386 UNIX and clone hardware buyer's FAQ

[Eric S. Raymond]

Archive-name: 386-buyers-faq
Last-update: Wed April 1 21:47:33 EST 1992
Version: 3.0

You say you want cutting-edge hacking tools without having to mortgage the
wife'n'kids? You say arrogant workstation vendors are getting you down? You
say you crave fast UNIX on cheap hardware, but you don't know how to go about
getting it? Well, pull up a chair and take the load off yer feet, bunky,
because...

This is v3.0 of the 386 UNIX and clone-hardware buyer's FAQ posting
current to May 1st 1992.

0. CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION. What this posting is. How to help improve it. Summary of
the 386/486 UNIX market, including 6 SVr4 vendors and 2 BSD ports. What's new
in this issue.

II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. A brief discussion of general hardware
requirements and compatibility considerations in the base SVR4 code from UNIX
Systems Laboratories (referred to below as the USL code). None of this
automatically applies to the two BSD-like versions, which break out the
corresponding information into their separate vendor reports.

III. FEATURE COMPARISON. A feature table which gives basic price & feature
info and summarizes differences between the versions.

IV. VENDOR REPORTS. Detailed descriptions of the different versions and
vendors, including information collected from the net on bugs, supported
and unsupported hardware and the like.

V. HOT TIPS FOR HARDWARE BUYERS. Useful general tips for anybody buying
clone hardware for a UNIX system. Overview of the market. Technical points.
When, where, and how to buy.

VI. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY TABLES. A set of tables summarizes vendor claims
and user reports on hardware compatibility.

VII. KNOWN BUGS IN THE USL CODE. A discussion of bugs known or believed to
be generic to the USL code, with indications as to which vendors have fixed
them. None of this applies to the two BSD-based versions.

VIII. FREE ADVICE TO VENDORS. Your humble editor's soapbox. An open letter
to the UNIX vendors designed to get them all hustling to improve their products
and services as fast as possible.

IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND ENVOI. Credit where credit is due. Some praises
and pans. What comes next....


I. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this posting is to pool public knowledge and USENET feedback
about all leading-edge versions of UNIX for commodity 386 and 486 hardware. It
also includes extensive information on how to buy cheap clone hardware to
support your UNIX.

This document is maintained and periodically updated as a service to the net by
Eric S. Raymond <er...@snark.thyrsus.com>, who began it for the very best
self-interested reason that he's in the market and doesn't believe in plonking
down several grand without doing his homework first (no, I don't get paid for
this!). Corrections, updates, and all pertinent information are welcomed at
that address.

This posting is periodically broadcast to the USENET group comp.unix.sysv386
and to a list of vendor addresses. If you are a vendor representative, please
check the feature chart and vendor report to make sure the information on your
company is current and correct. If it is not, please email me a correction
ASAP. If you are a knowledgeable user of any of these products, please send me
a precis of your experiences for the improvement of the feedback sections.

What's new in this issue:
* By popular demand --- comparative info on SCO UNIX/ODT
* A serious bug in stock USL 4.0.3's SCSI handling, with fix!
* A serious bug in stock USL 4.0.3's security, with pointer to fix.
* A *very* serious bug in stock USL 4.0.3's fread(3) routine.
* A *very* serious bug in UNIX signal handling
* Moderately serious bugs in the stock USL SGS code.
* A kernel-mangling bug in Dell UNIX, with fix.
* More info (including user feedback) on MST UNIX.
* Yet more hardware compatibility info.
* Thumbnail sketches of the freeware UNIX alternatives.
* Corrected "Programmer's Shop" number.
* Substantial additions to the hardware buyer's guide, focusing on
motherboards and graphics accelerator cards.
* Lots more Esix information, with some corrections.
* Much ado about mice; their varieties and compatibility.
* More FREE ADVICE TO VENDORS, this time about nomenclature.

At time of writing, here are the products in this category:

Consensys UNIX Version 1.2 abbreviated as "Cons" below
Dell UNIX Issue 2.1 abbreviated as "Dell" below
Esix Revision A abbreviated as "Esix" below
Micro Station Technology SVr4 UNIX abbreviated as "MST" below
Microport System V/4 version 4 abbreviated as "uPort" below
UHC Version 3.6 abbreviated as "UHC" below

SCO Open DeskTop abbreviated as "ODT" below

BSD/386 (0.3 beta) abbreviated as "BSDI" below
Mach386 abbreviated as "Mach" below

The first six of these are ports of AT&T's System V Release 4. Until very
recently there was a seventh, by Interactive Systems Corporation. That product
was canned after half of ISC was bought by SunSoft, evidently to clear the
decks for Solaris 2.0 (a SunOS port for the 386 to be released late in
1992). The only Interactive UNIX one can buy at present is an SVr3.2 port
which I consider uninteresting because it's no longer cutting-edge; I have
ignored it.

Earlier issues ignored SCO because (a) 3.2 isn't leading-edge any more and (b)
their `Release 4' is a 3.2 sailing under false colors. Can you say deceptive
advertising? Can you say bait-and-switch? Can you say total marketroid-puke?
However, the clamor from netters wanting it included was deafening. The day
SCO landed an unsolicited free copy of ODT on my doorstep I gave in. I don't
expect to actually use it, but I summarize the relevant facts along with
everything else below. Note that ODT is their full system with networking and
X windows; what they call SCO UNIX is missing most of those trimmings.

BSD/386 is *not* based on USL code, but on the CSRG NET2 distribution tape.
Complete sources are included with every system shipped! Mach386 is basically
BSD tools with a Mach 2.5 microkernel (for which you can get source!) and does
entail a USL license; it's based on the Tahoe BSD distribution.

LynxOS is a 386 UNIX specialized for real-time work, available from Lynx
Real-Time Systems Inc. of Los Gatos, California. It includes TCP/IP, NFS, X,
etc. Most of the development tools are GNU. The kernel is pre-emptable and
supports threads and dynamically-loased device drivers.

Siemens AG plans to offer a SVr4 port optimized for real-time work in
June 1992. This product will be called SORIX.

AT&T's own 386 UNIX offering is not covered here because it is available and
supported for AT&T hardware only.

All the vendors listed offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, but they'll be
sticky about it except where there's an insuperable hardware compatibility
problem or you trip over a serious bug. One (UHC) charges a 25% restocking fee
on returns. BSDI says: "If a customer is dissatisfied with the product, BSDI
unconditionally refunds the purchase price."

There are some freeware alternative UNIXes available for the 386/486. None of
these are yet complete and mature hacking environments, but they show promise.
They are:

386BSD:
Under development by Bill & Lynne Jolitz & friends (this is the same 386BSD
project described in BYTE some time back). This OS is based on the NET/2 tape
from Berkeley and strongly resembles the commercial BSD/386 release described
below, and like it is distributed with full source. The aim is to produce a
full POSIX-compliant freeware BSD UNIX. At the moment it comes up single-user
in root, and utilities as basic as grep are still missing. However, the whole
kernel is working (which means the hard part is done) and development is
proceeding rapidly. There's a lot of traffic in comp.unix.bsd about this
project.

Linux:
This is a SysV/POSIX-emulating UNIX lookalike, being written from scratch
and currently in beta. At the moment, it's less complete than 386BSD because
it doesn't leverage as much pre-existing code, but the kernel and development
tools are up and usable. Linux is changing so fast that more description would
probably be more misleading than enlightening. There's an active linux group
networked by the linux-activists mailing list; to subscribe, mail to
"linux-activi...@niksula.hut.fi".

Hurd:
This is the long-awaited and semi-mythical GNU kernel. It's being worked on
by the Free Software Foundation (the people who brought you emacs, gcc, gdb and
the rest of the GNU tool suite) but it's not ready for prime time yet. The
386BSD and Linux developments both lean heavily on GNU tools.

There is one other not-quite-freeware (cheapware?) product that deserves a
mention:

Minix:
This is a roughly V7-compatible UNIX clone for Intel boxes, sold with source
by Prentice-Hall for $169 (there's an associated book for a few bucks more).
It's really designed to run in 16-bit mode on 8086 and 286 machines, though
there is an experimental 32-bit kernel under development. UUCP and netnews
clones are available as freeware but not supplied with the base system. A
large international community is involved in improving Minix; see comp.os.minix
on USENET for details.

These freeware and "cheapware" products exert valuable pressure on the
commercial vendors. Someday, they may even force AT&T to unlock source to stay
competitive...


II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

To run any of this systems, you need at least the following: 4 MB of RAM and
80MB of hard disk. However, this is an absolute minimum; you'll want at least
8 MB of RAM for reasonable performance. And depending on options installed,
the OS will eat from 40 to 120 meg of the disk, so you'll want at least 200 meg
for real work. To run X you'll need a VGA monitor and card, and 12-16MB RAM
would be a good idea.

Installation from these systems requires that you boot from a hi-density
floppy (either 3.5" or 5.25"). Most vendors offer the bulk of the system on a
QIC 1/4-inch tape; otherwise you may be stuck with loading over 60 diskettes!
In general, if the initial boot gets far enough to display a request for
the first disk or tape load, you're in good shape.

All SVr4s conform to the following software standards: ANSI X3J11 C, POSIX
1003.1, SVID 3rd edition, FIPS 151-1, XPG3, System V ABI, and iBCS-2.

All SVr4 versions include support for BSD-style file systems with 255-character
segment names and fragment allocation. In general this is a Good Thing, but
some SVr3.2 and XENIX binaries can be confused by the different size of
the inode index. You need to run these on an AT&T-style file system.

All SVr4 versions include the UNIX manual pages on-line. Dell stocks
Prentice-Hall's SVr4 books and will sell them to you with your system (in lieu
of printed manuals) at extra cost. You can order them direct from
Prentice-Hall at (201)-767-5937. Warning: they ain't cheap! Buying the whole
13 volumes will cost you a couple hundred bucks. Esix, Microport and UHC
have their own manual sets derived from the same AT&T source tapes as the
Prentice-Hall set; Esix charges extra for them, but Microport and UHC both
include them with their systems.

SVr4 includes hooks for a DOS bridge that allows you to run DOS applications
under UNIX (the two products that actually do this are DOS Merge and VP/ix).
Most vendors do not include either of these with the base system, however.
VP/ix was a product of the half of ISC that was sold to SunSoft, and its
future is in some doubt.

All these systems support up to 1024x768 by 256 color super-VGA under X. The
640x480 by 16 colors of standard VGA is no problem; everybody supports that
compatibly. However, X servers older than the Roell or X11R5 version (that is,
MIT X11R4 or anything previous) are hard to configure for the clock timings of
your controller and monitor scan frequency unless you have one of the standard
combinations USL supports or your vendor has configured for it.

There are a couple of known hardware compatibility problems the USL code
doesn't yet address. See the KNOWN BUGS section near the end of this document.


III. FEATURE COMPARISON

To interpret the table below, bear in mind the following things:

All these products except BSDI/386 and Mach386 are based on the SVr4 kernel
from UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL), an AT&T spinoff. Thus they share over
90% of their code and features. Product differentiation is done primarily
through support policy, bug-fix quality and add-on software.

The `USL support?' column refers to the fact that USL support is a separate
charge from the source license. With the former, a porting house gets access
to AT&T's own OS support people and their bug fix database, and the porting
house's bug fixes can get folded back into the USL code.

These systems come either in a "crippled" version that supports at most two
simultaneous users, or an unlimited version. Generally the vendors do allow
you to upgrade your license via a patch disk if your requirements, but this
invariably costs slightly more than the base price difference between 2-user
and unlimited systems.

The "run-time" system in the price tables below is a minimum installation,
just enough to run binaries. The "complete" system includes every software
option offered by the vendor; it does *not* bundle in the cost of the
Prentice-Hall docs offered by some vendors as an option. You may well get
away with less, especially if you're willing to do your own X installation.

The numbers under support-with-purchase are days counted from date
of shipment. The intent is to help you get initially up and running.

The engineer counts below are as supplied by vendors; .5 of an engineer
means someone is officially working half-time. The `Uses USENET' column is
`yes' if there is allegedly at least one person in the engineering department
who reads USENET technical groups regularly and is authorized to respond to
USENET postings reporting problems.

A dash `-' means the given feature or configuration is not offered. A `yes'
means it is currently offered; `soon' means the vendor has represented that it
will be offered in the near future. A `no' means it's not offered, but there's
some related information in the attached footnote.

Vendor SCO Cons Dell Esix MST uPort UHC BSDI Mach386

Base version: 3.2.3 4.0.3 4.0.3 4.0.3 4.0.3 4.0.4 4.0.3 BSD Mach
USL support? ?? ?? y y(a) n y ??(b) n n

System price:
Run-time
2-user 1395 - - 545 249 500 695 - -
Unlimited 2495 - - 945 449 1,000 1,090 - -
Complete
2-user - 495 1,250 1,645 799 3,000 1,990 - 995
Unlimited 2495 695 1,599 2,045 999 3,500 2,385 995 (c)

Printed docs? y - - y(d) - y(e) y - -

Upgrade plan?
From SVr3.2 ?? - - y - y - - -
Future SVr4s ?? - (g) (f) - (g) - - -

Support
W/purchase: 30 (h) 90 (i) 30 30 30 60 30
800 number? y - y - - - - - -
By contract - n(j) y n(i) y y y y y
Support BBS? n y n(k) y - y soon - y
FTP server? y - y soon - - - - y
Read USENET? y ?? y y - y n(l) y y

# Engineers:
Support: 60+ 1 5 2 2 4 2 1.5 1
Development: ?? ??(m) 9(n) ~20 3 6 27 5.5 5

Distribution media:
3.5" 1.44MB y y(o) - y y y y - y
5.25" 1.2MB y y(o) - y y y y - y
60MB ctape y y - y y y y - -
125MB ctape - - - - y - y - -
150MB ctape - - y - y y y y -
Via network? - - y - - - - - -

X options:
X11/NeWS R3 - - - y - - y - -
MIT X11R4 - - y y - - - - y
AT&T Xwin 3 - - - - y - - - -
AT&T Xwin 4 y - - - - y - - -
Roell X386 - - y - y - y - -
X11R5 - y - - - - - y soon
Open Look - - 4i 1.0 2.0 4i 4i - -
Motif 1.1 1.1 1.1.2 1.1.0 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.3 - soon
X.desktop - - 2.0F - - 3.0 2.0 - -

Also included:
DOS bridge? y - y - - soon - soon -
SLIP? y - y y - y soon y -
PPP? - ?? - n(p) - - soon soon n

(a) Esix's UNIX support contract with USL will technically begin with 4.0.4.
(b) UHC had a support contract at one time but may have let it lapse. I
expect to have better information on this soon.
(c) No unlimited licenses have been sold yet. Talk to Mt. Xinu about one.
(d) Extra-cost option.
(e) With complete system only.
(f) Small media charge.
(g) Free with support contract, charge otherwise (charge ~$500).
(h) 90 days or until product is installed successfully.
(i) Unlimited free phone support.
(j) Charges by the half-hour phone call.
(k) Dell does have an Internet server for its UNIX patches.
(l) UHC says they used to be net-active and want to be again when they can
afford the man-hours.
(m) Consensys explicitly refuses to release this information.
(n) Dell says "The number of engineers varies according to the current problem
load and may be up to 20". Interpret this as you will.
(o) There's an $80 media charge for the diskettes equivalent to the normal
60MB distribution tape.
(p) Mark Boucher <ma...@cam.org> has written a PPP driver for Esix

The SCO information is included by popular demand for comparison purposes.

