Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,
Warning I am a beginner again.
I have so far successfully installed both a Dos 6.2 and SCO V 3.2.4 on my Pentium system with 256M ram. I can boot to the active Unix partition and boot either operating system.
This all on a single IdE master drive.
Looking to upgrade to SCO Open Server 5.0.4 I had to install a SCSI system to use the distribution software. I installed an approved Adaptec scsi adapter , scsi hdd, scsi cdrom. By disabling the IDE in the bios and enabling boot from the bios recognized adapter I was able to low level format the drive and begin installation.
After the boot floppy starts I get the topic title across the top line then the Boot: prompt. Installation proceeds until about 64% then a kernel panic error some rows of numbers and a safe to reboot or turn off machine. Additionally I get a few shared file verification errors during the installation. Not many about 6 or seven.
I have tried searching the various usual places for help. One suggestion was an interrupt conflict so I altered those around to no avail. Then I was told the low level format I did killed the drive.
On a second scsi drive I was able to put a dos partition on it and when I tried adding 5.0.4 I got the same title problem. This drive was also low level formatted by the Adapters rom bios.
Any idea what is causing this ? One or both issues? Are they related?
Thank you for any suggestions
I've done a lot of work with SCO Unix but it was a long time ago.
What hardware is this? I seem to remember having to switch off graphics adapter memory mapping in the BIOS for some SCO installations depending on the hardware being used.
What Adaptec SCSI adapter is it? Although it might be on the hardware approved list, that doesn't mean that the required driver for the SCSI card is included on the installation media. Sometimes you have to load the driver during installation from a floppy or USB stick at the boot prompt with the 'defbootstr' command. The driver is then read in which allows the O/S to access the SCSI adapter and disk drive.
What do you mean here? Errors reported on the installation media or the hard disk drive being installed to?
Can you see hard disk activity (writing to the drive) before the 64% is reached?
Another thought is; have you run a full diagnostic check on the RAM?
Is 256MB RAM sufficient to install that O/S?
More questions than answers I'm afraid but perhaps some ideas.
There are one or two frequent contributors on this forum with a bit more SCO Unix expertise than me so maybe expect some better replies. NOTE: In that vain, I'll move this topic to the SCO category where it will more easily be seen by them.
Meantime, please post back as many answers to the questions as you can. Thanks.
I did come across this in my searches:
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-fixed-disk-parameter-table/
As far as the installation errors they occurred during installation of the various files and packages. The installation apparently downloads some files then does a verification of shared links perhaps and occasionally an error would pop up allowing you to examine the faulty file, cancel the operation or continue. I selected continue.
The 64% installed value came from the installation status bar that lets you know how things are progressing.
The drive led did show serious activity during the whole process.
My gut tells me this is possibly a hardware issue after reading the above link but I don’t know how to correct it, if it matters at all or is there a setting on my adapter I’m not configuring correctly.
I reckon the adapter needs to be set LBA mode, not CHS. Are you happy that the SCSI bus is terminated properly at each end?
To hicksD8, the adapter is AHA-1542cp is listed as supported with SCO own drivers. There were no btld floppies included. Even has the SCO/Ok symbol on the box.
Termination is okay. It needed a passive terminator. I will try that next on the adapter setup contrary to the suggestions I not do certain settings for Unix systems per adapter settings menu.
Can you provide a couple of screen shots. Take a picture with your phone.
First the hardware that is found in the initial boot screen, and secondly the registers when the installation crashes.
Also, doing a low level format will erase the factory bad track table. The installation routine will find any additional tracks, assuming you did not bypass that step.
Hello my friend. Tomorrow I will do all this.
Getting to the crash of course takes about an hour.
Okay I’m starting over to provide the screenshots of start up and I am starting a new install. However as suggested I’m running a thorough destructive scan which will take some time. In fact 8Gb should take all day. I will post tomorrow and messages during the installation and of course a screenshot if I get the kernel panic
Looks good. If you can find an Adaptec 2940 controller, you will get the benefit of a PCI controller over ISA.
The driver is also included.
For which version? I’m trying to get to 5.0.7 but have 5.0.4 right now.
I just purchased one along with a disk with drivers for SCO. I just hope #1 it works
2 it will boot
You cannot install 5.0.7 without either a 5.0.7 license or an update license. The 5.0.4 license is good up to 5.0.6.
The Adaptec 2940 adapter is available as a single controller or dual controller. SCO only includes the single controller driver (alad) , the dual controller driver (blad) should be on BTLD diskette.
If you download the 5.0.7 install CD from here https://www.sco.com/support/update/download/osr507list.html you must copy it to a CD (700mb), not a DVD (4.7gb)
I did copy it to a 700 cd. I can only access the scsi cdrom from dos. There are so many files on it how you start the installation?
I also have a 2742AT scsi pci in stock. Would that work? Says SCO Ok on the box
The Adaptec 2742 controllers are supported, but from what I can find, it is an EISA card not PCI.
The 5.0.7 cd is bootable, you do not need a diskette to start the system.
This one is PCI. I actually have a 5.0.5 license I think. The sticker on the right side says 5.0.5 . Would that work? And are licenses still available for 5.0.7 if not?
Super appreciate the help.
Update: had to switch over to a P2 unit but eventually got 5.0.7 up.
Ended up using the scsi adapter and the cdrom attached as well as the ide cdrom, long story.
Last issue is trying to get Foxbase+ installed but no joy.
Thank you all again.
In reference to topic discussion #47997
The op asked about writing to a cdrom.
Assuming the answer is yes able to mount the drive what would be the next steps needed to do this.
So far I made a scsi cdrom read only as cd0 which mounts.
Tried to make ATAPI cdrom with the x graphic interface but I don’t know what the dev name is . Dev cd1 appears in /dev but can’t mount it.
You need the cdrecord package. I don't remember if it is part of 5.0.7 or if you have to install it.
crdrecord --version
should indicate if you have it already.
Otherwise reading material:
https://www.sco.com/skunkware/cdrecord/notes.html
I couldn't find the download on SCO's web site.
My suggestion would be to transfer the files to a Windows or Linux desktop and write the cd there.