SCO 5.0.4 on VMware

To install SCO Openserver 5.0.4 on VMWare Server 1.0.1 or VMWare ESX using SCSI Disks.

Notes - VMWare ESX does not support IDE disks.

You will need a copy of the Openserver 5.0.7 boot disk. The Openserver 5.0.4 boot disk will not work. This can be obtained from SCO. I used evaluation media which was supplied free from SCO.

These instructions were written for VMWare Server 1.0.1. Adapt accordingly for ESX.

Stage 1

Download the Buslogic BTLD, at writing it was located at ftp://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/Hardware/mylex/multimaster/mmunix.exe

• Copy it to a pre Windows XP computer. The install will not work on Windows XP
• Insert a formatted floppy disk and open a command window.
• Navigate to the directory the file has been saved to and extract 'mmunix.exe'
• Type 'unix a:' and follow instructions

Stage 2

Create a new Virtual Machine

• Select 'Custom'
• Select 'Other' and version 'Other'
• Create name and location accordingly
• Deselect if desired, 'make this virtual machine private'
• Use if desired 'local system account'
• Select 'one' processor unless you have a SCO SMP licence
• Select memory size as desired, 256mb is adequate
• Use 'bridge networking'
• Select '' logic' for I/O type
• 'Create new virtual disk'
• Select 'SCSI' as 'Virtual Disk Type'
• Select 'Disk Size' as desired to a maximum of 2GB. Change 'Disk File' name as desired
• When VMWare has finished creating a disk edit 'Virtual Machine Settings'
• Double click on 'CDROM (IDE 1:0) and change 'Virtual device node' to 'IDE 0:0' and click 'Ok'

Stage 3

Note - Press the space bar to display multiple choices on the install screens

Insert SCO 5.0.7 boot disk and insert SCO 5.0.4 CDROM

• Power on Virtual Server
• At the 'boot' prompt type 'restart hd=Sdsk link=blc Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0) Srom=wd(0,0,0,0)' and press return
• Swap floppies when requested and insert the Buslogic BLC driver, press return.
• Press return to begin installation.
• At 'Please insert (blc) package...' press return
• Continue through to 'Identifying installation media' and press arrow down to 'Accept above choices' press return and press return again on 'OKâ'
• Follow through install screens and make changes as desired. Select 'Fresh' on install type and continue till the 'Configuring Optional Software' screen appears
• Press return on 'Network card', 'Autodetect' and select 'AMD PCNet' (default entry)
• Proceed and select 'Ok' on the unattended installations
• When the prompt 'Please select the floppy device you are using' press '2' and press return, then return again.
• Select 'b' on 'Abort BTLD load, but continue installation' then press return
• Select 'y' then return when prompted with 'Do you wish to proceed with the installation'. Then return again when prompted with '<enter> to continue'. Openserver will now be installed to the hard drive.
• When install has finished press return till '** Safe to Power off is Displayed **'. Leave the BusMaster BLC disk in drive and remove the CDROM. Press return to reboot.

Stage 4

At the 'boot' prompt type 'defbootstr hd=Sdsk link=blc btld=fd(64) Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0)' Press return when prompted with 'Please insert the fd(64) volume'

• Press 'a' and return when prompted with 'Driver <blc> apparently should be replaced..'
• Login as root into the system.
• At the shell prompt type 'mount /dev/fd0135ds18 /mnt' then return
• Type 'btldinstall /mnt' then return
• Press return when you are prompted with 'Please enter the names of the packages you wish to install, default blc'
• When you are prompted with 'There is already a blc installed' press 'y' and return
• Press 'y' and return when you are prompted with 'A previous installation of Buslogic driver'
• Press 'y' and return at 'Do you want to enable Tag Queueing'
• Press 'y' and return to 'Do you want to rebuild the kernel?'
• Press 'y' and return to 'Do you want this kernel to boot by default?'
• Press 'y' and return to 'Do you want the kernel environment rebuilt?'
• Remove floppy disk, reboot and test.

Stage 5

Extra drive space will be added at this this.