In general, the SVr4 market breaks into two tiers. The bottom tier is
Consensys and MST; low-ball outfits selling stock USL with minimal support for
real cheap. The top tier is Dell, Esix, Microport and UHC; these guys are
selling support and significant enhancements and charge varying premiums for
it. Your first, most basic buying decision has to be which tier best serves
your needs.

One further note: it *is* possible to buy these systems at less than the list
the vendor charges! I found some really substantial discounts in one
mail-order catalog ("The Programmer's Shop"; call 1-(800)-426-8006 to get on
their mailing list, but be prepared to wade through a lot of DOS cruft).


IV. VENDOR REPORTS
Vendor reports start here. Each one is led by a form feed.

NAME:
SCO Open DeskTop

VENDOR:
400 Encinal Street
PO Box 1900
Santa Cruz,CA 95061-9969
1-(800)-726-8649 (sales)
1-(800)-347-4381 (customer service and tech support)
in...@sco.com

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
SCO's package and option structure is complicated. They sent me their
whole shebang, which seems to break into the following pieces:
SCO UNIX
Open DeskTop (graphical interface, includes SCO UNIX)
Development Tools
File Server Upgrade

ADD-ONS:
There are piles of them. I was most impressed by the docs for the CodeView
debugger and MASM assembler, but the presence of ISAM support, SQL support, and
what looks like a commercially-viable database tool would probably be more
significant to the ordinary commercial user.

SUPPORT:
You get 30 days of free phone support with purchase.
ODT support is $895 per year.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the appendix for details. SCO provides a Hardware Compatibility
Guide with its software.

COMMENTS:
The docs are impressive; you could get a hernia trying to lift them all.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
XENIX is the UNIX port hackers love to hate, but at 70% of the market SCO
must be doing something right. In general, SCO UNIX and XENIX are reputed to
be a very polished and stable systems. Unfortunately, they also drive
developers crazy because of numerous tiny and undocumented divergences between
the SCO way and the USL-based releases.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
The SCO support system is heavily bureaucratized and prone to thrash when
processing questions of unusual depth or scope. While probably adequate for
the random business luser, hackers are likely to find the contortions
required to get to a master-level developer very frustrating.
They sent me an unsolicited free copy. Gee. Maybe I should flame vendors
more often... :-)


NAME:
Consensys UNIX Version 1.3

VENDOR:
Consensys
1301 Pat Booker Road
Universal City, TX 78148
(800)-387-8951
{dmentor,dciem}!askov!root

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
None. With the whole system selling for $495 why bother?

ADD-ONS:
Basically this is a stock USL system with the stock USL bugs, except the
installation sequence has been improved considerably. Good tools for
configuration management and system administration on a network of Consensys
machines are included.

SUPPORT:
You get free phone support until your system is installed, to a maximum of
90 days. After that they charge per half-hour of phone time. They like to
do support by fax and callback.
They have 1 (one) support tech. Ask for Reuben.
They have a support BBS at (416)-752-2084.
Knowledgeable customers report they're good about supporting the bits they
wrote (see below) but terrible at dealing with generic SVr4 problems.

FUTURE PLANS:
They haven't settled on an upgrade policy yet.
There are plans for a disk array product.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the appendix for details.
Though most reports say the Consensys PowerPorts board is fine for UUCP use,
at least two USENETters have reported problems with interactive sessions; see
below.

TECHNICAL NOTES:
The X stuff is straight off the MIT X11R5 tape, patchlevel 8.

KNOWN BUGS:
This port probably uses the stock USL 4.0.3 libraries. Thus it probably
has the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD-
compatibility string functions.
One `Andy', mailing from <hoo...@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> says "You should also
blast Consensys for advertising that they provide DOS file system utilities.
They do, but they were written for DOS 2.0! They do NOT work for DOS 5.0..."
Syd Weinstein <s...@dsinc.dsi.com> reports: "The most major [bug in the
PowerPorts support] is delays in various output codes.... Even if not using
the multi-screen stuff, a clear to end of line escape code, and some others,
cause noticable delays in the output. (About 0.1 seconds). It makes running
Elm a real bitch". He is in touch with Consensys about this.
It has been reported on USENET (by Gerry Swetsky <lis...@vpnet.chi.il.us>
among others) that if you drop off of a PowerPorts line without manually
closing all your sessions, the unclosed sessions may be accessible to the next
person to pick up the line.
Gil Kloepfer, Jr. <g...@limbic.ssdl.com>, managing the Houston UNIX User's
Group's system, says that during interactive use the board frequently does not
handle typeahead properly (this may be related to Syd Weinstein's problems with
EOL delay). He also says he hasn't been able to bring up stable UUCP with the
board.

COMMENTS:
Their UNIX product is an outgrowth of their main line of business, selling
serial boards. It is easy to configure the OS to support the board.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
I've spoken with one experienced wizard using Consensys and seen a detailed
email report from another. They're happy, although they both warn that newbies
should probably *not* try this at home :-).
On the other hand, Consensys has a dismal reputation on USENET; horror
stories of nonexistent followup on bugs abound. They'll need to work hard to
shuck their take-the-money-and-run image. Better followup on the reported
serial-port board bugs would be a big help. Unfortunately, Consensys's favored
response seems to be to deny that they have a problem.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
These guys are trading off everything else to be the market's price-buster.
They have the toughest support policy of any vendor and obviously don't want to
hear from you once you've gotten past initial boot.
A Consensys marketroid that I spoke with twice while gathering this
information offered to send me an evaluation copy of their system. They were
clearly hoping for some good publicity if I like it. However, I doubt they
like me that well any more...
Consensys explicitly refuses to say how many development engineers they have
on staff. In this and some other matters (such as the way they deal with
allegations of PowerPorts problems) they've adopted a corporate style that
appears defensive, evasive, secretive, and not conducive to trust. I couldn't
make their V.P. of sales understand that this appearance is a serious
liability in dealing with UNIX techies and distinguishes them from the
competition in a distinctly negative way.


NAME:
Dell UNIX System V Release 4 Issue 2.1.

VENDOR:
Dell Computer
9505 Arboretum Road
Austin TX 78759
(800)-BUY-DELL (info & orders)
(800)-624-9896 (tech support: x6915 to go straight to UNIX support)
sup...@dell.com

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
Basically, there aren't any. You get the development system with all the
trimmings for a lower list than anybody else in the top tier. Whaddya
want, egg in yer beer?

ADD-ONS:
Dell bundles a DOS bridge with their base system. They also include cnews,
mmdf, perl, elm, bison, gcc, emacs gdb, and other freeware, including a bunch
of nifty X clients! However, stock gcc doesn't yet generate SVr4's new DWARF
debugger format. Patches for g++ 1.40.3 and libg++ 1.39.0 to get these working
under SVR4 are available via ftp from ftp.physics.su.oz.au.

SUPPORT:
Dell *does* support their UNIX on non-Dell hardware. They are quite
definite about this. They will deal with software problems reported from
non-Dell hardware, but you're on your own when dealing with hardware
incompatibility problems.
You get 90 days of free phone support on a toll-free number.
Yearly service contracts range are $350 per year for the limited
license, $500 for the unlimited.
Dell accepts software problem reports from anyone, Dell or non-Dell
hardware and whether or not they have a support contract. If you don't have
a support contract, don't count on getting a reply acknowledging the report.
There are 5 engineers in their second-line support pool.
Dell maintains a pair of Internet servers (dell1.dell.com and
dell2.dell.com) which hold patches, updates and free software usable with
Dell UNIX.

FUTURE PLANS:
They haven't fixed a release date for 4.0.4 or X11R5 yet. One USENET
poster has claimed inside information that X11R5 will be folded in during
March/April 1992.
X.desktop 3.0 will be supported soon. NeWS isn't going to happen at all;
they couldn't get it to work reliability.
Dell is committed to sell and support Solaris 2.0 when it happens. Dell
spokespeople have insisted that this doesn't jeopardize the SVr4 product's
future; they say they intend to position the two differently, aiming SVr4 at
UNIX developers and selling Solaris primarily as an application platform for
end-users. However, the person who articulated that policy is no longer at
Dell and the question of what SVr4 to Solaris upgrade costs will be hasn't
been resolved even internally.
About upgrades, Dell says "If you have a support contract, the upgrade is
free, unless we've added something with significant royalty burden to us. We
may make a charge at that point. We didn't when we added Graphical Services
4.0 at the introduction of Dell UNIX 2.1. If you don't have a contract, then
the cost is basically Media+Royalty+Admin+Shipping."

TECHNICAL NOTES:
The big plus in the Dell code is that they've fixed a lot of the annoying
bugs and glitches present in the stock USL tape.
The installation procedure has been improved and simplified. You can
install Dell UNIX through your network from another Dell box once you've booted
the hardware with a special disk provided.
Both benchmarks and anecdotal reports make them significantly faster than a
stock USL system. Interestingly, Dell's manager for UNIX development tells me
this is all due to bug fixes and careful choices of some OS parameters.
The DOS bridge is Locus Merge 2.1.
A source at Dell has asked me to point out that Dell's SLIP can be set up,
configured, and stopped while UNIX is running; some other versions (such as
SCO's) require a reboot.
Dell device drivers are *very* unlikely to work on other SVR4 versions.
Dell includes some kernel extensions (not required, so other SVR4 device
drivers should work) to make life in support a little easier. A program
called showcfg will list all recognised device drivers and the IRQ,
I/O address, shared memory and so on. The device driver has to register
this info. Dell has told USL how to do this, it's up to them when or even
if they want to use this in a future release.
Dell device drivers are also auto configuring, for the most part. Check out
/etc/conf/sdevice.d/* and see how most of the devices are enabled, but with
zeroes in all fields for IRQ, I/O and memory. Those are autoconfiguring
drivers. Dell thinks that this makes life much easier; you only need to set
one of the configurations that we probe for! The device registration helps
this, by eliminating possible overlapping memory or I/O address usage. (On the
other hand, idconfig(1) is no longer helpful, when I/O, IRQ and mem are all
zero).
Dell UNIX also has drivers for the Dell SmartVu found on some machines (a
little four character LED display on the front panel). By default this shows
POST values, then disk accesses, finally "UNIX" when running and "DOWN" when
halted. You can write to the device.
Some Dell systems have a reset button. On the Laptops these are wired
directly to the CPU. On the desktop and floor-standing systems Dell UNIX can
catch the interrupt; it's used to do a graceful (init 0) shutdown. Other
UNIXes will do a processor reset when the button is pushed.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
Dell doesn't maintain a list of non-Dell motherboards and systems known to
work. And they're not willing to talk about the list they don't maintain,
because it would amount to endorsing someone else's hardware.
Dell promises that you can bring its UNIX up on any Dell desktop or tower
featuring a 386SX or up (it's hard to get the product on to the notebooks).
Notebooks can't drive a QIC tape and there aren't drivers for the pocket
Ethernet or token-ring adapter.
Jeffrey James Persch <using a friend's account> reports that he couldn't
get the X supplied with Dell UNIX 2.1 to work with a Microsoft bus mouse hooked
to the mouse port on a Compaq 486/33M or Systempro.
See the appendix for more.

COMMENTS:
Dell sells hardware, too :-). They are, in fact, one of the most successful
clonemakers, and will cheerfully sell you a Dell computer with SVr4 pre-
installed. Their systems are expensive by cloner standards (with as much as a
$1000 premium over rock-bottom street prices) but they have a rep for quality
and reliability their competition would probably kill for.
You can get Dell product information by sending an email request to
in...@dell.com.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
Most people who've seen or used it seem to think pretty highly of the
Dell product, in spite of minor problems.
Some people are very annoyed with the length of Dell's support queues.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
Right now, I'd have to call Dell the market leader. The combination of low
price, highest added value in features, and reputation for quality makes them
very hard to beat.
The only serious negative I've seen is that their support system seems to be
very badly overloaded, so you can end up on hold for a while when calling. The
techs themselves are sufficiently cranked about this that they'll complain of
understaffing and corporate shortsightedness on the phone to a stranger.
Dell also compartmentalizes the support operation more than any of the
other vendors I contacted; the support techs aren't told much about the
product's future direction and even lack basic pricing information.
Both these things are probably functions of the organization's size; Dell is
a larger outfit than the rest of its competitors put together.
On the other hand, Dell's UNIX development manager responded to the first
issue of this FAQ with about three hundred lines of intelligent, thoughtful and
extremely candid comment, including a whole pile of the hardware-compatibility
info I couldn't get lower-level people to divulge and a number of excellent
suggestions for improving the FAQ.


NAME:
Esix Revision A

VENDOR
Esix Computers
1923 E. St. Andrew Place
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714)-259-3020 (tech support is (714)-259-3000)
uunet!zardoz!everex!esixtech

ADD-ONS:
None.

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
Networking and X11R4 (includes TCP/IP, NFFS/RFS, SLIP).
GUI I -- Open Look and X11/NeWS.
GUI II -- Motif.
Development tools.

SUPPORT:
Purchase buys you unlimited free phone support. However, be warned that
there are only two engineers assigned to the job and they are swamped.
Esix offers a support BBS at (714)-259-3011 and 3013 (the 11 line
has a Trailblazer on it). They plan to bring up an Internet server in
the near future.

FUTURE PLANS:
4.0.4 will happen in the near future. They'll be going to Xwin 4 (AT&T's
X11R4 server) at around the same time, and will also include X.desktop. They
say they don't plan to support DOS Merge because it's still horribly buggy.
Later in '92 they plan to release a multiprocessing UNIX.

TECHNICAL NOTES:
D'arcy McCain <da...@druid.uucp> has written a device driver for Everex's
STEP systems that can control the LED array on the front of the box.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the appendix for details. Esix supports an unusually wide
range of peripherals.
They advertise support for the Textronix X terminal.
No one has reported any incompatibility horror stories yet.

KNOWN BUGS:
According to Esix, this port uses the stock USL 4.0.3 libraries. Thus it
must have the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD-
compatibility string functions.

