Resolving installation problems requires you to be familiar
with the hardware configuration information displayed when
your system boots.
Copy this information down, if necessary.
- Licensing and registration
-
A Certificate of License and Authenticity (COLA)
is no longer shipped with the SCO OpenServer media.
See www.sco.com/buyeval for information on how to
acquire licenses for the enclosed software.
References in the SCO OpenServer Handbook to enclosed, hard-copy COLAs
are incorrect.
Certain commercial versions of SCO software require
registration, which you can perform online at the SCO web
site, or with an SCO Registration Center.
(Registering your software is different from licensing it.
You license most SCO OpenServer software when you install it.)
Wait until you are confident your
system is properly installed before registering it.
When you register your system, you must supply the current
SCO System ID. However, a new System ID
is generated whenever you:
-
reformat the hard disk
-
change the partition layout
If you perform one of these operations during reinstallation,
you must contact an SCO Registration
Center to obtain a new Registration Key and repeat the
registration process.
For more information, see
Chapter 6, ``Licensing and registering SCO products'' in the SCO OpenServer Handbook.
SCO Software Support Library (SSL) articles
#482659 and #482755 also describe commonly encountered
licensing problems; see
``SCO Support and Online Information Services''
for information about accessing SSL articles.
- Boot-time loadable driver (BTLD) support
-
Use
link(HW)
to overwrite BTLDs;
the ahslink functionality included
in previous releases has been incorporated into link.
BTLDs are drivers
that can be link-edited into the SCO OpenServer system kernel
during the booting process.
The link-editing is done by link
after the driver is loaded into memory
(RAM), but before the kernel is started. A
BTLD enables SCO OpenServer to be installed either
onto, or using, new hardware as soon as a driver for the
hardware is available.
SCO OpenServer supports installations using
BTLDs for hard disk, tape controllers, and CD-ROM.
NOTE:
The Sjk and mc drivers are not boot-time
loadable.
With certain BTLDs, the installation will stop
and prompt you for BTLD configuration towards the
end of the installation before proceeding.
On some Compaq models, you must boot from the boot floppy
to load a BTLD.
If you boot from the hard disk, the BTLD installation will fail.
- Installing from a serial console
-
To install SCO OpenServer from a serial console onto a machine
that does not have a video adapter, the required settings are
9600 baud, 8 data bits, one stop bit, and direct connect
(usually to com1).
NOTE:
If your system does not have a video adapter,
you will not be able to run the SCO Internet Manager
on the system
as it requires a forms- and tables-capable browser.
In this case, you will either need to add a video adapter or
configure your system to allow remote administration using
a forms- and tables-capable browser on another system.
- Installing the Lightweight Character Configuration
-
If you choose not to install the graphical interface,
you must also de-select Netscape
Communicator to avoid problems with the installation.
- Installation halts with a Signal error
-
If your installation halts with a Signal error,
start the installation again from the beginning and enter the
following at the boot prompt:
defbootstr nbuf=100
This bootstring makes more of your system's memory available
for installation processes, such as booting from the CD-ROM
and badtracking hard disks.
- Bootstring needed to boot off Mylex controller
-
To install with a Mylex controller,
you must start the installation
by typing the following bootstring
at the boot prompt:
defbootstr Sdsk=mdac(0,0,0,1)
This bootstring specifies ID=0 LUN=1
as the first Mylex system drive
and is needed because of a change
in ID/LUN mapping
in the Mylex mdac driver.
- UDMA hangs system during installation
-
With certain combinations
of hard disk and motherboard,
the installation might hang
when using Ultra Direct Memory Access (UDMA) mode,
although the standard Programmed I/O (PIO) mode
will work correctly.
To avoid this problem,
start the installation
by typing the following bootstring
at the boot prompt:
defbootstr wd.udma=off
This problem has been seen
on an Intel C820 desktop motherboard,
but other systems might be affected as well.
