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Hi.

I am trying to mount an old Xenix hard drive somewhere else. So far I have
not had any success even though different OSes have found and correctly
identified the partition.

Can anybody tell me how to access a Xenix Filesystem from Linux, Windows,
Netware or something else?

Thank you,
Ralph

On Sun, Jul 25, 2004, Ralph Scharping wrote:
>Hi.
>
>I am trying to mount an old Xenix hard drive somewhere else. So far I have
>not had any success even though different OSes have found and correctly
>identified the partition.
>
>Can anybody tell me how to access a Xenix Filesystem from Linux, Windows,
>Netware or something else?

The only way I know to access Xenix file systems is under
OpenServer. It's been years since I did it though, and I don't
have manuals handy. If I remember correctly you have to run
something kile ``mkdev xenix'' before running ``mkdev hd'' to
enable Xenix file system support on OpenServer.

Bill
--
INTERNET: bill@Celestial.COM Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
UUCP: camco!bill PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX: (206) 232-9186 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676
URL: http://www.celestial.com/

The pinnacle of open systems is: when moving from vendor to vendor, the
design flaws stay the same.

"Bill Campbell" <bill@celestial.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.3.1090778231.14852.sco-misc@lists.celestial.com...
> On Sun, Jul 25, 2004, Ralph Scharping wrote:
> >Hi.
> >
> >I am trying to mount an old Xenix hard drive somewhere else. So far I
have
> >not had any success even though different OSes have found and correctly
> >identified the partition.
> >
> >Can anybody tell me how to access a Xenix Filesystem from Linux, Windows,
> >Netware or something else?
>
> The only way I know to access Xenix file systems is under
> OpenServer. It's been years since I did it though, and I don't
> have manuals handy. If I remember correctly you have to run
> something kile ``mkdev xenix'' before running ``mkdev hd'' to
> enable Xenix file system support on OpenServer.
>
> Bill


mkdev hd
add a hard disk to the system by creating the necessary device
files
(see hd(HW)), and configuring the disk using dparam(ADM), badtrk
(ADM) and fdisk(ADM). divvy(ADM) or dkconfig(ADM) can be used to
create standard filesystem divisions or filesystems on virtual
disks. If a SCSI hard disk is being added, the appropriate host
adapter and peripheral driver are also linked into the kernel.

The -u option prints information about adding a disk; the -h
option
prints information about adding disks of a different type to the
root hard disk.

The -n (non-interactive) option is used when installing the root
hard disk.

Without options or arguments, mkdev hd runs interactively.

The command line syntax for disks with IDE(ST506), ESDI, IDA, and
OMTI interfaces is:

mkdev hd drivenum ctrlnum

drivenum
the number of the disk on the disk controller; 0 for the
first, 1 for the second.

ctrlnum
the number of the disk controller being installed. If the
controller is of the same type as the root controller (
ctrlnum 0), it is numbered 1 for the second, 2 for the
third, and so on. If it is a different type to the root
controller, the numbering starts at 0 for the first new
controller of this type, and the number must be prefixed
with one of the following codes:

ESDI- One ESDI controller with two disks is supported on
MC architecture machines.

IDA- Six Compaq IDA/Intelligent Array Expansion
controllers are supported on EISA bus machines.

OMTI- One OMTI controller with two disks is supported on
AT architecture machines.

IDE- Two IDE controllers with two disks each are
supported on AT architecture machines. MC
architecture machines may have one IDE controller
with two disks.

For example, the command mkdev hd 1 IDE-0 configures a second disk
on the first IDE controller.

The syntax for SCSI disk installation has the form:

mkdev hd ID number lun ha [ bus ]

Here the arguments have the following meanings:

ID the target ID of the disk controller on the SCSI bus (0-6
for SCSI 1, 0-15 for 16-bit wide SCSI 2; note that the
host
adapter is usually assigned ID 7).

number the number of the SCSI host adapter using the hatype
driver
(for example, 0 and 1 for the first and second adapters
using the eiad driver; 0 for the first additional adapter
using a different driver). If the root disk is not SCSI,
the number must be prefixed by SCSI-; for example, SCSI-1.

lun the logical unit number (LUN) of the disk on the
controller
(always 0 for disks with embedded controllers)

ha the type of host adapter (supported types are listed in
/etc/default/scsihas)

bus the number of the host adapter bus to which the disk is
connected; 0 for the primary bus, 1 for the secondary, and
so on. The default value is 0.