COMMENTS:
Another subsidiary of a clonemaker (Everex). They don't sell
bundled hardware/software packages yet.
Esix will sell you manuals troffed off the SVr4 source tapes for somewhat
less than the cost of the Prentice-Hall books. The content is almost
identical but the organixation into volumes a little different.
Unlimited free support sounds wonderful, and might be Esix's
strongest selling point. However, Esix users on the net have been
heard to gripe that in practice, you get the support you've paid for
from Esix --- that is, none. That isn't at all surprising given
Esix's staffing level. If this guarantee is to be more than a hollow
promise, their technical support has to get more depth.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
In email to me, one long-time netter (Evan Leibovich, <ec...@telly.on.ca>)
who does UNIX consulting says he has eight client sites running Esix happily.
It's reliable.
Ron Mackey <r...@dsiinc.com> writes "In general, we are pleased with Esix.
We still have problems driving the serial ports at speeds greater than 9600
baud. We also still see occasional PANICs. These appear to be related to
problems with the virtual terminal manager." This may be the generic USL asy
problem again.
A longer appeciation from Ed Hall <edh...@rand.org>: "I had a problem with
the ESIX X server. I got through to technical support immediately, and was
promised a fix disk. The guy on the phone was actually able to chat with on of
the developers to check to see if the disk would solve the problem. The disk
came four days later."
"On the other hand," he continues, "I get the feeling that ESIX has only
made a mediocre effort to shake out the bugs before releasing their system-- or
even their fixes. For example, they `repaired' their X server, but the new
server only ran as root (it made some priviledged calls to enable I/O
ports)--they quickly had to release a second update to fix this new problem.
They obviously fixed a lot of things in the new server, and performance is
improved quite a bit as well, but the stupid error they made in the first
"fixed" version should have been found with only the most minimal of testing."
"They've done some work on the serial driver, but there are still some
glitches (occasional dropped characters on a busy system at 38400bps, and a
real doozy of a problem--a system panic--when doing simultaneous opens and
ioctl's on a tty0xh and ttyM0xh device. This latter problem was due to my
using the M0xh and 0xh devices improperly, but panics are inexcusable. No idea
if this is a SYSVR4 problem or due to their fixes.)"
"So my impressions of them are mixed. Perhaps I just lucked out in geting
such rapid response on my support call, but I was impressed by it nonetheless.
On the other hand, their QA needs work..."

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
The tech I spoke with at Esix seemed knowledgeable, bright, and very
committed to the product. Nevertheless, when I asked what he thought
distinguished Esix from the competition, he had no answer.
This reinforced the feeling I got from the spec sheets that Esix has kind of
an also-ran mentality, with no market strategy or clear priority for improving
SVr4 that positions it against its competition. It doesn't have Dell's
steak-with-all-the-trimmings appeal, it's not pushing price like Consensys or
support quality like UHC or performance like Microport. (I'm told that
at one time, Everex was the price leader).
When I asked Esix's chief marketroid about this, he said that he thinks
Esix's best asset is that the product isn't going to go away, and muttered
unkind things about the possibility that Dell would deep-six their SVr4 in
favor of Solaris 2.0. This does not a long-term strategy make.


NAME
MST UNIX

VENDOR:
Micro Station Technology, Inc.
1140 Kentwood Ave.
Cupertino, CA. 95014
(408)-253-3898
sa...@mst.com (product info & orders)
c...@mst.com (support)

ADD-ONS:
None.

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
C Development System
Networking
X11R4 and X11R3
Motif
Open Look

SUPPORT:
30 days of support free with purchase.
1 year of fax/email support is $299, 1 year of phone support is $599.

FUTURE PLANS:
They expect to upgrade to Motif 1.2 and X11R5 Summer '92. No plans for
4.0.4 yet.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
They've promised to email me a list of hardware known to work, which
will appear in a future posting.
They decline to release information on hardware known *not* to work
for fear of offending vendors.

KNOWN BUGS:
This port probably uses the stock USL 4.0.3 libraries. Thus it probably
has the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD-
compatibility string functions.
The DOS support is only 2.0-compatible (< 32-meg DOS partitions).

COMMENTS:
Another outfit offering stock USL real cheap. They were actually the first
to try this (in Fall '91) and were the price leader until Consensys blew past
them.
These guys really want to sell you preinstalled UNIX on their clone
hardware. Configurations range from $1349 to $5599 and look like pretty
good value.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
I have one experience report from Ray Hill, <hi...@ghola.nicolet.com>, who's
been running MST on a 486 for a month or so. He says it works; elm, cnews, and
trn are up, so standard UNIX sources compile up and work fine. His only
criticism is the relative skimpiness of the printed docs.
Harlan Stockman <hws...@snll-arpagw.llnl.gov> writes "MST has been very
helpful at every step of the way; phone and e-mail support have been timely."
Geoffrey Leach <ge...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com> warns that some of the files
(specifically, socket library headers) necessary to build X11R5 are bundled in
the networking option --- this may meen you have to buy it even if you don't
actually intend to network any machines.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
Anyone who's been to a hobbyist computer expo in the last five years knows
that the low-price clone-hardware market is full of small, hungry companies run
by immigrants, often family businesses. Their English is sometimes a little
shaky but (in my experience) they're honest and their product is good, and
their prices are *real* aggressive.
MST seems to be one of these outfits. Right now they're eclipsed by
Consensys, but Consensys's promo prices are *so* low that they may be taking a
net loss to gain market share. In any case, two super-low-cost-vendors are
much more effective pressure on the upper tier than one --- long may MST
flourish.


NAME:
Microport System V/4 Version 4

VENDOR:
Microport, Inc.
108 Whispering Pines Drive
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(800)-367-8649
sa...@mport.com (sales and product info)
sup...@mport.com (support)

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
Networking (TCP/IP, NFS)
Software Development
User Graphics Module (X GUIs)
Graphics Development Module (X toolkits + man pages).
DOS Merge

ADD-ONS:
A few freeware utilities are included, notably kermit(1) and less(1).
They include a single-user copy of a program called `JSB MultiView'. It's a
character-oriented desktop program that front-ends conventional UNIX services
for character terminals and also provides a pop-up phone-book.

SUPPORT:
The base price includes printed docs. This is effectively the same content
as the Prentice-Hall SVr4 books; both are troffed off the SVr4 source tapes.
They have been very lightly edited for the Microport environment.
The base price includes 30 days or 1 year of phone support respectively
depending on whether you bought the base or complete system. Support is
said to be excellent for serious problems, not so good for minor ones (this
is understandable if one assumes their support staff is very good but
overworked, a hypothesis which is plausible on other evidence).
They have a support BBS at (408)-438-7270 or 438-7521. However, the level
of activity is low; one customer said (late February) that they hadn't put
anything useful on it in six months (Microport responds that they've
been too busy hammering on r4 to spend lots of energy on it).

FUTURE PLANS:
DOS Merge will be folded into the system soon.
Also working on improved performance for the Adaptec 1742 and other SCSI
controllers, expect that in may.
Microport believes they have a lead in multiprocessing UNIX and intend to
push it.
File-system support for CD-ROMs is coming.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the appendix for details.
Math co-processors: Cyrix 20/25/33, Intel 80387 20/25/33, Weitek.
No one has reported any incompatibility horror stories yet. Bernoulli boxes
and Irwin tapes won't fly, but who cares.

TECHNICAL NOTES:
When I asked what differentiates Microport from the other SVr4 products,
the answer I got is "performance". The Microport people feel they've put
a lot of successful work into kernel tuning.
And, indeed, benchmarks from independent sources show that Microport's
fork(2) operation is quite fast. Other vendors show about 60 forks per
second on the AIM Technologies SUITE II benchmarks; Microport cranks 80.
This is the most dramatic performance difference the AIM tools reveal
among any of these products. Microport's other benchmark statistics
are closely comparable to those of its competitors.
Microport also offers a symmetric multiprocessing SVr4 which will run on the
Compaq SystemPro, the ALR PowerPro, the DEC 433MP, and the Chips & Technologies
Mpax system.
Microport has moved the socket headers and libraries necessary to build X
out of the networking option package into the development system, so you
don't have to buy an extra module to hack X.

KNOWN BUGS:
According to Microport, this port uses the stock USL 4.0.3 libraries. Thus
it must have the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the
BSD-compatibility string functions.

COMMENTS:
These people sold a lot of shrink-wrapped UNIXes years ago before going
chapter 11. They're back, leaner and meaner (with a total staff of just
15).
Microport says it's primarily interested in the systems-integration market,
where customers are typically going to be volume buyers qualifying for deep
discounts. Thus, they're relatively undisturbed by the certainty that their
high price point is losing them sales to individuals.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
I've received one good comprehensive experience report, largely favorable,
from David Wexelblat <dw...@att.com>.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
Microport is a small, hungry outfit with a lot to prove; they've already
gone bust once (I was a customer at the time :-() and they haven't yet
demonstrated that they've got a better strategy this time out.
They're perhaps a mite too expensive for the support quality they can offer
with less than fifteen people, and kernel-tuning isn't going to win them a
following on hardware that every year swamps those tweaks with huge increases
in speed for constant dollars. It may be that they're counting on the
symmetric-multiprocessor version to be their bread-and-butter product; there,
at least, they're offering something that is so far unique and promises
performance levels unattainable with conventional hardware.
And, like UHC, they have techies answering the phones and the techies have a
clue. This certainly improves them as a bet for wizards and developers. If
multiprocessing is important to you, and/or you're looking for a small outfit
where you can develop personal working relationships with the tech people who
matter, Microport might be a good way to go.
They've offered to send me a copy of their OS gratis for review and
evaluation purposes.


NAME:
UHC Version 3.6

VENDOR:
UHC Corp.
3600 S. Gessner
Suite 110
Houston, TX 77063
(713)-782-2700
sup...@uhc.com

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
Networking package (TCP/IP).
X + Motif
X + Open Look

ADD-ONS:
None reported.

SUPPORT:
The base price includes printed docs. This is effectively the same content
as the Prentice-Hall SVr4 books; both are troffed off the SVr4 source tapes.
30 days free phone support with purchase.
All their engineers take tech-support calls for part of their day.
They have 2 doing it full-time. The product manager is a techie himself
and takes his share of calls.
A support contract costs $1195 for one year. This includes 75% off
on all upgrades.
They are in the process of bringing up a BBS with a window into their
bug report and fix/workaround database.
It was emphasized to me that UHC wants to be known for the quality of
their support, which they feel is the product's strongest differentiating
feature.

FUTURE PLANS:
X11R5 by mid-May or thereabouts. They have it running now but don't
consider it stable enough to ship.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the appendix for details.
The asy driver in version 2.0 won't talk to the NS16550AFN UART, which
is supposed to be pin-compatible with the standard 16450.

KNOWN BUGS:
This port probably uses the stock USL 4.0.3 libraries. Thus it probably
has the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD-
compatibility string functions.

COMMENTS:
They claim that according to USL they have the largest installed base of
SVr4 customers, and to have been first to market with a shrink-wrapped
SVr4 (in 1990).
UHC also claims to have performed and maintained IBM's official UNIX port
for the MicroChannel machines.
A subsidiary of Anam, "a holding company with a diversified portfolio".

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
The only comment I've yet seen on UHC itself was an extended description of
a successful installation by a satisfied netter. He made it sound like a good
solid product.
I have one absolutely incandescently glowing report on UHC support from a
developer named Steve Showalter <shw...@Texaco.COM>. He says: "We've been
running UHC's OS for about a year now...been EXTREMELY happy with it. The
support we receive is without a doubt, the finest we have received from any
vendor."

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
I found both the people I talked to friendly, candid, technically
knowledgeable, and willing to answer sticky questions. I came away with a very
positive impression of the outfit's operating style.
There are experienced UNIX developers who value dealing with a small,
responsive outfit where they can develop good working relationships with
individuals. UHC says it likes to sell to wizards and might be a good choice
for these people.
The second time I called (*after* I'd formed the above impressions) one of
their guys offered to trade me a copy of UHC UNIX with all the trimmings for an
autographed copy of _The_New_Hacker's_Dictionary_. So they have taste, too.
I'm too ethical to let this sway my evaluations, but not too ethical to take
the software... :-)


NAME:
BSD/386

VENDOR:
Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
3110 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 580
Falls Church, VA 22042 USA
(800)-800-4BSDI
bsdi...@bsdi.com

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
None. You get an unlimited user license, binaries *and sources*
for the entire system. What more could you want?

SUPPORT:
The purchase price include 60 days of phone support.
A telephone-support contract is $1500 per year; email-only support is
$500/year. Either kind includes upgrades.

FUTURE PLANS:
The current release (0.3) is a fairly stable beta. Production release is
planned for June 1992.
Capability to run SVr3.2 binaries (including SCO binaries), 3Q92.
They intend to add a DOS bridge by the end of '92.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the appendix for details. New drivers are being added all the time.
Multiport serial boards aren't supported (they're working on it).
The Orchid graphics co-processor is not supported.

TECHNICAL NOTES:
Alone among the 386 UNIX versions described here, this version is *not*
based even in part on USL code and has no AT&T license restrictions. Rather,
it derives from Berkeley UNIX (the CSRG Networking 2 release, somewhere between
4.3 and 4.4).
Many of the BSD/386 tools, including the compiler, are GNU code.
This system's libraries, header files and utilities conform to X3J11,
POSIX 1003.1 and POSIX 1003.2 standards.

COMMENTS:
What these people are trying is audacious --- something functionally like
the SVr4 merge, but starting from a ported BSD kernel and with System V
compatibility hacks, rather than the other ways. By all accounts the product
is in far better shape right now than one would expect for a beta pre-release,
which argues that the developers have done something right.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
The few who've seen this system display an evangelistic fervor about it.

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
I expect this will become a hackers' favorite.
All this, and sources too...I salivate. I am tempted. Not sure I'm ready
to change OSs at the same time as I switch machines, though. SVr4's got better
continuity with the 3.2 I'm running now. Ghu, what a dilemma!
When I mentioned that I'm doing elisp maintenance for GNU EMACS these days,
Rob Kolstad, one of the principal developers, offered me a copy and a year
of support if I'd field their (so far nonexistent) EMACS problems.


NAME
Mach386

VENDOR:
Mt. Xinu
2560 Ninth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510)-644-0146
mtxin...@mtxinu.com

ADD-ONS:
Kernel sources! You get can sources for the Mach 3.0 microkernel for
$195 over base price.

SOFTWARE OPTIONS:
The base package includes: Mach 2.5 kernel and utilities, 4.3 BSD interface,
GNU utilities (GCC, GDB, GAS, EMACS, BISON), and on-line reference manuals (man
pages) for Mach and 4.3 BSD. The following options are available:
Networking (SUN NFS, TCP/IP networking from the Berkeley Tahoe release,
on-line NFS man pages).
X (X11R4 with programmer's environment and complete X manual pages).
On-line Documentation (Complete source for Mach and 4.3 documentation,
including Mach Supplementary Documents, System Manager's Documentation, 4.3 BSD
Programmer's Supplementary Documents, 4.3 BSD User's Supplementary Documents).
Optional Microkernel Add-on, Mach 3.0 (Complete Mach 3.0 microkernel source
code; complete build environment with tools to modify and rebuild the Mach 3.0
microkernel; binary BSD server which runs on top of the microkernel in place
of the standard /vmunix kernel; source for an example of a server (POE)
running on top of the Mach 3.0 microkernel and sources for some utilities
which are kernel-dependent.

