sco binaries under linux

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From: anon@anon.com
Subject: Re: Re: Want to run Sco-unix program on Caldera Linux
Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 11:21:09 -0700
References: <XaBH6.4919$gX3.269875@news3.oke.nextra.no> <hrIH6.2840$K5.291590@news1.rdc1.nj.home.com> 

In <hrIH6.2840$K5.291590@news1.rdc1.nj.home.com>, "Brian K. White"
<brian@aljex.com> wrote:

>
>"FS" <no@emails.please> wrote in message
>news:XaBH6.4919$gX3.269875@news3.oke.nextra.no...
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I've read somewhere that I should be able to install and run Sco-unix
>> programs on
>> Caldera Linux. To be honest, I am a bit new to Linux, so my first problem
>is
>> to
>> mount the installation floppy of that Sco-program... Please advise me in
>how
>> to
>> do this...
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Fred Sirevag
>>
>> sirevag@hotmail.com
>
>That depends what form the installation floppy takes.
>if the instructions say "insert floppy and run custom"
>then you have to install on a sco box and tar up the files after they are
>installed.
>if the instructions say something along the lines of "insert the floppy and
>run tar xvf /dev/install , then run sh /tmp/install.sh" then you can go to
>http://www.aljex.com/bkw/filepro/ and get "scotar"
>In no case I have ever seen yet does one mount install floppies. sometimes
>you mount install cd's, but never floppies.
>
>There are a bunch of little issues you need to be aware of when running a
>sco binary under linux. none of which are too bad, but there are usually
>more than a few snags to work around and it means you can't expect to just
>run it immediately as easily as if you were installing on sco.
>
>shell scripts that assume /bin/sh behaves like SCO's /bin/sh, which linux's
>/bin/sh does _not_ (easy fix is to install pdksh and edit the top line of
>all shell scripts that came with the app)
>
>common built-in system commands, like lp commands, need to be modified
>(change "lp -dsomething -s", to "lpr -Psomething". or if you're me, write a
>wrapper script that does it automatically on the fly)
>
>you will probably need to hack your termcap
>
>you will probably need to hack your apps termcap if it came with one
>
>you may need to hack your terminfo
>
>modern versions of linux, with Unix98-pty's and/or devfs enabled in the
>kernel will generate device names that some legacy programs simply never
>counted on and can't handle. (I have an app that can't handle the fact that
>`tty` spits out /dev/pts/3 instead of /dev/ttyXXX like god intended)
>
>you may need to be aware of the TZ variable
>
>you may need to be aware of the LANG variables
>
>and most importantly, you need to either compile the stand-alone module
>"iBCS2" if on kernel 2.2.x or less, or compile yourself a new kernel with
>the new linux-abi patch applied, if on kernel 2.4.x
>
>you may need to be aware of the stty command, depending what you plan to use
>for a terminal emulator.
>
>you may need to be aware of "mapchan -n" on sco, and the equivalent
>incatation on linux, "tput smpch" or if that is a no-op due to
>insufficiently configured terminfo, echo -e "\033(U" will always work.
>
>you may need to be aware of the differences between the default xterm on
>sco, vs the default xterm on linux.
>
>I'm sure I'm not thinking of a dozen more things, but I'm also pretty sure I
>got all the biggies...
>
>None of these are too big of a deal for someone who is very familiar with
>both sco and linux, otherwise you are in for a lot of reading, or you could
>just pay one of us to do it for you in about a half-a-day.

Seems like you got most of it, and some I haven't run into.  

For terminfo, I haven't run into any problems with the compiled
descriptions.  The only thing I've had to do special is make a link 
   ln -sf /usr/share/terminfo /usr/lib/terminfo

Similarly, if you use IPC  (shared memory, messages and semaphores) you
need to link create a link for the ipcs command.  
    ln -sf `which ipcs` /bin/ipcs
(Don't have linux booted, don't recall where it normally is on linux.)

You can run most SCO binaries with iBCS, but there as some shared
libraries that just won't go.  Some fiddling with iBCS may get past
this.   iBCS searches a limited span at the top of the file for some
commonly used routines.   It might be the area is too small; it might be
that the routines they're looking for just aren't bound into the
library.

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