[TUHS] SCO OpenDesktop 386 2.0.0

[krewat@kilonet.net (Arthur Krewat)]

I've been trying this myself today, both on ESXi 6.0U2, and I went and 
installed ESXi 5.0 as a guest under 6.0U2 :)

I notice that when I put the CD as IDE 1:0 (bus 1, master) it doesn't 
find it. When I put it as 0:0 (bus 0, master), it hangs loading the IDE 
driver.

I suspect it doesn't know about bus 1, so it doesn't hang but also 
doesn't find it, and there's something wrong with either VMware's 
implementation of IDE, or SCO's handling of it - or both. I've read 
where lots of devices in VMware are just to "perfect" for some device 
drivers to deal with. One glaring example was you couldn't use the LSI 
SAS driver with Solaris 11. It would either hang or panic, I forget 
which. Switch to LSI Parallel SCSI, and it was fine.

Anyway, I suspect that there's something in the IDE driver that's 
ignoring bus1, and hanging with VMware's implementation of it.

I'm going to try installing ESXi 4.0 and see what happens.

On another note, it's possible I just need to install the hard drive as 
IDE from the get-go, have the CDROM as slave on bus 0 and see what happens.

Any pointers?

thanks!
art k.


On 2/27/2017 12:12 PM, Cory Smelosky wrote:
> Corey Lindsly wrote:
>>> Count me in. I put my hand up for a copy of SCO when they were 
>>> offering free
>>> samplers in the early 2000s, but never heard back from them.
>>>
>>> I wanted to compare it with Linux ...
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Wesley Parish
>>
>> For anyone interested, the SCO 2.1 images are available for download 
>> here:
>>
>> http://lod.com/sco
>>
>> A few things:
>>
>> 1. I am having some difficulty getting it to install in VMWare ESXi 
>> 5. The
>> floppy image boots, and I get some way into the install process, but SCO
>> install does not see the virtual CD-ROM drive. Thus, I'm presented with
>> network install options only. At this point, there are a few options:
>>
>> (a) Track down the driver and/or VMWare settings to fix the CD-ROM
>> visibility, and proceed with the install.
>>
>> (b) Set up a SCO network install server, and proceed.
>>
>> (c) Try the install on legacy physical hardware instead.
>>
>> Of course, your experience may differ.
>>
>>
>> 2. There's actually an installation guide available for this OS here:
>>
>> ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/UW21/upd211/eng211.txt
>>
>> As well as a lot of driver updates and other good stuff:
>>
>> ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/UW21/
>>
>>
>> 3. Anyone who wants to try SCO for the first time may find 5.0.7 a much
>> easier go. It will install directly from CD in VMWare, and there is more
>> driver support for it. To me, it has a very "pure" UNIX feel to it,
>> other than the gratuitous and absurd use of symbolic links all over the
>> file system. If you're interested in trying-out that version, let me 
>> know
>> and I'll put up those images for download too.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> --corey
>
> I have a note to myself to try an install in PCem later today.
>