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Tue Nov 8 10:32:39 2005: 1306   anonymous


Hi.
I have a problem with the install.
I see a message about errors accessing /dev/install.
I see this message is in the chinese documentation, but, I can't read chinese.
Can any give an idea to correct this?
TIA






Tue Nov 8 11:00:21 2005: 1307   TonyLawrence


It's seldom helpful to say "I see an error". Reproduce the exact error, and exactly WHEN it happened.



Wed Nov 9 00:14:15 2005: 1316   totaleklipz


Not sure about 5.0.4, haven't tried it, but OSR5.0.6/5.0.7 install and run quite well on VMWare Workstation 5 or the 5.5 release candidates now available from VMWare. No btld's required, just put in the CD and go. In all honesty, it was more work to get VMWare Workstation running on SuSE than it was to get OSR5 running under VMWare.



Sat Nov 12 00:14:23 2005: 1335   anonymous


I run vmware 5.0 with sco openserver 5.0.2...I get:

Error initializing access to device /dev/install;
There may be a BIOS setup problem or other hardware configuration error on that device.

I run my harddrive as IDE... it finds the disk...



Mon Jan 16 23:15:06 2006: 1513   anonymous


On my workstation it searched the blc package on fd(44) instead of 65.
I managed to work around this by adding btld=fd(65) at the end of the boot string. (maybe this is because I use a floppy image instead of real floppy ?)






Wed Feb 8 12:40:49 2006: 1608   anonymous


Hi.

I am trying to install SCO OpenServer 5.0.4
This release needs a boot disk, it can't boot from an image.img or from the CD.

I also get the error message:
----------------------------------------------------------
Starting Initial System Load from: Floppy Disk

Error initializing access to device /dev/install;
There may be a BIOS setup problem
or other hardware configuration error on that device.
Press <Enter>; to continue

** Safe to Power Off **
-or-
** Press Any Key to Reboot **
----------------------------------------------------------

Are there anyone that can help me with this error?

Thanks
Benny



Wed Feb 8 12:46:17 2006: 1609   TonyLawrence


There's a fair amount of material here; type "vmware" into the search at the top of the page.






Wed Feb 8 18:31:32 2006: 1613   BigDumbDinosaur


Hey, Benny!

Error initializing access to device /dev/install;
There may be a BIOS setup problem
or other hardware configuration error on that device.
 

Press <Enter>; to continue

** Safe to Power Off **
    -or-
** Press Any Key to Reboot **

Carefully read the above error message until you understand what it is telling you. If you can't solve BIOS setup problems (I have a hunch why you saw that message, but I'm not going to make it unnecessarily easy for you) you should consider hiring someone who is capable of that sort of thing. I'll give you one hint: /dev/install is the device file used to talk to the floppy disk (the A: drive) during ISL.



Thu Feb 23 12:49:54 2006: 1701   anonymous


On my install it wanted to install to the 0.1GB IDE drive.

To force the install to the SCSI drive I used:
restart hd=Sdsk link="blc" Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0) Srom=wd(0,0,0,0)

and again at the second boot from the hard drive:
defbootstr hd=Sdsk link=blc btld=fd(64) Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0)






Thu Mar 2 15:43:00 2006: 1735   anonymous


Create a ide disk in VM and at the SCO CD Boot type this like:
Boot: mem=1m-16,16m-512m/n
Then Install as normal installation on ide disk.
SCO use the PAE ..... with this limit to scan memory over !!!
Tested in GSX 2.5 and above !!!






Fri Apr 21 07:27:37 2006: 1951   anonymous


There is no floppy drive to boot "BusLogic Multimaster BT-958 BTLD" on my hardware. What can I use instead (second CD drive ?) and how to manage it. I am a SCO newbe.

I do not have access on David.ComputerLandInc.com (link dead, sorry) for the TightVNC onto OpenServer installing hints. Has it moved ?



Tue Oct 3 11:16:04 2006: 2494   anonymous


I followed your instructions exactly, except from the creation of the ide disk (this is not possible with ESX). Everything seemed to work, part from the boot command "fd(64)unix link=blc root=hd(42)swap=hd(41)" message "unix not found".

Any idea how to solve this?

Henk



Fri Nov 3 15:26:45 2006: 2589   JMoore


I got Openserver 5.0.4 to work under VMWare Server 1.00. I gave up on these instructions and used an IDE disk instead, this way it works without any boot loader disks and I've setup a 10GB disk. The 5.0.4 boot disk won't work, you get a /dev/install error. I got the 5.0.7 evaluation media kit off SCO and used it's boot disk with the 5.0.4 CD.
It's a very easy install this way.



