Hello,
I'm a complete newbie with SCO, but not to UNIX. A client of mine has
an old SCO 5.0.5 server running a very small Progress database and the
hardware is finally dying. We're going to run it in a VMware
workstation, at the moment, with IDE disks, which seems to be working
after some simple hackery with 5.0.7 install floppy images... but it
works.

I've done a clean install into the VM, applied the licence keys, but
every time I try and boot the VM it stops at the boot: prompt.
Hitting return makes it boot, and it then asks to be licenced, and
then asks for the root password or ^d to continue into normal mode. I
can ^d in and it seems to run ok from then on.

Can anyone here point me at what I need to do to get it to boot up
multi user without needing user input on the (virtual) console?

More background if it helps :

I have a CPIO archive of the existing system that I want to restore on
top of the VM once this is working, so I can get it working with a
minimum of fuss in a hurry. Any tips or caveats to doing this? I
expect the kernel might get upset, or maybe the licence will stop
moaning?

Thanks!

Carl

On 1 Jul, 03:22, Bleve <carl.I.bre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm a complete newbie with SCO, but not to UNIX. *A client of mine has
> an old SCO 5.0.5 server running a very small Progress database and the
> hardware is finally dying. *We're going to run it in a VMware
> workstation, at the moment, with IDE disks, which seems to be working
> after some simple hackery with 5.0.7 install floppy images... but it
> works.
>
> I've done a clean install into the VM, applied the licence keys, but
> every time I try and boot the VM it stops at the boot: prompt.
> Hitting return makes it boot, and it then asks to be licenced, and
> then asks for the root password or ^d to continue into normal mode. I
> can ^d in and it seems to run ok from then on.
>
> Can anyone here point me at what I need to do to get it to boot up
> multi user without needing user input on the (virtual) console?

What happens if you just *wait* for a few minutes? Under 5.0.6,
there's a lengthy pause at that stage: I think that it's a legacy of
what is basically a very antique operating system that thinks you
should reboot only in emergencies, and threefore you *MUST* want a
lengthy chance to have a talk with it at boot time.

Be warned: that IDE based installation works fine iwth VMware
Workstation, but VMware ESX doesn't support it. You have to use the
Buslogic emulated SCSI and 5.0.7 boot floppy, described at AP
Lawrence's website, to install on VMware ESX.

> More background if it helps :
>
> I have a CPIO archive of the existing system that I want to restore on
> top of the VM once this is working, so I can get it working with a
> minimum of fuss in a hurry. *Any tips or caveats to doing this? *I
> expect the kernel might get upset, or maybe the licence will stop
> moaning?

Restoring form cpio is begging for pain. It's likely to seriously
screw up your kernel and configuration if you simply restore on top of
it: this is AT&T SysV with SCO modifications on top of it, not Linux,
and that nutty symlinking all over the file system of your installed
software that OpenServer does is likely to present profound
difficulties.

On 1 Jul, 04:22, Bleve <carl.I.bre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm a complete newbie with SCO, but not to UNIX. A client of mine has
> an old SCO 5.0.5 server running a very small Progress database and the
> hardware is finally dying. We're going to run it in a VMware
> workstation, at the moment, with IDE disks, which seems to be working
> after some simple hackery with 5.0.7 install floppy images... but it
> works.
>
> I've done a clean install into the VM, applied the licence keys, but
> every time I try and boot the VM it stops at the boot: prompt.
> Hitting return makes it boot, and it then asks to be licenced, and
> then asks for the root password or ^d to continue into normal mode. I
> can ^d in and it seems to run ok from then on.
>
> Can anyone here point me at what I need to do to get it to boot up
> multi user without needing user input on the (virtual) console?

have a look at the man page for boot:

http://osr507doc.sco.com/en/man/html.HW/boot.HW.html

and specifically AUTOBOOT. Note that this may or may not
work on VMware.

John

On Jul 1, 5:21*pm, Nico Kadel-Garcia <nka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1 Jul, 03:22, Bleve <carl.I.bre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hello,
> > I'm a complete newbie with SCO, but not to UNIX. *A client of mine has
> > an old SCO 5.0.5 server running a very small Progress database and the
> > hardware is finally dying. *We're going to run it in a VMware
> > workstation, at the moment, with IDE disks, which seems to be working
> > after some simple hackery with 5.0.7 install floppy images... but it
> > works.
>
> > I've done a clean install into the VM, applied the licence keys, but
> > every time I try and boot the VM it stops at the boot: prompt.
> > Hitting return makes it boot, and it then asks to be licenced, and
> > then asks for the root password or ^d to continue into normal mode. I
> > can ^d in and it seems to run ok from then on.
>
> > Can anyone here point me at what I need to do to get it to boot up
> > multi user without needing user input on the (virtual) console?
>
> What happens if you just *wait* for a few minutes? Under 5.0.6,
> there's a lengthy pause at that stage: I think that it's a legacy of
> what is basically a very antique operating system that thinks you
> should reboot only in emergencies, and threefore you *MUST* want a
> lengthy chance to have a talk with it at boot time.