If running, shutdown SCO and shutdown the virtual machine

• Click on 'Edit Virtual Machine' and click 'Add'
• Select 'Hard Drive' and create a second SCSI disk as above. This disk can be of any size. (It has not been tested over 12GB.)
• Start the virtual machine and type in the root password to enter single user mode.
• Type 'mkdev hd' and press 2 and return to 'Add a hard disk to SCSI Controller'
• Press return to accept the default entry of 'blc' when you are prompted with 'Enter the prefix of the SCSI host adaptor..'
• Enter '0' and return on 'Which blc SCSI host adaptor supports this device.'
• Press 'n' and return on 'DMA channel x'
• Press '0' and return on 'What SCSI Bus is this device attached to'
• Press '1' and return on 'What is the target ID for this device'
• Press '0' and return on 'What is the LUN of this device'
• Press 'y' and return when prompted with 'Update SCSI configuration..'
• Press 'y' and return on 'A new kernel must be built and rebooted'
• Press 'y' and return on 'Do you want this kernel to boot by default..'
• Press 'y' and return on 'Do you want the kernel environment rebuilt...'
• Type 'init 0' and reboot the system.
• IMPORTANT - These steps have to be repeated a second time from single user mode. (You will not be asked to rebuild the kernel again.)

You do not have to use these steps to the letter. Set up as desired.

FDisk will open now. Press '2' and return on 'Use Entire Disk for UNIX'

• Press return to continue.
• Press 'q' to quit
• Press 'q' to quit unless you wish to scan the entire drive. (May take some time.)
• Press return 'Enter number of bad blocks to allocate..'
• Press '1' and return on 'Please enter the number of file systems...'
• Press 'y' on 'Do you wish to make any manual adjustments to the sizes and names of the file systems.'
• Press 'n' and return
• Press '0' for division 0 (the entire disk) on 'which division'
• Press 'u' and return on 'what do you want to call it'
• Press 'q' and return to continue to next screen.
• Press 'i' and return on 'Install the division set-up shown'

The screen will now show 'Making File Systems', this may take a while.

Type 'mkdev fs' and press return to create a mount point for the new file system

• Press '1' and return when prompted with 'Add a new file system to system'
• Press 'u' (or whatever name to called this file system) and press return
• Press 'y' and return on 'Do you wish to continue'
• Press 'u' and return (or whatever name you wish to call this mount.
• Press 'y' and return on 'Do you wish to continue'
• Press '1' and return on 'Always mount'
• Press 'y' and return on 'Do you want to allow users to mount this file systems'
• Type 'init 0' to reboot the system. This time enter multiuser mode
• Login and type 'mount' to check the file system has been mounted

Jonathan Moore

10/11/2006

Got something to add? Send me email.

17 comments

Wed Nov 29 20:27:28 2006: 2667   anonymous


why 5.0.4 and not 5.0.7 or even 6.x SCO?
(the other question of "why sco?" does not
need answering...64 bit Xen-linux answers
that question)



Wed Nov 29 20:32:25 2006: 2668   TonyLawrence


Why 5.0.4? Because newer versions install more easily - but require purchasing upgrades, which some customers don't want to pay for (especially if they are planning to move off SCO soon).

Why SCO at all? Because sometimes the application is impossible to run anywhere else, or may have expensive relicensing fees - so they want to put off the pain as long as they can

Don't fret: we'll get em' all eventually :-)
Here's an email I got from someone who got 5.0.2 to run!

From: "gOmp Umstellung" <umstellung@gomp.net>
Subject: SCO OpenServer 5.0.2Dp running inside vmWare 3.0-1455 !
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 22:17:18 +0100



Hello



Okay, this may be very well the wrong address
to post this information, but please read on.









I managed to get a bare-metal installation of
SCO OpenServer 5.02Dp running inside vmWare
3.0-1455 (the release build) I needed SCO OSR5
for some odd reason (old software) and of course
no additional machine wasted.



