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Xenix on 3.5" Disks?
- Thread starter GhstWlf
- Start date
Megatron-uk
Experienced Member
Yep, they're out there. 2.3.4/386 in 1.44mb floppy images is available on various sites (vetusware.com/torrent searches/proisk.com etc).
Interestingly I've just installed two vm's in Virtualbox, one with 2.3.4/386 and another with 2.3.2/286 - it's the earlier, 286 release that interests me most, but there does appear to be more software for the 386 version (including pre-compiled versions of gcc and more modern libs and tools; enough to bootstrap the building of modern utils).
I'm hoping to get my hands on the developer system - but I expect the compiler included with that may not be modern enough to build something like gcc. Perhaps gcc on 2.3.4/386 can produce a binary targetted for 2.3.2/286 though... hmm, never though about that....
Interestingly I've just installed two vm's in Virtualbox, one with 2.3.4/386 and another with 2.3.2/286 - it's the earlier, 286 release that interests me most, but there does appear to be more software for the 386 version (including pre-compiled versions of gcc and more modern libs and tools; enough to bootstrap the building of modern utils).
I'm hoping to get my hands on the developer system - but I expect the compiler included with that may not be modern enough to build something like gcc. Perhaps gcc on 2.3.4/386 can produce a binary targetted for 2.3.2/286 though... hmm, never though about that....
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Even if all you have is Xenix on 5¼" HD media, you can still install from 3½". Just blind-copy your 5¼" images to 3½" media. By "blind copy", I mean to copy track-for-track, without considering the file system. There are a number of ways to do this.
I did this more than 20 years ago and still have the (successful) install set on 3½".
I did this more than 20 years ago and still have the (successful) install set on 3½".
I have several versions of Xenix, including the last XENIX 386 2.3.4. I have installed it in a Sun Virtual Box and onto a CF card for use on an Omnibook 430 and in a Libretto 110ct. The only software I have found is a Cobol Compiler which does work, but who wants to use cobol. There's supposed to be a GCC compiler that has been adapted to xenix 386, but I wasn't successful in getting it to work.
I keep hoping that the Development set of disks will appear someday.
Back in the 80's, I ran a Amateur Radio TCP/IP station on a Xenix 286 computer. Worked great - had a 386 PC tied to it along with a AT&T Unix system tied to it. I could dial into the system from work, and then access by Ham Radio BBS and mail system. Was a lot of fun. I wish I still had all the software disks I had for it, but tossed them years ago.
Bill
I keep hoping that the Development set of disks will appear someday.
Back in the 80's, I ran a Amateur Radio TCP/IP station on a Xenix 286 computer. Worked great - had a 386 PC tied to it along with a AT&T Unix system tied to it. I could dial into the system from work, and then access by Ham Radio BBS and mail system. Was a lot of fun. I wish I still had all the software disks I had for it, but tossed them years ago.
Bill
Megatron-uk
Experienced Member
I *think* I may have found someone who has various sets of the SCO Xenix Development system in their collection (at least one version each for 286 and 386) - I'm hoping that they will look favourably on those of us tinkering with these old systems.
BTW, I have almost been successful in getting GCC to work; it still relies on several header files (mainly those in sys/*) from the base Xenix system, which, of course, are only in the development system and won't work out of the box ('make install' chokes on the binary + source tarball of gcc-2.5.8 you can find online as it relies on system header files which are not there), you also need crt.o and sseg.o which can only be found in a really old binary of gcc-1.40... all in all, a bit a of minefield.
I'm hoping that with the development system it will allow GCC to be build correctly from the original source.
BTW, I have almost been successful in getting GCC to work; it still relies on several header files (mainly those in sys/*) from the base Xenix system, which, of course, are only in the development system and won't work out of the box ('make install' chokes on the binary + source tarball of gcc-2.5.8 you can find online as it relies on system header files which are not there), you also need crt.o and sseg.o which can only be found in a really old binary of gcc-1.40... all in all, a bit a of minefield.
I'm hoping that with the development system it will allow GCC to be build correctly from the original source.
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That would be fastastic - if we could get disk images of the Development Systems.
I've tried the GCC, but ran into similar problems that you are having. I never could get it to work.
Plesae keep us posted on whether you are successful in getting the Dev Sets from your friend.
Bill
Megatron-uk
Experienced Member
I'll certainly let everyone here know if I manage to get access to the dev set. Actually, I think with just the headers from it alone we would get a working system with GCC.
Megatron-uk
Experienced Member
Well, I've gotten GCC to a point where it will compile *very* simple code - ie "Hello World" - however I'm not convinced yet that it will build and link anything more complex. It has meant playing with header locations and other nastiness though...
Megatron-uk
Experienced Member
I now have access to all the original Xenix header files; thus the binary of GCC and <ahem> some much older c-compiler for Xenix will now work 
More info *very* soon!
More info *very* soon!