Updated - 110307: Networking now seems stable. Follow the steps before the "netconfig" part. Thanks to "laxde2" for the solution. 
I've been trying for some time, to get a good working install of SCO Openserver 3.2 4.2 running virtual. Not sure i'm there yet, or if i ever will, but it's been fun.
So far, i have not been able to install onto a SCSI disk in vmware (BusLogic, "blc"), even though drivers seems to be available.
However, using an IDE disk seems to work.
I'm posting this for others to find, in case they're fooling around with ancient operating systems like I am, and can't find any specific instructions like i couldn't.
And also to get some kind of verification of the procedure and comments on whether or not this is likely to be stable.
For the networking part, I've experienced different results, sometimes it seems stable with good ping times, and others times there are lots and lots of timeouts.
Not sure what's going on, besides being extremely unsupported.
Hopefully someone is able to adjust something somewhere, to get better results.
Instead of writing about all the drivers and procedures i've tried to get the Buslogic driver working, i'll just skip to the installation procedure on an IDE disk.
I had the following floppy/iso images prepared (physical media will do, of course):
Floppy image: SCO N1 boot disk, uod383bon1
Download from sco.com (ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/SLS/uod383bon1.Z)(http://www.lubkin.com/SCO/boot-media.html)
Floppy image: SCO N2 boot disk
Download from sco.com (ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/????)
(I do not know if this is downloadable, i have created a .flp image from my own)
Floppy image: SCO SLS uod453a
Download from sco.com (ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/SLS/uod453a.Z)
Hard Disk Controller BTLD Supplement, replacement "wd" driver.
Floppy image: SCO SLS uod429a
Download from sco.com (ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/SLS/uod429a.Z)
Hard Disk Controller BTLD Supplement, replacement "wd" driver.
First side note:
While I was trying to get the "blc" going as BTLD, I started out using uod383bon1 and uod453a instead of uod429a, as the ltr file for 453a says that 429a doesn't support BTLDs (depends). But in this procedure (using IDE disks), i guessed that either of them would do so i eventually settled for 429a, as the kernel ID (date) is almost 3 years :smileyalert: newer on this one. However, i kept getting strange errors and random behaviour, so i went back to the uod383bon1 and uod453a images, which appears to "work".
ISO image: SCO Open Desktop / Open Server release 3.0
Most likely not downloadable.
AMD PC-Net NIC driver for the "Flexible" adapter.
Download from amd.com (http://support.amd.com/us/Embedded_TechDownloads/scoodt.zip)
LLI Driver for SCO Unix ODT 3.0
(This actually errors out during install with custom, so it have to be installed manually)
So, let's get down and dirty. Sorry if I'm being overly detailed, but this should be easy to follow for anyone.
Create a new virtual machine:
In the "Create New Virtual Machine" wizard, select "Custom" and click "Next"
Give the VM a name and click "Next"
Select a datastore for the VM and click "Next"
Select "Virtual Machine Version: 7" and click "Next"
As the "Guest Operating System", select "Other"
Select "Other (32-bit) in the dropdown-box
Type in a description in the field, and click "Next"
Select "1" for the number of virtual processors and click "Next"
Select "256 MB" for the amount of memory and click "Next"
Select "1" for the amount of NICs to connect and select the appropriate network for the adapter.
Select "Flexible" for the adapter type and click "Next"
Select "BusLogic Parallel" for the SCSI controller and click "Next"
Select "Create a new virtual disk" and click "Next"
Select "2 GB" for the size of the virtual disk and click "Next"
Note: If going above 2GB (or is it4?), be sure to follow the instructions in the letter file for uod453a.
As "Virtual Device Node", select "IDE (0:0)" and click "Next"
Click "Finish"
Install SCO:
Boot the VM from the "uod383bon1" floppy image.
At the boot prompt, type in "defbootstr link=xwd Srom=wd(1,0,0)" and press enter.
When prompted, mount the "uod453a" (xwd volume) floppy image and press enter.
Note: You can safely ignore the "Characteristic 'h' not supported, ignored", as mentioned in the uod453a letter file.
When prompted, mount the "N2" floppy image and press enter.
When prompted, re-mount the "uod383bon1" floppy image and press enter.
At the "Restricted Rights Legend" page, press any key to continue.
At the "Welcome to SCO..." page, press any key to continue.
At the "Keyboard type" page, select your keyboard type and continue the installation.
At the "Serialization Setup" page, type in your license and activation key and continue.
