I own an old Via EPIA board with a C3 CPU, and for some reason I thought casually installing OS/2 would be a good idea.
- I used install media copies from WinWorld
- I have German language install media in original packaging, but turning up all the patch sets in German was too much effort, and a mixed-language OS is annoying
- for some reason, the updated partitioning tool from the OS/2 Warp 4.52 installer failed on the IDE-to-SDcard adapter I was using
- (after lots of tries I ditched that storage solution and used an actual IDE disk - somehow boot sector and partition table kept getting lost when using the SD adapter?)
- fdisk from OS/2 Warp 4 worked without problems?
- in BIOS setup, configure "LBA" addressing scheme for the HDD
- OS/2 Warp 4 install CD is not bootable, you need install floppies (and a floppy drive)
- the installer has no USB support, and USB floppy drives are not an option (even though elstel.org, linked below, claims that booting from an USB floppy should work)
- (maybe some Via BIOS bug or something?)
- downloaded patched install disks from elstel.org (cache) (those with Dani's IDE driver, last option in the list)
- note these are the install disks, you also need a boot disk (I, uh, don't remember which one I used?)
- also note that elstel.org links to patched bootable OS/2 Warp 4 install CDs (didn't try those)
- since the CDROM isn't bootable, I ended up using an SCSI drive behind a LSI/NCR/Symbios Logic 53C810 PCI SCSI card
- there are many releases of the 53C810 driver, but symbios406.zip from os2site.com was the newest one that worked for me with the Warp 4 install disks (versions newer than 4.0.x will hang, older versions may report unknown firmware)
- the 53C810 driver doesn't fit on the first install disk
- do not delete unneeded driver files from the install disk, instead truncate them (also mentioned on elstel.org)
- copying additional drivers from the install disks will fail when files are missing (will updating snoop.lst help?)
- do not use quick install, it will create a FAT partition (instead of HPFS)
- 2GB HPFS install partition is fine
- the EPIA C3 board has a 10/100 Via Rhine II, drivers on os2site, copy to an empty disk to install when enabling the TCP/IP stack
- Via Soundblaster emulation (when enabled in the BIOS) is a Soundblaster Pro
- after installation, I used this patchset from archive.org (note installation order mentioned in the TEXT file that's an additional download)
- has FP17, TCPIP 4.3 and the MPTS updates, Java runtime (not JDK), Netscape Navigator, Scitech SNAP with the "free" code