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comp.unix.sco Administrative FAQ

FAQ Starting Page /SCOFAQ/index.html

This used to be a SCO Unix faq. I've updated a lot of it to include Linux and other info, but some of it may be strictly of interest to SCO users (or those migrating from it).

Revision Information

NOTE: Jeane-Pierre Radly (jpr at the jpr.com) says:

Ed Hew's newsserver has been off the air for a month, and getting it
back on-line (it's still in Canada and he now lives in the Philippines)
is a major and so-far unresolved challenge.

I also run a sco_newsgroup<->email bi-directional gateway, and will be
happy to add anyone who drops me a line.
Version: 200010090
Date: 07 October 2000
Author: Tony Lawrence <tonyl@aplawrence.com> (originally by Stephen Dunn)
URL: http://aplawrence.com/SCOFAQ/scoadm.html

These FAQS were developed and maintained for years by steved@ussinc.com (Stephen M. Dunn). Steve no longer has the time to maintain them, and has asked me to take them over. Please remember the debt all of us owe to Steve for his efforts- I myself spent many hours learning from these very documents, and I'm sure many of us can say similar things.

Because Steve has not been able to maintain these for a while now, some of the information herein is outdated. I am working to correct that, but it's a lot to catch up on, so if you spot something, please let me know. For the moment, I'm just marking some of it as probably being useless; as I have time, I'll check further to be certain before I remove anything.

Recent Revision History

DISCLAIMER: I try to keep this information correct, up-to-date, and useful. From time to time, errors and oversights will occur. While this group is read by numerous SCO staff and other experts, and they tend to catch any mistakes I make, there is no guarantee that the information below is 100% right.

THANKS: I can't do this without the help of a number of other people. You know who you are. Thank you.

Table of Contents

First, a simple definition

Next, a word to those who want technical information

What happened to biz.sco.*?

Mailing List Stuff

Net.Etiquette

Other Information

Glossary of acronyms

How Do I send email to SCO?

I'm looking for such-and-such a program. Where is it?

SCO Software Archive Sites

Some or most of these may not exist. I haven't had time to check through them yet; see /Links for a more recent list.

How do I contact a vendor for drivers and/or technical support?

First, a simple definition

What is a FAQ?

It's short for Frequently Asked Questions. If you have a question, look here for the answer before posting, so that we don't have lots of people asking the same questions every week or two. Many of the most common questions regarding the mailing list and SCO products are here somewhere.

There are two other FAQs which appear here from time to time. Ed Hew maintains the "FAQ: SCO Unix newsgroups and mailing lists" FAQ, which contains background on these newsgroups/mailing lists and information on common administrative procedures. There is also an FTP site FAQ which is far more comprehensive than the one included in this FAQ.

There is also a list below of other newsgroups which often cover material which relates to SCO Xenix and Unix as well as other Unix systems. Many of these newsgroups also have FAQs which you may wish to research. For those questions which just can't wait, many FAQs are archived at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/, in a directory structure organized into the same hierarchy as Usenet news.

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Next, a word to those who want technical information

There are two different FAQ lists for this newsgroup/mailing list. This is the administrivia one; it is entirely devoted to stuff about what this mailing list/newsgroup is about, what others exist, how to subscribe or unsubscribe, etc. If you want technical answers, please go to the companion list which deals with all sorts of technical questions. The Technical FAQ consists of multiple parts. The Administrative FAQ and all parts of the Technical FAQ are posted at the same time, approximately every fourteen days, so they should reach you at about the same time. Both lists live at /SCOFAQ/.

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What happened to biz.sco.*?

The following information is included for historical purposes only

In December 1994, a formal RFD (Request For Discussion, an article which officially begins discussion on proposed additions, changes, or deletions to Usenet newsgroups) was issued proposing that the biz.sco hierarchy be moved and reorganized into a new hierarchy, comp.unix.sco. The CFV (Call For Votes, an article which officially solicits votes on a proposal initiated via an RFD) was issued in March 1995; it passed in April 1995. In that same month, the following three newsgroups were created:

comp.unix.sco.announce
Announcements about SCO Unix. (moderated)
comp.unix.sco.programmer
Programming in and for SCO Environments.
comp.unix.sco.misc
SCO Unix, Systems, and Environments.

The existing biz.sco hierarchy was not deleted at this time to allow for a graceful cutover. As is normal Usenet practice, after a suitable period of coexistence, it has been removed; the news control messages to remove the biz.sco newsgroups were sent on 3 June 1995.

Many of the biz.sco newsgroups were also available via mailing lists. Subscribers to those mailing lists will find that their subscriptions have been transformed into subscriptions to the appropriate comp.unix.sco newsgroups.