SUPPORT:
You get 30 days phone support with purchase.
A support contract is available for $150 quarterly or $500 per year; this
includes upgrades. There is a support BBS open to contract holders only.
An ftp server at autosupport.mtxinu.com carries patches, enhancements
and freeware adapted for the system

FUTURE PLANS:
They plan to move to OSF/1 this year. X11R5 and Motif support are
also in the works.

HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY:
See the Appendix for details.
Color X windows is supported on VGA boards via extended 8-bit color mode.
Toshiba and Toshiba-compatible floppy drives and controllers work.
All current motherboards tested have worked. There were a few problems with
early Compaq DeskPros. They add "Please note that we do not support the
microchannel bus, EISA extended modes, IBM PS2, and some NCR machines. We are,
however, considering new devices so let us know your interests!".

TECHNICAL NOTES
This product is essentially a 4.3 port built on the Mach project's
microkernel technology. This is a truly nifty architecture which builds a
4.3BSD-compatible kernel out of a collection of communicating lightweight
processes. The distinction between user and kernel mode almost vanishes, and
things like the schedular and virtual-memory manager which are normally
embedded deep in the kernel become semi-independent, modifiable modules.

COMMENTS:
Very appealing for the educational market --- lets CS students and hobbyists
tinker creatively with the guts of UNIX in a way that would be impossible under
more conventional UNIXes. It's not clear who else will be interested in this.

WHAT THE USERS SAY:
Eric Baur <e...@ventoux.assabet.com> writes:
"The system is a very faithful emulation of BSD43 on top of Mach. For our
purposes it is a super deal. For about $2000.00 in hardware and $995.00 in
software we have a Mach development platform that integrates almost seamlessly
into our network development environment. As a general-purpose UNIX (whatever
that means) Mach386 gives up a lot in features to the System V vendors.
(Virtual terminals, DOS emulation, etc etc) For the home hacker, except for
UUCP problems it seems like it would be a good deal. You obviously could never
run "shrink-wrapped" software, but most public domain and GNU stuff should port
easily."
Mark Holden <l00...@eeyore.stcloud.msus.edu> adds "Mt. Xinu's tech support
is absolutely top-notch, and I've found them quite willing to deal with matters
even after the official support runs out. [...] Not that Mach386 is without
its quirks. I've had problems getting a Western Digital ethernet board to
work correctly, and things required a fair bit of tweaking to set things on a
smooth course, but then I've never worked with a BSD that didn't."

REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS:
Right now, this product is a solution looking for a problem --- a solution I
find technically fascinating, to be sure. But even the company admits to not
being sure who its market is. I wish 'em luck.

KNOWN BUGS:
From Eric Baur <e...@ventoux.assabet.com>: "I have not been able to
get the supplied uucp to work when calling a telebit modem. The
connection is established but the Mach end hangs up and exits without
any indication why. Taylor uucp ported in about 1 hour and works
fine. There is no support, however, for bi-directional lines if you
use the Taylor uucp. The uucp supplied with the system has the
gawd-awful acucntrl hack, but I don't know if it even works. [...]
Overall I remain very pleased with Mach386. [...] It has yet to
manifest any truly bad behavior. No panics - no hangs. It interacts
flawlessly with our network of Suns. NFS and X are very robust. I
would ditch my System V at home and buy Mach386 is a minute if I could
get bi-directional serial lines to work."


V. HOT TIPS FOR HARDWARE BUYERS.

Overview:

The central fact about 386/486 clone hardware that conditions every aspect of
buying it is this: more than anywhere else in the industry, de-facto hardware
standards have created a commodity market with low entry barriers, lots of
competitive pressure, and volume high enough to amortize a *lot* of development
on the cheap.

The result is that this hardware gives you lots of bang-per-buck, and it's
getting both cheaper and better all the time. Furthermore, margins are thin
enough that vendors have to be lean, hungry, and *very* responsive to the
market to survive. You can take advantage of this, but it does mean that much
of the info in the rest of this section will be stale in three months and
probably obsolete in six.

Technical points:

Ask your potential suppliers what kind and volume of documentation they supply
with your hardware. You should get, at minimum, operations manuals for
the motherboard and each card or peripheral; also an IRQ list and a bad-block
listing for the Winchester. Skimpiness in this area is a valuable clue
that they may be using no-name parts from Upper Baluchistan, which is not
necessarily a red flag in itself but should prompt you to ask more questions.

Cases are just bent metal. Doesn't matter who makes those, as long as they're
above an easy minimum quality (on some *really* cheap ones, cards fail to line
up nicely with the slots, or the motherboard is ill-supported and can ground
out against the chassis). Power supplies can matter but quality is cheap; look
for at least a 230-watt model so you've got headroom, and if you're buying a
tower case with extra expansion bays it should be 300 watts.

Motherboards and BIOS chips don't vary much in quality either. There are only
six or so major brands of motherboard inside all those cases and they're pretty
much interchangable; brand premiums are low to nonexistent and cost is strictly
tied to maximum speed and bus type. There are only two major brands of BIOS
chip and not much to choose between 'em but the look of the self-test screens.

There are a few potential gotchas to beware of, especially in the cheaper
off-brand boards. One is "shadow RAM", a trick some boards use for speeding up
DOS by copying the ROM contents into RAM at startup. It should be possible to
disable this. Also, on a caching motherboard, you need to be able to disable
caching in the memory areas used by expansion cards. Some cheap motherboards
that fail to pass bus-mastering tests and so are useless for use with a good
SCSI interface; on others, the bus gets flaky when the turbo (high-speed) mode
is on. Fortunately, these problems aren't common. They can be avoided by
sticking with a motherboard design that's been tested with UNIX (some help with
that below).

(About that annoying fan noise, ask if the fan on a target system has a
variable speed motor with thermostatic control --- this will cut down on noise
tremendously. If not: I have seen a rave about, but haven't used, a
thermostatic fan controller called "The Silencer". This tiny device mounts
inside your power supply and connects to the fan's power leads. It
automatically varies the fan motor speed to hold a 79 to 82F temperature.
Write Quiet Technology, Inc. PO Box 8478, Port St. Lucie FL 34985.)

Peripherals are another matter, especially hard disks. A good rule of thumb
for balanced configurations is that the hard disk should comprise about half
(or maybe a bit more) of the total system price. Unless you're the exception
who has to invoke warranty due to a system arriving dead, most of what you buy
from a dealer or mail-order house is their ability to surf the Winchester
market, make volume buys, and burn in your disks before shipping.

Don't bother with SX machines. Under UNIX the 16-bit bus-to-CPU path can leave
you permanently I/O-bound. Anyway there's not enough of a DX premium to matter
in the desktop market any more (laptops are a whole 'nother story).

Buy lots of RAM, it's the cheapest way to improve real performance on any
virtual-memory system. At $30-$50 maximum per megabyte it's just plain silly
to stick with the 2-4mb now standard on most clone configurations. Go to 8,
you won't regret it; 16 if you're going to use X. Above 16 is a little iffy on
ISA boxes because the stock USL 4.0.3 kernel may try to do DMA from a location
the bus can't deal with (but some vendors fix this).

Be sure to choose a motherboard that can take 4MB SIMS (as opposed to just the
older 1MB kind). This may soon be a non-issue as board designs continue to
turn over rapidly.

One basic decision to make is: 16-bit ISA vs. 32-bit EISA? You'll pay a
$600-$900 premium for the latter. What you get in return is the ability to use
things like fast 32-bit SCSI controllers and a smoother upward-migration path.
On the other hand, EISA cards are significantly more expensive. There comes a
point, though, where increasing processor speed can saturate the I/O capacity
of the poor old 8MHz ISA bus; the vendors all seem to think this starts at
around 33MHz and that if you're buying 50MHz it definitely pays to go EISA.
This is a bigger issue under UNIX than DOS because UNIX hits the disk more
heavily. So far, though, there isn't much support for EISA-specific hardware
--- a couple of vendors will drive EISA SCSI disk and tape controllers and
that's about it (of course those *are* the most important bandwidth-eaters).
All ISA cards will still work.

Another basic decision is IDE vs. SCSI. Either kind of disk costs about the
same, but the premium for a SCSI card varies all over the lot, partly because
of price differences between ISA and EISA SCSI cards and especially because
many motherboard vendors bundle an IDE chip right on the system board. SCSI
gives you better speed and throughput, a win for larger disks and an especially
significant consideration in a multi-user environment; also it's more
expandable.

Look at seek times and transfer rates for your disk; under UNIX disk speed and
throughput are so important that a 1-millisecond difference in average seek
time can be noticeable. Disk caching is good, but there can be too much of a
good thing. Excessively large caches will slow the system because the overhead
for cache fills swamps the real accesses (this is especially a trap for
databases and other applications that do non-sequential I/O). More than 100K
of cache is probably a bad idea for a general-purpose UNIX box; watch out for
manufacturers who inflate cache size because memory is cheap and they think
customers will be impressed by big numbers.

Yet another basic decision, of course, is processor speed and type. Forget the
20MHz and 25MHz 386s, they're history. Right now the hot sellers in this
market are the 386/33DX and AMD 386/40DX, which I'd say are reasonable
minimum-speed engines UNIX with X (xterm scrolling is painfully slow on my
present 386/20DX machine). Lots of relatively inexpensive 486/33DX systems are
out there now; estimates for the speed advantage from the 486 range from 20 to
50% with 30% pretty widely heard (thus one of these is equivalent to about a
386/40DX). Most of the advantage comes from the pipelining and on-chip cache.
The higher level of integration also implies better reliability. And of
course, the on-chip FPU really sizzles if you're into scientific computing or
graphics.

Right now you'll pay as much as a $1500 premium for a 486-50, as that's
relatively new technology and (of course) demands very fast memory. Also,
these processors run really hot (one correspondent described the 50 as a
"toaster on a chip"). If you go this route, be sure your configuration has an
extra-heavy-duty cooling fan. Or two. And, for preference, a hefty heat sink.
Of course, if you do this you'll be ready to drop in Intel's 50MHz-external/
100MHz-internal part when it comes out later this year, and blow the doors off
all those fancy proprietary-technology workstations.

Which brings up a *minor* decision. Desktop or tower? My advice is go with
tower unless you're building a no-expansions personal system and expect to be
using the floppies a lot. Many vendors charge nothing extra for a tower case
and the absolute *maximum* premium I've seen is $100. What you get for that is
less desktop clutter, more and bigger bays for expansion, and often (perhaps
most importantly) a beefed-up power-supply and fan. Airflow is also an issue;
if the peripheral bays are less cramped, you get better cooling. This is a good
argument for a full tower rather than the `baby tower' cases some vendors
offer. Be prepared to buy extension cables for your keyboard and monitor,
though; vendors *never* include enough flex.

You should have a tape drive for backup, and because most UNIX vendors like to
distribute their OS on tape. Ideally, your tape backup should be able to image
your entire disk. Unfortunately, this can get *very* expensive for large
disks; 60/120MB QIC drives are fairly cheap now but larger sizes (typically
150, 250, 525 QIC tapes and 1.3gig DAT) are not. One interesting point is that
if you've gone SCSI, a 150MB QIC (comparable to the drives now popular on
Suns) may well be cheaper than older 60MB technology due to differences in the
adaptor boards required.

These days, most vendors bundle a 14" monitor and super-VGA card with 1024x768
resolution in with their systems. Details to watch are whether the card comes
loaded with 512K or 1MB of VRAM (which will affect how much of that maximum
resolution and how many colors you actually get) and whether the monitor is
interlaced or non-interlaced. The latter is better and should no longer cost
extra; look for the abbreviation NI in the ad or quote and be suspicious if you
don't see it.

One good way to boost your X performance is to invest in a graphics card with a
dedicated blitter or high-speed local-bus connection, like the ATI series or
the S3-based Quantum, Wind/X and Orchid Fahrenheit 1280. A number of clone
vendors offer these accelerator options relatively cheap (about $300) and can
make your X go like a banshee; however, stock X doesn't support them yet ---
and the third-party servers that do (such as MetroLink's or SGCS's) ain't
cheap.

If you're feeling *really* flush, plump for a 15", 17" or even 20" monitor.
The larger size can make a major difference in viewing comfort. Also you'll be
set for VESA 1280x1024 when everybody gets to supporting that. In the mean
time, the bigger screen will allow you to use fonts in smaller pixel sizes so
that your text windows can be larger, giving you a substantial part of the
benefit you'd get from higher pixel resolutions.

Finally, I strongly recommend that you buy a power conditioner to protect your
hardware. MOV-filtered power bars make nice fuses (they're cheap to replace),
but they're not enough. Get yourself a box with a good big soft-iron
transformer and a couple of moby capacitors in it and *no* conductive path
between the in and out sides and you can laugh at brownouts and electrical
storms. I've been delighted with my TripLite 1200, which you can get for less
than $200. A fringe benefit of this little beauty is that if you accidently
pull your plug out of the wall you may find you actually have time to
re-connect it before the machine notices!

Of mice and machines:

In a previous issue, I claimed that all mice and trackballs are the same for
compatibility purposes. I was wrong -- seriously wrong. The more I found out,
the messier the picture gets. The following is an attempt to sort out all the
confusion. Thanks to Jim McCarthy at Logitech for digging into the matter
and somewhat alleviating my ignorance.

Mice and trackballs used to be simple; now, thanks to Microsoft, they're
complicated. In the beginning, there was only the Mouse Systems 3-button
serial mouse; this reported status to a serial port 30 times a second using a
5-byte serial packet encoding now called "C" protocol. The Logitech Series 7
and 9 mice were Mouse Systems-compatible. All UNIXes that have any mouse
support at all understand C-protocol serial mice.

Then Microsoft got into the act. They designed a two-button serial mouse which
reports only deltas in a three-byte packet; that is, it sends changes in button
status and motion reports only when the mouse is actually moving. This is
called `M' protocol. Microsoft sold a lot of mice, so Logitech switched from
`C' to `M' --- but they added a third button, state changes for which show up
in an optional fourth byte. Thus, `M+' protocol, upward-compatible with
Microsoft's `M'. Most UNIX vendors add support for M+ mice, but it's wise to
check.

Bus mice are divided into 8255 and InPort types. These report info
continuously at 30 or 60 Hz (though InPort mice have an option for reporting
deltas only), and you get interrupts on events and then have to poll hardware
ports for details. More on these next issue.

All things considered, UNIX users are probably best off going with a serial
mouse (most current clone motherbords give you two serial ports, so you can
dedicate one to this and still have one for the all-important modem). Not only
are the compatibility issues less daunting, but a serial mouse loads the
multitasking system less due to interrupt frequency. Beware that most clone
vendors, being DOS oriented, bundle M-type mice for which UNIX support is
presently spotty, and they may not work with your X. Ignore the adspeak about
dpi and pick a mouse/trackball that feels good to your hand.