Mon Nov 13 17:43:05 2006: 2612   TonyLawrence


Jonathan also provided this article: (link)

which shows how to do it using SCSI drive emulation.



Thu Jan 25 16:45:12 2007: 2831   anonymous


I was using a real floppy on sco openserver 5.0.7 and I had to add btld=fd(65) to the end as well to get it to boot after the install.



Mon Jan 29 15:31:57 2007: 2841   anonymous


Extremely detailed instructions!
A problem though with mkdev hd when running fdisk that cannot open device for reading.
I should say that I have 1 non-scsi disk and I'm trying to connect a scsi one.
Regards,
Filippos



Wed May 23 09:38:51 2007: 3005   Vincer


Thanks for the install listings
Found a few minor mods needed to install sco 5.0.6 on vmware 6.0.0
first boot line
• At the "Boot:" prompt, type "defbootstr hd=Sdsk link=blc Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0) Srom=wd(0,0,0,0)" and press [Enter].
install blc reboot line
• At the "Boot:" prompt, type "defboostr hd=Sdsk link=blc btld(64) Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0)" and press [Enter].






Mon Jun 11 12:07:25 2007: 3028   anonymous


Did anyone managed to install a full duplex 100Mbit guest network card ? My AMD PCNet PCI compatible card only support 10Mbit. check it with # ndstat -l |grep Mbit Thanks for your help , Koen



Tue Jun 26 18:55:42 2007: 3049   pesantos


Finally I have my Openserver 5.0.5 in a VMware Server 1.0.1 virtual box. But not working so fine. Networks connections are extremally unstable and slow. FTP transfers are ridiculous (15 - 20 - 40Kbps). Its inacceptable.
Im trying everything a can; change kernel parameters, buffers size, etc. With no success.
Does anyone can help me?



Tue Jul 17 20:02:24 2007: 3060   pjvanellayahoocom


Not sure if you all know, SCO has issues with many network boards, this usually effects boards that are set automatically detect speeds10/100. Use scoadmin network, and set the speed to 10 or 100,(do not accept the default of autodetect). I have ran into this with many clients real hardware. Hope this helps



Fri Feb 15 01:31:32 2008: 3646   NicoKadelGarcia


I just did an SCO OpenServer 5.0.6 installation using VMWare Workstation 6 with the RHEL 5 compatible RPM's, and it worked just fine by using IDE drive configuraitons. Is there any compelling reason to use SCSI and the Buslogic painful installations?



Fri Feb 15 03:09:26 2008: 3647   TonyLawrence


No compelling reason..



Wed Mar 19 19:10:56 2008: 3859   pesantos


No if you are using 5.0.5 version or later. 5.0.4 have a 8GB size limit to IDE disks.



Wed Mar 19 23:18:51 2008: 3863   NicoKadelGarcia


Ohhh, yes, he old 1024 cylinder limit? If it's what I think it is, it has to do with boot loaders and BIOS's and all sorts of fun games finding the boot loader anywhere past the 1023rd cylinder. From my Linux experience, this was actually affected by disk geometries, as well!



Fri Mar 28 15:27:24 2008: 3911   Lee


Hi

I was following the guide word for word and all was going well. Up until i get to the point where you start the VMWARE session up after making the bios changes regarding Boot sequence etc.
For some reason i keep getting the error/alert saying -

No Bootable Device was detected

Now i have the floppy disk in which i created as per the guide (using the mmunix.exe file) all of which i believe went well. I also have the Sco Disk in the cd-rom. Now i think i have the right disk.....

We have three Sco Open Server disks. The one i have been using is labelled as having the following on -

SCO Open Server Enterprise System
SCO Open Server Network System
SCOUNIX Operating System

Among with numourous other things.

I have ensured that the correct devices are connected within VMWARE (floppy and cd-rom) and i am certain i have the boot priority correct.

I know the guide tells you that VMWARE can be troublesome regarding botting from a floppy and that you should just keep trying but i have many many times now without success.

Does anyone have any ideas? Obviously, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance



Fri Mar 28 18:20:02 2008: 3913   TonyLawrence


I dunno - I recently installed 5.0.7 under Fusion without any difficulty (though networking did not work - I didn't spend any time investigating as this install doesn't need it).



