eComStation 2.0 RC1 README

!!! WHEN TESTING BETA SOFTWARE, ALWAYS BE SURE TO HAVE A TRIED AND TESTED

Thank you for your interest in testing the latest version of eComStation 2.0.
A great deal of effort has been made to improve the usefulness to the
product. Please see the 'WHATSNEW.TXT' document for an overview of all
changes.

This product is available for download to all registered users of Software
Subscription Services for eComStation. For more information, please
visit: http://www.ecomstation.com/subscription/∞

This release offers a number of improvements that we would like to have
tested on a larger number of configurations. These are:


Preboot harddisk integrity check

There are several situations which may cause installation problems with LVM
in the install process. In this release, it is possible to disable the
integrity check at page 2 (miscellaneous) of the eComStation installer
preboot menu.

- PBR problems: Set when either the 'hidden sectors' or the geometry fields
in a bootsector do not match the position of the partition or the used
disk-geometry.

- CHS problems: Set when the CHS-values in a partition-table for a
partition do NOT match the current disk-geometry used by the operating
system. This may lead to error from (mini)LVM about the disk being
'corrupt'. Another possible cause for this error is that if there are
any partitions present on a disk that have NO LVM information at all,
and are of a type that gets a default driveletter assigned in that case
(by OS2LVM.DMD/OS2DASD.CMD)

- Boot problems: Set when extended-containers are marked ACTIVE, when
multiple primaries are marked ACTIVE, or if any non-standard flagbyte
values are used in the partitiontable. These errors MAY lead to the
system failing to boot properly!

These will now be detected before the installer starts and an option to fix
them is being presented. If you choose not to fix them, you are not able
to proceed the installation.

This technology uses a custom DFSee 'engine' and should be safe, however,
neither Serenity Systems International nor Fsys can be held liable for any
damages that may occur to the data on your harddrive.


Harddisk volume resizing

This version has a custom DFSee engine that enables reliable RESIZING of FAT32
and NTFS filesystems to allow shrinking an existing Windows installation to
make room for eComStation on the same system. While this functionality has
been available in DFSee (and the OEM Engine) for quite a while, it was NOT
considered reliable enough to offer to end users during eComStation install.
Starting with DFSee release 7.12, and the OEM Engine based on that, the
reliability of resizing has improved to the point where it can be used
without hesitation for this purpose. A Windows NTFS filesystem resized by
DFSee will pass a subsequent Windows CHKDSK with NO ERRORS now. The engine
included in RC1 is at level 8.08.

The GUI to this tool has been updated and is now using a graphical interface.
To invoke it, please select 'Paritition Resizing Tool' from the Installation
Volume Manager which can be called during installation (choose 'New Volume'
to start MiniLVM). It will take a while to complete loading, when done,
please select Next to show the list of resizable volumes. If the list is
empty, this means there is no suitable volume detected that has enough free
space for it to be resized.


Bootable JFS

This release of eComStation contains the option to install the operating
system on a JFS volume. The advantage of doing this is that the amount of
diskcache is only limited by system memory (typically 10% of available
memory is assigned)
This increased cache size gives a huge gain in overall system performance.
To install onto a Bootable JFS volume, you will have to select 'JFS' as
filesystem type in the 'Format Volume' page of the installer.

A number of analysis tools are available on the install CD:

in \ECS\BOOTJFS

cachejfs.exe - query and set parameters of cache
cstats.exe - query usage of cache
jfschk32.exe - chkdsk launcher during boot (can be used instead of chkdsk)

in \ECS\BOOTJFS\DEBUG

chklgjfs.exe - show results of last chkdsk
dumpfs.exe - dump internal structure of JFS
logdump.exe - dump current state of log to \JFSLOG.DMP
validfs.exe - show current state of JFS
xchkdmp.exe - show results from chkdsk.new
xchklog.exe - dump results of last chkdsk to \chkdsk.new
xpeek.exe - utility for interactive work with structure of JFS


Genmac

This package provides generic driver support for several network interface
cards under OS/2 and eComStation. Moreover, Genmac is enabled to support WPA
encryption with the Wireless LAN Monitor 3.x or better.

