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On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 10:33 -0400, ale-request@ale.org wrote:<BR>
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Message: 6
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:24:22 -0400
From: "Jeff Lightner" <<A HREF="mailto:jlightner@water.com">jlightner@water.com</A>>
Subject: [ale] SCO Open Server 5 boot root floppies?
To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!" <<A HREF="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</A>>
Message-ID: <<A HREF="mailto:99E6A67A9DA87041A8020FBC11F480B30352FF32@EXVS01.dsw.net">99E6A67A9DA87041A8020FBC11F480B30352FF32@EXVS01.dsw.net</A>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Does anyone happen to still have a SCO system with Open Server 5 on it
that would be willing to create boot/root floppies I could borrow?
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I do in fact have a working SCO OS5.02 system, and in fact this summer used it to help someone convert their<BR>
defunct accounting server to linux. <BR>
<BR>
There are going to be some difficulties regarding boot floppies - they varied depending on which disk <BR>
controller was used. I can build you a set, but it will be assuming the SCSI disk is connected to the NCR Symbios<BR>
controller on my DEC server. It's not going to recognize a DPT controller. There might be much mumbo jumbo<BR>
with BTLD floppies. You could also in theory re-run the install, including the BTLD stuff, right up to the point where <BR>
it's recognized the hard drive, and then break out and try and .... well, do the very limited things you can do with the very <BR>
few utilities present on the install diskettes. My recollection is that it's much harder than it sounds. <BR>
<BR>
You might want to think through exactly what you are trying to accomplish here. Might be better to just take a<BR>
backup tape and restore it elsewhere. Those were bad old days most sane people would rather not try to <BR>
remember. <BR>
<BR>
Another strategy would be simply to build another SCO server with SCSI of any flavor, and then stuff your drive in<BR>
after booting off the primary, and pull off what you need. If I'm remembering right, you could have an IDE primary root<BR>
drive, and it would consider the SCSI drives to be 2nd in the pecking order. The process is a little tricky if you haven't <BR>
done it before; one wrong answer and it will cheerfully re-format your SCSI drive. <BR>
<BR>
SCO didn't dynamically discover new hardware like Linux. So every new bit you configure, recompile kernel, reboot, and hope<BR>
the new kernel finds the hardware. <BR>
<BR>
Neal Rhodes<BR>
MNOP Ltd<BR>
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We have a need to try to explore a SCO server we may be inheriting and
the CD drive was kaput so my Linux and Backtrack CDs weren't of much
help.
>From boot messages it appears the server has DPT SCSI and VisionFS
(which I'm assuming is the filesystem type but may be wrong).
I'm going to investigate Linux on floppy (unfortunately I didn't have
one with me when I examined it) but am not sure it would have a driver
for the DPT SCSI or would recognize the filesystem.
Also since I need to be able to boot from these to try to mount the
filesystems I'd need to know the root password for the floppies so of
course you'd need to make it a temporary password before creating the
floppies.
Alternatively if anyone KNOWS (not guesses) another way to hack root on
SCO I'd appreciate hearing about it. From what I can find on line the
only sure way to do it is with boot/root floppies.
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