I haven't tried that, but will do so once this server build is done,
thankyou.

> Be warned: that IDE based installation works fine iwth VMware
> Workstation, but VMware ESX doesn't support it. You have to use the
> Buslogic emulated SCSI and 5.0.7 boot floppy, described at AP
> Lawrence's website, to install on VMware ESX.

Understood, I think I can get away with workstation, running in a VNC
session. It's kludgy but buys me time to fix the real problems.

>
> > More background if it helps :
>
> > I have a CPIO archive of the existing system that I want to restore on
> > top of the VM once this is working, so I can get it working with a
> > minimum of fuss in a hurry. *Any tips or caveats to doing this? *I
> > expect the kernel might get upset, or maybe the licence will stop
> > moaning?
>
> Restoring form cpio is begging for pain. It's likely to seriously
> screw up your kernel and configuration if you simply restore on top of
> it: this is AT&T SysV with SCO modifications on top of it, not Linux,
> and that nutty symlinking all over the file system of your installed
> software that OpenServer does is likely to present profound
> difficulties.

Yeah ... it's a mess alright, I think I can get away with just the
progress database stuff and recreate the rest, but how do you activate
the licence?

On Jul 1, 5:57*pm, Bleve <carl.I.bre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jul 1, 5:21*pm, Nico Kadel-Garcia <nka...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On 1 Jul, 03:22, Bleve <carl.I.bre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Hello,
> > > I'm a complete newbie with SCO, but not to UNIX. *A client of mine has
> > > an old SCO 5.0.5 server running a very small Progress database and the
> > > hardware is finally dying. *We're going to run it in a VMware
> > > workstation, at the moment, with IDE disks, which seems to be working
> > > after some simple hackery with 5.0.7 install floppy images... but it
> > > works.
>
> > > I've done a clean install into the VM, applied the licence keys, but
> > > every time I try and boot the VM it stops at the boot: prompt.
> > > Hitting return makes it boot, and it then asks to be licenced, and
> > > then asks for the root password or ^d to continue into normal mode. I
> > > can ^d in and it seems to run ok from then on.
>
> > > Can anyone here point me at what I need to do to get it to boot up
> > > multi user without needing user input on the (virtual) console?
>
> > What happens if you just *wait* for a few minutes? Under 5.0.6,
> > there's a lengthy pause at that stage: I think that it's a legacy of
> > what is basically a very antique operating system that thinks you
> > should reboot only in emergencies, and threefore you *MUST* want a
> > lengthy chance to have a talk with it at boot time.
>
> I haven't tried that, but will do so once this server build is done,
> thankyou.
>
> > Be warned: that IDE based installation works fine iwth VMware
> > Workstation, but VMware ESX doesn't support it. You have to use the
> > Buslogic emulated SCSI and 5.0.7 boot floppy, described at AP
> > Lawrence's website, to install on VMware ESX.
>
> Understood, I think I can get away with workstation, running in a VNC
> session. *It's kludgy but buys me time to fix the real problems.
>
>
>
> > > More background if it helps :
>
> > > I have a CPIO archive of the existing system that I want to restore on
> > > top of the VM once this is working, so I can get it working with a
> > > minimum of fuss in a hurry. *Any tips or caveats to doing this? *I
> > > expect the kernel might get upset, or maybe the licence will stop
> > > moaning?
>
> > Restoring form cpio is begging for pain. It's likely to seriously
> > screw up your kernel and configuration if you simply restore on top of
> > it: this is AT&T SysV with SCO modifications on top of it, not Linux,
> > and that nutty symlinking all over the file system of your installed
> > software that OpenServer does is likely to present profound
> > difficulties.
>
> Yeah ... it's a mess alright, I think I can get away with just the
> progress database stuff and recreate the rest, but how do you activate
> the licence?

It came up ok after a few moments, thankyou. My next dumb question,
how do I get it to activate its licence? I have the key installed etc
(required at install-time) but it's moaning in motd about a licence
activation? Can I copy a file over from the existing server?

Bleve wrote:

> It came up ok after a few moments, thankyou. My next dumb question,
> how do I get it to activate its licence? I have the key installed etc
> (required at install-time) but it's moaning in motd about a licence
> activation? Can I copy a file over from the existing server?

You need to run the 'scoadmin' tool. The license should normally have
been activated at installation time. Is it moaning about seeing a
duplicate license (because your old system is still around), or
moaning about registration?

On Jul 2, 6:19*pm, Nico Kadel-Garcia <nka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bleve wrote:
> > It came up ok after a few moments, thankyou. *My next dumb question,
> > how do I get it to activate its licence? *I have the key installed etc
> > (required at install-time) but it's moaning in motd about a licence
> > activation? *Can I copy a file over from the existing server?
>
> You need to run the 'scoadmin' tool. The license should normally have
> been activated at installation time. Is it moaning about seeing a
> duplicate license (because your old system is still around), or
> moaning about registration?

Registration, I ran licenseMgr on both the new (virtual) box and the
old one, and the old one isn't registered either. I think that means I
can get away with not registering it?

Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:

> What happens if you just *wait* for a few minutes? Under 5.0.6,
> there's a lengthy pause at that stage: I think that it's a legacy of
> what is basically a very antique operating system that thinks you
> should reboot only in emergencies, and threefore you *MUST* want a
> lengthy chance to have a talk with it at boot time.

Wow, that's an interesting interpretation.

It's a server OS. It should, in fact, only be rebooted in extraordinary
circumstances. It is not a version of Windows where the first "cure"
for any glitch is a drive-by rebooting. This has nothing to do with
antiquity.

Rebooting takes a while. Have you ever worked with a machine whose BIOS
takes 3-4 minutes to initialize, but which gives you only a few seconds
to tell it to go into BIOS setup? Pretty darn annoying, isn't it?
You have to power cycle it, then watch carefully for several minutes,
waiting to catch those crucial few seconds. The opportunity to get your
Unix system into single-user mode is much like the opportunity to get a
machine into BIOS setup. It is reasonable for it to delay a bit so you
have a chance to catch it.

And it's easily tuned.

>Bela<

"Bleve" <carl.I.brewer@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c0726254-7ab0-41c9-bb07-a8245fc2a7fd@a32g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
On Jul 2, 6:19 pm, Nico Kadel-Garcia <nka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bleve wrote:
> > It came up ok after a few moments, thankyou. My next dumb question,
> > how do I get it to activate its licence? I have the key installed etc
> > (required at install-time) but it's moaning in motd about a licence
> > activation? Can I copy a file over from the existing server?
>
> You need to run the 'scoadmin' tool. The license should normally have
> been activated at installation time. Is it moaning about seeing a
> duplicate license (because your old system is still around), or
> moaning about registration?

Registration, I ran licenseMgr on both the new (virtual) box and the
old one, and the old one isn't registered either. I think that means I
can get away with not registering it?
--------

A few things:

* There is activation and there is registration.
Activation is necessary for any license to work. That merely means entering
in a valid license number and activation code. Without that, the components
you want to use don't even start to work, so, since your os is running, you
have already done this at least for the base os license.
Registration is not necessary. All it does is print that nag message to the
console. I think it's even more specific, just to tty0.
I think I've only registered maybe 3 machines out of hundreds. Users don't
use the console.
For the few times when you must use the console instead of telnet/ssh just
flip to Alt-F2 or press Ctrl-L to redraw your screen when it does intrude.

* The duplicate license check is easy to block.
Just use ipf/iptables either in the host linux or right in the client sco
unix to block all traffic in & out on udp port 488.
I often put these 2 rules into /etc/ipf.conf on sco boxes:

# block sco license manager from seeing new/old box
block in quick on net0 proto udp from any to any port = 488
block out quick on net0 proto udp from any to any port = 488

If the sco unix is 5.0.6 or later then ipf is built in, if it's 5.0.4 or
5.0.5 then ipf can be added via TLS709
however docs & examples on configuring are pretty scarce. tls709 doesn't
even include an rc script if I remember correctly.

* the base os license and serial number can be obtained from the old machine
but no other licenses that I know of, or at least not enough info to
activate.
Look for
SERIAL_NUMBER
ACTIVATION_KEY
ANNOTATION_LINE
in /var/adm/ISL/iqm_file
Reference:
http://aplawrence.com/Bofcusm/667.html
http://aplawrence.com/SCOFAQ/FAQ_scotec1getserno.html

--
Brian K. White brian@aljex.com http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR
+++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
filePro BBx Linux SCO FreeBSD #callahans Satriani Filk!

On Jul 4, 10:52*am, "Brian K. White" <br...@aljex.com> wrote:
> "Bleve" <carl.I.bre...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>

> A few things:
>
> * There is activation and there is registration.
> Activation is necessary for any license to work. That merely means entering
> in a valid license number and activation code. Without that, the components
> you want to use don't even start to work, so, since your os is running, you
> have already done this at least for the base os license.
> Registration is not necessary. All it does is print that nag message to the
> console. I think it's even more specific, just to tty0.
> I think I've only registered maybe 3 machines out of hundreds. Users don't
> use the console.
> For the few times when you must use the console instead of telnet/ssh just
> flip to Alt-F2 or press Ctrl-L to redraw your screen when it does intrude..

Great, thankyou.

I have the original paper licenses, and the box is on a seperate LAN
while I prepare it to replace the old hardware, so the license check
thing won't be an issue.

I have one last question (I promise!) :

Printers.

It's using svr4 printing, and I need to copy or replicate the printer
setups, which aren't documented anywhere, and change them a tiny bit
(different ttysX for the serial port printer they use)
If it was BSD etc, I'd just grab /etc/printcap. This is obviously
quite different. Is it possible to grab all the settings and config
files for the printers on the old box and copy them to the new one?
I've found where some of the printer definitions are, but google keeps
pointing me at CUPS or Solaris's printing, which all changed a lot
since the early days of SVR4 I think? (it's been a _long_ time since
I've set up any printers on early SunOS 5.x boxes ...). Any doco on
this anywhere, or even a pointer at the right keywords to feed google?