For example, the following command configures the second disk on
the
first Adaptec 154x SCSI adapter where the root disk is non-SCSI:


mkdev hd 1 SCSI-0 0 ad

mkdev hd must be invoked twice to install a SCSI disk. The first
time, the kernel is reconfigured to support the new disk. The
system must then be rebooted and mkdev hd run a second time to
initialize the disk. Use the same arguments to mkdev hd both
times.

mkdev [-l] xenix
add or remove support for XENIX(R) filesystems from the kernel.
With
the -l option, mkdev does not attempt to relink the kernel.




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In article <mailman.3.1090778231.14852.sco-misc@lists.celestial.com>,
Bill Campbell <bill@celestial.com> wrote:
>On Sun, Jul 25, 2004, Ralph Scharping wrote:

>>I am trying to mount an old Xenix hard drive somewhere else. So
>>far I have not had any success even though different OSes have
>>found and correctly identified the partition.

>>Can anybody tell me how to access a Xenix Filesystem from Linux,
>>Windows, Netware or something else?

>The only way I know to access Xenix file systems is under
>OpenServer. It's been years since I did it though, and I don't
>have manuals handy. If I remember correctly you have to run
>something kile ``mkdev xenix'' before running ``mkdev hd'' to
>enable Xenix file system support on OpenServer.

Of course all the SCO systems prior to OpenServer also would mount
Xenix filesystem.

And at least some Unix V.3 systems would also handle Xenix.
I ran Esix that was a V.3 system and it handled Xenix and could
even build Xenix file systems. I did some testing on those in
the early 1990s and found that Xenix file systems on the same drive
ran from 5 to 10 times slower than the FFS derived file systems.

It's similar to an S51 file system. AT&T tried to improve things
with an S52 filesystem, but the rest of their OS was SO SLOW on
their hardware, it wan't as good as S51 on other machines.

From what I can find the OP won't be able mount Xenix on any
current OS except SCO. However Linux system from abuot 1997
document that Xenix is file system that can be mounted. So
maybe he can find some RH Linux before 7 and try that.

Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

Bill Vermillion wrote:
> In article <mailman.3.1090778231.14852.sco-misc@lists.celestial.com>,
> Bill Campbell <bill@celestial.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Jul 25, 2004, Ralph Scharping wrote:
>
>>> I am trying to mount an old Xenix hard drive somewhere else. So
>>> far I have not had any success even though different OSes have
>>> found and correctly identified the partition.
>
>>> Can anybody tell me how to access a Xenix Filesystem from Linux,
>>> Windows, Netware or something else?
>
>> The only way I know to access Xenix file systems is under
>> OpenServer. It's been years since I did it though, and I don't
>> have manuals handy. If I remember correctly you have to run
>> something kile ``mkdev xenix'' before running ``mkdev hd'' to
>> enable Xenix file system support on OpenServer.
>
> Of course all the SCO systems prior to OpenServer also would mount
> Xenix filesystem.
>
> And at least some Unix V.3 systems would also handle Xenix.
> I ran Esix that was a V.3 system and it handled Xenix and could
> even build Xenix file systems. I did some testing on those in
> the early 1990s and found that Xenix file systems on the same drive
> ran from 5 to 10 times slower than the FFS derived file systems.
>
> It's similar to an S51 file system. AT&T tried to improve things
> with an S52 filesystem, but the rest of their OS was SO SLOW on
> their hardware, it wan't as good as S51 on other machines.
>
> From what I can find the OP won't be able mount Xenix on any
> current OS except SCO. However Linux system from abuot 1997
> document that Xenix is file system that can be mounted. So
> maybe he can find some RH Linux before 7 and try that.
>
> Bill

I've mounted xenix fs's under linux as recently as 2002 and I see no reason
why it shouldn't still work today
however, I created those filesystems under real xenix differently than
normal expressly so that they would be mountable by linux.

Linux doesn't understand divvy, so to mount a xenix fs under linux, you just
need to have created the filsystem under xenix by writing to a whole fdisk
partition or whole-disk device, _not_ the normal way where divvy divides up
a fdisk partition into divvy partitions and then writes filesystems to
those. This means using for example /dev/hd11 as the mkfs target in xenix
for the 1st fdisk partition on the 2nd drive. IE: if migrating an old xenix
box and there is no room to make cpio/tar files, then add a 2nd drive, make
at least one fdisk partition that is only 512 Megs since a xenix filesystem
cannot exceed 512 megs anyways.

Then, in linux, you also have to know that linux and xenix count the fdisk
oartitions backwards from each other. Fdisk partition 1 (counting from 1) in
xenix, is fdisk partition 4 in linux.
xenix: /dev/hd11
linux: /dev/hdb4

Then again, if you are going to go to the trouble of adding a disk and
moving it to a linux box, you could just cpio the whole system, including
all mounted filesystems, (which might exceed 512 megs) directly to the
whole-disk device or a larger-than-512meg fdisk partition and skip creating
a filesystem.