NOTE: Jeane-Pierre Radly (jpr at the jpr.com) says:

Ed Hew's newsserver has been off the air for a month, and getting it
back on-line (it's still in Canada and he now lives in the Philippines)
is a major and so-far unresolved challenge.

I also run a sco_newsgroup<->email bi-directional gateway, and will be
happy to add anyone who drops me a line.
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Mailing List Stuff

What are the mailing lists and newsgroups?

March 5 2003: I have been told that there is a routing problem with the mailed versions of the SCO newsgroups. Ed Hew is apparently away and may not even know about the problem yet. If you aren't seeing the posts, this may be why

Use http://groups.google.com if you don't have access to News directly.

There are six mailing lists, to go with the six SCO newsgroups. Each of the mailing lists has three addresses:

Automated administration address
handled by a robot; send subscription and unsubscription requests to this one
Human administration address
this one reaches a human being and should be used only if your automated request did not work
Mailing list address
Anything sent to this address is resent to all mailing list subscribers and to the appropriate newsgroup. Never send subscription/unsubscription/"Why am I not seeing any articles?" types of notes to this address.

comp.unix.sco.announce

Canonical Description
Announcements about SCO Unix (moderated)
Automated administrator
scoann-request@xenitec.on.ca
Human administrator
scoann-admin@xenitec.on.ca
Mailing list address
scoannmod@xenitec.on.ca
Note: As SCO now owns UnixWare, UnixWare announcements also belong in this newsgroup. comp.unix.unixware.announce is presently unused and will likely be removed eventually.

comp.unix.sco.programmer

Canonical Description
Programming in and for SCO Environments
Automated administrator
scoprg-request@xenitec.on.ca
Human administrator
scoprg-admin@xenitec.on.ca
Mailing list address
scoprg@xenitec.on.ca

comp.unix.sco.misc

Canonical Description
SCO Unix, Systems, and Environments
Automated administrator
scomsc-request@xenitec.on.ca
Human administrator
scomsc-admin@xenitec.on.ca
Mailing list address
scomsc@xenitec.on.ca

comp.unix.unixware.misc

Canonical Description
SCO UnixWare discussion
Automated administrator
scouwr-request@xenitec.on.ca
Human administrator
scouwr-admin@xenitec.on.ca
Mailing list address
scouwr@xenitec.on.ca

comp.unix.xenix.sco

Canonical Description
Discussion of SCO Xenix
Automated administrator
scoxnx-request@xenitec.on.ca
Human administrator
scoxnx-admin@xenitec.on.ca
Mailing list address
scoxnx@xenitec.on.ca
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What exactly do I find in each of the newsgroups?

Here are the charters for these newsgroups, as they appeared in the CFV:

comp.unix.sco.misc

Questions, answers, comments and discussion about past, present and future SCO and related third party products and services, not more specifically covered by one of the other newsgroups, including but not limited to:

Commercial advertisements are explicitly forbidden.

comp.unix.sco.programmer

Questions, answers, comments and discussion about past, present and future SCO development system products and related software and issues, including but not limited to:

Commercial advertisements are explicitly forbidden.

comp.unix.sco.announce

Moderated by Ed Hew <edhew@xenitec.on.ca>

Product, service, and business announcements of reasonable interest to the SCO community of developers, distributors, resellers, consultants, administrators and end-users, submitted by:

This explicitly includes SCO supplement information (SLS, TLS, EFS, etc.) Blatant and/or irrelevant commercial "ads" will continue to be rejected.

comp.unix.unixware.misc

This is a general-purpose forum for discussion about products of Novells [sic] Unix Systems Group, primarily its implementation of Unix for PC-architecture systems sold under the name UnixWare.

Appropriate product and service announcements should now be sent to comp.unix.sco.announce.

[SCO acquired the UnixWare product line from Novell in 1995.]

comp.unix.xenix.sco

The canonical charter is: XENIX versions from the Santa Cruz Operation. The original full charter is unavailable.

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How do I subscribe to one of these lists?

NOTE: Jeane-Pierre Radly (jpr at the jpr.com) says:

Ed Hew's newsserver has been off the air for a month, and getting it
back on-line (it's still in Canada and he now lives in the Philippines)
is a major and so-far unresolved challenge.

I also run a sco_newsgroup<->email bi-directional gateway, and will be
happy to add anyone who drops me a line.

Send a message to the administrative address listed above for the list which interests you. Your message should contain one line:

Add: sco???: yourname@youraddress.yourdomain

Replace ??? with the three-letter code for the mailing list you want (msc, prg, ann, uwr, or xnx).

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How do I unsubscribe to one of these lists?

Send a message to the administrative address listed above for the list to which you wish to unsubscribe. Your message should contain one line. Use exactly the same address you used when you subscribed. The one line should read:

Delete: sco???: yourname@youraddress.yourdomain

Replace ??? with the three-letter code for the mailing list you want (msc, prg, ann, uwr, or xnx).