Genmac and the Wireless LAN monitor will be installed when the appropriate
hardware is detected by the installer. If it is not detected, you can
manually select the driver in the network installation dialog.

Note: only the selected driver will be copied onto your system, in order to
prevent problems with the MPTS installer later on. This may seem confusing,
when you run MPTS in a later stage, it will not show all Genmac supported
NICs.

A full list of supported NIC chipsets can be found in 'WHATSNEW.TXT'.
Support has been added to autodetect over 300 NICs that are using one of
these chipsets.


ACPI & APM

Support for ACPI is available in this release. The current version is 2.22.
ACPI will be automatically enabled if appropriate hardware is detected.
You can manually enable or disable ACPI support at page 2 (miscellaneous)
of the eComStation installer preboot menu. Even if not installed, the
corresponding documents are installed on your harddrive. You can find
detailed information and testdocuments in \ECS\DOC\ACPI and \ECS\DOC\APM

Several tests can be performed, please refer to \ECS\DOC\ACPI\TESTER.DOC
and \ECS\DOC\APM\TESTER.DOC

When ACPI is installed, there is a number of utilities from the ACPI
Toolkit you can use, see the list below:

AcpiTree.exe - Show ACPI tree
ButtonJin.exe - Wait press Power Button (as demon), GUI
WaitButton.exe - Wait press Power/Sleep button, VIO
PowerOff.exe - Power Off (immediate!!)
SetGetThrtl.exe - Get/Set throtlling CPU
UpTime.exe - Show uptime via PM Timer
GetValue.exe - Get current value from PM Timer
AcpiIRQ.exe - Show current IRQ routing
IrqStat.exe - Show IRQ calling statistics (SMP only)
SetGetState.exe - Get/Set frequency/power state
EmbeddedEvent.exe - Show events from Embedded controllers
GetNotify.exe - Show notify
Thermal.exe - Show temperature of thermal zone
ScanPCI.exe - Show PCI devices
TmrTest.exe - Test working of timer (testing IRQ0 timer 0)


multicore CPU support

This release supports the installation of eComStation on a MultiCore CPU
computer. This includes Intel Core Duo , Core2 Duo and AMD 64 X2.
To enable it, you can do so in the ACPI Wizard that is launched from the
Post Installation tasks at the end of the installation. Alternatively you
can start the ACPI Wizard at any time from the install/remove folder in
the Local System folder on the desktop.

The ACPI Wizard will try to determine your system configuration and set
parameters accordingly. You can manually change them of course.

Please note: many drivers are not SMP capable, which may cause
instability or unexpected behaviour on your system.

For more information please refer to \ECS\DOC\ACPI\ACPI_SMP.DOC


SMP support

It is also possible to install eComStation 2.0 RC1 on a regular SMP
machine. You will have to activate it with the ACPI Wizard from the
Post Installation Tasks wizard that is started at the end of the
installation. This should enable you to properly finish installation,
before activating the SMP feature.


eComStation Virtual File System (Samba client support)

Samba is a SMB/CIFS protocols file and print sharing server/client set
originally made for UNIX world to cooperate with corresponding Windows and
OS/2 servers or clients. eComStation has a native implementation of
SMB/CIFS server/client set - IBM LAN Manager and IBM Peer. These products
have not been recently updated and may have some compatibility issues with
modern Windows SMB/CIFS implementations.

Serenity Systems International has reached an agreement with Blueprint
Software Works for the inclusion of the 'eComStation Virtual File System'
driver which provides support for Samba Client. Currently a GUI to
configure it is lacking, but an example of how to mount a Samba resource
can be found in \ECS\DOC\EVFS\REXX

REPORTING

To tell us your findings, please create a report at:

http://www.ecomstation.com/support/rc1report/∞

You are also welcome to join the TestTeam if you want to discuss this beta
and future developments. See http://ewiki.ecomstation.nl/TestTeam∞ for
more details.

