Mike's Random Stuff

My Confession … I was once an OS/2 user beginning in the mid to late 1990’s to around 2010ish. In the end I was using eComStation which, if I remember correctly, was based on OS/2 Warp 4 MCP 4.5. Currently there is Arca Noae. I have had Arca installed and played with it a little over the years, but I got into one of those rabbit holes recently with the release of Arca 5.0.8. As a note, I use Arca running on VirtualBox which in turn runs on my HP z820 Gentoo system. Just to provide context, the Neofetch output is below.

I installed with VBox set to use 1 CPU and that was based on several posts and the Arca Wiki. Not sure exactly why this is an issue.

Okay, I am starting with a fresh installation of ArcaOS 5.0.8. I just accepted the default values because I was not sure how deeply I was going to push this thing.

Virtualbox Additions

The first thing I did was to update the VBox additions. I did have the option check (or I assume I did) to install the additions, but they did not seem to get installed. That did not matter, I use VBox 7.0.8 and the Arca install said something like version 6.x.x, so I needed to do an update anyway.

I followed the readme.txt included with the additions and verified against Installing Oracle VM VirtualBox OS/2 Guest Additions on the Arca site. At the top of the Arca page it reads:

IMPORTANT: DO NOT BLINDLY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE README FOR THE ADDITIONS, AS THIS WILL RESULT IN UNNECESSARY DUPLICATION AND POSSIBLE BACKLEVELING OF CERTAIN CRITICAL SYSTEM FILES.

https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/arcaos/post-install-tips-hints/installing-oracle-vm-virtualbox-os-2-guest-additions/

Missing from the Arca instructions, but in the additions readme:

copy libc06*.dll to C:\os2\dll

I was curious, so here is the issue. The additions instruction wants all the libc06* dlls in os2\dll , but he usr\lib directory is where Arca installs the lib06* dlls see below. It seems that in past Arca installs I made this mistake. So, when installing the VBox Additions do not copy the libc dlls.

Directory of C:\VBoxAdd

4-17-23 5:05p 48,179 0 a— libc06.dll
4-17-23 5:05p 48,179 0 a— libc061.dll
4-17-23 5:05p 157,161 0 a— libc062.dll
4-17-23 5:05p 157,161 0 a— libc063.dll
4-17-23 5:05p 157,213 0 a— libc064.dll
4-17-23 5:05p 157,213 0 a— libc065.dll
4-17-23 5:05p 1,361,666 0 a— libc066.dll

Directory of D:\usr\lib

8-26-21 9:26a 45,363 124 a— libc06.dll
8-26-21 9:26a 45,364 124 a— libc061.dll
8-26-21 9:26a 153,497 124 a— libc062.dll
8-26-21 9:26a 153,497 124 a— libc063.dll
8-26-21 9:26a 153,563 124 a— libc064.dll
8-26-21 9:26a 153,563 124 a— libc065.dll
8-26-21 9:26a 316,306 124 a— libc066.dll

I did have to change the “Host Audio Driver” manually to ALSA Audio from default in the VBox settings for the VM. It was default and I am not sure what default is, but I am using pipewire. Anyway, I get sound with ALSA and ICH AC97.

Here is a confusing point. The Arca Install Wiki states, “IDE The IDE storage emulation is the highest performance option, higher than both the AHCI emulation and the NVME emulation.” Then the instructions go on to replace IDE with SATA.

Monitor Resolutions

There was an issue I had to (yet again) relearn with video. My problem is that I am not a multi-monitor person. Instead, I use an Ultra-Wide Monitor (unfortunately not one of the fancy monitors). The Arca install would not allow greater than 1600 width and I wanted 3440, specifically 3440 x 1327 like my ReactOS VM. I found the tweak/fix on the Arca Site and more info on the VBox site. The Arca instructions just briefly repeated here:

VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolution any <Enter>
VBoxManage setextradata "<VM-name>" "CustomVideoMode1" "<custom resolution>" <Enter>

FYI, I am using the Panorama Video Driver. Everything worked, now tweaks and eye candy.

Tweaks

Just to ramble, a few changes I made as I remembered my OS/2 days:

• Status Bars – turn off default for Icon View
• Icon Size->Icon View: Set dynamic on as default and layout as gridded
• Desktop manually select “As Placed”
• I shadow the Drives folder to the Desktop and set single column
• Drives: Remove the A and B drive icons Wiki
• Drives: Remove the reserved drive selection
• Drives: Drive letter before drive letter
• Deselect “Display Folder Menu Bars” for main windows
• Solid Color Palette to change default window solid color
• Various XCenter tweaks
• Styler changes to the title bar

Finally, I installed my Buuf icon theme. I think a Buuf theme might not be agreeable to everyone, but I used a modified Buuf theme on OS/2 and eCS. The ArcaOS Dynamic Icons makes it extremely easy to construct a theme.

Desktop, Computer, Network, Programs, and Drives Buuf windows

Arca Setup Window

My Issues

During the install and setup, I experienced one Desktop hang while I was adding my network drives.

1. Is there a way to globally turn the Menu Bar for Icon View off?
2. Turning on Dynamic Icons did not turn on for Templates folder – I did it manually
3. The window upper corner icon does not always open with the Dynamic Icon thumbnail. See previous Setup window pic and Command Prompts below.
4. The scroll bars are always present for the Computer window every time it is openned and no matter the window size. As soon as I pull the window larger, they disappear. See below.

Top corner icon not changing to correct thumbnail

Computer window scroll bars

The end … for now

As for me, I am still waiting for ArcaOS 5.1 and UEFI support. I have an old Intel NUC I would like to try it on …

Full VBox window running Arca 5.0.8 after install and tweaks