When, where and how to buy:

If you're a serious UNIX hacker for either fun or profit, you're probably in
the market for what the mail-order vendors think of as a high-end or even
`server' configuration, and you're going to pay a bit more than the DOS
lemmings. On the other hand, prices keep dropping, so there's a temptation to
wait indefinately to buy. A tactic that makes a lot of sense in this market,
if you have the leisure, is to fix in your mind a configuration and a trigger
price that's just a little sweeter than the market now offers and buy when
that's reached.

Direct-mail buying makes a lot of sense today for anyone with more technical
savvy than J. Random Luser in a suit. Even from no-name mail-order houses,
parts and system quality tend to be high and consistent, so conventional
dealerships don't really have much more to offer than a warm fuzzy feeling.
Furthermore, competition has become so intense that even mail-order vendors
today have to offer not just lower prices than ever before but warranty and
support policies of a depth that would have seemed incredible a few years back.
For example, many bundle a year of on-site hardware support with their medium-
and high-end "business" configurations for a very low premium over the bare
hardware.

Note, however, that assembling a system yourself out of mail-order parts is
*not* likely to save you money over dealing with the mail-order systems
houses. You can't buy parts at the volume they do; the discounts they command
are bigger than the premiums reflected in their prices.

Cruise through "Computer Shopper" and similar monthly ad compendia. Even if
you decide to go with a conventional dealer, this will tell you what *their*
premiums look like.

Another alternative to conventional dealerships (with their designer "looks",
stone-ignorant sales staff, and high overheads that *you* pay for) is to go
with one of the thousands of the hole-in-the-wall stores run by immigrants from
the other side of the International Date Line. They're usually less ignorant
and have much lower overheads; they do for you locally what a mail-order house
would, that is assemble and test parts they get for you from another tier of
suppliers. You won't get plush carpeting or a firm handshake from a white guy
with too many teeth and an expensive watch, but then you didn't really want to
pay for those anyway, right?

A lot of vendors bundle DOS 5.0 and variable amounts of DOS apps with their
hardware. You can tell them to lose all this cruft and they'll shave $50
or $100 off the system price.

Don't forget that (most places) you can avoid sales tax by buying from an
out-of-state mail-order outfit, and save yourself 6-8% depending on where you
live. If you live near a state line, buying from a local outfit you can often
win, quite legally, by having the stuff shipped to a friend or relative just
over it. Best of all is a buddy with a state-registered dealer number; these
aren't very hard to get and confer not just exemption from sales tax but
(often) whopping discounts from the vendors. Hand him a dollar afterwards to
make it legal.

(Note: I have been advised that you shouldn't try either tactic in Florida --
they charge tax on out-of-state mail order and are notoriously tough on "resale
license" holders).

Things to check when buying mail-order:

The weakest guarantee you should settle for should include ---

* 72-hour burn-in to avoid that sudden infant death syndrome.

* 30 day money-back guarantee. Watch out for fine print that weakens this
with a restocking fee or limits it with exclusions.

* 1 year parts and labor guarantee (some vendors give 2 years).

* 1 year of 800 number tech support (many vendors give lifetime support).

Additionally, many vendors offer a year of on-site service free. You should
find out who they contract the service to. Also be sure the free service
coverage area includes your site; some unscrupulous vendors weasel their way
out with "some locations pay extra", which translates roughly to "through the
nose if you're further away than our parking lot".

Reading warranties is an art in itself. A few tips:

Beware the deadly modifier "manufacturer's" on a warranty; this means you have
to go back to the equipment's original manufacturer in case of problems and
can't get satisfaction from the mail-order house. Also, manufacturer's
warranties run from the date *they* ship; by the time the mail-order house
assembles and ships your system, it may have run out!

Watch for the equally deadly "We do not guarantee compatibility". This gotcha
on a component vendor's ad means you may not be able to return, say, a video
card that fails to work with your motherboard.

Another dangerous phrase is "We reserve the right to substitute equivalent
items". This means that instead of getting the high-quality name-brand parts
advertised in the configuration you just ordered, you may get those no-name
parts from Upper Baluchistan --- theoretically equivalent according to the
spec sheets, but perhaps more likely to die the day after the warranty expires.
Substitution can be interpreted as "bait and switch", so most vendors are
scared of getting called on this. Vety few will hold their position if you
press the matter.

One absolute show-stopper is the phrase "All sales are final". This means you
have *no* options if a part doesn't work. Avoid any company with this policy.

There are various cost-cutting tactics a vendor can use which bring down the
system's overall quality. Here are some good questions to ask:

* Is the memory zero-wait-state? One or more wait states allows the vendor to
use slower and cheaper memory but will slow down your actual processor
throughput.

* Is the monitor non-interlaced? Does it have a tilt-and-swivel base? Is it
*color*? Yes, if you don't see it in the ad, ask; some lowball outfits will
try to palm off so-called "black & white VGA" monitors on you. What's the
vertical scan rate? 60Hz is SVGA standard; 72Hz is VESA standard and
minimal for flicker-free operation; 80Hz is cutting-edge. What's the dot
pitch? .31mm is minimal, .28mm or .27mm is good. You need .28mm for X.
A slightly larger dot pitch is acceptable in a larger monitor (15" or more).

* Does the vendor pay for shipping? What's the delivery wait?

* If you need to return your system, is there a restocking fee? and will the
vendor cover the return freight? Knowing the restocking fee can be
particularly important, as they make keep you from getting real satisfaction
on a bad major part. Avoid dealing with anyone who quotes more than a 15%
restocking fee --- and it's a good idea, if possible, to avoid any dealer
who charges a restocking fee at all.

It's a good idea to pay with AmEx or Visa or MasterCard; that way you can
stop payment if you get a lemon, and may benefit from a buyer-protection plan
using the credit card company's clout. However, watch for phrases like "Credit
card surcharges apply" or "All prices reflect 3% cash discount" which mean
you're going to get socked extra if you pay by card.

Which clone vendors to talk to:

I went through the March 1992 issue of Computer Shopper calling vendor 800
numbers with the following question: "Does your company have any
configurations aimed at the UNIX market; do you use UNIX in-house; do
you know of any of the current 386 or 486 ports running successfully
on your hardware?

I didn't call vendors who didn't advertise an 800 number. This was only partly
to avoid phone-bill hell; I figured that toll-free order & info numbers are so
standard in this industry sector that any outfit unable or unwilling to spring
for one probably couldn't meet the rest of the ante either. I also omitted
parts houses with token systems offerings and anybody who wasn't selling
desktops or towers with a 386/33DX or heavier processor inside.

After plundering Computer Shopper, I called up a couple of "name" outfits that
don't work direct-mail and got the same info from them.

The answers I get revealed that for most clone vendors UNIX is barely a blip on
the screen. Only one that I talked to has tested with an SVr4 port. Most seem
barely aware that the market exists. Many seem to rely on their motherboard
vendors to tell them what they're compatible, without actually testing whole
systems. Since most compatibility problems have to do with peripheral cards,
this is a problem.

Here's a summary of the most positive responses I got:

A --- Advertises UNIX compatibility.
C --- Has known UNIX customers.
I --- Uses UNIX in-house.
T --- Have formally tested UNIX versions on their hardware.
F --- Have 486/50 systems
* --- Sounded to me like they might actually have a clue about the UNIX market.

Vendor A C I T F * Ports known to work
--------------- - - - - - - -----------------------------------------------
ARC . . X X . . SCO XENIX 2.3.2, SCO UNIX 3.2.1
AST . X X X X * SCO UNIX 3.2.4, ODT 2.0 Microport V/4
Allegro . . X X . . SCO XENIX 3.2.4
Altec . X . X . . XENIX (no version given).
Ares . X X X X * AT&T 3.2, ISC (version unknown)
Basic Time . X X X X * SCO XENIX 2.3.2, have in-house UNIX experts.
Binary Tech . X . X X . Claims to work with all versions.
Blue Dolphin . X . X X * SCO XENIX.
CCSI X X . . X . They've used SCO XENIX, no version given.
CIN . X . . . . SCO UNIX (version not specified)
CSS . X . X . * SCO 3.2.2, ISC 3.0, SCO ODT. See Will Harper.
Centrix X . . . . . No specifics on versions.
Compudyne . X X X X . Couldn't get details on which versions.
Comtrade . X . X X . Couldn't get details on which versions.
Datom X X X X X . SCO XENIX 3.2.
Dell X X X X X * See Dell SVr4 data.
Desert Sands X X . X X . SCO UNIX 3.2.4
Digitech . X . X . . SCO UNIX 3.2.1, XENIX 2.3.1
EPS X X X X . * SCO XENIX 3.2.4, ISC & AT&T (versions not sp.)
Gateway X X X X X * SCO UNIX 3.2.0. XENIX 2.3.4 ISC 3.0, ESIX 4.0.3
HD Computer . X . X X . SCO UNIX 3.2, SCO XENIX 3.2.2
HiQ . X . X . . SCO UNIX (version not specified)
Infiniti . X . X X . SCO UNIX (versions not specified)
Insight . . X . X . SCO XENIX 3.2.4. No tech support for UNIX
Keydata X . X X X * SCO version 4, ISC 3.2
Legatech . X . . X . SCO UNIX, ISC (versions not specified)
MicroGeneration . . X . . . Uses XENIX.
MicroLab X . . . . . SCO UNIX, SCO XENIX
MicroSmart X X . X . . SCO XENIX (version not specified)
Microlink X . . X X . SCO XENIX (version not specified)
Myoda X X . X X . SCO XENIX 3.2.2, ISC 3.2
Naga . X . X X * SCO & XENIX 3.2.
Northgate X X . X X * SCO UNIX 3.2
PC Brand . X X X . . SCO XENIX, ISC UNIX
PC Professional . X . X . . ISC 3.2
PC-USA X X . X . . ISC 5.3.2 and SCO 3.2
Profex . X . X . . SCO XENIX 3.2.
Royal Computer . X . . X . No details on versions.
SAI X X . X X . SCO UNIX 3.2.2.
Santronics . . X X X . SCO XENIX 3.2.4
Solidtech . X . . . . Dell (no version given), ISC 3.2.
Strobe . . . X X . SCO, Microport, ISC (no version numbers given)
Swan X X X X X * SCO 2.3.1, UNIX 3.2, ISC 3.2v2.0.2
TriStar . X X X X * SCO UNIX 3.2.2, XENIX 2.3.2, ISCr4
Zenon . X . X X * SCO UNIX (version not specified)
Zeos . X X X X * SCO XENIX 3.2.4, AT&T 3.2

Special notes about a few vendors who appear to have a clue:

Ares targets some of its systems for UNIX CAD use. They have a house wizard
name Ken Cooper (everybody calls him "K.C.").

EPS targets some 486 EISA configurations for UNIX.

Though Gateway has a decent reputation overall, there have been several
independent reports on USENET of bus hangs during tape access when Gateway EISA
motherboards are used with an Adaptec 1742 SCSI controller. Gateway is said to
be aware of the problem and working on a fix.

Swan doesn't know the UNIX market very well yet, but their project manager
wants a bigger piece of it and is interested in doing some of the right
things. They have a house wizard, one John Buckwalter.

Dell, of course, supports an industry-leading SVr4 port. They're a bit on
the pricy side, but high quality and very reliable. Lots of UNIX expertise
there; some of it hangs out on the net.

Zeos is planning to come on the net as zeos.com, with a uunet connection. They
will support a UNIX BBS beginning May 1st. They have an in-house UNIX group;
talk to Ken Germann for details.

Special notes about a lot of vendors who appear to have *no* clue:

Vendors where I couldn't get a real person on the line, either because
no one answered the main number or because I couldn't raise anyone at
tech support after being directed there: Sunnytech, Quantex, AMS, USA
Flex, Lapine, Syntax Computer, MicroTough, PAC International, The Portable
Warehouse.

Vendors where the question met with blank incomprehension, puzzlement,
consternation, or "We've never tested with UNIX": Allur, AmtA, Aplus, HiTech,
Locus Digital Products, LodeStar, TriStar Computers, Ultra-Comp, UTI Computers,
PC Turbo Corp, Evertek, Microcomputer Concepts, Jinco Computers, UWE, ToughCom,
System Dynamics Group, Terribly Fast Bus Systems.

Vendors who understood the questions but had no answer: Bulldog Computer
Products, LT Plus, Standard Computer, JCC.

Vendors who said "Yes, we're UNIX-compatible" but had no details of any tests:
CompuCity.

Vendors who said "Go ask our motherboard vendor": Ariel Design, Lucky Computer
Co., V-com, Professional Computer, MicroLine, MileHi.

Vendors who sent me to a toll number: Absec, Hokkins, New Technologies, Mirage.

Vendors that believe they have UNIX customers, but can't be any definite than
that: Austin Computer Systems, PC Professional, Treasure Chest Computer
Systems, CompuAdd Express, FastMicro, MidWest Micro.

Final note:

If you order from these guys, be sure to tell them you're a UNIX customer
and don't need the bundled DOS. This will shave some bucks off the system
price, *and* it may encourage them to pay more attention to the UNIX market.


VI. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY TABLES

These tables summarize vendor claims and user reports on which hardware will
work with which port.

To save space in the tables below, we use the following *one-letter*
abbreviations for the OS ports:

S SCO UNIX version 3.2.4

C Consensys UNIX Version 1.2
D Dell UNIX Issue 2.1
E Esix Revision A
M Micro Station Technology SVr4 UNIX
P Microport System V/4 version 4
U UHC Version 3.6

B BSD/386 (0.3 beta)
X Mach386

A `c' indicates that the hardware is claimed to work in vendor literature.
A `y' indicates that this has been verified by a user report.
A `.' indicates that whether this combination works is unknown.
An `n' indicates that the vendor advises that the combination won't work.
A `*' points you at footnote info.

A blank column indicates that I have received no vendor info on the
hardware category in question.

The following general caveats apply:

* All ports support EGA, VGA, CGA and monochrome text displays.

* All ports support generic ISA serial-port cards based on the 8250 or 16450
UART. According to the vendors, the asy drivers on Dell, Esix, Microport,
BSD/386 and Mach386 support the extended FIFO on the NS16550AFN UART chip.
Indeed, Dell tech support will tell you this feature was present in the
base USL code. UHC says its 2.0 drivers *don't* talk to 16550s but
says that will be fixed in March '92.

* I have not bothered listing ordinary ST-506/IDE/RLL drives, though lists
of them are given in vendor literature. This is a very mature commodity
technology; anything you buy should work with one of the supported
controllers unless it's defective.

* Vendors' supported hardware lists are not models of clarity. Some iterms
may be listed under a couple of different names because I don't know that
they're actually the same beast. I have been very careful not to make
assumptions where I am ignorant; thus, some hardware may appear less
widely supported than it actually is.

* These tables are grossly incomplete.

All the SVr4 systems inherit support for a fairly wide range of hardware from
the base USL code (version 4.0.3 or 4.0.4). This includes:

* All PC disk controllers (ESDI, IDE, ST-506 in MFM and RLL formats).

* The Adaptec 1542B SCSI adapter. Note: you'll have to jumper your
SCSI devices to fixed IDs during installation on most of these.

