A.P. Lawrence

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.

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X11 and GUI FAQ

I can't finish my SCO install because the GUI doesn't work

This is perhaps the most difficult problem new SCO users can get trapped in. The machine is set to start the GUI automatically, but it either fails completely, or it works partially but they can't login, or they can login but the mouse doesn't work (and they can't figure out how to get out of it without a mouse). As most neophyte users have not yet learned about the magic of alternate screens which lets you switch away from the graphic screen that doesn't work, , they are stuck, and horribly frustrated.

By default, most SCO systems get configured to assume IBM VGA graphics. That's a pretty safe bet, and will almost always give an at least marginally usable 640 by 480 GUI. If it does not, then you need to run "mkdev graphics" (from a character based login, of course) to correct the problem. Here, you'll select a video driver that works with your system. Note it's not necessary to reboot to test your changes: simply login on an alternate screen (ALT-F3, for example) and type "startx".

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