karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) (11/09/89)
In article <35861@cc.utah.edu> ORCUTT@cc.utah.edu writes: >I just bought SCO XENIX/386 and installed in on a PC featuring an old >Intel motherboard (16 MHz, 2 wait states, '387 with prot. mode fix). >The machine has a 1.2 Mbyte floppy and an 80 MByte (ST4096) hard drive >partitioned 28 Mbytes for DOS and 52 Mbytes for XENIX. The boot partition >is the XENIX partition. >The installation went fine and the XENIX runs great, for the most part. >However, I am having the following disk problems: > >1) If I turn the machine on and type "dos" at the colon, the machine >does not boot DOS, but rather goes off to oblivion. The tech. support >people said that it did this because I partitioned the disk with >Disk Master instead of with the DOS fdisk. However, the XENIX fdisk >correctly lists the partition sizes and types. Can anyone confirm >this? I don't want to waste the 4 hours or more reformatting my disk, >repartitioning it, and reinstalling DOS and XENIX if nothing is >going to improve. This is correct. You should do the following to boot DOS from the Xenix boot prompt: 1) Format (low level) the disk 2) Use MSDOS FDISK to make a DOS partition of whatever size 3) Format /s that partition; verify that it boots 4) Boot Xenix from the distribution disk 5) In the fdisk program (which makes the partitions) DO NOT tell Xenix to use the entire disk. Define your Xenix partition and make it active. Note that the DOS partition shows up as partition 4 here, where it was "1" under DOS Fdisk. This is normal. 6) Complete installation of Xenix. The disk should boot either operating system as requested. >2) How do I get XENIX to boot from the floppy, so I can make DOS >the boot partition? That can be done, but I've not tried it. I understand you can do it with a custom "boot" line in /etc/default/boot. Look there. >3) Whenever XENIX writes to a floppy, it ruins the floppy. If XENIX >formats a floppy, the floppy is unusable to either XENIX or DOS unless >it is reformatted by DOS. ...... >in behavior. Am I doing something wrong or does XENIX not like my >floppy controller? Sounds like a problem with the controller or drive. >4) Lastly, I am unhappy with the method that SCO uses to provide tech. >support to its customers. (rest of complaint deleted) Buy from a reseller that supports the product, and then you can deal with them directly. Resellers generally get priority with SCO, which is to be expected. If you didn't buy direct, then you should deal with the company you purchased the product from. If you >did< buy direct then you have a much more valid complaint. Where did you get your Xenix from? We certainly don't give people the run-around like this! ..... >A typical 5-minute support >call costs me nearly an hour of my time. The price of SCO XENIX should >include a free speakerphone with a muzak suppressor... This hasn't been our experience. We call, get a trouble id, and when the person returns our call (given, a day or two later at times) there is a tech on the line who is helpful and solves the problem. Most of the time :-) Then again, we don't call much -- there aren't many problems. -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"
rosso (Ross Oliver, x537, ionesco) (11/10/89)
In article <35861@cc.utah.edu> ORCUTT@cc.utah.edu writes: > >4) Lastly, I am unhappy with the method that SCO uses to provide tech. >support to its customers. When I call the support number, I get a >recording telling me to wait, complete with muzak. After waiting, I >get an operator who asks me for my support number and which part of >the system I want support on. She then sends me to a nother operator > [etc.] Most of the people reading this message should be able to avoid this problem by using electronic mail to communicate with SCO. Here are some e-mail addresses for various areas of SCO: sco!support: Technical Support department sco!info: product information, literature requests, dealer info sco!training: SCO Training department sco!devrel: Developer Relations department sco!discover: Editors of the SCO DiSCOver newsletter Major UUCP nodes we connect to include uunet, sun, decwrl, and attctc. Mail may also be sent to the Internet address sco.com (i.e. support@sco.com). Whenever sending a message in e-mail, please be sure to clearly identify yourself. Include your full name, company name or organization if applicable, return e-mail address, and voice phone number (in case we can't get your return address to work). If mailing to Technical Support, also include your customer key number. When submitting a request to Technical Support, it is important to provide as much information as possible in your initial report so that we can assist you as quickly as possible. Information included should be your hardware configuration, the 3-digit version numbers of all software involved, the exact command or key sequence that is causing the problem, and the exact text of any resulting error messages. In addition to electronic mail, faxes can be sent directly to Tech Support department at (408) 427-5443. The fax number for other departments at SCO is (408) 458-4227. Ross Oliver Technical Support The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.