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What if my automated request doesn't work?

Check your request; make sure you didn't misspell anything. If all else fails, send a note to the human administrator behind the list.

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How do I change my subscription address?

Well, you can send multiple requests in the same administrative request. However, there is a waiting period for Add: requests, so you may want to send a message to add yourself at your new address first, then wait until that succeeds before deleting your old address.

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I think I'll send a test to make sure I can get through to the list

Don't. See the Net.Etiquette section for more info.

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How do I send an article to these mailing lists?

Note that the announcements list is moderated; anything you send to it must be approved by the moderator before it actually makes its way out to the rest of the world.

See Net.Etiquette also. [Back to top] [Table of Contents]

I have a product that runs under SCO and I want to tell the world!

In keeping with the commonly accepted standards for comp newsgroups, the charters for the .misc and .programmer newsgroups specifically exclude commercial advertisements. The occasional response to a query, pointing out that your product could help, is generally considered to be acceptable; unsolicited advertisements or a steady stream of "Hey, try my product xxxx, it will cure that problem" messages are not. In general, netiquette holds that when in doubt, it's probably not appropriate; tread lightly.

Note that the moderated newsgroup comp.unix.sco.announce is specifically for announcements related to the SCO community. Consider posting a one-time announcement about your product to that newsgroup.

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I always get multiple copies of articles!

Maybe you're listed more than once in the mailing list. If you sent more than one Add: request, perhaps thinking one had bounced, you may be listed more than once.

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I sometimes get multiple copies of articles!

I know of two possible causes for this. One is that many articles get crossposted to more than one newsgroup. For example, it is not appropriate for articles to be crossposted to comp.unix.sco.programmer and to comp.unix.sco.misc (as .misc specifically excludes everything which fits into other newsgroups in the hierarchy), but some people do it anyway. If you subscribe to both lists, you will receive two copies of the article, since it appears in both lists.

The other possibility is that some site upstream of you may have a flaky mailer that occasionally duplicates messages (I've been bitten by this one). There is no known cure for the former condition; the latter, if you can identify it, can possibly be remedied by means of a polite note to the sysadmin at the offending site.

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Are there any other SCO newsgroups?

There is one, other than the rest of the comp.unix.sco hierarchy. That newsgroup is comp.unix.xenix.sco, which is for the discussion of SCO Xenix. As comp.unix.xenix.sco specifically includes only discussion of SCO Xenix, please keep SCO Unix discussion out of it.

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Are there any other non-SCO-specific Unix newsgroups?

There are dozens of Unix newsgroups and hierarchies in the comp.unix hierarchy. Some are specific to certain Unix versions (e.g. comp.unix.solaris), while others are specific to tasks and roles (e.g. comp.unix.programmer, comp.unix.admin). There are also some version-specific groups under comp.os (e.g. comp.os.linux). There are a few Unix newsgroups outside comp.unix and comp.os, such as comp.security.unix.

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What other stuff shows up here periodically?

All kinds of goodies pass through this list from time to time. You will find lists of SLSes (Support Level Supplements), EFSes (Enhanced Feature Supplements, if memory serves), product compatibility matrices, lists of the most current versions of each SCO product, and stuff like that. I highly recommend capturing the most recent one of each of these and saving it somewhere on your machine; they can be very handy to keep around.

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Where can I find this FAQ list?

Both the Technical and Administrative FAQ lists live at /SCOFAQ/.

Ed Hew <edhew@xenitec.on.ca> also keeps copies under ftp://ftp.xenitec.on.ca/pub/news/faqs/

As well, Lucky Leavell <ris@iglou.com> has made a copy available by anonymous FTP at ftp://www.iglou.com/members/ris/sco/; it may also be available from http://www.iglou.com/ris/.

I do not know how often the information at these sites is updated. The master copy is always up-to-date (and may be more recent than the last copy posted to the newsgroups, as well).

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I have a suggestion/correction for the FAQ list

By all means, let me know! But do not post it to the list unless you believe it needs wide discussion. If I think input from the list as a whole is required, I will post your note and my comments. Send it to tonyl@aplawrence.com. The FAQ list is only as good as you make it.

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Where do I find the programming FAQ?

Robert Lipe (the gentleman responsible for many of you having gcc on your OSR5 machines) has put together a FAQ on programming for the SCO environment. It's available at http://zenez.aplawrence.com/cgi-bin/scoprogfaq/faq.pl?file=1. [Back to top] [Table of Contents]

Net.Etiquette

DON'T SHOUT- It is considered rude to post in ALL UPPER CASE.

Don't post in HTML- it annoys a great many people and makes you look clueless.

