SCO OpenServer 5.0.4 on Pentium II FT1200 – Intel DK440LX

MEPCD have tested, and support, the current version of SCO OpenServer (at the time of writing this being release 5.0.4) on these systems. Earlier versions of OpenServer 5 are likely to work, but please seek advice from Technical Support first. SCO Unix 3.2x and SCO Xenix are not supported on these systems.

Hardware setup

During POST press F2 to enter BIOS setup. Press F9 to load the defaults. Select Advanced --> Peripheral Configuration and adjust the settings as below. Bold indicates the items that should be changed, other associated settings will then change automatically to those shown:

Specialix

If an ISA Specialix SI/XIO card is installed set the card’s memory address to D8000 by setting rotary switch 1 to 0, rotary switch 2 to D, and the link LK1 to 8. Under Advanced --> Resource Configuration in BIOS setup select Memory Reservation and adjust as below (bold indicates a change from the default settings):

D800 - DBFF: [Reserved]
DC00 - DFFF: [Reserved]

The driver can be configured to use an interrupt or use polled mode. If an interrupt is used then the IRQ should be reserved under Advanced --> Resource Configuration --> IRQ Reservation. However, we recommend using polled. We recommend using the OpenServer 5 specific version of the driver rather than the older SCO Unix 3.2x driver. For the PCI card then the OpenServer 5 specific driver must be used. The current version is 1.2.5 and is available from area39 of Apricot Insight Online as SPXOS125.DSK. The problem of the ports being numbered from 0 rather than 1 with the original OpenServer 5 driver has now been rectified by Specialix.

SCSI tape

It is assumed that the SCSI tape drive is connected to the on-board 50 way SCSI connector. This is the second SCSI channel of the Adaptec 7895 dual channel ultra wide controller. This bulletin also assumes that the tape drive is set to SCSI ID 2. During POST press <CNTRL A> to enter the Adaptec 7895 configuration BIOS utility. Select the A SCSI channel:

Bus:Device:Channel:

00:09:A
00:09:B

Though not essential, it is recommended to select Additional Options --> Advanced Configuration Options and disable head/cylinder translation for drives with more than 1024 cylinders:

Extended BIOS Translation for DOS Drives > 1Gbyte [Disabled]

Select the B channel:

Bus:Device:Channel:

00:09:A
00:09:B

Select Configure/View Host Adapter Settings --> Additional Options --> SCSI Device Configuration and for SCSI ID 2 set Send Start Unit Command to NO.

SCO OpenServer 5.0.4 install

Adaptec SCSI disk

At the Boot prompt from the SCO Boot Disk a suitable boot string is:

defbootstr ahslink=alad325 Stp=alad(1,0,2,0)

When prompted for the alad325 BTLD floppy use the Adaptec 7800 Family Driver release d2.1 driver. This is available from Apricot Insight Online as 7800_21.DSK - floppy image in area41 and 7800_21.Z -Unix compressed image in area39, or from the 1997 Quarter 4 Insight Classic CD as 7800_21.Z. The floppy is also supplied by MEPCD and labelled as part number 157610SW.

Change the IDE CD-ROM used for installation to the settings below:

Media device to be used:

IDE Controller: secondary
Master or Slave: master

Note that if the 5.0.4 installation software does not display the installation media device choice as IDE CD-ROM but gives a SCSI device selection list, the IDE CD-ROM has not been detected for some reason. Merely selecting SCSI CD-ROM from the list and selecting the wd driver (as in the 5.0.2 release) will not work. In release 5.0.4 the IDE CD-ROM should be auto-detected at installation and the choices for primary/secondary/master/slave shown as above. If this happens try adding Srom=wd(1,0,0,0) to the boot string above.

AMI 431 RAID disk

Use the Adaptec based description above with the following differences.

At the Boot prompt from the SCO Boot Disk a suitable boot string is:

defbootstr ahslink=amird Sdsk=amird(0,0,0,0) Stp=alad(1,0,2,0)
scsi.noscan

When prompted for the amird BTLD floppy use the Beta 2A AMI 431 driver. It is described as beta by MEPCD merely because it is software over which we have no direct control, it is however a release version from AMI – their version number being 2.01. The MEPCD part number is 160831SW and it is also available from Apricot Insight Online as AMI_201.Z - Unix compressed image in area39 and AMI_201.DSK - floppy image in area41.

On-board ethernet – Intel Pro100B

During the installation defer the auto detection of the etherent adapter. This is because standard 5.0.4 will fail to auto-detect the adapter. Once OpenServer is installed add the SCO "erg500402" patch from the Software Manager (custom). This patch is available from area39 of Apricot Insight Online or the 1998 Quarter 1 Insight Classic CD as PCISCAN.Z. This file can be copied to a floppy for installation or copied to the system as filename VOL.000.000 for a "media image" installation from the Software Manager (custom).

At this stage the ethernet may work satisfactorily once configured with netconfig, ensure though that the speed of the interface is set to Auto rather than 10 or 100 – setting to other than Auto definitely will give poor performance. However, even then it is often the case that poor network performance will still occur accompanied by many packet failures identified in the output of the netstat –i command. For this reason install the updated SCO Pro100B driver version 5.0.4f. This patch is available from area39 of Apricot Insight Online as PRO100BF.DSK. This patch can also be installed from floppy or a Media Image as above. Note that the earlier version 5.0.4e driver exists on the 1998 Quarter 1 Insight Classic CD; we do not now recommend its use.

When using the Pro100B 5.0.4f driver the menus under netconfig are slightly different to the earlier driver. Under the hardware settings for the LAN adapter ensure that the interface speed is set to "Auto-Auto".

Confirm correct ethernet operation by checking for any input or output packet errors by using the netstat –i command. After, say, copying some files to and from the machine there should be no, or very few, Ierrs or Oerrs listed. If such errors are still present please contact Technical Support for advice.

IPB3221 specifically describes the possible problems with the on-board or add-in Intel Pro100B. Refer also to IPB3222 which describes the Release Supplement 5.0.4C and OSS469A which should be installed on OpenServer 5.0.4 to provide patches to the networking software.

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