Thu Apr 24 10:27:48 2008: 4122   NicoKadelGarcia


I've just gone through this. OSR 5.0.6 also installs on VMWare ESX 3.5, reasonably gracefully, with the instructtions published here for OSR 5.0.4. Those instructions are simpler, and leave out all the 'create a tiny IDE partition" steps, which can't be done on ESX anyway due to its lack of IDE hard drive. Instead, simply install to the SCSI drive and install the drivers as described at (link)

Also, unless you're running on an OS that has a 2 Gig filesize limit, or need to be able to easily transfer disk images over FTP or HTTP, simply use a full-sized disk image as one file. This makes transferring them to LUN's or physical devices noticeably easier.

VMWare Workstation 6 can just use IDE emulated disks, but VMWare ESX requires these SCSI driver installations. If you're going to pass disk images among Workstation and ESX, handle them accordingly and be ready to install these drivers.

Can we get these drivers hosted somewhere, say here, in a direct floppy image format in order to avoid needing a pre-Windows-XP machine to unbundle the drivers?



Thu Apr 24 10:41:04 2008: 4123   TonyLawrence


If you send me the image ( (link) I'll host it.



Tue Jun 17 12:33:19 2008: 4340   Graham


I'm trying to create a vmx for SCO OpenServer 5.0.2 on VMware Player. I'm getting the same "error initializing /dev/install" message several other people report. I'm using a image of the boot disk, which appears to work up until this point.

(I have no floppy drive... I've considered adding a USB floppy (I'm using a laptop), but I'm guessing that if it wants a *real* drive for some hardware perculiarity, a drive on the other end of a USB controller isn't going to do the trick either.)

VMware's BIOS is reporting a 3 1/2" HD drive, which matches the image.

Does this definitely mean the floppy device? I've tried a physical CD, and an ISO image, makes no difference. SCSI or IDE vmdk makes no difference either, though I don't think it's getting that far.

Does anyone know what causes this? Can VMware install SOS 5.0.2 from a floppy? Is there another way to install it? (CD does not appear to be bootable.)

Cheers,
Graham.



Tue Jun 17 16:37:54 2008: 4341   Graham


I am coming to believe that the problem is a bug in the SCO floppy driver (certainly present in 5.0.5, and fixed in 5.0.7). I am unable to use the fixed driver from SLS OSS622a ( (link) for 5.0.5... it seems incompatible with the stuff on the 5.0.2 boot disk.

If I use the 5.0.7 boot disk ( (link) I get a lot further (into the install process), but it fails with "error 17" (unable to create symlink /bin/sh) (17 = file already exists, I believe). This technique, I'm told, *does* work for installing 5.0.4, but is obviously not compatible with the 5.0.2 install CD. This error appears to occur for other people who try mixing boot diskette and CD versions.

None of which helps me, but perhaps someone else...

Cheers,
Graham.



Thu Oct 9 10:16:32 2008: 4633   juku


Thank you!!

With modifing this guide I managed to install SCO 5.0.5 to VMWare ESX 3.5

I thought it was impossible according to all manuals in the Internet, but after couple of days of trying it worked out for me.



Tue Dec 2 18:43:05 2008: 4833   WLC


I also was able to get SCO 5.0.5 running in a ESX 3.5 IBM blade center with DS3400 SAN, The system runs great except when running a program with massive disk usage. I get an error "Unrecoverable error reading SCSI disk 0 dev 1/42 (ha=0 bus=0 id=0 lun=0) block xyzxyzxx. The system runs a job in 1hr 30 min that took 9 hours on the old HP PII machine. durring the run I will get 3 or four of the errors mention above and the block always changes. Has anyone experenced this. I am using the Buslogic SCSI drivers.



Wed Apr 29 13:46:07 2009: 6275   Tom


hi, I have an Acronis image of OpenServer5.0.5 converted to VMware. And already have the drivers for BusLogic with: "fd (64) unix link = BLC root = hd (42) swap = hd (41) btld = fd (65)" and mount, ....... installed, which is everything but the reboot comes a error:

WARNING: hd: no root disk controller was found hd: a Boot-Time Loadable Driver may be required
Panic: srmountfun - Error 19 mountnig rootdev (1 / 42)
Error 19 opening dumpdev (1 / 41)
Dump not completed


if I use the disk drivers and the boot is everything?

Information:
(% Adapter 0x1060-0x1063 11 0 BLC type = ha = 0 id = 7 fts = stn)

help?







Wed Apr 29 14:24:56 2009: 6276   TonyLawrence


Am I reading correctly that you were able to get this up but then couldn't reboot?



Did you install the drivers with btldinstall after booting? You'd need to do that to get them into the kernel.






