Monthly Archives: December 2017

Everything you need to know about subscription expiration

By popular demand, this is a summary of what happens when a subscription expires:

Any installed Arca Noae drivers and software continue to function normally (including ArcaOS).
Any drivers and software which have already been downloaded may be installed and will function normally (including ArcaOS).
All free Arca Noae RPM repositories continue to work.
Free downloads from the Arca Noae site will remain accessible.
An expired subscription cannot be renewed. You must buy a new subscription if yours expires.
An expired subscription will not have any downloads available.
Any subscription-only Arca Noae RPM repositories will not be accessible.
Bug tracker will not be available.

Arca Noae is committed to keeping ArcaOS and other OS/2 distributions usable on modern hardware. New device drivers are in active development and support is always available to subscribers.

Renew early to receive the best value for your investment.

AHCI Driver Package version 2.04 released

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our AHCI Disk Driver Package version 2.04 for ArcaOS, OS/2, and eComStation.

This is a maintenance release that contains minor fixes and updates.

Fixed the IOCtl pass-thru interface. Tools such as smartctl use this.
Removed the old smartctl program from the distribution.

More information about the AHCI Disk Package may be found in the AHCI wiki.

If you have ArcaOS, this driver package is available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of the Support & Maintenance subscription for your ArcaOS product. Please log into your account and see your ArcaOS order details page to access your software.

If you have an Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription, this driver package is available for download from the Arca Noae website as part of your Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS Drivers and Software Subscription. Please log into your account in order to access your software.

If you are still running OS/2 and/or eComStation systems and haven’t yet purchased a software subscription, this is a great reason to do so now. It may also be a good time to consider moving up to ArcaOS.

What also happens when a subscription expires?

In our last post, we discussed what happens in a customer’s account (Arca Noae’s side) when a subscription is allowed to lapse or expire. What we didn’t discuss was what happens to the installed system, drivers, and software when a subscription expires:

The installed ArcaOS system, drivers, and any related software continue to function normally.
Content from the relevant Arca Noae free repository/ies will continue to be accessible (arcanoae-rel, and even for those with separate access, arcanoae-exp).
Free downloads from the Arca Noae site will remain accessible.
Subscribing again after a subscription has lapsed requires a new purchase.
NOTHING ALREADY INSTALLED WILL STOP FUNCTIONING AS A RESULT OF A SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRING. NOTHING. REALLY.

We still highly recommend maintaining subscriptions. The hardware landscape continues to change, and Arca Noae is committed to keeping ArcaOS and other OS/2 distributions viable on today’s and tomorrow’s hardware as long as possible. New device drivers are in active development to extend the useful life of any OS/2 system, and support is always available to subscribers, as well. Renew early to receive the best value for your investment.

What happens when a subscription expires?

Subscriptions must be renewed to remain in force. Allowing a subscription to lapse or expire will cause the following actions in the customer’s account:

The order details, accessed through the customer portal, will no longer have downloads available. Any updates or interim enhancements released in this manner will no longer be accessible.
Subscription-only content available from the relevant Arca Noae subscription repository/ies will no longer be accessible.
For ArcaOS, the ISO download will no longer be accessible.
Access to the Mantis bug tracker to open new issues, report on existing issues, or as a knowledgebase of reference material will no longer be available.
Subscribing again after a subscription has lapsed will not qualify for any renewal discounts.

We highly recommend maintaining archives of any downloaded content, as it may not be possible to access this again (even the last versions available when the subscription was in force).

eCo Software Runtime packages updated

Arca Noae is pleased to announce the availability of updated eCo Software Runtime packages, downloadable from our downloadables page.

The eCo Software Runtime packages provide support libraries for several components of ArcaOS and eCS, as well as eCo Software applications. The four packages which comprise the set have all been updated as of 2017-11-13, and the Base package was further updated on 2017-11-15.

These packages are provided by Arca Noae as a convenience to our customers, clients, and the community at large. Arca Noae does not produce these packages, and the software is provided “as is” without any warranty of any kind. Support for the eCo Software Runtime is provided by eCo Software, in their support forum.