* Western Digital's 8013EBT Ethernet card, and its equivalents
the WD8003 and WD8013.

* VGA adapters in 640x480 by 16 color mode.

* "C" protocol serial mice like the Series 7 and Series 9 from Logitech and
the PC-3 mouse from Mouse Systems. See the "HOT TIPS" section for details.

If you can fill in any of the gaps, or convert a `c' to `y', send me email.

S C D E M P U B X Systems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c . c . Acer (all 386/486 models)
. . . c ACCELL 486/33 ISA and 386/40 ISA
. c . . ADDA AD-428P-25, Portable 486/25, 486/33, AD-328D-25
. c c . ALR Business VEISA 386/33-101
c . . . ALR (all 386 and 486 models)
c . . . applicationDEC 316,316+,325,325C,333,425,433MP
c . . . Apricot LS, LS 386SX, XEN-S 386
c . . . Arche 486, Master 486/33
. . c . AST (models not specified)
. c c . AST Premium (models not specified)
c . . . AST Premium 386,386/33,486/25T*E*,486/33T*E*
c . c . AT&T 6386 machines
. . c . Compaq (models not specified)
c c c . Compaq DeskPro 386/33.
c . . . Compaq DeskPro 486s/20,486/25/486/33L,386/20,386/25
c . . . Compaq Portable III 386, SystemPro
c y y y y y y . CompuAdd Model 333
c . . . DEC DS486, DECpc 433, DECpc 433T
c . . . DECstation 320,325,425
. y . c . Dell (models not specified)
c . . . EasyData 386 model 333
c . . . Epson Equity 386/20PC,386/25,386SX; Epson PC AX3,AX3/25
. c c . Everex (models not specified)
c . . . Everex 33,386/20,486,486/33
. c c . Gateway (models not specified)
. . c c y Gateway 2000 (486/33 ISA)
. . . y . Gatway 486/25
c . . . Goupil Uniprocessor 25MHz Tower
c . . . GRiDCase 1530,1550SX
. . c c High Definition Systems 486/25 ISA and 386 SX/16 ISA
. y . . High Definition Systems 386/40 ISA
c . . . HP 486 Vectra series
c . . . IBC 486
c . . . ITT 486
c . . . Intel 302
c . . . Mitac 386, MC3100E-02, S500
c . . . Mitsuba 386
c . . . Mitsubishi PC-386
c . . . NCR 316,316SX,3386
c . . . NEC 386/20,486/25, BusinessMate and PowerMate
. c c . Mylex MI-386/20
c . . . Noble 386
c . . . Nokia Alfaskop System 10 m52, m54/55
c . . . Northgate 33
. c c . Northgate 386/33
. y . . . Northgate 486/33
c . . . Olivetti 386/486 machines
c . . . Packard 386x
c . . . PC Craft PCC 2400 386
c . . . Phillips 386, P3464 486
. c c . Primax (models not specified)
c . . . SNI 8800-50, 8810-50, PCD series
c . . . Schneider 386 25-340, 386SX System 70
c . . . Siemens Data Systems Model WX200
c . . . Starstation
c . . . Tandy 4000
c . . . Tatung Force 386x, TCS-8000 386, TCS-8600 386
. c c . Tangent (models not specified)
. y . . Tangent 386/25C
. c y . Tangent 433E (486/33 EISA)
. c c . Televideo (models not specified)
c . . . Televideo 386/25
c . . . Texas Instruments System 1300
c . . . Toshiba T3100,T3200,T5100,T5200,T8500,T8600
. c c . Twinhead (models not specified)
. c c . Unisys (models not specified)
c . . . Unisys PW2 Series 800/16,800/20,800/25
c . . . Victor 386 25, V486T
c . . . Wang MX200, PC 380
c . . . Wyse 386
c . . . Zenith 386 and 486 machines

S C D E M P U B X Motherboards
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c . . AGI
. c . ALR
. c . AMAX
. c . AMI (model not specified)
y c . AMI Enterprise II (33 & 50)
. c . ARC
N . c . Cache Computer
. c . Chips & Technologies chipset
y . c . Chips & Technologies 33DX
c c . Club AT
. c . DataExport
y . c . Dell
. c n . DTK (model not specified)
y . n . DTK 386/33
. . c EISA Tech 80386SX MHz
y . . . Eteq 386
n . . Eteq 486
. c . Free Technology
. c . Microlab
c y c y c Micronics 386/25
c c y c y Micronics 486/33
. c . Mitac
. c . Mylex
y . c . OPTI 486
. c . Orchid
. c . PC-craft
. y . Tangent MAE486/33

Notes:

* These two tables probably way *understate* the compatibility of most ports.
Most ISA or EISA motherboards will work with all of them. However, Jeff
Coffler <cof...@jeck.amherst.nh.us> reports: "I couldn't get the Cache
Computer CPU board to work at all with Dell UNIX, even though they claimed
they work with SCO. Flaky, timing-related failures."

* A source at UHC describes the DTK boards as "dogshit" --- he says they
generate a lot of spurious interrupts that DOS is too cretinous to be
bothered by but which completely tank UNIX. He says DTK seems uninterested
in fixing the problem. Also, Dave Johnson <d...@gradient.com> reports that
since upgrading from a 386 to an Eteq 486, they've had lots of UHC random
panics due to page faults in kernel mode. UHC is looking into this.

S C D E M P U B X SuperVGA Cards Max Res ChipSet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. . c y * . . Appian Rendition II ???? TIGA34010
. . . c . . ARC V-16 (Paradise) ???? ????
. . . c c . AT&T VDC 600 (Paradise clone) SVGA ????
. . y . c . . ATI Ultra ???? ????
. . c . c . . ATI Vantage 1280x1024 ????
c . c c n . ATI WonderCard 1280x1024 ????
. . . c c . ATI (type not specified) ???? ????
. . y . . . . Boca SuperVGA ???? ET[34]000
c . . . . . Chips 451 & 456 1024x768 ????
c . . . . . Cornerstone SinglePage 1008x768 ????
c . . . . . Cornerstone PC1280 1280x960 ????
c . . . . . Cornerstone DualPage 1600x1280 ????
. c . . . c Compuadd Hi-Rez card w/1meg 1024x768 ET4000
. . y . . c . Dell VGA 1024x768 ????
. c y c c y c y Diamond SpeedStar 1024x768 ET4000
. c . . . c EIZO MD-10 800x600 ET3000
c . . . . . Eizo MD-B07 800x600 ????
c . . . . . MD-B10, Extra/EM 1024x768 ????
. . c . . . Everex ViewPoint VRAM SVGA+ ????
. . c . . . Everex ViewPoint True Color SVGA+ ????
. . c . . . Everex UltraGraphics II EV-236 1664x1200 mono
. . . c . c Genoa 5300/5400 ???? ????
c . . . . . Genoa 6000 ???? ????
. c . c . c Genoa 6400 800x600 GVGA
c . c c c . Genoa SuperVGA SVGA ????
c . c c . . Hercules monographics display 720x348 mono
c . . . . . IBM 8514/A 1024x768 ????
. . c . . . MaxLogic SVGA ????
. . . . . c . . Microfield V-8 1280x1024 ????
. . . . . * . . Mylex GXE (EISA) 1280x1024 TIGA34020
. . c . . . Oak Technology OTI-067 1024x768 16, 256
. c . . . c Optima Mega/1024 1024x768 ET4000
c c y c c c Orchid ProDesigner 800x600 ET3000
. c y y y . y Orchid ProDesigner II/1024 1024x768 ET4000
c . . . . . Paradise VGA Plus 800x600 ????
. c c c c c Paradise VGA Professional 1024x768 PVGA1A
c c c . c . . Paradise VGA 1024 640x480 WD90C00
c . . . . . Paradise 8514/A 1024x768 ????
. . . c . c Renaissance GRX-II VGA ???? ????
c . . . . . Renaissance Rendition II 1024x768 ????
c c y . c . c Sigma Legend 1024x768 ET4000
. . . c c . Sigma VGA/H ???? ????
c . c c c . STB EM-16 VGA SVGA ????
c . . . . . STB Extra/EM 1024x768 ????
. c c c . c STB PowerGraph w/1meg 1024x768 ET4000
. c . . . c Swan SVGA with VCO chip 1024x768 ET4000
c . c . . . Tecmar VGA AD SVGA ????
. c . . . c TRICOM Mega/1024 1024x768 ET4000
. . . c . . Trident SuperVGA ???? ????
c . . . . . Trident TVGA 8900 1024x768 ????
. . . c c . Tseng Labs VGA ???? ????
. . c . . . Vectrix VX1024 (TI-34010) 1024x768 ????
c . . . . . Verticom MX/AT 800x600 ????
c . c c c . Video7 FastWrite VGA 800x600 x2, x16 ????
c . . c c . Video7 VRAM VGA ???? ????
c . . c c . Video7 VEGA VGA EGA 640x380 ????

In this table, an `SVGA' resolution code signifies the following resolutions:
1024x768 at 2 and 16 colors, 800x600 at 2, 16, 256 colors, and 640x480 at 2,
16, 256 colors. SVGA+ adds 1280x1024 at 2 or 16 colors.

Caveats in interpreting the above table:

* All super-VGA cards will work at VGA resolutions and below (that is, resolu-
tions up to 640x480 in 16 colors).

* This list is not exclusive. Many (perhaps even most) dotted combinations
will work; UHC claims that any SVGA based on an ET3000, ET4000, Paradise
or Genoa chip-set will fly, and the same is probably true of all other
vendors (since the SVGA dependencies are localized in X and they're all
porting from the same X sources).

* Consensys's list is just MIT's list of cards certified to work with X11R5;
Consensys is careful to note that they haven't tested all these themselves.

* An Esix reseller says all the TIGA34010-based SVGA cards are pretty much
alike and ESIX will drive any of them. Esix also supports 720x348
resolution on cheap Hercules-compatible monochrome tubes, and the Everex
UltraGraphics display at 1664x1200 resolution.

* UHC says they expect to have the drivers for the ATI WonderCard in place by
mid-March.

* Beware the Trident and Oak chipsets. Many clone vendors bundle these with
their systems because they're cheap, but they break the Roell server and
some other X implementations.

* Third party server technology from companies like MetroLink can support
higher performance, higher resolution TIGA and proprietary technology.

S C D E M P U B X Mice
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c . . c y y y c (Logitech-compatible) 3-button serial mice (C protocol)
c . . c c n y (Logitech-compatible) 3-button bus mice (C protocol)
. . . c . n . ATI Wonder+ bus-mouse port
c . . . . . . HP C1413A Mouse
. . n c c . n Logitech MouseMan (M+ protocol)
. c y c c c c Logitech Trackman (serial, M+ protocol)
. c y c c n y Logitech Trackman (bus, M+ protocol)
c . . . . . . Logitech hi-res Keyboard Mouse
c . . c c . y Microsoft 2-button (serial, M protocol)
c . . c c n y Microsoft 2-button (bus, M protocol)
c . . . . . . Olivetti Bus Mouse
c . . . . . . Olivetti hi-res Keyboard Mouse
. . . . . . c SummaMouse
c . . . . . . Summagraphics Bitpad

Notes:

* See the discussion of mice at the beginning of this section for details.

* BSD/386 says it supports all 1200-9600 baud serial mice, specifying Logitech
as an example. This is probably true of all vendors.

S C D E M P U B X Multi-port serial cards
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c . . . . . AMI lamb 4 and 8-port
. . . c c n Arnet (models not specified)
c . . . . . Arnet 2,4 and 8-port and TwinPort
c . . c c n AST 4-port
. . . . c n Central Data
. . . . c n Chase Research
. . c . c n Computone (models not specified)
c . . . . . Computone ATvantage-X 8-port
c . . . . . Comtrol Hostess-4
c . . c c n Comtrol Hostess-8
. c . c y n Consensys PowerPorts
c . . . . . CTC Versanet 4AT and 8AT
c . . . . . Digiboard 4 and 8-port
. . c c c n Digiboard DigiChannel PC/8.
. . c . y n Equinox
. . c . c n Intelliport
c . . . . . Kimtron Quartet 4-port
. . . c c n Maxspeed
c . . . . . Olivetti RS232C Multiport board
. . c . . n OnBoard:32
c . . . . . Quadram QuadPort 1 and 5-port
. . c . c n Specialix
. . c . c n Stallion
. . . . c n Stargate (models not specified)
c . . . . . Stargate OC4400 (4-port) and OC8000 (8-port)
c . . . . . Tandon Quad serial card
. . c . c n Technology Concepts
c . . . . . Unisys 4-port

Notes:

* Only Consensys, Esix and Microport listed multiport cards at all. As these
typically require special device drivers, you should *not* assume that a
board is supported on a particular port unless the vendor explicitly says so.

* MtXinu says they have *no* multiport support right now.

* The Consensys PowerPort card has troubles; see the vendor report on
Consensys for details.

S C D E M P U B X Disk controllers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c . . . . . Adaptec 2320
c . c c . . Adaptec 2322 (ESDI)
c . . c . . Adaptec ACB 2730C (RLL)
c . y . c . . Adaptec ACB 2732C (RLL)
c . . . . . Adaptec 4525 SCSI ESDI Disk Controller
c . . . . . Compag 32-bit Intelligent Drive Array Controller
c . . . . . Compag 32-bit Intelligent Drive Array Expansion
. . . c . c CCAT100A (IDE)
. . . c . . Chicony 101B
c . . . . . Compag SCSI Option Adapter and Compression Adapter
. . c c . . Data Tech Corp 6280 (ESDI)
. . . c . c DTG 6282-24
. . c c . . Everex EV-346 (ST506)
. . c c . . Everex EV-348 (ESDI)
. . c c . . Everex EV-8120 (IDE)
. . c c . . OMTI 8240 (ST506)
. . . . c . PSI Caching controller (ESDI)
c . . . . . SMS OMTI 8620 and 8627 (ESDI)
. . . c . . Ultrastor ESDI
. . . . c . Ultrastor 12C, 22F
. . . . c c Ultrastor 12F
. . . . n . Ultrastor 22C
. . . c . c Western Digital V-SE2
c c y c c . . Western Digital 1003 (RLL)
c . . . . . Western Digital 1005
c . y c . . Western Digital 1007A (ESDI)
c . c c . . Western Digital 1007SE/2 (ESDI)
. . . c . . Western Digital 1009 SE1

Notes:

* All these ports should support all standard PC hard-disk controllers (ESDI,
IDE,ST-506 in MFM and RLL formats).

S C D E M P U B X SCSI controllers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c c y c y c c c c Adaptec 1540, 1542
. . y c c n . . Adaptec 1740,1742 (EISA) (1542 emulation mode)
. . . y . * . . Adaptec 1740,1742 (EISA) (enhanced mode)
. . . c . . . Adaptec 2320/2
. . . c . . . Always IN2000
. . c . . . . Future Domain 1660, 1680, 885, 860
. . . c c . . DPT caching controller (MFM emulation)
. . . . . c . . . DPT caching SCSI controller in SCSI mode
. . c . . . . Everex EV8118/8110
. . c c . . . BusTek BT-542B
. . c c . . . BusTek BT-742A (EISA) (mPort specifies Revision F)
. . . c . . . Mylex DCE (EISA)
. . . . c . . PSI caching controller
. . . c . . . Ultrastor 32k 12u
c . c c c c . . Western Digital WD7000

Notes:

* UHC started shipping a native-mode 1740/1742 driver in mid-April. It
requires a full SCSI-2 tape drive.