Wed Apr 29 14:56:38 2009: 6277   Tom


my steps
1. image of Operserver5
2. converted to VMware
3. boot the VM
4. Error (no HD controller)
5. reboot
------------
6. boot from a CD disk with drivers for BusLogic
7. Boat: fd (64) unix link = BLC root = hd (42) swap = hd (41) btld = fd (65)
8. download drivers
9. Please enter Password
10. mount / dev/fd0135ds18 / mnt
11. btldinstall / mnt
12. prompt, type "BLC" and press
further instructions
There is already a BLC installed. ... "Prompt, choose" y "and press [Enter].
At the "A previous installation of BusLogic driver, 'BLC', has been detected. ..." prompt, choose "n" and press [Enter].
At the "Are you installing on a PCI-compliant host adapter? (Y / n):" prompt, choose "y" and press [Enter].
At the "Do you want to enable queuing days now? (Y / n):" prompt, choose "y" and press [Enter].
At the "Do you want to rebuild the kernel now? (Y / n):" prompt, choose "y" and press [Enter].
At the "Do you want this kernel to boot by default? (Y / n):" prompt, choose "y" and press [Enter].
At the "Do you want the kernel environment rebuilt? (Y / n):" prompt, choose "y" and press [Enter].
At the "#" prompt, type "disable scologin" and press [Enter].


If I reboot one cd and disk error:
WARNING: hd: no root disk controller was found hd: a Boot-Time Loadable Driver may be required
Panic: srmountfun - Error 19 mountnig rootdev (1 / 42)
Error 19 opening dumpdev (1 / 41)
Dump not completed

But the adapter is there (% adapter 0x1060-0x1063 11 0 BLC type = ha = 0 id = 7 fts = stn)
What is false?



Wed Apr 29 14:59:49 2009: 6278   TonyLawrence


I don't know. The driver isn't seeing things correctly.







Wed Apr 29 15:30:24 2009: 6279   Tom


the drivers are loaded incorrectly or not at the right place ?
I can see the drivers and boot config ? Command !!
I am not familiar with from sco !!!



Wed Apr 29 15:35:34 2009: 6280   TonyLawrence


Well, it's not "sco". It's the interaction of this driver and VMware.



Wed Apr 29 16:40:23 2009: 6281   tom


I have a new VM Openserver5 and my image.
The new server is installed, the boot and everything is okay, can I change the config and the drivers in the new server in the converts server copy ?



Wed Apr 29 16:42:16 2009: 6282   TonyLawrence


You'll need to rephrase that: I have no idea what you are asking.



Wed Apr 29 16:52:29 2009: 6283   Tom


Ich habe eine fertige neue SCO-Server
und einem umgebauten alten SCO-Server in der ESX-Server als VM.
dem neuen Server alles in Ordnung.
kann ich die config von der alten zur neuen Server-Server kopieren?
dann muss ich nicht alles neu



Wed Apr 29 16:58:13 2009: 6284   TonyLawrence


Writing in German doesn't help me :-)

Here's the thing: The person who wrote this article used an older version of VMware. and installed 5.0.5. It's quite possible that VMware has changed its SCSI driver since then and it's also possible that it just doesn't like your image.

I'd try installing as per these instructions. If that actually works, try adding your image as a secondary disk. If none of that works, I think you have to assume that VMware has changed since this was written.







Wed Apr 29 17:38:47 2009: 6285   TOm


Sorry, for german :)
I have a one VM EXSI server with two server VM's.
VM one: new is a SCO Openserver5 after instructions okay.
VM two: an old physical SCO Openserver5 than image in the VM ESX converted.

VM two:
the VM does not run properly because its drivers are missing. even after installed.

I can from the first boot the vm files and the drivers in the second copy if so, how? and what data ?






Wed Apr 29 18:17:06 2009: 6286   TonyLawrence


After mounting the image as a secondary disk, you could try copying the kernel itself to something like unix.test and then boot from that (type "unix.text" at the Boot: prompt). If that works, you could go after the drivers in /etc/conf.d and bring them over, relink, etc.

Or just copy your user data to the working vim instance.



Sat May 23 18:17:53 2009: 6394   ChrisL


Hey Tony the free ESXi 4.0 is out and it can offer
an IDE drive to the guest OS (even if the real storage
is on a SAN) so that makes it easy to virtualize old
OSes like SCO 5.0.x...hope you don't see this message
till tuesday...