Don't use VCARD signature blocks- again, people who do so are seen as not knowledgeable.

DO include relevant information: versions, patches applied, general hardware info.

DO NOT paraphrase error messages- give the EXACT message.

Please- when posting, ALWAYS include version numbers and patches you have applied. If it is at all relevant, include at least rough harware info- like "32 mb ram, Scsi hard drive, Pentium 266", for example. Don't ever paraphrase error messages- post the EXACT error messages (see Messages). It's never a bad idea to describe:

Dirk Hart, a regular contributor to the SCO newsgroups, offers this further advice:

How to ask a well formed question in comp.unix.sco.misc

You may have noticed some people posting questions on comp.unix.sco.misc are treated with disdain, even abusively. This is invariably because the poster asked a poorly formed question.

All of the knowledgeable people replying to messages spend their own time doing so, after having worked that day and after having accreted years of knowledge and experience. In spite of the rants directed at specific posters, the people in this newsgroup are indeed helping others through goodwill.

When you post a question you are encouraged to respect the knowledge, experience and goodwill of others in the group by posting a well formed question.

The well formed question includes as much relevant information as you can gather.

By all means state your SCO UNIX version. The newsgroup comp.unix.sco.misc covers several different SCO operating systems. If you aren't sure, you can find out using uname -X at a shell prompt.

Tell the group what hardware you have, especially if this is a hardware-related problem. If you're unsure, use hwconfig -h at a shell prompt.

If the hardware configuration recently changed by all means mention it.

Include the unedited error output including the command used to generate this output. What you may not think is relevant may be crucial to helping you. There is often summary information at the beginning or ending of output which is especially useful.

When you ask a question in the group you should expect your replies in the group. Do not ask for help by email and do not email those who give you help unless you have been specifically asked to do so.

Don't forget that http://stage.caldera.com/ta should be the first place you check for any problem. Also, do you have all the mandatory patches and supplements your OS needs? If you don't know, see SCO's FTP Site and get them.

Another good idea is to use the power search page at Dejanews:

http://groups.google.com

Put "comp.unix.sco.*" into the "Forum" box, and then search for what you need. This can be very useful, and may save you from asking a question that has been asked (and answered) hundreds of times before.

Where do my messages go?

Your message will be mailed to hundreds of people around the world via the mailing list. Also, since it's gated to a newsgroup, it will end up on thousands of machines all around the world, with a potential audience of tens of thousands of people.

Keep this in mind as you write, because people will perceive you according to how you write. Your grammar, spelling, and politeness will be noted by all of these people, so make a good impression. And don't forget to press your Return key after every 70 characters or so. Please stick to 7-bit standard ASCII characters; many people will be unable to see (or won't correctly see) any other characters such as those for line drawing, accented characters, or characters not used in the English language.

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What do I put in my .signature?

Well, it's a good idea to put your name, email address , your company name and job title (if appropriate), and possibly your phone number and mailing address. Nowadays many people "mung" their addresses, like

tonyl@aplawNOSPAMrence.com
The simplest of these (such as that shown) are probably useless in preventing unwanted email and anything more complex is going to annoy those who you might really want to reply.

Keep it short, though; four lines is the commonly-accepted Usenet guideline.

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How much of the previous message should I include in my reply?

As little as possible to convey the salient points to which you are responding. There is no need to include the headers, the .signature, or anything not directly related to your response.

If you are replying to several points in the previous message, then include the section to which you are replying, and then type your reply immediately below it. Then include the next point, and type your reply immediately below it. This will help people keep track of what points you're addressing.

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I think I'll send a test to make sure I can get through to the list

Don't do this. This is not a test newsgroup. Your test message will waste large amounts of computing and communications resources as it travels to every continent (yes, it will go all around the world). Not only will this make people angry, but it will also make you look stupid. Use alt.test, misc.test, biz.test, etc. for test messages.

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Nobody replied to my question, so I'll send it again

Don't do this, either. If your message was sent and nobody replied to it, you will likely find exactly the same response if you post it again, and you will have used up more computing and communications resources and have gained nothing.

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SCO sucks and [someone else] has a better product!

If you have something constructive to say, then go ahead. But if you don't, then spare us your flame war.

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This isn't the right place to post this question, but ...

Well then, don't post it here. There are several thousand Usenet newsgroups and hundreds and hundreds of mailing lists; chances are pretty good that one of these is the appropriate place. If you post a question to an inappropriate newsgroup, you really are wasting large amounts of disk space and transmission bandwidth as it goes all around the world.

Note that even if your question is about an SCO product, the SCO miscellaneous mailing list/comp.unix.sco.misc may not be the right place for it. If it's a question about programming, for example, it belongs in comp.unix.sco.programmer.