System: Pentium Pro 200 (kinda old)
AHA2940x (alad) host adapter
IDE ATAPI CDROM at 1:0 (SecMaster)
96MB RAM
2 x 2GB SCSI Disks
PS2 Mouse & Keyboard



bare-metal
Boot and install as usual
- alad is builtin
- ide dito



installed a SCO OpenServer 5.0.2Dp (Enterprise)
just for the record let the setup partition the
first scsi disk
- installing *blah blah* -
disbaled scologin! vmWare is typically
slow thus i decided to disable it rebooted
into maintenance only added the 'blc' BTLD
via installbtld and my NEW btld disk ***
NOT FROM THE AHS DISK ! IT WONT WORK ! ***
get the Buslogic BTLD off the Mylex FTP -
 (link) 



say no to the question about queueing... (
maybe it works if you said yes I dunno)
in scoadmin i added a harddisk (option 2 for scsi)
- driver blc
- hba bus lun id all zero (0)
relinked and so on



- the vmware thingy -
I first got frustrated about no root disk found
(missed hd bootstring)
set up a new box in vmware
- floppy A:
- SCSI Disc 0:0 - Mode RAW - choose your scsi
disk containing your SCO installation
- IDE/ATAPI CDROM 1:0 - Enabled Raw Access (i already do)
- Briged Network
- Memory 256MB
- Guest System: Other









first time fire up the box
Boot
: defbootstr hd=Sdsk Sdsk=blc(0,0,0)
- NOT! Sdsk=blc(0,0,0,0) the optional BUS zero
confuses the loader!!!



it should come up fine
clean the kernel from the 'alad' driver
and add the AMD PCnet driver (my version did
prompt it in scoadmin, Install 'n Go)



what you can NOT use is your floppy... thats the
cause why you can't install SCO the normal way.



- final steps -
get a VirtualDisk file from what you have
made! (and copy it as many time as you can :*)
get something bootable that can make disk copies
(dd, partition magic, etc) in vmWare add another
scsi disk (a virual one which is BIGGER than
your raw disk) boot up your 'copy system' and
raw copy the contents from disk to disk



on the destination server (4x XEON 933Mhz 4 GB
Ram) it runs smooth with the parameters given,
sure it complains about 'register me' because
I didnt do that yet



hope that helps, and you understood this strange mail



Marco Mattle

Thu Nov 30 15:32:05 2006: 2671   BigDumbDinosaur


Don't fret: we'll get em' all eventually :-)

Got one of 'em last week. Long time client, who's been on OSR5 since 1997 finally decided to retire the old warhorse server that we built for them back then and in the process, I convinced them that it was time to go to Linux. As Tony suggested, one of the things that held them back was that they'd have to relicense their Thoroughbred Dictionary IV environment, not an inexpensive proposition. However, I was finally able to convince them to do it. New server is being built as I speak and should be ready to R&R soon.



Mon Dec 18 17:48:08 2006: 2762   Thomas


Hi Jonathan,

I am trying to install OpenServer 5.0.2 on VMWare Server 1.0.1. The Setup for my Virtual Machine is as you described it. I downloaded the 5.0.7-Bootdisk and used the new Buslogic Driver. All hardware is identified correctly.
Everything works fine until I select the installation source. While "checking system state and loading installation files" the installation stops with
"System Error 17:
while creating symlink:
/bin/sh"
after having read 1030 KB from the CD. I tried out different CDs, SCSI and IDE Harddrives, used an image of the CD,... It is always the same Problem.
Do you (or does anybody else) have an idea, what I am doing wrong? Is it the old OpenServer release?

Thanks for your reply! (and sorry for my bad English...)

Thomas



Wed Dec 20 17:51:05 2006: 2767   anonymous


Try lowering the memory allocated on vmware, I tried using 256mb and it crashed. I lowered it to 128mb and it worked. Must be a typo in the instructions. My install was done on 5.0.4 so it could be something completely different.
Please post reply if this was it.



Thu Jan 18 11:09:41 2007: 2818   Jaume


I got his message just booting in "Stage 4":

Loading kernel hd(40)unix .data
...................................................................................
Loading kernel hd(40)unix .bss

Loading kernel symbols table, this may take a few minutes
bootlocore: Out of low (below 1Mb) memory!
No memory for string table
No (or cannot load) kernel hd(40)unix symbol table
Link failed, press <Return> to continue or q to quit:

What's wrong? The system is configured with 256Mb RAM. I've tried it with 64Mb with the same result.

Many thanks!



