This article is from a FAQ concerning SCO operating systems. While some of the information may be applicable to any OS, or any Unix or Linux OS, it may be specific to SCO Xenix, Open Desktop or Openserver.

There is lots of Linux, Mac OS X and general Unix info elsewhere on this site: Search this site is the best way to find anything.

Unix, Xenix and ODT General FAQ

What does "interupt is private" or "no rood hd controller" mean ?

An "interrupt is private" message means that you have an interrupt conflict on something critical- usually your controller. If this isn't a new install, it's probably because you removed some device and that caused the BIOS to reassign the interupts, creating a conflict. The solution is to go into the BIOS and tell it NOT to use that interrupt for Plug and Play/PCI devices. Hopefully that will get you back to where you were.

Interrupt changes on PCI machines can happen for reasons as simple as accidentally unplugging the mouse. What happens is this: the mouse uses interrupt 12, so when it is present, 12 will not be assigned to any other device. If the mouse gets unplugged and you reboot, 12 is now available and will get assigned, which throws off everything else, and therefore can kill nic cards and disk controllers that the system was expecting to be at a different interrupt.

The "no root controller" message can come from that, but if you are getting that on an INSTALL, it usually means that you need a BTLD (Boot Time Loadable Driver) for your controller.

Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal

Take Control: The Mac OS X Lexicon

Take Control of Screen Sharing in Leopard

Take Control of Permissions in Leopard

Jump to Comments

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.

We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.