- Disabled Symbios controller
-
If a Symbios controller is
in the system
and it is disabled in the BIOS,
start the installation
by typing the following bootstring
at the boot prompt:
defbootstr disable=slha
- IBM Thinkpad 600E system hangs during installation
-
During installation on an IBM Thinkpad 600E system,
the installation might hang
after loading the ramfs image.
To avoid this problem,
start the installation
by typing the following bootstring
at the boot prompt:
defbootstr mem=1m-65280k
- Toshiba notebook might require bootstring
-
If your notebook has trouble reading
from the floppy drive,
verify that the bootstring contains fd.fifo=0.
If not,
add it to your installation bootstring.
See
bootstring(HW)
for more information.
After the installation is complete,
you should also add this bootstring
to the /etc/default/boot file.
For more information,
see
boot(HW).
- Mouse on Toshiba notebook requires bootstring
-
By default,
SCO OpenServer does not correctly detect or handle
the built-in mouse (buttons and movement)
on a Toshiba notebook.
To configure the mouse correctly
for a Toshiba notebook,
add kbm.id2chk to your bootstring
when you start the installation.
At the boot prompt,
enter:
defbootstr kbm.id2chk
- Network card not detected
-
If your PCI, EISA,
or Microchannel network card is not detected
by
netconfig(ADM)
during initial installation
or in the Network Manager,
it might not be configured
by the BIOS.
To solve this,
enter BIOS setup
and set ``Plug-and-Play operating system: No''.
If your network card is not detected during initial installation,
do no try to select it manually.
Instead, do either one of the following:
-
Defer network configuration,
change the BIOS setting
after installation,
then configure your card
using the Network Manager.
-
Abort the installation,
change the BIOS setting,
and restart the installation.
- Media speed on some SMC 9332 not autodetected correctly
-
Automatic media speed detection
is not supported
on the SMC EtherPower 9332 adapter
based on the Digital 21140-A* chip set.
Do not configure your SMC 9332 adapter
to use AUTO_MEDIA_DETECT
for the media type
when running the Network Configuration Manager.
Instead,
use 10Mbit (default)
or 100Mbit media type as appropriate.
SMC 9332 adapters
using later revisions of the chip set
can be autodetected correctly.
If you misconfigure the media type,
you might see the message:
WARNING: smpw(iobase 0x0000EC00): Possible cable fault!
- IBM Microchannel systems require bootstring
-
If you have an IBM® Microchannel(TM) system and
the primary hard disk is a SCSI drive with a capacity greater
than 1GB, you need to specify the biosgeom
bootstring at the boot prompt as follows:
biosgeom defbootstr
This ensures that the contents of the disk are interpreted correctly
by both the hardware and the software.
If you do not specify biosgeom during installation,
or at a subsequent boot from the hard disk,
the installation will appear to be successful,
but you will not be able to boot the system from the hard disk.
See
boot(HW)
for more information.
- NCR Microchannel systems using NCR 77C22 or 77C22E video chip
-
If you have an NCR® Microchannel® system with an
NCR 77C22 or 77C22E video chip integrated on the motherboard,
select the IBM VGA 640x480 with 16 colors setting during
installation.
After the installation completes, run the Video Configuration Manager
(or scoadmin video at the command line) in character mode and
then select NCR VGA.
NCR VGA automatically detects which video chip
is installed on the motherboard.
NOTE:
During installation, you will see the error:
VGA MAP_CLASS failed ...
You can safely ignore this error message,
which denotes a recognition problem of the NCR chip set.
If you have one of these chip sets,
you must always run the Video Configuration Manager
in character mode after initial installation.
Your NCR chip set might not be recognized properly in
graphical mode.
- Use ATI and Diamond DOS setup programs for higher graphics resolution
-
To access resolutions higher than 640x480 and to
correctly initialize certain ATI and Diamond adapters,
you must boot DOS and run the manufacturer-supplied programs
according to the instructions for those programs.
