SCO 5.0.7 No Root Controller Found

Mon Sep 14 07:31:41 PDT 2020

Jason,

The hard drive host adapter possibilities on a Dell Precision T7400 are:

 1 - The SATA ports - which would use the AHCI driver on OpenServer 5.0.7 Definitive. But standard OpenServer 5.0.7 has no AHCI driver support.
 2 - Some models had an onboard LSISAS 1068e SATA / SAS Adapter. IF you had this, and IF you have the lsil 10409 BTLD driver, you could probably install.
 2 - The Perc 6/i ports, for which there is no OpenServer 5.0.7 support.

If the server can be put into legacy (IDE) mode, you might be able to run the drives with the wd 3.0 BTLD driver.

The network adapter in the T7400 is a Broadcom BCM5754, for which there is no SCO driver available that I am aware of.
So even if you get the server running, it won't have a NIC.

Depending on the server, there are a number of disable commands that may need to be on the bootstring related to USB stuff.

So there are a lot of permutations and possibilities for install bootstring. Some may work but give up a lot of performance. Most won't but it is trial and error.

You may be better off installing free VMware ESXi, then running OpenServer 5.0.7 as a guest operating system.

Tom Podnar
Microlite Corporation

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Garner via Filepro-list" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2020 8:02:54 AM
Subject: SCO 5.0.7 No Root Controller Found

Good Morning,

I am working with John Esak loading SCO Openserver 5.0.7 on a Dell
Precision T7400 workstation. We have been unable to get the SCO
bootstrapper to detect the root disk controller. John asked me to post this
request for help on the filepro list server. See Below:

Jason,

I think I may have exhausted my old and decrepit knowledge on SCO
Openserver 5.07 and bootstrapping invarious BTLD’s at install time.

The server you have been helping me load with 5.07 will become my personal
FilePro server if I can ever get it loaded properly.  It is such a nice
machine… I am really impressed with it. Built like a tank and will be more
than I ever need.

Maybe you could forward  this question out to the FilePro list… there are
(or used to be) many highly capable people on that list using Openserver
5.0.7, and though many have probably switched to Linux, they will
definitely  remember more than I do about the correct syntax for loading
the WD BTLD drivers at install time with BTLD floppy disks.

I think all we really need to know, is **what** is the name of the HBA on
the motherboard of the Dell Precision T7400 server?  A name that matches up
with the correct BTLD driver for WD through SATA… whether the early group,
or the later additions done with ahslink instead of link.

As to the layout of the motherboard on the machine, there are 3 SATA ports
that are available as well as 4 more under AHCI/ATA through an  onboard
HBA.  The HBA seems to enumerate as a SAS6, but I don’t see that as a BTLD
available in either the first BTLD release or the second.

This is obviously a bit before PERC5 and PERC6 controllers.  I remember
using LSiL as the controller/driver in the past for some DELL machines, but
since that hasn’t worked… I’m now running through the end of the variations
I can remember.

I’ve tried using a USB CDROM (instead of the SATA one that came with the
machine) to continue with the install and have used just about every
bootstring I can imagine to load different drivers so that the T7400 can be
loaded from scratch with a valid boot floppy  and/or  valid install CD.
The BTLD for the WD supplements all load perfectly, but it never actually
lets me see the hard drive root disk controller.

I have tried dozens (feels like millions)  of combinations of defbootstr
commands, but none get it right… obviously this is because I don’t know
what to call the HBA on the T7400 motherboard.

I have of course tried loading directly to the main 3 motherboard SATA
ports as well without using AHC, but ATA mode… every choice seems to be
fruitless.

I have a junk old machine that has a “legacy” choice for its SATA/PATA
configuration instead of just ATA/AHC and what is called “compliant”.  This
would be more what I’m used to seeing and expecting, but the few attempts
with that machine are yielding the same results  even though it **also**
perfectly loads the WD BTLLD with no errors, it gets me all the way to the
place where it should see the hard drives, but just like the Dell,  no
joy.  I have tried different media, cables, etc. I’m very certain this is a
simple need for a correct “defbootstr”…

I’m hoping someone knows a trick or a gotcha get-around for the Dell T7400
that I have not found.  Dell, obviously, won’t talk to me without a service
contract…. Unfortunately, This was a used, but perfect condition server I
found…. So no help there.

Maybe some of you might  remember, I’m looking for something like this:

Boot:  defbootstr link=fd(60)wd Srom=lsil(0,0,2,0) Sdsk=lsil(0,0,3,0)

I’ve run through some stuff about “atapishift” to no avail, and even tried
 to  install using a USB CDrom with something like:

Defbootstr Srom=usb_msto(0,0,3,0)

And so forth…Nothing gets me all the way to “seeing” the root controller. ☹

If anyone has any ideas, please contact us  through a return email to Jason
… through Jason…. Or me at john at timescape.com..

Thanks, Jason… maybe someone from days of yore will know the answer to this
frustrating sticking point.

Talk to you soon, and thanks for forwarding this to the “list” for me.

John

--

John Esak

Tucson, AZ

-- 
Jason Garner
Systems Administrator

1801 Oberlin Rd, Suite 204
Middletown, PA 17057
Work   717-985-1122 x 1139
Mobile 717-645-3521
<tim.barr at evalsvs.com>jason.garner at evalsvs.com
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