ISC 2.2 Installation Troubles

[Tom Yager]

In article <1990Jul1.125113.970 at pilikia.pegasus.com>, art at pilikia.pegasus.com (Art Neilson) writes:
> Well, at the suggestion of several people I pulled my hard drive and
> controller, went over to the local computer store and hooked up my
> drive to a 386 Micronics 20Mhz motherboard.  My ISC 2.2 installed
> *just fine*.  Problem fixed I thought, after all I had gotten net mail
> from a guy in Australia who had done this same thing to bypass the 
> 2.2 install hang problem.  I took my drive home with the new ISC  
> release installed on it, put it back in my system and fired the 
> system up.  Lo and behold, the kernel panic'ed.  Below you can
> see the gory details firsthand:
[... detail deleted to spare the squeamish ...]
> This pretty much proves that the install disks aren't defective, what
> we have here is a major incompatibility with the new release 2.2 and 
> my TransComputer 386 33Mhz motherboard.  
> -- 
> Arthur W. Neilson III		| ARPA: art at pilikia.pegasus.com

When ISC and SCO publish their compatibility lists, they ain't kidding!

I just spent a full month trying to get a system configured to run UNIX. I had
a <brand name omitted> 25MHz 386, 16MB of memory, a brand-X ESDI controller
and a 300MB disk. The first system that came in passed every test in BYTE's
arsenal with flying colors, but panicked the moment I tried to run UNIX. SCO
wouldn't even install. ISC would, but died with the same symptoms described
above.

The long-story-short version is that I went through three replacement
motherboards (each a different design and manufacturer), two memory expansion
boards, and three complete sets of memory chips. I can't fault the vendor,
because in the end I got a 33MHz system for the price of a 25--they felt
horrible about all the problems. The third time must have been the charm, for
the system's been running around the clock ever since.

The moral: Never buy a system mail-order to run UNIX unless a) it's on the
UNIX vendor's recommend list, or b) you got it on 30-day terms or have a
return privilege. I think the best way to buy these days may be to get the
whole sha-bang from someone like Dell, Everex or Mobius. You get the system
loaded, it's warranteed for use with UNIX, and you don't get blank stares from
tech support people who make you spell U-N-I-X.

That's not an endorsement, but I know I'm far from the only person who's been
bitten by the "incompatible compatible system" snake. I guess the manufacturers
must be at fault, because there are more than enough systems out there that
just work. I got fooled into thinking that all ISA-based 386 boxes had enough
in common to run UNIX without problems. Baloney.

By the way, the techies at this company said they burned the first two systems
in using both Xenix and OS/2. I believe them, but neither OS found the problem.
On the third one, I told them not to bother. (Hey, maybe it was running OS/2
that fried the other two boards! I must look into that.)

Don't be too hard on ISC (and others) for failing to account for every flako
timing or similar problem on every motherboard ever made. New Taiwanese and
Korean companies are entering the market every day, it seems. No one could
ever keep all those workarounds straight.

As the man said on Hill Street: "Let's be careful out there."
(ty)

-- 
+--Tom Yager, Technical Editor, BYTE----Reviewer, UNIX World---------------+
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