This applies to the ATI Ultra Pro, Ultra Plus, and
Mach64 graphics adapters, and the Diamond SpeedStar Pro, Stealth 24,
and Stealth Pro graphics adapters.
- Compaq Proliant slow when booting from floppy disk
-
The Compaq Proliant might run very slowly when booting from a
floppy disk. To avoid this, set the option
System Configuration → Power-On Defaults → Set Power-On Speed
in the EISA Configuration program to ``High''
rather than ``Auto''.
(The EISA Configuration program is the utility used
to configure the EISA bus cards in the machine.
All EISA bus machines are shipped with a utility to do this.
Compaq normally ships its version on the SmartStart
CD-ROM.)
- Installing Compaq IDA devices on non-Compaq platforms
-
The Compaq IDA driver checks the system BIOS
to verify that it is on a Compaq system. If you use Compaq
IDA hardware on non-Compaq platforms, you must add
ida.nocheck to your installation bootstring or the driver
will not function. See
bootstring(HW)
for more information.
After the installation is complete, you must also add this
bootstring to the /etc/default/boot file. See
boot(HW)
for more information.
- Installing on a machine with an Adaptec 1542CP
-
To install a system with an Adaptec 1542CP host adapter, you
must disable ``Plug & Play'' on the card by setting
DIP switch 1 to ON.
- Installing on a machine with multiple host adapters
-
If your system contains more than one type of host adapter,
SCO OpenServer might find the secondary adapter first and assume
it is the controller for the root disk.
In this case, Upgrade might not be offered as an option for
Installation type.
If this happens, restart the installation
and specify the location of your root hard disk at the boot prompt.
For example, if the root disk is
at ID 0 on the first bus of an Adaptec 294x host adapter, enter
the following at the boot prompt:
defbootstr Sdsk=alad(0,0,0,0)
If the root disk is on a second adapter of the same type, enter the
following:
defbootstr Sdsk=alad(1,0,0,0)
If you have a different SCSI host adapter, use the appropriate
driver name from the following table instead of alad:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Host adapter Driver name
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Adaptec 151x, 152x (6260 & 6360 Chip) smad
Adaptec 154x, 164x, 174x (Standard mode) ad
Adaptec 174x (Enhanced mode) eiad
Adaptec 274x (7770 Chip) arad
Adaptec 2916x, 3916x (7892, 7899 Chip) ad160
Adaptec 292x, Future Domain 16x0, 600, 700 (18x0 Chip) fdhb
Adaptec 294x (7870 & 7880 Chip) alad
Advanced Micro Devices PCscsi ams
BusLogic MultiMaster Adapters blc
BusLogic 93x FlashPoint Adapters flashpt
Compaq Array Controller clad
Corollary 386/486 CBUS SCSI-CPU ciha
DPT SCSI & RAID Host Adapters dptr
Enhanced IDE, ATAPI Interface (for tapes and CD-ROMs) wd
Future Domain (formerly Western Digital) 7000 wdha
Future Domain (formerly Western Digital) 7000EX wdex
Future Domain 845, 850, 860, 885 (950 Chip) tmcha
IBM HardFile Host Adapters hf
Mylex Disk Array Controller mdac
NCR Microchannel Systems Host Adapters ncr
Olivetti ESC-1, ESC-2, and EFP Adapters efp
Storage Plus SCSI-AT (SUMO) sumo
Symbios Logic (formerly NCR MPD) 53c8xx Host Adapters slha
Tricord Intelligent I/O Processor iiop
See the
boot(HW)
and
bootstring(HW)
manual pages and
``Using bootstrings'' in the SCO OpenServer Handbook
for more information.
- Wangtek 5150ES SCSI tape drive with SCSI hard disk installation failure
-
If your system is configured with both a Wangtek 5150ES
SCSI tape drive (with Firmware Versions FA03 or FA23)
and a SCSI hard disk
on an Adaptec 7870 chip set device (controlled by the alad
driver), the installation procedure might fail when the
tape is accessed to transfer files to the hard disk.