* Dell presently supports the Adaptec 1740 in 1542 compatibility mode only.

S C D E M P U B X Network cards
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c . . . . . . y 3COM EtherLink I 3C501 and 3C502
c . . y c . . c 3COM EtherLink II 3C503
. . . . . . c . 3COM EtherLink 16 (3C507)
. . . c . . . . Everex EV-2015, EV-2016, EV-2026, EV-2027
. . c c c c . c Intel PC-586 aka iMX-LAN/586
. . . . . . c . Novell NE2000
c c c y c c c c c Western Digital WD-8003 and WD-8013 and variations
. . . . c . . n SMC EtherCards
. . . . c c c n WD EtherCard Plus and Elite series
. . c . . . . . WD TokenRing card

Notes:

* Dell's next release should include a 3C503 driver.

S C D E M P U B X Tape drives
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. y c y . c . Archive 2150S (SCSI, QIC-150)
. . c c . . c Archive Viper VP150E
. . . c c . . Archive Viper 60 21116
c . . y c . . Archive Viper 150 21247
c . . c c . . Archive Viper 150 25099
c . . c c . . Archive Viper 2525 25462.
. . . c . . . Archive 60 - 525MB (QIC-02 and SCI)
. . . c . . . Archive 4mm 4520 DAT
. . . c c . . Archive Python models 25501-003, -005 and -008 (SCSI)
c . . . . . . Archive Python DDS 4520NT and 4521NT DAT drives
. . . c c . c Archive XL80
. . c c . . . Archive 5580 floppy tape
. . . c c . . Archive 3800
. . . . c . . AT&T KS22762 and KS23495 (SCSI)
c . . . . . . Bell Technologies XTC-60
. . c . . . . Caliper CP150
. . . . c . . CDC 92181 and 92185 (SCSI)
c . . . . . . Cipher CP-60B, CP-125B
. . c . . . . Cipher ST150S-II
c . . . c . . Cipher ST150S2/90 (SCSI)
. . . c . . . CMS Jumbo - 60MB QIC-40
. . . . c . . Emulex MT02/S1 +CCS INQ (SCSI)
. . c c . . . Everex Excel Stream 60, 125, 150
. . c c . . . Everex5525ES (SCSI)
. . c c . . . Everex EV-811, EV-831, EV-833
c . . c c . . Exabyte EXB-8200 (SCSI)
c . . . . . . HP 35450A (SCSI)
. . . . c . . HP 88780 (SCSI)
. . . . c . . HPCIPHER M990 (SCSI)
. . . . c . . NCR H6210-STD1-01-46C632 (SCSI)
c . . . . . . Mountain 8mm Cartridge
. . y . . . . . Sankyo 525ES (SCSI)
. . . . c . . Sony SDT-1000 (SCSI)
. . . c . . . Tallgrass 150 - 525MB SCSI
c . . . . . . Tandberg DQIC (SCSI)
. . . . . . c TUV DAT
. . y . c . . . Wangtek 150SE (SCSI)
. . c c y . . Wangtek 5150ES (SCSI)
. . . c . . . Wangtek 60 - 525MB (QIC 02 and SCSI)
. . . c . . . Wangtek 6130 - HS 4mm DAT.
. . . c c . . Wangtek 5125ES ES41, 5150ES ES41, 5150ES FA0 (SCSI)
. . . c c . . Wangtek 5150ES SCSI-3 (SCSI)
. . . c . c . WangTek 5150PK QIC-02 (QIC-150)
c . y . . . . . Wangtek 5525 (SCSI)
c . . c c . . Wangtek 6130-F (SCSI)
. . . c c . . Wangtek KS23417, KS23465, KS24569 (SCSI)

Notes:

* All SVr4s inherit USL support for QIC-02, QIC-36 1/4", or SCSI tape
interfaces, using QIC-24 (9-track, 60MB), QIC-120 (15-track, 125MB) or
QIC-150 (18-track, 150MB) formats.

* A user says of Dell: it appears that anything using Wangtek QIC02/QIC36
controllers works; this should include the Wangtek 525MB, Cipher ST150S2,
and Archive 2150S drives.

* UHC specifies the following tape controller/drive combinations: Wangtek
PC-36 + Wangtek 5099-EN, Everex 811 + Wangtek 5150-EN, Bell Tech + Wangtek
5150-EN, Archive SC499-R + Archive External FT-60, Archive VP402 + Archive
Viper 2150L, Everex 811 + Archive Viper 2150L, Bell Tech + Archive Viper
2150L, Archive VP402 + Archive Viper 2150L.

* UHC claims that Any floppy tape supporting the QIC-107 physical and QIC-117
logical interface specs and QIC-80 or QIC-40 recording formats should work.
This is probably true of other vendors as well.

* BSDI says it supports any Wangtek 1/4" standard 3M streamer with a
QIC-02 or QIC-36 interface.

* Floppy tapes don't work on Dell; USL provides the support, but it collides
with Dell's code for auto-detecting the density of a diskette.

* SCO's tape compatibility table lists drive/controller pairs; not all drives
listed have been included here. They allege that any QIC-02 drive should
work.

S C D E M P U B X Non-Winchester mass storage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. c . . . Bernoulli 90MB exchangeable SCSI
. . c . Hitachi, Toshiba (models not specified)
. . . c Maxtor RXT-800HS
. c c . Storage Dimensions XSE1-1000S1 optical disk
. c c . SyQuest cartridge media
. c . . . Tandata
. c c c Toshiba TXM-3201A1 CD-ROM
. . c c Toshiba WM-C050
. c c c Toshiba WM-D070 WORM drive


VII. KNOWN BUGS IN THE USL CODE

The most serious problem anyone has reported is that the USL asy driver is
flaky and occasionally drops characters at above 4800 baud.
Microport, Dell, Esix, and UHC say that they believe they've fixed this.
However, Dell, at least, was mistaken when they first made this claim; a more
detailed description of the problem is given below. I have been assured that
this is on the fix list for the next Dell release.

Mark Snitily of SGCS says that under many SVr4s, signalling a process that
is running suid root will cause it to core-dump. Dell and MST have fixed this.

On ISA machines with more that 16MB of RAM, SVr4 may try to do DMA
from outside the bus's address space, causing serious problems. UNIX ought
to do an in-memory copy to within the low 16MB but the USL base code doesn't.
Dell says they've fixed this, and that's been confirmed by a user.
UHC says they've fixed this; they add that the special buffer-allocation
logic to handle the problem can be turned off with a tunable kernel parameter
if you've got less than 16M.
Microport says they've fixed this in their new 4.1 release, shipping early
March.
Esix offers a patch to correct this problem.

Stock USL code is limited to 1,024 cylinders per Winchester, which
might cause problems with a few very large disk drives.
Microport, Dell, Esix, and UHC have fixed this. MST has not.

The shmat(2) call is known to interact bady with vfork(2). Specifically,
if you attach a shared-memory segment, vfork(), and then the child releases
the segment, the parent loses it too! Workaround; use fork(2). UHC and
Microport both suspect that they still have this bug and opine that anyone
who uses vfork deserves to lose. Dell has no plans to fix it.

Stock X11R4 hogs the processor if you use the LOCALCONNECT option. UHC
says their server has been successfully optimized for speed and quotes
48,000 xstones.

In stock USL 4.0.3, you can't use a UFS file system as the root; the
system hangs if you try. Dell, Esix, Microport, MST and UNIX have fixed this.
David Aitken, the UNIX product manager at UHC, writes "The ufs as root file
system [problem] was not really a bug, just a little oversight on USL's part -
we have fixed it completely by adding one line to the /stand/boot script:
rootfstype=ufs!" He adds that they've been using ufs on their lab machines for
over 10 months with no trouble, and the latest UHC release defaults to ufs if
you have more than 120MB of disk.

David Wexelblat <dw...@mtgzfs3.att.com> reports: "There is a HUGE security
hole in /bin/login in all USL derived SVR4s before 4.0.4. Refer to CERT
advisory CA-91:08, dated 5/23/91. This is known to be present in AT&T SVR4
2.1, and Microport SVR4 3.1. ESIX claims to have fixed it, Microport reports
that it is fixed in 4.1. I won't give any more details unless necessary.
Suffice to say that this bug allows any non-privileged user on an SVR4 system
to get read-write access to any file on the system."

A source at Dell urges: "Our SVR4v2 did some stuff that USL didn't get
around to until SVR4v4. Try Dell UNIX 2.1 with a COFF program on a large UFS
filesystem in a directory with long names. Runs on Dell UNIX. Breaks on
others." I don't have more definite info yet.

Dell reports that USL's Wangtek device driver is seriously flaky. "How'd
you like a multi volume backup where the second and subsequent volumes don't
follow on from the previous volumes?" UHC confirms this and is actively
working on the problem.

A botch in Dell's /etc/conf/pack.d/kernel/space.c (which may also be
present in other SVr4s) can step on the linesw[] table. The problem is
that the domain name array initialization is wrong and too short; thus,
when it's set, data past the end of the array can be stomped. To fix this,
find the following near line 247:

char srpc_domain[] = SRPC_DOMAIN;

and change it to

char srpc_domain[256] = SRPC_DOMAIN;

then rebuild the kernel. The value 256 is not magic; you just want to make
sure the array is sufficiently large to contain your domain name.

Ed Hall <edh...@rand.org> writes: "Unlike the raw read() system call,
fread() is supposed to be able to make several partial read's to satisfy the
data requested by its arguments. The exceptions are an EOF or an error on the
stream. This characteristic is quite useful when moving data through pipes or
over network connections, since partial reads are quite common in these cases.
Well, the version of fread() in ESIX 4.0.3 (and likely other Sys5R4's) only
does a single physical read, and if it only satifies part of the requested
number of bytes, that's all you get. This can sting you even if you carefully
check the value returned by fread(), since the value returned is rounded down
to the number of complete "nitems" read, although your position in the stream
can be up to size-1 bytes beyond that point. Neither ferror() nor feof()
indicate anything is wrong when this happens."
This bug (which is also present in 4.0.4) is serious and nasty and should
be high on every porting house's list to fix.
A USL source claims it has been fixed in 4.1.

SCSI SUPPORT PROBLEMS:

Sar -d doesn't work on SCSI drives. No report of anyone having fixed
this yet.

Stock USL requires you to jumper your SCSI devices to fixed IDs
during installation (it can be changed to any other ID after).
Dell and UHC have fixed this. The requirement is definitely still present
in Esix.

David Wexelblat <dw...@mtgzfs3.att.com> reports: "Stock SVR4.0.3 will hang
the SCSI bus with a 1542 in synchronous mode. Dell fixed this, and this has
been given to Microport [ed note: MST UNIX and Esix 4.0.3 still have this
problem; I have not yet been able to determine if ESIX 4.0.4 does]. In the
file /sbin/bcheckrc, change the line:

echo MARK > /dev/rswap

to

echo MARK | dd of=/dev/rswap bs=512 conv=sync > /dev/null 2>&1

The magic is apparently the conv=sync, which forces a 512 byte block
to be written. The original echo writes 4 bytes, which apparently causes
synchronous SCSI to go out to lunch.

Now, you ask, how can I fix this, since the system won't boot? There are
a couple of methods. First, if possible, disable synchronous negotiation
(1542 jumper J5-1 removed, plus whatever you may need to do to your drive).
Then boot up, edit /sbin/bcheckrc, then shutdown, restrap for synchronous,
then reboot. Everything should be OK.

That's the easy way. Unfortunately, some hard drives will only work
in synchronous mode. Well, you can still recover from this phenomenon.
Here's how:

1) Install on your hard drive
2) Boot from the first boot floppy. When it tells you to, insert
the second boot floppy. At the first prompt, hit <DEL> to
break out to a shell.
3) Mount your hard drive under /mnt with the following command
(replace FS-TYPE with s5, s52, or ufs, whichever you used for
for your root partition):

/etc/fs/FS-TYPE/mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 /mnt

4) Now edit /mnt/sbin/bcheckrc:

ed /mnt/sbin/bcheckrc

You may want the 'ed' man page handy (I barely remember how to
to use 'ed' :->). For simplicity, you can delete/comment out
the offending line, then replace it with the correct line later.
5) Unmount the hard drive:

umount /mnt

6) Reboot from the hard drive. Everything should come up OK. and
you can finish editing /sbin/bcheckrc, if necessary.

Note that you perform these actions at your own risk. The first version was
performed by me on Microport SVR4, and the second was performed by someone
else (on my suggestion) on ESIX SVR4."

DEVELOPMENT TOOLS PROBLEMS:

The BSD compatibility libraries were badly broken in USL code. A Dell
source adds "That meant that almost all the apps derived from them were broken
too. Most stuff like automount will die when you send a SIGHUP, instead of
rereading the map file. You can get a system into very strange states when
that happens." Esix and UHC's BSD libraries are USL stock. I don't yet know
the status of other ports. Microport has run into things they think may be
symptoms of this but have no fix yet.

A different source reports that the the USL implementatation of BSD signals
is broken; in particular, the sigvec() family doesn't work properly. It is
possible to make minor tweaks to source to make such apps work properly
with the native USL signals implementation.

There are also persistent rumors of problems in the BSD-emulation string
libraries. I have not been able to pin down specifics on this, but Ron
Guilmette <r...@ncd.com> writes "This fact may be easily demonstrated by
attempting to build and link the GNU C compiler with `-L/usr/ucblib -lucb'.
The resulting compiler will most certainly crash and die."

Ronald Guilmette <r...@ncd.com> also reports the following:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* Here is a bug in the original SVR4 C compiler (aka C Issue 5) which
effectively prevents you from making good use of the `const' and
`volatile' qualifiers defined by ANSI C in conjunction with pointer
types and typedef statements. Compile this code and you will get:

"qualifiers.c", line 23: left operand must be modifiable lvalue: op "="

...if your copy of the svr4 C compiler still has the bug. Note that
given these declarations, the ANSI C standard say that the thing pointed
to by the variable `pci' should be considered to be constant... not the
variable `pci' itself. (The GCC compiler, either version 1.x or version
2.x, correctly compiles this example without complaint.)
*/

typedef const int *ptr_to_const_int;

ptr_to_const_int pci;

int i;

void main ()
{
pci = &i;
}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* Here is a subtle bug in the original SVR4 C compiler (aka C Issue 5)
which prevents you from first declaring a tagged type (i.e. a struct
type or a union type) in a parameter list, and then defining that tagged
type later on within the same scope. (Note that according to the ANSI C
standard, the scope in which parameters get declared and the outermost
block of a function body are one and the same scope. Thus, this really
is legal ANSI C code!)