At the "Product Confirmation" page, continue the installation.
At the "Installation Setup" page, select "Overwrite" and continue.
Note: If installing on a disk larger than 4GB or you want to preserve any existing filesystems, be sure to follow the instructions in the letter file for uod453a.
Disk Divisions created, must be smaller than 2GB (2097152 1K blocks).
At the "Software Setup" page, type in and select the required information and continue.
At the "Hardware Setup" page, select the following
Installation Media: SCSI CD ROM, 0, 0
Mouse: High resolution Keyboard Mouse
Video: IBM VGA 640x480 16, Standard
Network: deferred configuration
Continue the installation.
At the "Disk Setup" page, accept the defaults and continue.
At the "Partition Initialization" page, set the "Bad Track Scan Type" to "Quick" and continue.
Note: Again, if installing on disks larger than 2GB, be sure to read the instructions in the letter files. Bad track scan must not be performed in some situations.
At the "Filesystem Setup" page, adjust to your likings and continue.
At the "Setup Complete" page, proceed with the installation.
When prompted, mount the SCO CD iso and press enter.
Wait
At the power off/reboot prompt, ensure that the "uod383bon1" is mounted and press any key to reboot.
At the boot prompt, type in the same line as before "defbootstr link=xwd Srom=wd(1,0,0)" and press enter.
When prompted, mount the "uod453a" (xwd volume) floppy image and press enter.
Note: You can safely ignore the "Characteristic 'h' not supported, ignored", as mentioned in the uod453a letter file.
At the "System Loaded" prompt, press enter to start.
When prompted to insert the "N1" floppy, mount the "uod383bon1" floppy image and press enter.
When prompted to insert the "BTLD" floppy, mount the "uod453a" (xwd volume) floppy image and press enter.
Change the "root" password when prompted.
Mount the "uod383bon1" floppy image and press enter.
Press enter to accept the default name (xwd) of the BTLD to install.
Press "y" and enter to replace the existing "wd" driver.
Wait while a new kernel is build.
At the power off/reboot prompt, unmount all floppy and iso images and press any key to reboot.
That's pretty much the procedure i've come up with.
SCO further mentions in the uod453a letter file:
"Edit the file /etc/default/boot to change the line defining DEFBOOTSTR so that it does not contain any "hd" or "Srom" references."
In this particular setup, the line should look like this:
DEFBOOTSTR=hd(40)unix Srom=wd(1,0,0)
Removing all but "DEFBOOTSTR=", makes my system panic during boot, instead i have commented out that line entirely, that seems to work.
Your situation may be different. Using this specific procedure, however, i guess it should match pretty good.
I've further disabled X:
Boot into single-user mode.
Type "scologin disable" and press enter.
Now the last challenge I've had my hands on, was getting the network up and running.
Fortunately, i was lucky enough to find and old AMD PC-Net NIC driver that seems to "work" (download link mentioned earlier).
To get it installed was not as easy as finding it, though.
It's a "custom" package but it fails to install for some reason.
Download the scoodt.zip from the link mentioned above.
Extract the zip file and extract the self-extracting file inside.
Now, i guess there's some much easier way to do this, but i'm not that much of a Unix dude, so I transferred the extracted "UNIX" file to a Unix system and used the instructions
From the readme file:
1. Create a temp directory.
2. Copy the file into the temp directory.
3. Untar the file by using this command: "tar xvf DISK"
4. Remove file using command: "rm DISK"
5. Then execute the final command: "tar cvn6 *"
Step number 5 needs an empty floppy disk in the floppy drive.
From the resulting floppy, i created an image file that i could mount in VMWare. There, saved for the future.
Once mounted:
Create a new directory: "mkdir /tmp/scoodt"
Change directory to "/tmp/scoodt"
Extract the contents of the tar format floppy image: "tar xv"
Copy the files to their right location and set ownership and permissions (i'm sure someone can do a one-liner for this. ).