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I like to use tabs in my email and news articles

Please don't. Tab stops may be set differently on different terminals, and what looks perfectly lined up to you will be gibberish on someone else's machine. This is particularly important to remember if you're drawing a diagram. Use spaces, and most of the world will see your diagram as you drew it. Use tabs, and it will make no sense to many readers who might otherwise be able to help you.

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I have a technical question

Look it up in your manuals first; chances are it's in there somewhere. In particular, check the permuted index, the table of contents of the System Administrator's Guide, and the Release Notes.

If you can't find what you're looking for, look for it in the technical FAQ for this newsgroup, which is posted every two weeks in parallel with this administrative FAQ. Also, look through old articles from this newsgroup/mailing list if your site stores old messages (if you're reading this via Usenet news, chances are your site has at least a few days' worth of back articles online).

If you still can't find the answer, then post it. Please include as much relevant information as you can, such as your hardware configuration and version numbers of all software that might be involved. Here are a few places to get this information:

[Back to top] [Table of Contents]

The moderated newsgroup comp.unix.sco.announce is for announcements. An announcement of your company's new product would likely be appropriate here, if it's a product relevant to SCO systems. An ad for the old copy of Xenix you'd like to get rid of would not. As this is a moderated newsgroup, the moderator has final say over what is and is not appropriate.

The charter for comp.unix.sco.misc specifically states that SCO-related "help wanted" ads are appropriate. Other than this, however, the charters for both comp.unix.sco.misc and comp.unix.sco.programmer specifically prohibit commercial advertisements.

The intent of this prohibition is to allow someone with a spare item (such as a copy of a SCO product, or a piece of hardware which is targeted at the SCO market) to have a place to advertise it, once and once only. If it doesn't sell, don't keep advertising it.

Generally, if you already have something SCO-related, you're not using it, and you just want to get rid of it and try to recover some of the money you invested in it, you should be OK. Otherwise, you're probably not OK.

Examples of inappropriate advertising would include (but not be limited to) a manufacturer, reseller, distributor, or broker advertising products which they intend to sell for a profit, an announcement of a new product or service (this belongs in comp.unix.sco.announce as noted above), or any advertisement unrelated to SCO systems.

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What is SCO's Phone Number?

Here are some of SCO's numbers; note that the (800) ones are only applicable within North America.

SCO sales
(800) 726-8649 = (800) SCO-UNIX
(831) 425-7222
Fax (831) 458-4227
SCO support
(831) 425-4726
SCO Assist
(800) 347-4381
SCO Premier
(800) 726-4911
SCO Federal Systems Group, VA
(703) 715-8700
Fax (703) 715-8750
SCO Argentina
(54) 1 409 939
(54) 1 409 981
Fax (54) 1 805 4769
SCO Australia
(61) 2 9966 1999
Fax (61) 2 9955 1077
SCO Brazil
(55) 11 287 5333
Fax (55) 11 288 9855
SCO Canada
(416) 214-9793
Fax (416) 214-9810
SCO Denmark
(45) 4242 5775
Fax (45) 4242 2778
SCO France
(33) 1 4648 8500
Fax (33) 1 4648 3839
SCO Italy
(39) 2 95301383
Fax (39) 2 9516394
SCO Germany
(49) 6172 48670
Fax (49) 6172 468712
(49) 211 5768 41
Fax (49) 211 5738 61
(49) 89 5707 674
Fax (49) 89 5705 493
SCO Japan
(81) 3 5453 0963
Fax (81) 3 5453 0964
SCO Mexico
(525) 566-1781
(525) 592-8426
Fax (525) 592-0572
SCO Singapore
(65) 536-6606
Fax (65) 536-6619
SCO UK
(44) 923 816344
Fax (44) 923 817781
Sales Fax (44) 923 817776
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Tell me about SLSes, EFSes, etc.

SLSes (Support Level Supplements) and EFSes (Enhanced Feature Support) are SCO's way of fixing bugs and improving performance between releases. Every couple of weeks, SCO posts lists of all SLSes and EFSes here. If you're having a problem, look at these lists and see if any of them will help you. There are other beasts in this alphabetic zoo as well, such as TLSes (unsupported software), games, termcap/terminfo files, SSEs (System Security Enhancements), and the Hardware Compatibility Handbook in electronic format.

The latest version of Openserver is 3.2v5.0.6 and Unixware is 7.1.1. To find out what your version is, try:

There are almost always patches or supplements that should be installed. Often these fix serious problems and really are required for a stable system. Don't ignore these. Check ftp://stage.caldera.com/README.OSR5.Supplements for Open Server patch recommendations and ftp://stage.caldera.com/README.UW7.Supplements for recent releases of Unixware. Unfortunately there's nothing equivalent for the earlier releases (there are patches, just no comprehensive place to find out what you need). The http://www.caldera.com/support/toolbox page is also a good starting point for general SCO support related issues.