Try compiling this with your C compiler on SVR4. If your compiler still
has the bug, you will get:

"tagged_type.c", line 24: warning: dubious tag declaration: struct S
"tagged_type.c", line 28: warning: improper member use: i
"tagged_type.c", line 28: warning: improper member use: i
"tagged_type.c", line 31: warning: dubious tag declaration: struct S
"tagged_type.c", line 35: warning: improper member use: i
"tagged_type.c", line 35: warning: improper member use: i

(The GCC compiler also had this bug in version 1.x, but it has been fixed
in version 2.x.)
*/

void foobar1 (arg) /* use old-style without prototypes */
struct S *arg;
{
struct S { int i; }; /* define the type `struct S' */

arg->i = arg->i; /* legal according to ANSI C rules! */
}

void foobar2 (struct S *arg) /* use new-style with prototypes */
{
struct S { int i; }; /* define the type `struct S' */

arg->i = arg->i; /* legal according to ANSI C rules! */
}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* Here is a serious bug in the original SVR4 `dump' program which dumps
out parts of object files in either plain hex form or symbolically.

To see the `dump' program get a segfault and die, save this code under
the name `dump-bug.c' and then do:

cc -g -c dump-bug.c
dump -v -D dump-bug.o

The bug arises whenever `dump' tries to read Dwarf debugging information
for an array of pointers to any "user defined" type (e.g. `struct S' in
this example). Past that point, `dump' is totally confused, so further
Dwarf debugging information finally causes it to go belly-up.
*/

struct S { int i; };
struct S *array[10];
int j;
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FUBYTE BUG:

(Thanks to Christoph Badura <b...@flatlin.ka.sub.org> for this info)

The kernel function fubyte() is documented to return a positive value when
given a valid user space address and -1 otherwise. In the latter case u.u_error
is set to EFAULT. USL SysV R4.0.3 has a sign extension bug in the
implementation of fubyte() for local file descriptors (i.e. not opened via
RFS), which causes fubyte() to return negative values if the byte fetched has
its high bit set. This bug doesn't affect STREAMS drivers, as they don't call
(and in fact are normally unable to call) fubyte(). Thus writing a byte with
the high bit set to certain character device drivers returns with -1 and errno
set to EFAULT.

The bug may affect any character device driver that calls fubyte(). It's not
limited to serial card drivers. The bug is noticed most often with serial card
drivers, since uucp uses byte values > 127 very early during g-protocol setup
and drivers for serial cards tend to use fubyte() quite often.

Note also that the bug's effect is different if the driver checks for a -1
return value of fubyte() or just a negative one. In the former case it is
possible to pass bytes with the 8 bit set through fubyte(), except for 0xff
which is -1 in two's complement. That makes the bug more obscure.

The fix is easy. First, make a backup copy of the kernel object file
/etc/conf/pack.d/kernel/vm.o! A disassembly of vm.o(lfubyte) should reveal
*exactly* one mov[s]bl (move byte to long w/sign extend). That one needs to be
patched into a movzbl (zero extend). The difference is one bit in the second
byte of the opcode.

The movsbl has the bit pattern 00001111 1011111w mod/rm-byte.
The movzbl has the bit pattern 00001111 1011011w mod/rm-byte.

The 'w' bit is 0 for the instruction in question. So the opcodes are 0f be and
0f b6. Here is the diff -c from dis -F lfubyte showing the patch applied to
the Dell 2.1 kernel:

*** vm.o Mon Mar 9 00:31:38 1992
--- vm.o.org Mon Mar 9 00:32:40 1992
***************
*** 22,28 ****
11c90: 85 c0 testl %eax,%eax
11c92: 75 09 jne 0x9 <11c9d>
11c94: 8b 45 08 movl 8(%ebp),%eax
! 11c97: 0f b6 00 movzbl (%eax),%eax
11c9a: 89 45 fc movl %eax,-4(%ebp)
11c9d: c7 05 d8 13 00 00 00 00 00 00 movl $0x0,0x13d8
11ca7: 83 3d dc 13 00 00 00 cmpl $0x0,0x13dc
--- 22,28 ----
11c90: 85 c0 testl %eax,%eax
11c92: 75 09 jne 0x9 <11c9d>
11c94: 8b 45 08 movl 8(%ebp),%eax
! 11c97: 0f be 00 movsbl (%eax),%eax
11c9a: 89 45 fc movl %eax,-4(%ebp)
11c9d: c7 05 d8 13 00 00 00 00 00 00 movl $0x0,0x13d8
11ca7: 83 3d dc 13 00 00 00 cmpl $0x0,0x13dc

Of course there is a workaround at the driver level. Canonically, one would do
this by checking for fubyte() returning -1 *and* u.u_error being set to EFAULT
(u.u_error is cleared upon entering a system call). However, in R4.0.3
fubyte() does NOT set u.u_error. It *does* set u.u_fault_catch.fc_errno.

Cristoph reports that Dell V.4 can be object-patched successfully to fix this.
I do not know the status of the other ports.

Another poster (Marc Boucher <ma...@cam.org>) adds:

On ESIX SVR4.0.3 Rev. A, the instruction movsbl in question can be changed to
movzbl (as described above) with a binary-editor on file
/etc/conf/pack.d/kernel/vm.o. At offset 0x11eb0, change 0xbe to 0xb6.

Before patching, verify that your /etc/conf/pack.d/kernel/vm.o is the same as
mine! On my system, the /bin/sum generated checksum of vm.o was "4440 222".


VIII. FREE ADVICE TO VENDORS:

As a potential customer for one of the SVr4 ports, it's to my advantage to
have everybody in this market competing against one another as hard as
possible. Accordingly, some free advice to vendors, which I'm broadcasting to
all of them and the public so as to put just that much more pressure on each
vendor. :-)

SCO:
You have a serious image problem with many hackers which you've exacerbated
recently by falling behind the SVr4 leading edge and then engaging in what
certainly appears to be an attempt to sucker careless buyers with deceptive
product naming. But the reaction to this wouldn't be nearly so vehement if
it didn't come on top of years of discontent with more technical choices.
There's too much stuff in the SCO kernel and admin tools that's different from
USL and *not better*; too much stuff that raises weird little compatibility
problems that shouldn't be there. Verbum sap.

Everybody but SCO:
SCO's documentation set is to die for, and they add a lot of value over the
base UNIX with things like ODT DOS and CodeView. Only Dell comes even close to
matching SCO in the nifty add-ons department, and even they have a lot of room
for improvement. If you want to compete with them, you have to be *better*;
this means (at minimum) supporting a windowing debugger and ISAM libraries and
embedded SQL and DOS support that goes beyond 2.0.

Consensys:
Fix the Powerports bugs everyone is reporting. They're doing you real
damage. Nobody expects real support from an outfit selling at $1000 below
market average, but you've *got* to make your own hardware work right or look
like idiots.
Beyond this, I think you have a serious attitude problem. So far, you're
the only outfit out of eight to refuse to divulge information for the
comparison tables. While you have a perfect right to do so, it smells bad ---
as though you think you have weaknesses to hide. I tried to discuss this with
your VP of sales (Gary Anderson) and got back very little but evasions,
suit-speak, defensiveness, and attempts to divert me from the issues (and I
don't mind admitting that the conversation made me pretty angry and didn't end
very pleasantly). This man's behavior is all too consistent with reports of
Consensys's dismissive behavior towards customers and continued refusal to
acknowledge technical problems.
In this corner of the industry we have a tradition of collegiality, mutual
trust, informality, and candor. If you plan to be here for the long haul, you
need to learn how to work with that rather than fighting it. Behaving like IBM
will only get you hammered.

Consensys and Esix:
Get a real support address. Bang-path accessibility doesn't impress anyone
any more --- in fact, it looks faintly quaint. You guys ought to be
sup...@everex.com and sup...@consensys.com to follow the simple and logical
convention Dell and Microport and UHC have established.

Dell:
Don't get fat and lazy. You've got the lead in this market at the moment
and you've got the money and resources to keep it, *if* you use them. If you
staff up your UNIX support operation so customers don't get pissed off by
infinite hold, *and* keep your prices the lowest in the upper tier, no one will
be able to touch you. Don't let Microport et al. get ahead of you in releases
and new technology, and try to reverse that creeping corporatitis (the
no-comment-on-unreleased-products policy is a bad sign).

Everybody but Dell:
Offer all the free software Dell does --- and *more*. All it will cost you
is the media, right? Even if you have to plaster CONTRIBUTED SOFTWARE, NOT
SUPPORTED on it, include perl, elm, bison, gcc, emacs, gdb, mush, patch,
compress, etc on your distribution tapes. Heck, include some *games*.
Nethack, empire, zork, stuff like that. Your engineers use and play with all
this in-house anyhow, yes? And you're selling to guys just like your
engineers. They'll love you for it. Trust me.
Set up a `sales' address to take product queries if you don't already have
one.
Set up an 800 number for tech support. Support customers hate spending time
on hold, and they hate it like poison when they have to *pay* for the hold
time. The more overloaded your support staff is, the more important this
gets. Verbum sap.

Esix:
You're *boring*. You seem to make a decent product, but there's nothing
I've seen about Esix that'd make me say "I might want to buy Esix because...".
Position yourselves; pick something like price or support quality or
reliability or add-on features and push it hard. Warning: if you decide to
push support, *hire more engineers*. Your rep for following up on support
problems is bad enough that your "unlimited free support" ain't much of a draw.

Esix, MST, UHC:
Get 800 numbers for product info, too.

MST:
Set up a sup...@mst.com alias to your cs address, see above. What would
that take, a whole five minutes? :-)
If you don't start planning for 4.0.4 now, you'll get left behind this
spring and early summer whan all the other vendors move to it.
On present trends, your software prices are cheap enough; you'd probably
get more sales mileage out of pulling down the hardware prices for your
pre-configured systems.

Everybody but MST and Microport:
Set up a `sales' alias to your info and orders email address. A universal
convention for this means just one less detail prospective customers need to
remember.

Microport:
Your complete system is way overpriced relative to what other vendors in the
top tier are selling. If I were a corporate customer, there is no *way* I
could justify spending the $1K or $2K premium over Dell's price --- not when
Dell has the rep it does for quality and features. You aren't offering
anything but a crippled copy of JSB Multiview to justify that premium and
that ain't enough.
There's some evidence that you've got a technical lead on the competition.
Push it; push it *hard*. You're first off the blocks with 4.0.4; keep that up,
be first out with a stable 4.0.5. Market yourselves as the leading-edge
outfit, court the hard-core wizards as their natural ally, detail somebody
who's fluent in English as well as C to listen and speak for you on USENET, and
keep the promises you make there.

UHC:
You've decided to push support; that's good, but follow through by getting
that 800 number. Don't lose those small-company virtues of candor and
flexibility, trade on them. Your policy of having all techs clear up to the
product manager take turns on the support lines is a damned good idea, stick
with it. And I'm sufficiently impressed with what I've heard from your guys
that I think you might be able to fight Microport for the friend-to-wizards
mantle, too. Maybe you should try.

Everybody except BSDI:
BSD/386 include *sources*. For *everything*. Be afraid; be very afraid.
In effect, this recruits hundreds of eager hackers as uncompensated development
and support engineers for BSDI. Don't fool yourselves that the results are
necessarily going to be unfocused, amateur-quality and safe to ignore --- it
sure didn't work that way for gcc or Emacs. The rest of you will have to work
that much harder and smarter to stay ahead of their game.

BSDI:
Don't you get complacent either. The 386BSD distribution is breathing
down *your* neck...
The most effective things you can do to to seriously compete with SVr4
vendors are: a) emphasize standards conformance --- POSIX, FIPS, XPG3, etc.,
and b) follow through on your support promises. Just another flaky BSDoid
system isn't really very interesting except to hobbyists, even with sources ---
but if it were proven a reliable cross-development platform it could capture
a lot of hearts and minds among commercial software designers.
I think the absence of Korn shell hurts you (at any rate *I* find it a
significant negative). Fortunately there's an easy workaround; FSF's bash(1).
Port it and support it.

Everybody:
Do something about your product names! Even the cases that don't appear
to be deliberate deception are very confusing to the customer. If you're
releasing an enhanced 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 that's what you ought to *call* it. I
recommend:

Consensys UNIX Version 1.2 --> Consensys UNIX 4.0.3 revision 1.2
Dell UNIX Issue 2.1 --> Dell UNIX 4.0.3 revision 2.1
Esix Revision A --> Esix UNIX 4.0.3 revision A
MST SVr4 UNIX --> MST UNIX 4.0.3
Microport System V/4 version 4 --> Microport UNIX 4.0.4
UHC Version 3.6 --> UHC UNIX 4.0.3 revision 6

The fact is, all these idiosyncratic version-numbering systems do you no
good and considerable harm. At worst, they make it look like you're trying to
pull a scam by deceiving people about the level of the base technology. At
best, they parade your internal revision number (which conveys no useful
information unless one is an existing customer considering an upgrade already)
and obscure the really important information. Do your product differentiation
elsewhere, in substance rather than nomenclature; it's not useful here.
You're *all* badly understaffed in support engineering, and it shows. Boy
does it show --- in poor followup, long hold times, and user gripes. The first
outfit to invest enough to offer really first-class quick-response support is
going to eat everyone else's lunch. Wouldn't you like to be it?


IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND ENVOI

Some of the material in this posting was originally assembled by Jason
Levitt <ja...@cs.utexas.edu> of "Open Systems Today". Grateful acknowledgement
is made to him for permission to re-distribute and update this information.

Many netters sent me email contributing technical information, feedback,
and comment. Thanks to all. It's in combinations of individual mission and
collective cooperation like this one that the net really shines, and I'm
grateful to everybody who's worked with me to improve the signal/noise ratio.

The level of cooperation I've experienced from vendors' program managers,
techies and marketing people since the first issue has generally been
outstanding. Particular high marks go to Jeremy Chatfield at Dell, Kristen
Axline at Microport, and David Aitken at UHC, with very honorable mentions to
Jeff Ellis at Esix and Rob Kolstad at BSDI. By cooperating intelligently with
this FAQ, they've done a great job of serving the market and representing their
corporate interests.

One dishonorable mention goes to Gary Anderson, V.P of sales at Consensys
and the only person I've encountered who's behaved like the classic stereotype
of the slippery, stonewalling marketroid. An impression of this kind is
exactly what Consensys needs to solve their credibility problems...NOT!

So far, I've found that the technical merit of each of these eight products
(insofar as I have data to judge; I haven't used any of them yet) seems to
correlate pretty well with the degree of cooperation I've received. I wasn't
explicitly expecting this result, but I'm not surprised by it either.

I'm already planning the logical next step; a competitive review of UNIX
on high-end clone hardware, "The Great UNIX Dream Machines Bake-Off". Watch
for it soon on a screen near you!
--
Send your feedback to: Eric Raymond = er...@snark.thyrsus.com