Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 00:18:09 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: "free" SCO O/S Message-ID: <199611161348.AAA11428@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
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A little off-topic, but perhaps pertinent, and maybe someone can
illuminate me.
As many others no doubt have, I thought it would be educational to
install the abovementioned system to study the state of the art
offered by others.
Imagine my surprise when the installation failed to detect my (NCR)
SCSI controller, and insisted I boot from CD.
After some determined rummaging on the SCO website (nowhere is there
a section anything like "installation tips"), I discover that the
BTLD floppy shipped with the CD supposedly contains the driver I
require. (worth noting that the installation instructions that
come with the CD read :
"Boot from the supplied boot floppy and follow onscreen instructions".
This in a 12-page glossy advertising brochure. *sigh*
So, I punt and reboot, mount the CD and go looking for instructions.
It appears that at their helpful bootloader prompt :
Boot
:
one is supposed to type "link", and then supply the name of the
driver (slha). Intuitive, no? It gets better. Ok, so I punt again
and do this. Now, not only do I have to wait for the _agonisingly_
slow kernel boot load, but now it says that it's loading the kernel
symbol table, and that it will take a few minutes. And it does.
Ok, so I get a prompt for the BTLD disk, and insert it. Only it
appears that the 'slha' driver isn't on the disk. Or perhaps I
mistyped it. At any rate, this section from the SCO manual is
pertinent :
NOTE If there are any errors during this extraction (linking)
process, the process is aborted and you are forced to reboot.
Like hell I am. Stick it back on the shelf and worry about it some
other time. Anyone tells me FreeBSD is difficult to install is going
to get laughed out of the room.
--
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[
]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[
]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[
]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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