SCO System V/386 INIT: 2

[The Whizzard]

Is there a way to boot SCO System V/386 in single mode? I just aquired an old Compaq Prolinea 575 which has SCO System V/386 installed.
Otherwise, is there support for EAFS in Linux or FreeBSD?

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Have you booted this relic yet?

Not having had any experience with SysV/386, I have booted SCO OpenServer systems. All of the ones I've booted have an option that you can choose at boot time. It says something like:

Enter administrative password, or hit <Ctrl-D> to continue booting

If you know the root password, then you can make it enter single user mode there. But, is the problem that you don't know the root password?

If I'm not mistaken, I do believe that Linux supports the SysV coherent filesystem, but I'm not sure if that's what SysV/386 uses...

[The Whizzard]

If you know the root password, then you can make it enter single user mode there. But, is the problem that you don't know the root password? Yep, this is the problem....don't know root passwd.If I'm not mistaken, I do believe that Linux supports the SysV coherent filesystem, but I'm not sure if that's what SysV/386 uses... This system uses EAFS. I've tried to find info if Linux supports this but without much luck. I guess I'll try a kernel recompile (or look in the source) to see if I can find it. Another option may be to find a boot floppy...but not knowing exactly which version I have will be fun... :eek:

Thanks!

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

So here's what I've found:

EAFS is the Extended Acer Filesystem. It allowed for long filenames in Acer filesystems. Looking in the kernel source, it would appear that EAFS may be covered with the sysv.o module.

I've got a RedHat 9 install on my computer just for kicks, and it appears there that sysv.o is included in the default install. YMMV with other distros, but you can still compile it into your kernel, or simply compile it as a module.

To check if you have the module, simply type modprobe sysv as root.

...But that's all I could find out. I also found out that SCO may have used "subpartitions" similar to how FreeBSD operates. If you're unfamiliar with this concept, it's kind of similar to a DOS extended partition, or a logical division of a BIOS partition. I couldn't find out if EAFS, specifically System V, did it this way or not, though.

Hope this helps!