DISTRIBUTION / CREATING CDS

This product is provided as a downloadable ISO file, this is a raw CD image
that you can burn on CD-R media. For instructions on burning the CD image
to CD please consult the PDF document howtoburncds.pdf in the same
directory.

The file to download is: ecs20rc1_en_cd1.zip

REGISTRATION KEY REQUIRED FOR INSTALLING

For the time being you can use the eComStation 1.2 (or 1.2R) key to install
this beta release of eComStation 2.0.


(c) 2001-2007 Serenity Systems International

WHATSNEW for eComStation 2.0 RC1

New Features:

* Added ACPI Wizard that will detect system features and can be used to
install ACPI and kernel options
* Added TZ update for Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition - US DST timezone tool
* Split up netlabs (kLIBC) and innotek (Odin Runtime) libraries, are now
installed with WarpIn
* Added support for the eComStation Installation Framework. Will always be
installed. (XULrunner)
* Added logic to load TESTCFG2.SYS when ACPI is selected, prevents hangs
on certain configurations
* Added english helpfile to accomodate checkdisk help button
* Added 47 NIC devices to the hw detect engine, like nForce and Broadcom
(mainly GenMac)
* New bootlogo and desktopbackground, reflecting "RC1" status

Updated Applications:

* Updated USBDock to 20070504 release
* Updated WarpIn to version 1.0.15
* New versions of UPDTBMGR, MINILVM
* Updated ZIP to 2.32
* Replaced outdated ArcView 1.2 helpfile with the one of ArcView 2.0
* Updated eWorkPlace to 1.0.8
* Updated Firefox to version 2.0.0.4
* Updated Thunderbird to version 2.0.0.0
* Updated UniClip 0.2.2
* Updated Cairo to 1.2.4 and DSSaver to 1.7.5
* Updated Dani IDE drivers from 1.7.7 to 1.7.10
* Updated non-SMP (W4, not UNI) kernel to 14.104a
* Updated SMP kernel to 14.104a
* Updated firewall utility to version 1.2.4
* Updated NewView to 2.19
* Updated NewView en_us helpfile to 2.19

Fixes since the previous beta release:

* Updated PMMERGE.DLL and symbol files to 14.106 (APAR PJ31908)
* IBM APAR PJ31319 (SYS3184 in PMCTLS.DLL)
* IBM APAR PJ30811 (Trap in FTPD)
* IBM APAR PJ30821 (Error in TELNET)
* Updated syslevel.bdd to bdd fp3
* Fix modal problem of status window of PMFormat (in installer)
* Some applications (EPM amongst others) weren't installed in Beta 4
* 'Advanced' button in Screen properties notebook now works
* Opteron CPU now supported in SMP mode
* 4OS2 windows now open a new session, defaults to root of bootdrive
* Improved layout and wording of Preboot Disk Integrity check messages

Updated / added drivers:

* updated DANI tools to 1.7.10 level
* updated DANIS506.DOC to 1.7.10
* added ACPI package 2.22, can be manually selected in preboot menu
* Updated ACPI and APM support to 26/05/2007 version
* Added 47 NIC devices to the hw detect engine, like nForce and Broadcom
(mainly GenMac)
* UDF 2.16
* IBM APAR PJ30964 (UDF.IFS update)
* IBM1S506.ADD 10.161 (was 10.152)
* Intel SpeedStep(R) (APM) 10.163 (was 10.156)
* IBM Single Mouse driver 10.163 (was 10.152)
* KBDBASE.SYS to 10.070 (was 10.056)
* Updated IBM1S506.ADD to 10.161
* Updated OS2CDROM.DMD to 10.163