Before installing or upgrading

Installation boot devices

One of the following boot devices is required to install SCO OpenServer:

A CD-ROM drive that is configurable in your system's BIOS as being a boot device, and that does not use a proprietary boot format
A 3.5-inch floppy disk drive
An LS-120 drive

NOTE: USB floppy drives and USB LS-120 drives cannot be used as boot devices because the USB drivers are only available from the installation image provided on the SCO OpenServer System CD-ROM. You can, however, use USB floppy and LS-120 drives to load a Boot-Time Loadable Driver (BTLD) during the installation process. See ``Installing Boot-Time Loadable Drivers (BTLDs)'' for more information.

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Configuring the CD-ROM drive as the boot drive

You can boot from the SCO OpenServer System CD-ROM if your system BIOS supports CD-ROM as a boot option. You cannot use this feature if your system BIOS recognizes only a proprietary bootable CD-ROM format.

To set your CD-ROM drive as the boot device:

Turn on your computer and enter your system's BIOS configuration program.
Specify CD-ROM as the primary boot device (before C: or A:).
Save this change to the system BIOS and exit the configuration program.
Shut down your system.
Insert the SCO OpenServer System CD-ROM and remove any other media from other boot devices on your system.
Proceed with the SCO OpenServer installation procedure, as described in ``The installation and upgrade procedure''.

NOTE: Because not all SCO OpenServer installation utilities are aware that the CD-ROM drive is emulating the floppy drive, you might see an error message or prompt that mistakenly refers to the floppy drive.

If you are using the bootable CD-ROM feature, assume that messages you receive that refer to installation media pertain to the CD-ROM drive.

Using EIDE CD-ROM drives

The ATAPI driver provides support for Extended IDE (EIDE) CD-ROM drives by representing the drive as a SCSI device to the operating system.

To present a consistent interface, the following restrictions apply:

A maximum of two IDE controllers can be present on any system.
No more than two IDE devices can be present on any one IDE controller.
If there are two devices on the controller, one must be configured as a ``Master'' device and the other as a ``Slave'' device.
If only one IDE controller is present, it must be configured as the ``Primary'' controller. If there are two controllers, one must be configured as ``Primary'' and the other as ``Secondary''.

NOTE: The procedure for installing and configuring EIDE- or IDE-interface hardware (controllers, disk drives, ATAPI CD-ROM, and ATAPI tape drives) for your system is described in the documentation provided by your hardware supplier. Any information provided by your hardware supplier might invalidate the information here.

Using USB CD-ROM drives

If you are using a USB CD-ROM drive to install SCO OpenServer, the SCO OpenServer installation prompts you to enter the CD-ROM drive's USB device ID. If the only USB storage device attached to your system is the CD-ROM drive, the drive's USB device ID is ``0''.

If, however, the system contains additional USB storage devices (such as hard drives or Zip^® or Jaz^® drives), the ID number for the CD-ROM drive is dependent on the order in which the operating system recognizes each of the detected USB storage devices. In this case, you may need to cycle through the USB device IDs in the point-and-pick list until you discover the ID currently assigned to the CD-ROM drive.

If your system contains a USB CD-ROM drive that you would prefer to use for installing SCO OpenServer but your system's BIOS only supports booting from ATAPI devices, you can use an ATAPI CD-ROM drive as the boot device and the USB CD-ROM drive as the source for the installation itself. To do this:

Insert the SCO OpenServer System CD-ROM in the ATAPI CD-ROM drive and boot the system to begin the installation.
When the installation prompts for information about your CD-ROM drive, move the SCO OpenServer System CD-ROM to the USB drive and then select the USB CD-ROM drive as your installation device, as described in this section.

NOTE: All USB devices that will be employed during the SCO OpenServer installation -- including CD-ROM drives, LS-120 drives, or floppy drives from which you will install SCO OpenServer, and storage devices, such as hard drives or Zip drives, onto which you will install SCO OpenServer -- should be attached to the system before you turn on the computer to begin the installation.

Additionally, once you begin installing SCO OpenServer, it is recommended that you do not attach or remove any USB devices (including hubs) until the installation is complete.