You can find out what patches are currently installed on your system by running "custom" or Scoadmin->Software Manager. A way to list them at the command line for modern releases (with minimal information) is :

customquery listpatches | grep ' '

The latest video card and network drivers can be found at ftp://stage.caldera.com/pub/drivers/. Check to see if your card is listed here.

Year 2000 information is tracked on this page.

For specific packages within SCO OS's, see Jeff Liebermann's Version Guide

An important point about SCO that often astonishes people is that the older (3.2v4.2) releases were often sold without networking support- no TCP/IP. The newer 3.2v5.x versions can also be purchased that way- it's called "Host"; the network version is "Enterprise".

SCO operates the anonymous FTP site ftp://stage.caldera.com. This is the primary anonymous FTP site for SCO's own files. For web surfers, look at http://www.caldera.com/.

Another option worth investigating is ftp://ftp.uu.net/sco-archive. Log in and look around the sco-archive directory. Remember to turn on binary mode before getting any binary files! If your ftp doesn't recognize ftp.uu.net, try 137.39.1.9 or 192.48.96.9. To look around, ftp to ftp.uu.net. Log in as "ftp", and supply your username and fully qualified domain name as the password (e.g. log in as ftp and give joecool@snoopy.peanuts.com as your password). Look around the vendor/sco directory hierarchy.

If you don't have FTP, you can get them via anonymous UUCP from SCO. You can find the information on how to do this in your SCO documentation. This information is also included in the lists of SLSes and EFSes that SCO posts here. I've included a brief summary below.

There are also directories for games, updated terminal information, and other miscellaneous tidbits. See the section on how to contact SCO for more details.

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How Do I Connect to SCO's Machines?

Nowadays, by the web: http://www.caldera.com.

Glossary of acronyms

ACE
Advanced Certified Engineer
AEC
Authorized Education Center
AHS
Advanced Hardware Supplement = latest drivers, peripheral support
APC
Advanced Product Center
EFS
Enhanced Feature Supplement (not used anymore; subsumed in RS)
IT
Info Technical = Support fix or workaround description; now known as TA
MS
Maintenance Supplement (not used anymore; see Release Supplement)
NET
networking SLSes generally have names starting with "net"
ODA
SLSes for Open Desktop generally have names starting with "oda"
OSR5
slang for OpenServer Release 5
RS
Release Supplement = the current update package to current shipping product
SES
Software Enhancement Service = quarterly delivery of support and updated product.
SLS
Support Level Supplement = emergency fix for a particular bug. These are aggregated in the quarterly RS.
SOS
SCO Online Support (system)
SSE
System Security Enhancement
SSL
Software Support Library = quarterly cdrom of all TA, SLS, EFS, AHS
TA
Technical Articles = new name for IT scripts
TLS
Technical Library Supplement = tools, articles, new/test components, not supported.
UNX
SLSes for Unix generally have names starting with "unx"
UOD
SLSes applicable to both Unix and Open Desktop generally have names starting with "uod"
VCD
Vendor Contributed Driver = an AHS driver supplied/supported by third party
XNX
SLSes for Xenix generally have names starting with "xnx"
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How Do I Send Email to SCO?

You can send information requests to info@caldera.com. SCO no longer receives support requests by email, but there is a Web page for reporting bugs (http://www.caldera.com/bug/) and you can track the status of a reported bug through the Web as well.

If you have a suggestion for SCO regarding their products, you can post it here or send it to SCO directly, though the latter may appear to go into a bit-bucket. There are several SCO employees here, including some development folks, and they do like to hear suggestions on how you think they could better serve your needs.

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I'm looking for such-and-such a program. Where is it?

Probably on Skunkware.

Skunkware (http://www.caldera.com/skunkware/) is a large collection of shareware and open source software. It is not always the latest versions, but both source and binaries are included, so it's often a good starting point. This is where you can get Perl, Expect, Less, etc.

More recent releases include the Skunkware CD in the distribution, so if you upgrade, you will get this. Recently SCO has renamed Skunkware as OLSS, which stands for Open License Something Source or something equally silly.

Of course you get man pages for all these things, but they won't work until you do two things:

If it isn't on Skunkware, you might find a Linux version, and be able to run it using the "lxrun" program which is found on Skunkware.

The following information concerning Archie is probably outdated:

Ask Archie. Archie is a service that keeps track of all files on a large number of anonymous FTP sites worldwide and allows various queries on its database. For a good tutorial on how to use it, see "Archie, Your Directory for Internet Software" on pp. 96-104 of the September 1992 copy of UnixWorld.