To prevent this problem, use the Adaptec SCSI
Select BIOS configuration to disable the SCSI bus
parity checking. This solution is not known to work in all cases.
The problem has been corrected in the most recent version of the
firmware.
- Wangtek QIC-80 cartridge tape drives
-
mkdev(ADM)
incorrectly creates device nodes for this device with
minor numbers 1 and 129.
These should be deleted and replaced with minor numbers
5 and 9 respectively using
mknod(C).
- Limit of four disks configurable during installation
-
During initial system load, you can configure a maximum of
four disks under the Interactive fdisk/divvy disk setup option.
Any additional disks on your system are recognized by SCO OpenServer,
but they are not displayed for configuration during initial system load.
You can configure these disks after initial system load using
the Hardware/Kernel Manager
or the mkdev hd command
(described in the
mkdev(ADM)
manual page).
- Running badtrk with CIHA SCSI adapters
-
When using
badtrk(ADM)
to lock out defective disk blocks, you can choose to use
the target device's defect management or the SCO OpenServer system's
own defect management.
If the SCSI host adapter controlling the defective disk
is a Corollary Integrated Host Adapter (CIHA),
you must choose the target device's defect management to prevent
file corruption.
To access this badtrk option, you must select the
Interactive fdisk/divvy disk setup option during installation.
- Not running badtrk during installation
-
If you choose not to run badtrk during installation,
no space is reserved for the defect list maintained by the
operating system.
This means that on non-SCSI disks, you will not to be able to map
any bad blocks found in this partition and for SCSI disks you
will only be able to use the device-maintained defect list.
- DPT PM 2022 SCSI Disk Controller
-
SCO OpenServer installs correctly on a DPT PM2022 with
SmartROM BIOS 2B and Firmware FW-0230-005E-E/O,
but the kernel reboot fails.
You can prevent this by upgrading to SmartROM BIOS 2.D1
and Firmware FW-0230-005E-E/O, which is the current
release of the Firmware as of this writing.
The SCO OpenServer system is known to work correctly
on the DPT PM2122 with SmartROM BIOS 2D
and Firmware FW-0215-005E, which is the current Firmware
as of this writing.
- ISA bus support disabled for DPT SCSI host adapters
-
Default ISA bus support for DPT SCSI host
adapters has been removed for this SCO OpenServer release. To re-enable
ISA support for DPT SCSI devices, add
dptr.isa=1 to the installation bootstring. See
bootstring(HW)
for more information.
The installation will update the driver configuration files,
so you do not need to add the bootstring to your default
boot file.
- Do not set the installation CD-ROM or tape drive SCSI ID higher than 7
-
SCO OpenServer does not support CD-ROMs or tape drives
with SCSI IDs
set to a value greater than 7 for installation.
IDs greater than 7 are supported
after installation on wide SCSI adapters.
- Obsolete tape drives
-
Selections for Emerald, Mountain, and Everex cartridge tape drives are
provided in mkdev tape for backwards compatibility only.
These drives are no longer supported; in particular, they cannot
be used for installations.
- Future Domain flopticals
-
21MB disks cannot be used as boot devices or
removable hard disks.
- Adaptec Arrow SCSI chip sets
-
Intermittent disk errors occur on 284x cards.
This will be fixed in a future release.
- Adaptec 154x series clone devices
-
Adaptec 154x clone devices might not install properly using the
ad(HW)
driver. If you encounter problems, add ad.nocheck to
your bootstring so that the device can be recognized. See
bootstring(HW)
for more information.
Some Adaptec 154x clone devices might also be recognized by the
BusLogic driver. In this case, disable the blc driver
by adding disable=blc to your bootstring.
This does not apply to BusLogic MultiMastering devices using the
blc driver.
