SCO Xenix 386 distribution

[wlewisiii]

I've been working on gathering together as much of the old Xenix 386 system as I can. I have put together a package of Version 2.3.4, all add on kits, applications, patches and so forth and put together a torrent. You can find it here http://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/8665974 if you have any interest in it. I also intend to upload this to other servers when and where appropriate.

Hopefully this will keep this from vanishing into the ether.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Awesome. I've added it to my seedbox, but at the moment there is 0 seeds, so you'll need to seed it long enough for my unit to pick it up.

 

[wlewisiii]

This computers is usually on 24/7 anyway so I just popped the tor client into background and plan to ignore it till Saturday.

 

[Chuckster_in_Jax]

Just got it. Downloaded quickly.

Thanks! Nice archive! Has several great apps too.

I have been planning to put Xenix 386 on one of my computers.

 

[SpidersWeb]

My seedbox has found it, once it finishes downloading I'll leave it seeding.

 

[juicylemon]

Is there anyone who got it working on an IBM P70?

 

[wlewisiii]

Is that a MCA machine?

 

[juicylemon]

yes, it is

 

[wlewisiii]

Then you need the MCA version of the core OS. This is what I have but it is untested due to a lack of MCA machines .

https://www.dropbox.com/s/38bvaxqr7oealpd/Xenix 386 Microchannel.zip

If it loads for you, then the rest should install over it just fine.

 

[juicylemon]

Thank you, it works. However, the characters on the screen vibrate in horizontal direction. Is there a way to change video settings?

 

[wlewisiii]

Hmm. I'd first look to see if there were any bios level changes that can be made. After that, perhaps look for info in any service docs that exist for the machine? But I'm not aware of anything kernel level that can be done unless there is something in the MCA installer itself.

Good luck!

 

[wlewisiii]

Hey, here's some information:

http://bbs.actapricot.org/files/area39/xnx296.ltr

one of the fixes is for the P70 screen flicker

 

[juicylemon]

This is a fix that cannot be applied to Xenix 2.3.4, but it can be applied tot 2.3.2.
I found the 2.3.2 microchannel fix which is needed to install Xenix on my IBM P70, but I also need the Xenix 386-2.3.2 installation images. Is there someone who has this version? I can only find the 286-2.3.2 variant online.

 

[wlewisiii]

I have not been able to find any other MC version of the installer. So instead, I extracted the P70 patch from the xnx296a sls. Presuming it works, you'll have to apply it to the kernel everytime you relink the kernel. I'd suggest doing a barebones install, back up the original kernel and then trying this patch. If it works, great! Otherwise, perhaps OS/2 runs on it?

You can find the file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4219a3fyzj6lrjk/p70patch.tar

 

[juicylemon]

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll try it out when I'm back from vacation.

 

[barythrin]

Thanks from me as well. I couldn't get to the torrent (guess my ISP is playing games or something with blackhole DNS) but found your dropbox post on another forum and grabbed it there. Is there a list of compatibility for hardware and this version out there or in the set?

 

[wlewisiii]

I have not seen any list. It likes really plain jane hardware the best. Your best bet is ide, vga & a less than 500 mb hard disk for starters. There are a couple of Adaptec SCSI adaptors supported but those drivers are very fussy and will probably not work on anything faster than a 486. The WD (aka IDE) driver seems to be ok up to a P133 or P150 class machine on real hardware. Qemu runs it reasonably well. VirtualBox is supposed to but I have not succeeded with it.

Hope this helps.