Tue Jul 14 14:37:34 2009: 6632   TonyLawrence


Vmware has recently said that they support SCO 5.0.6/7 on VMware ESX Server : (link) - see page 221



Wed Jan 6 23:51:39 2010: 7882   Steve




I've tried to install Openserver 5.0.2 on Vmware server, MS virtualPC and Sun virtualBox. No success with any. Usually get the "Error initializing access to device /dev/install". I've tried the IDE and SCSI approach. I'm using a REAL floppy install disc and drive. I've tried every combination of BLTD drivers; blc, and WD's for CD and IDE. I've tried about every combo of bootstrings. I am able to get to a # prompt with the emergency boot/root floppies. This is a RAM disk kernel. It has a very basic set of commands. Can I somehow install from this prompt? Or is there any other way? The hardware emulations just seem to be to "new' for 5.0.2. I actually still run Medical Manager on an old machine and I want to get it on new hardware for maybe a year or two more. I know I got my money's worth but it's an interesting problem.



Wed Jan 6 23:58:00 2010: 7883   TonyLawrence




MM runs on 5.0.7. I suggest getting (link)



Wed Jan 27 19:41:09 2010: 7957   TonyLawrence




A post about getting 5.0.5 on Vmware ESXi 4.0 :

(link)



Mon Mar 21 16:50:51 2011: 9389   Bob




Thanks for the great instructions, but I'm running into a problem once I get to the point in the installation where I enter my license. After entering my license for 5.0.5 Host Only version, I get the error:
Invalid serialization: not installable.

The current license I'm trying to use is for
Product
Sco OpenServer 5.0
Sco OpenServer 5.0 Additional 10-user Trade-in
License from previous 10+

Model Number Lx013-0010W-5.0

Thanks for any hints or help from anyone. Currently our 11 year old server is "down" and we are doing invoices by hand....

Bob



Mon Mar 21 17:19:33 2011: 9390   TonyLawrence




That's not the right license.

That's for additional users - you need the base OS license first.



Mon Mar 21 18:23:24 2011: 9392   Bob




THANKS Tony for that HINT. Doing some MORE digging through 10 year old documentation I did find a base OS license that the installation "liked". I only have a printed email from SCO with that license and don't have the original Certificat of License and Authenticity, but it did work.

But then it failed with no root disk controller.

I have double checked my VM creation in ESXi 4.0 and everything matches the instructions.

I do see the blc successfully loaded, but on the screen where it says
Press <Enter> to begin installation
I do see the following:
%adapter - - - ha=0 type=usb_msto UDI SCSI HBA
and also a line
WARNING: Test Open Failed "hd=Sdsk", No Root Disk Controller

During installation, after entrering the license, I picked Fresh and OK
Then, I got the ERROR:
No root disk has been detected. cannot proceed.
Verify that your hardware configuration has a disk attached and configured as the primary disk.

Installation will now abort. Press <Enter>.

I have verified that I did sellect the BusLogic Parallel as the SCSI controller.
I have one hard disk as 80GB and specified as SCSI(0:0) Hard Disk 1 (I did not add a second virtual drive)

I would not think being a "Host Only" (no network) SCO installation would be the problem, but thought I would mention it.

Any more hints?

THANKS again for the reply!!!!!!
Bob



Mon Mar 21 19:34:38 2011: 9393   TonyLawrence




No, no idea, sorry.



Sun Mar 25 11:15:04 2012: 10789   TonyLawrence




Here is yet another report of 5.0.5 successfully virtualized: (link)



Thu Mar 5 15:29:10 2015: 12617   Samg




Hi Tony,

We have an elderly(!!) Sco Unixware 711 system here, and I've managed to P2V it using instructions found here :

(link)

Performance is good, and I'm not seeing any issues with it other than XWindows is refusing to start.

Installing a fresh copy of Unixware 711 in a different VM results in a fully functioning installation of Unixware, along with XWindows working correctly. This would usually be a good thing as I'd just set the settings of the non-functioning version of XWindows to be the same as the functioning and get it working that way.

Unfortunately they are already the same. The versions of the installed packages on each system are the same as well.

I'm running on VMWare 5.5, but had to P2V using ESXi 4.1 as the VMWare Converter CD wouldn't talk to ESXi 5 or above. I then copied the files from the ESXi4 datastore to one accessible by the ESXi5.5 host and ran it from there.

My Unix knowledge is not that good, I've kinda fumbled my way through getting Unixware working a few times before I was happy that I hadn't messed around with something I shouldn't, and the people that used to support this system left the company about 8 years ago, so I can't ask them about it.

Going by the last paragraph in this article, you're aware that there are issues surrounding XWindows on Sco's older products under VMWare, and was wondering if there was something you could point me in the direction of that might help.

Thanks in advance

Sam



Thu Mar 5 21:15:27 2015: 12618   TonyLawrence




I can't offer anything in that regard, sorry. I do very little with any SCO now and nothing at all with Unixware.

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