Fri Jan 19 20:51:52 2007: 2821   anonymous


Might be worth mentioning if you are doing this on ESX or VMWare Server, what version of SCO you are using.
I've got the system running on VMWare Server with SCO 5.0.4 but found the disk sizes have to be as what is instructed and the RAM set to 128MB. I did not test it on ESX server. It can run on VMWare server using IDE disks but ESX won't allow that. You could also look into setting the mem option with defbootstr.



Tue Feb 20 21:54:09 2007: 2867   anonymous


I had the same problem with our (large) custom kernel in OSR504, and never did get it to allow BTLDs with any RAM parameters. I booted using the stock unix.install kernel with BTLDs long enough to restore the root FS, then rebuilt the old kernel with BLC and PNT drivers.

I actually started with Lonetar's Airbag product, and was able to map a generic SCSI device from my host Win2K box into the VMWare guest and perform a full restore. Way slick.



Wed Jun 6 12:49:03 2007: 3020   anonymous


This article works for version Openserver 5.0.5 as well



Mon Sep 29 18:46:42 2008: 4618   Dilan


Hi, I have 5.0.4 installed under VMWare ESX. However I found that after the system was booted the cron daemon and tcp was not running. However I can manually start these services and everything would be fine after. Any ideas?



Mon Sep 29 18:50:50 2008: 4619   TonyLawrence


Did you install RS504C?

That fixes cron related issues: ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/openserver5/rs504c/



Sun Sep 6 22:43:34 2009: 6864   Walter


This article helped a lot, so thank you! The new version of VSXI handles 5.0.4 and up pretty well. I tried 5.0.2 install and it did NOT work for me. I gave up on 5.0.2, and concentrated on converting my 5.0.4 and 5.0.5 SCO that was on 10 year old hardware. I found a lot of sites that said how easy it was with VSXI, but whatever method I tried, I got double panic errors on startup. By trial and error I learned that I had remove some conflicting drivers to make it work.

The method I used was: Used Acronis to make an image of the disk(s) on the physical machine. Used VMware converter stand alone client and selected convert machine, using third party backup image, then selected the Acronis image. This will create IDE hard drives. Before convert, you get to chose thick or thin drives. Default is thick. Once converted, I went to vmware edit settings, general options, and selected SCO Openserver 5 as the operating system. At the boot prompt, I entered unix.safe and hit return. Then when it asks you for CTR D, or your password, enter your password to enter maintenance mode.

Then select scoadmin and what I had to do to get mine NOT to panic was remove all the Compaq drivers for my 10 year old Proliant hardware. Once I did that, and made sure I had a keyboard mouse selected, I booted up fine. I won't tell you how many days of trial and error it took me to get there. But hopefully I saved someone a little time, or a few grey hairs.



Sun Sep 6 22:44:46 2009: 6865   TonyLawrence


Thanks for the update!



Thu Jun 23 13:29:26 2011: 9583   AndrewMeyer




We have an aging server running SCO 5.0.6, it is now going to be transferred to ESXi and virtualized. I have a few options in doing this, I can manually backup up everything....and then untag once I transfer it over or I can find a way to Ghost the server and put it into a VM. Will VMware's enterprise cloning utility work? If not will something else do the trick?? Also, which LSI RAID driver should I use in the VM? I am currently using a LSI MegaRAID in my Dell 2850 (Dell PERC 4 controller) server. Please advise.



Thu Jun 23 13:49:12 2011: 9584   TonyLawrence




AFAIK, VMWare does not specifically support SCO other than their 5.0.7v product. You may very well be able to make what you propose work, but I would not offer any advice in that regard and would not participate.



Sun Mar 25 11:24:50 2012: 10790   TonyLawrence




Another report of SCO 5.0.5 successfully virtualized, this time under RedHat Enterprise 6: (link)



Thu Jan 10 16:56:57 2013: 11717   BruceGarlock




I'm getting ready to "archive" our old accounting system running on SCO 5.0.5, so I found some other guides related to this here:

(link)

(link)





------------------------

Have you tried Searching this site?

This is a Unix/Linux resource website. It contains technical articles about Unix, Linux and general computing related subjects, opinion, news, help files, how-to's, tutorials and more.

Contact us