for your first (or only) network card. Subnet mask is the mask for your LAN (most commonly 255.255.255.0) The router is the IP address of your router or gateway. The hostname is the name of this computer for TCP/IP purposes. I try to use the same name for TCP/IP and NetBIOS. Leave the rest blank.
26. Select the Username and Password icon on the tree. Fill in the user name and password for NetBIOS networking.
27. Select the File and Print Client icon on the tree. Fill in the Workstation name, the Description and the Workgroup name.
28. You may click the other icons and look at the values, but nothing else needs to be configured. Press the Install button.
29. The configuration screen will appear. Press OK to start the installation. The installation will continue for some time, and will restart the computer.
30. The computer will restart with the Workplace shell. The Java 1.3 Install screen will appear. Select No. If you have MCP, you also have a more recent version of Java, which should be installed instead. The installation of MCP is now complete.
31. This is a good time to make a backup of the installation. I usually have backup software on another boot partition, and I will use it at this time.

Result

The resulting installation consumes 241.4 Mb according to my backup software, Back Again/2000.