IBM PC/AT 5170 and IBM XENIX

[lyonadmiral]

To get the semantics out of the way, I mean the IBM branded version of Microsoft Xenix (1.0) and I'm wondering if anyone has had any success installing it on a PC/AT with a VGA card and 30 meg hard disk instead of the 20.

As I work through the installation process; step 2 which is supposed to a track defect verification somehow thinks the 1.2 meg A: drive is the hard disk and when I skip that step and do get the install disk to boot so I can go to step 3 (or was it 4) I lose video on the screen entirely.

As always, I appreciate the advice & input.

 

[Caluser2000]

IIRC it is preferable to use a scsi hdds. It certainly doesn't like ide hdd.

I gave up in the end had far better luck with Dos/ win 3.1x(standard mode)wrt networking applications etc.

 

[lyonadmiral]

IIRC it is preferable to use a scsi hdds. It certainly doesn't like ide hdd.

I gave up in the end had far better luck with Dos/ win 3.1x(standard mode)wrt networking applications etc.

Well the PC/AT came with the MFM/RLL & floppy disk controller, so my unit still has the original 30 meg drive. There's no IDE drive in it. The back of the box IBM has the system requirements on it; 512K ram, 20 meg HD...

 

[bear]

IBM AT Xenix 1.0 has its own drive geometry table(s) that for some inexplicable reason doesn't match the one in the 5170 ROM except at drive type 2 (the 20 MB drive). IIRC you may get it installed but it will fail to boot thereafter.

I'm not sure if it's been conclusively resolved whether the newer rev FD/HD board that happened at the same time as the 30 MB drive was its own separate problem. The VGA card definitely is.

You're not going to get anywhere without different hardware or extensive hacking.

IBM XENIX: One Step Forward, One Step Back | OS/2 Museum

www.os2museum.com

 

[lyonadmiral]

IBM AT Xenix 1.0 has its own drive geometry table(s) that for some inexplicable reason doesn't match the one in the 5170 ROM except at drive type 2 (the 20 MB drive). IIRC you may get it installed but it will fail to boot thereafter.

I'm not sure if it's been conclusively resolved whether the newer rev FD/HD board that happened at the same time as the 30 MB drive was its own separate problem. The VGA card definitely is.

You're not going to get anywhere without different hardware or extensive hacking.

IBM XENIX: One Step Forward, One Step Back | OS/2 Museum

www.os2museum.com

I'll have to forgo it for the time being and use the XENIX 2.0 images and see if I get different results.

 

[bear]

Should.

 

[NeXT]

Yeah you are going to have to stay strict to the listed supported hardware.

 

[w9gb]

I installed IBM AT, model 5170 (w/o hard drive) as a SCO Xenix or IBM Xenix server in 1985/1986.
Back then, I worked with CSC Minneapolis (before Seagate bought out their Hard Drive division)
to acquire one of their 40 MB hard drives (~ $1000 I think) and used Type 15 to “enter in” the heads and platters.
==
Today, if you asked me to do this … Select a 5170 BIOS (like AMI or Phoenix)
The AMI BIOS will permit “User Defined” hard drive type (type 47)

minuszerodegrees.net

You can then use an MFM hard drive or install a 16-bit IDE controller.

greg