So it's not useful for random xenix filesystems that are already existing
and were created the normal way.
It's mostly good for mounting floppies since they are simple, whole-disk
filesystems.

--
Brian K. White -- brian@aljex.com -- http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
+++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
filePro BBx Linux SCO Prosper/FACTS AutoCAD #callahans Satriani

On 2004-07-25, Ralph Scharping <scharping@mettmann.com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I am trying to mount an old Xenix hard drive somewhere else. So far I have
> not had any success even though different OSes have found and correctly
> identified the partition.
>
> Can anybody tell me how to access a Xenix Filesystem from Linux, Windows,
> Netware or something else?

Linux should be able to read a Xenix FS (it's there as Sys V
filesystem in 2.4 series), however, support for Xenix may either be in a
module you have to load, or not available in the Linux binary you are
running.

Try running (as root):
insmod sysv.o

If that does not work, you may have to re-build your own kernel.

Caveats:
1. I have no direct experience of mounting Xenix filesystems.
2: although the Xinix file system is supported, it is not clear if the
relevant partition type is supported. Again, you may have to load more
modules/re-build your kernel to get support for the correct partition
type.

>
> Thank you,
> Ralph

Whoa - so much to do!

Thank you all so very much for your help. I'll get to work right away.
I did not realize that the Xenix FS ist named Sys V in Linux. That will be
my first try, becaue I know that all the manuals say it should be possible -
they just don't mention how to go about.
If that doesn't work - I still have a license for Open Server 5.0.5 in the
closet. That will be my second try.

Thanks a bunch!
Ralph

On 2004-07-26, Ralph Scharping <scharping@mettmann.com> wrote:
> Whoa - so much to do!
>
> Thank you all so very much for your help. I'll get to work right away.
> I did not realize that the Xenix FS ist named Sys V in Linux. That will be
> my first try, becaue I know that all the manuals say it should be possible -
> they just don't mention how to go about.

You might want to read the documentation on the Sys V FS support in
Linux:

This is the implementation of the SystemV/Coherent filesystem for Linux.
It implements all of
- Xenix FS,
- SystemV/386 FS,
- Coherent FS.

This is version beta 4.

To install:
* Answer the 'System V and Coherent filesystem support' question with
'y'
when configuring the kernel.
* To mount a disk or a partition, use
mount [-r] -t sysv device mountpoint
The file system type names
-t sysv
-t xenix
-t coherent
may be used interchangeably, but the last two will eventually
disappear.

Bugs in the present implementation:
- Coherent FS:
- The "free list interleave" n:m is currently ignored.
- Only file systems with no filesystem name and no pack name are
recognized.
(See Coherent "man mkfs" for a description of these features.)
- SystemV Release 2 FS:
The superblock is only searched in the blocks 9, 15, 18, which
corresponds to the beginning of track 1 on floppy disks. No support
for this FS on hard disk yet.


Please report any bugs and suggestions to
Bruno Haible <haible@ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de>
Pascal Haible <haible@izfm.uni-stuttgart.de>
Krzysztof G. Baranowski <kgb@manjak.knm.org.pl>

Bruno Haible
<haible@ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de>

Thanks for the documentation.

I managed to compile the kernel so that it supports Xenix FS. Unfortunately
it still does not work. The message is the standard saying something like
"either you selected an invalid device or the filesystem you are trying to
mount is garbled". It said something about a supposedly damaged
superblock.
Right now I am installing open Server 5.05 for the second time - the first
time I installed to a SCSI-Disk and was unable to add support for IDE after,
it ssems IDE Support cannot be added to an up-and-running SCSI Sytem even
though it works vice versa.

Hope, I will be there soon. Hopefully not only to discover that the
filesystem is damaged an cannot be read no matter what....

Keep fingers crossed!
Ralph

Stupid question:

how do I mount a new filesystem in SCO Open Server 5.0.5?

I went through the procedure of mkdev xenix and mkdev 0 IDE-1, answered all
those questions. Now that is finisched and I don't know how to mount.
Mounting the drive the way I do in Unix does not work.
The root filesystems of the host system are not mounted from "regular"
devices, either. They have devices by the name of "root" or "boot" or stuff
like that, which I gather can only be a link or a pointer or something of
the sort. I was not able to tell, wether my new device is hidden behind a
hd01 or rhd01 or what.

The Disk I am trying to mount contains a Xenix filesystem and is secondary
slave IDE drive. So far I was not able to fdisk the drive because I don't
now the associated device.

Thanks!
Ralph