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From: James J <SPAMMYjajii1@netscape.net>
Subject: Re: Where can I get replacement xenix software
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 18:24:27 +0000 (UTC)
References: <3e39bc15$0$210$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au> <3e3a50cb$0$231$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au> 

Chris Weaver <c_weaver@del_this_bit.telstra.com> expounded in 
news:3e3a50cb$0$231$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au:

> Firstly as Stephen said, being that trying to install on my
> 486DX/100 is looking for trouble as it is too advanced for
> the XENIX 2.3.2 GT OS, sounds funny really ;-).

 That CPU is definitely not too fast.  I've installed Xenix on a few 
Pentium systems.  Actually, at my work we used Xenix 2.3.2 on a Pentium 
166 for years.
 If there's a problem installing on that system, it's not simply that the 
CPU is too fast.  If the BIOS has any cache options, you might try 
disabling them during the Xenix installation.  And if there are any 
"speed" options (eg. there used to be buttons for "normal" and "turbo" 
clock speeds), you could try selecting the slower mode during Xenix 
installation.
 For some reason the installation seems to be particularly sensitive to 
the speed of the system.  In my experience, after installation you can 
usually switch back to the "fast" settings (cache enabled, etc.).

 If all else fails, there's no harm in trying to install on the slower 
system.  If it works there, you know the boot floppy works.  Actually, you 
could try just booting from that floppy on the slower system.  Nothing 
will be done to the hard drive until you actually create partitions, etc., 
so simply booting from the Xenix floppy won't do any harm.
 Which brings up another thought.  If there's a problem reading the 
floppy, the problem could be the floppy drive, not the floppy.  Have you 
tried cleaning it?  Maybe you could swap it with a floppy drive from 
another system?

> Secondly, as Scott points out, I may be better off trying
> a newer version of Unix which I may do if I can't get the
> "ancient one" to install, configure etc.

 That's a valid point.  Xenix is pretty old.  A lot of the commands, how 
to use them, basic shell scripting, etc. can be applied to newer versions 
of *nix.  But there are a lot of differences too, like the advent of 
graphic user interfaces.  Xenix had nothing like that (that I'm aware of).
 Of course if the plan is to use old hardware like a 486, you probably 
wouldn't want to (be able to?) run a GUI anyway.  <g>  But I would imagine 
that it could run a basic character-based Linux system reasonably well.

> As far as serials and activation keys go, well i am a lucky
> chappy, I have them for the XENIX O/S, SCO Professional,
> SCO Tutor and SCO CGI.

 Good.  Just making sure.

> If I can't get this going then I wonder if I used the "AT version"
> floppies instead of the 1-3 "GT version" installation floppies,
> would the rest of the XENIX floppies 4-10 etc install properly?
> I would assume only the first install floppy/ies would have to
> be specifically for IDE or SCSI? As the remainder of the software
> should be identical for either?
> Would this assumption be correct?

 Hard to say.  For example, there could be device drivers on the later 
floppies and they could be different.  However, from what others have 
said, the GT version supports non-SCSI drives as well, so you shouldn't 
have to resort to that.

 Good luck.

 James
 

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