uucp working on *anyone's* Altos???

[Brandon S. Allbery]

As quoted from <743 at wsccs.UUCP> by terry at wsccs.UUCP (Every system needs one):
+---------------
| In article <9812 at cup.portal.com>, thad at cup.portal.com writes:
| > The Series 2000 is running Xenix; suggest you contact SCO for uucp help.
| 
| [Correction to the above]
| 
| Wrongo.  The series 200 is runing an uncertified UNIX 5.2. called Xenix
| by Altos.  There is a certified 5.3 sold for the same machine and called
| UNIX.
+---------------

Close, but no cigar.

The "old" Series 2000 OS is Microsoft Xenix (note that SCO did not invent
Xenix, people, Microsoft did!) as hacked by Altos.  The Series 2000 Model 20
(I think I like the old naming convention better, this is getting ridiculous!)
runs "Altos System V" -- it is uncertified as either UNIX or XENIX.  (The
rumor is that AT&T and Microsoft were annoyed that Altos rushed their
Unix/Xenix merge to market before System V Release 3.2 was ready.  As I
said, it's only a rumor; for all I know it doesn't pass AT&T or Microsoft
specs.)

+---------------
| Xenix is originally a port of an old version of UNIX (III I think; I forget;
| it's late), as evidenced by /etc/init reading the file /etc/ttys.  Both of
| the OS's which run on the 2000 and the 1000 use /etc/inittab, making their
| system V ancestry obvious.
+---------------

V7; System III has /etc/inittab, although it's quite different from the
System V version.

+---------------
| 	Note that you should not use a "multidrop" board, as it will not
| allow you to have both callin and callout on the same port at all.  Since
| you have to force DCD and DTR on the modem so the port can be opened, and
| you MUST use a non modem control device in order to call out, the port is
| useless for call in purposes.  Enabling the port causes a "deadly embrace"
| lockup between the modem an /bin/login.  I can not recommend this board
| until the driver has been corrected.  Altos didn't want my help fixing
| this one, either.  I can't even find out if this is an Altos product or
| if some poor third party company is suffering because they haven't been
| told, since Altos won't talk to me.  Sheesh. :-(.
+---------------

My only comment about the support is that Altos isn't the only one; I had
two years of trying to get Plexus to pay attention to me without paying
money.  On the other hand, please remember that their tech support is a
BUSINESS and they SHOULD expect money in return for having phones and tech
support personnel tied up doing something.

As for multidrop:  I think you'll find if you look at it closely that
multidrop is little more than warmed-over WorkNet.  Right down to the
cabling and the number of addressable nodes.

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery, comp.sources.misc moderator and one admin of ncoast PA UN*X
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