To conduct an interactive session with Archie, telnet into an Archie server site. Log in as archie; there is no password. If you do not have telnet access, you can still access Archie via email. Mail a script of Archie instructions to archie@some-archie-site, where you (obviously) replace some-archie-site with the name of your closest Archie site.

The first time you use Archie, you should issue the help command. This will show you a list of valid Archie commands. Before your next use of Archie, take a few minutes to study the help list. Pay particular attention to the variety of set commands, which can greatly alter the behaviour and efficiency of Archie. Also, please use the Archie server that is closest to you, to help reduce unnecessary network traffic.

The following information concerning Archie is probably outdated:

The following is a list of Archie servers around the world, as given by ftp://nic.switch.ch/file_server/archie/servers (dated 03/DE/93):

Sites marked with an asterisk run archie version 3.0
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KUSO - the Kanji Users Service Operation

The following information concerning KUSO is probably outdated; a Google search for Kanji Users Service Operation did find them at http://www.kuso.mirai.co.uk/using.htm but it warns that it has not been updated recently:

KUSO, the Kanji Users Service Operation, 143.167.25.1 is an archive specializing in

KUSO also carries a limited amount of material in the following areas:

Access to kuso may be made by

The kumitori mail server is experimental. To use it, first send a message with the subject "kumitori" (no quotes) to jp1ek@sunc.shef.ac.uk. The body of the message should be the single line "!help" (no quotes). This will send you the kumitori command list.

If you do not get a reply, change the message body to

!reply_to string
!help

where "string" is an explicit e-mail address of whatever form you have found to work from the uk.

Please note that this mail service is experimental and may be withdrawn or modified at any time.

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The (unofficial) SCO ODT Ported Software Compendium

The following information concerning sspi is probably outdated; while ispi.com relocates to www.aimware.com, I see nothing related to SCO anywhere on their site.

Filenames

The Software List: ispi!~/SOFTLIST
Miscellaneous Notes: ispi!~/NOTES
All UUCPable Files: ispi!~/ls-lR

Anonymous UUCP Information:

Telebit Trailblazer Plus Dial-In: +1 908 248 1589
ispi.com!login: uuodtcp
Password: odt

To download a file, issue the following uucp request on your machine:

uucp ispi!~/archives/<filename> yoursite!<to-filename>

Special Note: The archives on ISPI are in source code format. Programs that need GCC are noted.

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Xenitec Archives

Xenitec is best contacted through the web: http://www.xenitec.com. I don't know if the uucp info is still valid.

XeniTec Archives, Anonymous Access Information: nuucp, ftp, WWW

Orig_Date: Tue Nov 6 22:54:06 EDT 1989
Last_Update: Mon Dec 16 22:47:11 EST 1996
Anonymous UUCP: You want a Systems (or L-sys if you're pre-HDB) entry resembling:
19200 baud, PEP: (pair of trusty old Telebit Trailblazer+'s)
Both answer at 19.2kb PEP mode, and now cycle 19200-9600-2400-19200.
xenitec Any ACU 19200 CUP15197435247 ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin: nuucp word: fall89
xenitec Any ACU 19200 CUP15197438363 ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin: nuucp word: fall89

(up to) 38400 baud, V.32/V.32bis/V.42/V.42bis: Practical Peripherals PM144T II
Hardware flow control, interface speed locked at 38.4KB; let the modems negotiate the highest common denominator.
 
xenitec Any ACU 38400 15197434697 ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:\K-ogin: nuucp word: fall89
xenitec Any ACU 38400 15197435450 ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:-\K-ogin:\K-ogin: nuucp word: fall89

You may substitute an appropriate baud rate depending on what you support, on a per-entry basis for each modem line.

Download the current public archive index file, /archive/pub/index

Should you need freely available source code we don't already have available, email "arcmastr"; we'll try to get it for you.

Anon FTP - ftp xenitec.xenitec.on.ca, log in as "ftp", use your FQDN address as the passwd, eg, "user@foo.bar.com".

WWW (NCSA Mosaic) Server URL: http://www.xenitec.on.ca/

Please note that the above information will change from time to time. Should you find that your results are not what you expect, please email edhew@xenitec.on.ca for updated connectivity info.

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TeleSys Unix/Xenix Software Archive

The following information concerning telesys is probably outdated; while www.telesys.com exists, I see nothing related to SCO anywhere on their site.

For a list of files currently available, you can UUCP a copy of the list from TeleSys:

Phone Number: 602-649-9099 Multiple Telebit WorldBlazers for V.32/V.32bis/PEP and other baud rates from 300-2400.
Login as: nuucp (There is no password)

There are two copies of the list, one 16 bit compressed and the other non-compressed:

uucp telesys!~/files.dir.Z ~/ (16bit Compressed Version)
uucp telesys!~/files.dir ~/ (Uncompressed Version)

Please read the files.dir file carefully for determining download paths and proper filenames. Unlike the directory files, the files for downloading are not located in the /usr/spool/uucppublic directory.