Perms, owner and location can be found in the extracted file: "/tmp/scoodt/tmp/perms/pnt"
md /usr/lib/lli/pnt
cd /tmp/scoodt
cp ./usr/lib/lli/pnt/Master /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Master
cp ./usr/lib/lli/pciinfo /usr/lib/lli/pciinfo
cp ./usr/lib/lli/pnt/System /usr/lib/lli/pnt/System
cp ./usr/lib/lli/pnt/Node /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Node
cp ./usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c
cp ./usr/lib/lli/pnt/Driver.o /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Driver.o
cp ./usr/lib/netconfig/info/pnt0 /usr/lib/netconfig/info/pnt0
cp ./usr/lib/netconfig/init/pnt0 /usr/lib/netconfig/init/pnt0
cp ./usr/lib/netconfig/remove/pnt0 /usr/lib/netconfig/remove/pnt0
cp ./usr/lib/netconfig/reconf/pnt0 /usr/lib/netconfig/reconf/pnt0
cp ./usr/lib/custom/pnt.rmv /usr/lib/custom/pnt.rmv
chmod 644 /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Master
chmod 777 /usr/lib/lli/pciinfo
chmod 644 /usr/lib/lli/pnt/System
chmod 644 /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Node
chmod 644 /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c
chmod 644 /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Driver.o
chmod 644 /usr/lib/netconfig/info/pnt0
chmod 700 /usr/lib/netconfig/init/pnt0
chmod 700 /usr/lib/netconfig/remove/pnt0
chmod 700 /usr/lib/netconfig/reconf/pnt0
chmod 700 /usr/lib/custom/pnt.rmv
chmod 755 /usr/lib/lli/pnt
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Master
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pciinfo
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/System
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Node
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Driver.o
chown bin /usr/lib/netconfig/info/pnt0
chown bin /usr/lib/netconfig/init/pnt0
chown bin /usr/lib/netconfig/remove/pnt0
chown bin /usr/lib/netconfig/reconf/pnt0
chown bin /usr/lib/custom/pnt.rmv
chown bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Master
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pciinfo
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/System
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Node
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Driver.o
chgrp bin /usr/lib/netconfig/info/pnt0
chgrp bin /usr/lib/netconfig/init/pnt0
chgrp bin /usr/lib/netconfig/remove/pnt0
chgrp bin /usr/lib/netconfig/reconf/pnt0
chgrp bin /usr/lib/custom/pnt.rmv
chgrp bin /usr/lib/lli/pnt
To have stable networking, user "laxde2" found the following solution:
cp /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c.org
Edit the "/usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c" file
Change:
#define TX_BUFFERS_0 16
#define RX_BUFFERS_0 16
To:
#define TX_BUFFERS_0 32
#define RX_BUFFERS_0 32
Save and close the file.
Now configure the network with the "netconfig" command:
Type in "netconfig" and press enter
Type "1" and press enter to add a chain.
Type "4" and press enter to add "SCO TCP/IP For Unix"
Type "13" and press enter to add "pnt0 - AMD PCNET Family Ethernet Driver, board 0"
Type "y" and press enter to continue
Press enter to detect the hardware automatically.
Type in the IP address for the adapter and press enter.
Type in the subnet mask for the adapter and press enter.
Press enter twice to accept broadcast address
Type "y" and press enter to continue.
Type in the local hostname or accept the default and press enter
Press enter to continue
Press enter to continue
Type "q" and press enter
Type "y" and press enter to relink the kernel
Type "y" and press enter to set default boot kernel
Type "y" and press enter to rebuild the kernel environment.
Add a default gateway:
Create the "/etc/gateways" file with the following content:
net 0.0.0.0 gateway <gateway IP address> metric 1 passive
Save and close the file.
Type "init 6" and press enter to reboot the new kernel.
That's pretty much it, i guess.
After this, there's probably a bunch of SLSs that could/should to be installed.
Now it's out in the open and hopefully others can bring some "performance" tuning tuning tips into the mix.
Enjoy.
--
/Sune
> The networking is pretty flaky it seems.
Yes, the network doesn't work stable enough to be used for anything.
Well, I've managed to move an old server installation until a VMware Player 3.1.3 build-324285. After looking at the above step-by-step plan. I couldn't get the new installation to work since the cdrom drive didn't get detected. But I got it working with our old N1/N2 backup and some defbootstr using xwd driver. And a dirty trick to get the cpio archive to the disk using a SCO OpenServer 5.0.4 boot CD and stuff. Anyway got the system to boot and followed the above to setup network card (pnt-driver).
And yes, the networking is pretty flaky it seems. After looking on the 5.0.4 installation, I found a differece in /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c and tried it out on 3.2v4.2, networking is stable.
The fix is: Change TX_BUFFERS_0 and RX_BUFFERS_0 from 16 to 32 in /usr/lib/lli/pnt/Space.c before running "netconfig".
Now we are ready for a "New Tomorrow" out of this ancient system