- Network installation fails at reboot
-
After selecting a supported adapter for networked installation
and rebooting the system, you may see an error message similar to this:
E63: can't init controller (i/o port)
This message appears if your network adapter contains a chip set
newer than is supported by this release of SCO OpenServer.
- Hewlett-Packard HP J2585A 10/100VG PCI Network Adapter
-
If you configure a Hewlett-Packard HP J2585A 10/100VG PCI Adapter
during installation, the process will eventually halt
with an error message indicating that the network adapter
was not found. Although the adapter is successfully detected,
it cannot be configured during installation. Configure
the adapter after the installation is complete.
- SMC 8432/8434 EtherPower PCI network adapters
-
Standard Microsystems SMC 8432 and 8434 EtherPower
PCI Ethernet Adapters do not auto-detect properly for
BNC connectors. You must explicitly select BNC
in the Advanced Options window.
- Laptop display resolution
-
On certain laptop systems, setting the resolution to a rate
such as 1024x768x256 might result in a system where the display
is unreadable and locked.
To avoid this, choose a lower setting.
The following two settings are available for use with laptop systems:
LCD 12.1 800x600
LCD 13.3 1024x768
- Configuring mice on laptops
-
When configuring internal mice on most laptops, select Keyboard
mouse when prompted for the mouse type.
- Configuring email
-
At installation, you can choose between two Mail Transfer Agents
(MTAs) provided with SCO systems,
mmdf(ADM)
and
sendmail(ADMN).
The default MTA is MMDF, but we recommend
sendmail to take full advantage of
Internet
Services
mail capabilities; in particular, MMDF does not support e-mail
with virtual domains. For more information, see
``Comparison of sendmail with MMDF'',
Chapter 1, ``Using and administering electronic mail'' in the Mail and Messaging Guide,
and
``Changing Mail Transfer Agents'' in the Mail and Messaging Guide.
NOTE:
sendmail does not support
maildelivery(F)
(except for vacation) and mail notification in
scocal(XC).
- Installing Internet Services
-
If you want to install Internet Services,
be sure the component is selected during
initial system load.
You cannot use the Software Manager to add the
Internet Services after initial system load (whether Fresh
or Upgrade installations).
- Internet Server hostname and domain
-
To properly configure the Netscape web servers,
the System Name and Domain Name that you enter during installation
must exactly match (including case) the fully qualified domain name
returned by your nameserver's PTR record for
your IP address.
For example, if your nameserver's PTR record
for your IP address returns mymachine.mycompany.COM,
you must enter exactly that text
when prompted for the System Name and Domain Name
during the installation.
If you enter mymachine.mycompany.com (lower case com),
the Netscape web servers will not be properly configured.
- Deferred TCP/IP configuration
-
If you defer configuration of TCP/IP during installation
and do not configure a network card before running the
Internet Manager for the first time,
the Internet Manager will add a line to
/etc/hosts of the form:
127.0.0.1 host.full.domain host
host.full.domain is the fully qualified
domain name of your machine. This entry will work in
most cases, but if you configure a PPP link
with a fixed IP address (that is, if you do
not select ``dynamic''), you should edit /etc/hosts
and change the IP address on this line to the
local IP address on your PPP link.
If you configure a network card after the Internet Manager
adds this line, it will add a line to /etc/hosts with
the IP address of that network card, but it will
be after the line added by the Internet Manager.
Edit /etc/hosts and remove the line
added by the Internet Manager.
- Minimum display requirements
-
Netscape Communicator
requires your display to support 256 colors or better
and a resolution of 800x600 or better.
See your
Internet Services
documentation for more information.
- Modem support
-
SCO OpenServer supports serial lines up to 115K baud.
In addition, the Internet Manager
includes support for the modems listed in
Table 24-1, ``Dialers file entries'' in the SCO OpenServer Handbook.
See
Chapter 24, ``Adding modems'' in the SCO OpenServer Handbook
for general information about
installing and configuring modems.