For assistance, email info@tnet.com

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http://ftp.celestial.com

Celestial is best accessed through the web: http://ftp.celestial.com

ftp.celestial.com is located at 192.136.111.2. It's available at all times, though concurrent usage is restricted to five users during the day and ten at night, Pacific time. That's probably not true anymore.

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Other sites

There is a list of anonymous FTP sites with SCO software posted here occasionally. It is also available at http://www2.cs.man.ac.uk/~smallsa7

Also see /Links/ftp.html

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How do I contact a vendor for drivers and/or technical support?

As always, the first answer is RTFM (Read The Manual). Any reputable manufacturer will include instructions on getting technical support with their product. The more aware ones will include not only phone and fax numbers, but often a BBS and sometimes an email address.

However, sometimes a vendor will have an email and/or ftp address which they do not publish in their manuals, and sometimes a user will discover that a critical manual cannot be found in a time of need. Here, then, are some phone/email/ftp addresses for some vendors. Note that this is not intended to be anything close to being an exhaustive list, that it is skewed towards North American phone numbers (particularly (800) numbers), and that the appearance or omission of a vendor below does not constitute in any way an opinion on that vendor. For information on contacting SCO, see elsewhere in this FAQ.

Acer/Altos
General number: (408) 433-3670
Web: http://www.acer.com
Support: http://www.acersupport.com
Adaptec
Tech Support: (408) 945-2550
Web: http://www.adaptec.com Anonymous FTP: ftp.adaptec.com
Arnet (Digi)
General number: (800) 366-8844
General Number: (615) 834-8000
Support: support@arnet.com
Web: http://www.digi.com/
Century Software
Term Tech Support: (801) 943-8386
Web: http://www.censoft.com
Codex/Motorola
Support: (800) 544-0062
Computone
General Number: (800) 241-3946
General Number: (404) 475-2725
BBS: (404) 343-9737
Anonymous ftp: ftp.computone.com
Tech support: support@computone.com
DELL
BBS: (512) 338-8528
Digiboard (Digi)
General Number: (800) 344-4273
General Number: (612) 943-9020
BBS: (612) 922-5604
Support: support@digi.com
Web: http://www.digi.com/
Anonymous ftp: ftp.digi.com
DPT
See Adaptec
Equinox
General Number: (305) 255-3500
Fujitsu America
BBS: (408) 944-9899
Future Domain
General Number: (714) 253-0400
Support: (714) 253-0440
Gateway
Tech Support: (800) 846-2301
Hayes
BBS: (404) 446-6336
Informix
General Number: (415) 926-6300
Fax Line: (913) 599-8425
Maxtor
BBS: (303) 678-2222
NCD
General Number: (415) 694-0650
PSI
General Number: (214) 954-1774
SMC
Tech Support: (800) 992-4762
Web: http://www.smc.com
General Number: (714) 707-2354
General Number: (516) 273-3100
Software Group, The
Phone: (705) 725-9999
FAX: (705) 725-9666
Email: support@software.group.com
Software Horizons
Email: jack@blznrzn.UUCP
Specialix
General Number: +44 1932 792592
Tech Support (US): (408) 378-7919
Tech Support (US): (800) 423-5364
Tech Support (UK): +44 1932 792592
Web site: http://www.perle.com/
Email: support@specialix.com
Singapore: +65 749 1700
United Kingdom: +44 1932 792592
Stallion
General Number: (800) 347-7979
Web: http://www.stallion.com
Stargate (Digi)
General Number: (800) 782-7428
General Number: (216) 349-1866
Web: http://www.digi.com/
3Com
Anonymous ftp: ftp.3com.com
Web: http://www.3com.com/
Support: (800) 876-3COM
General Number: (408) 764-5000
Thomas-Conrad
General Number: (512) 836-1935
US Robotics
General Number: (800) 982-5151
Wangtek
General Number: (805) 583-5255
Support (800) 992-9916
Word Perfect
Support: (801) 226-5333
Support FAX: (801) 222-1994
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How do I get SCO Certification?

SCO has certification programs. See SCO's ACE Info Page and Tony Lawrence's ACE INFO page /ace.html

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What about Caldera?

Caldera bought the Unix part of SCO, leaving SCO with the Tarantella and Vision products.

Many, many links on this site that pointed to SCO web pages have been changed to the proper Caldera page, but unfortunately some are lost forever. The http://www.caldera.com/company/scofind.html page may help.

How can I find SCO specific books and magazines?

I have a listing of SCO specific books at /Books/. SCO World Magazine http://www.scoworld.com is thin, but still in business. You can find other Unix related magazines at /magazines.html.

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