[comp.unix.xenix.sco] Help on SCO Xenix

JLA103@psuvm.psu.edu (02/27/91)

A friend of mine lent me his SCO Xenix to test it out.  I seem to have a prob.
with it,  I think that I might be because of my stupidity, but here goes.
Is there anyway to get sco xenix 386 to boot up / install on a 286?  i have
tried just about everything.  Am I overlooking something?

glen@sungate.UUCP (Glen) (02/27/91)

In article <91058.011828JLA103@psuvm.psu.edu> JLA103@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>A friend of mine lent me his SCO Xenix to test it out.  I seem to have a prob.
>with it,  I think that I might be because of my stupidity, but here goes.
>Is there anyway to get sco xenix 386 to boot up / install on a 286?  i have
>tried just about everything.  Am I overlooking something?

No. There is not.  The 386 kernel uses 386 instructions not available on
the 286 CPU.  There is a separate version of Xenix for the 286, available
from SCO or any of us resellers.

-- 
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Glen Barney 301-330-4700                The beach is not just a place
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jim@applix.com (Jim Morton [ext 237]) (02/28/91)

In article <91058.011828JLA103@psuvm.psu.edu>, JLA103@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
> Is there anyway to get sco xenix 386 to boot up / install on a 286?  i have
> tried just about everything.  Am I overlooking something?

short answer: Yes! You can't do that!
long answer: The 386 chip, and therefore 386 Xenix, has instructions and
registers that don't even exist on a 286 chip, so there is no way to run
386 instructions on a 286 machine. You may want to consider something like
an Intel Inboard-386 that is a card that goes into a 286-AT slot, with a
cable that plugs into the 286 chip socket and turns the machine into a
386-AT machine. Be forewarned though that there are some slight compatibility
problems with Inboard-386's, and there is a limit as to how much 32-bit
memory you can put on the Inboard (3 meg, I think). I have run 386 Xenix on
two Inboard-386's with only one issue: the BIOS-level system reset that
gets triggered by "haltsys" (or CTRL-ALT-DEL in DOS) doesn't work - you have
to power cycle the machine.
--
Jim Morton, Applix Inc., Westboro, MA
...uunet!applix!jim    jim@applix.com