Using Diamond Stealth 64 with Warp Fullpack/Warp Connect

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Last update: 20th May, 1995

Symptoms

The S3 drivers (64OS21.EXE and 64OS22.EXE) for Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM cards, available on the Diamond ftp site (ftp.diamondmm.com) install on Warp for Windows (red pack) but do not install on OS/2 Warp with WIN-OS2 (blue pack) or on the OS/2 Warp Connect package. The install program S3INST.CMD will complete successfully, but the Display Install program fails with an error message like:

"Display installation detected an invalid argument count in a 
configuration file (.DSC)."

The install program then terminates.

Cure

There are two main problems. The first is the the install program, S3INST.CMD, updates the OS/2 kernal and the vwin.sys driver on your machine unneccessarily. It then "updates" the system patch level to XR02110 (from the default of XR03001). These operations will cause OS/2 to trap on the first re-boot after display installation (even if you can get the display install program to go). To remedy this, you must edit the S3INST.CMD file BEFORE starting to install these drivers. If you have tried to install the drivers previously you must re-install OS/2 to restore the correct kernal and vwin.sys.

Edit the S3INST.CMD file on the disk S3 DRV1 created from the file 64OS21.EXE.

Find the following lines:

%2\OS2\UNPACK2 %1\TOOLS %2 /n:MKSYSLVL.EXE    >NUL
%2\OS2\UNPACK2 %1\TOOLS %2 /n:S3PATCH.EXE     >NUL
%2\OS2\UNPACK2 %1\TOOLS %2 /n:OS2KRNL.RTP     >NUL
%2\OS2\UNPACK2 %1\TOOLS %2 /n:VWIN.RTP        >NUL

Comment these line out by putting a rem in front of each. Then find the following lines:

%2\OS2\INSTALL\MKSYSLVL %2\OS2\INSTALL\SYSLEVEL.OS2 XR02110 >NUL
ECHO Updated syslevel.os2 with XR02110 >> %2\OS2\INSTALL\DISPLAY.LOG
DEL %2\OS2\INSTALL\MKSYSLVL.EXE >NUL
%2\OS2\ATTRIB -R -S -H %2\OS2KRNL       1>NUL 2>NUL
ECHO Patching OS2KRNL >> %2\OS2\INSTALL\DISPLAY.LOG
%2\OS2\INSTALL\S3PATCH /NOP /NOS /Q  %2\  ...
   %2\OS2\INSTALL\OS2KRNL.RTP >> %2\OS2\INSTALL\DISPLAY.LOG 2>NUL
%2\OS2\ATTRIB +R +S +H %2\OS2KRNL       1>NUL 2>NUL
DEL %2\OS2\INSTALL\OS2KRNL.RTP  >NUL
ECHO Patching VWIN.SYS >> %2\OS2\INSTALL\DISPLAY.LOG
%2\OS2\INSTALL\S3PATCH /NOP /NOS /Q  %2\OS2\MDOS ... 
   %2\OS2\INSTALL\VWIN.RTP >> %2\OS2\INSTALL\DISPLAY.LOG 2>NUL
DEL %2\OS2\INSTALL\S3PATCH.EXE  >NUL
DEL %2\OS2\INSTALL\VWIN.RTP     >NUL

Comment all these line out too. Now run the S3INST.CMD file in the normal way i.e.

S3INST A: C:

where C: is your OS/2 boot drive.

Re-boot as instructed and run the Display Driver Install program from system setup.

You will still find that you get the error message mentioned at the start. The problem here is caused by the version of dspinstl.exe that the s3inst.cmd script copies onto the machine. It doesn't recognise the .DSC files in the c:\os2\install directory that come with Warp Fullpack or Warp Connect. The solution is to temporarily rename all the *.DSC files in this directory to something else like *.REM, but keep the file PSS3.DSC that was installed by S3INST.CMD. Now the install program will run correctly and the only option in the list of display drivers will be "32-bit S3 Display Drivers". Choose this option and continue (remember to install the S64DMODE.EXE program somewhere on your harddrive and run this to select your monitor type instead of choosing to install using defaults for monitor type).

Now re-boot and you should have SVGA and all the resolutions available to you in the System Notebook that your selected monitor can support. You can change the monitor type at any time by running S64DMODE.EXE from a full-screen DOS session under OS/2 then running SVGA ON to re-write the SVGADATA.PMI file for the new monitor.