Works exceptionally well! (sans VMWare tools)

Ath XP 2500+

768 Megs

100 gig

FX5900 XT

29160 SCSI

Asus A7N8X-X (onboard NV nic)

USB, etc.

LInux Mandriva 2006.0 Kernel 2.6.12-22mdk

VMWare Workstation 5.5.1-19175

OS/2 Warp 4

Painless install.

1) config VMWare of course (used bridged networking only for sake of ease)

2) create new virtual machine

3) when choice of OS appears, choose MSDOS (may work with others...,)

4) make a 2 gig partition (with other OS, possibly bigger)

5) accept the remainder of defaults

6) edit your *.vmx file and enter add to GuestOS = "os2experimental" (may not be necessary but worked for me)

7) locate your Warp 4 CD and use loaddskf.exe to make floppies DISK0.DSK, DISK1_CD.DSK, DISK2.DSK (loaddskf.exe can be found under \diskimgs - floppies can be found under \diskimgs\os2\35) these floppies must be created under dos or a dos window unless your orig are not worn out like mine

set your floppy to boot off of disk0 and proceed. Insert Warp 4 CD

9) create your own partitions. install bootmanager, create another primary partion for OS/2, then set that primary partition installable. save and exit. will require a reboot of vm.

10) proceed w/install, choose advanced install (hint: the easy way for network is just to choose ibm tcp/ip w/o ddns and roll whatever you choose in afterwards) Not to worry about network driver because if it worked under host OS, your VM will supply AMD PCNET virtualized driver for Warp which it picks up with no intervention by you) Continue install.

Voila! Warp system that works.

Notes: Some say this works with VMWare Server

Some have issues w/ISAPNP.SNP & SNOOP.SNP (renaming them to *.old on diskette and trying again has worked in some cases.

*** Now that we know that it works, could some enterprising VMWare guru help us out with

tools. I am sure they existed in some form during the 'experimental' stage....,

Next on the agenda: Ecomstation 1.1. Know it doesn't like to play out of the box but I'm going to try an upgrade from Warp 4....,?

P.S. This is not in any way to take place of other solutions.., merely proof of concept and a challenge.

Email me for more details in the next two weeks. After that, it is back to my semi.