Banyan VINES 8.5 boots and runs in VB 5.1.36
Posted: 22. May 2018, 05:29
I finally got Banyan VINES 8.5 installed and running in VirtualBox 5.1.36(_Gentoo). It took a LOT of doing, but it is working.
Here are the directions to reproduce this:
Create a new VM, disabling VT-x / AMD-V, with two hard drives. The first (primary master) should be ≤ ~500 MB (LBA issues) and the second (primary slave) should be about 80 MB. Banyan VINES apparently only sees the primary IDE controller.
I never did get the CD-ROM to be detected, but there is a workaround. Copy the contents of the Vines8-5.iso to the small drive. (I used qemu-nbd to connect to the disk and used dd to copy the (not an ISO 9660 format) file to the virtual disk. Use that as installation media. (It's actually partitioned and has a file system on it that VINES uses.)
Boot off of the 85INST1.img, trade for the subsequent disks as prompted; 85INST2.img, 85REL1.img, 85REL2.img, and 85REL3.
Choose default all the way through the install, making sure to set root's password. Note: The install will fail to detect the CD-ROM and want to do a floppy based install, ultimately ending with a "You may reboot the server and try again." message.
When you get that "You may reboot the server and try again." message, hit Control-C to break the installer and get a prompt for root's password. Enter the password that you set previously.
Now the hacking begins:
This finds the two occurrences of /dev/cd0 (which doesn't work) and replaces them with /dev/dsk/1s0, the first slice of the second (80 MB) hard drive. It also removes "-r" from in front of the first occurrence (via "delete Backwards").
This finds ("/") the ncdroms variable and statically sets it to one. (Forward "f" to the "`" (back tick) and change ("C") the rest of the line.)
This jumps to the last line ("G"), and inserts ("I") a # character at the beginning of the line, goes up two lines ("2k") and repeats (".") the last insert.
The install scripts left /dev/dsk/0s3 mounted which cause undesired complications when they re-run. (As in the scripts like to delete things.)
Answer sysprofile's questions.
Note: Make sure to "Skip file system build on all additional disks." Remember that we're using the 80 MB primary slave disk as our install source and don't want to mess it up.
Enter a bogus serial number into the /disk1/banyan/comm/serial file that gets referenced.
This modifies the /disk1/banyan/install/Init script to bypass the code / enabler. - Find ("/") the "mwidget" string and insert ("I" capital i (eye)) a comment at the beginning of the line. Opens ("o") a new line below and inserts the literal text.
Reboot the VM. If everything goes well, it will come up and start the initialization process.
#hazFun
Well, not as much #Fun as you might like. I haven't been able to find any Option Codes / Option Enablers / Option Keys. I also haven't tried to get any NICs working, save for "OTHER Card" working.
I think this concludes my journey into Banyan VINES 8.5. ...for now.
Here are the directions to reproduce this:
Create a new VM, disabling VT-x / AMD-V, with two hard drives. The first (primary master) should be ≤ ~500 MB (LBA issues) and the second (primary slave) should be about 80 MB. Banyan VINES apparently only sees the primary IDE controller.
I never did get the CD-ROM to be detected, but there is a workaround. Copy the contents of the Vines8-5.iso to the small drive. (I used qemu-nbd to connect to the disk and used dd to copy the (not an ISO 9660 format) file to the virtual disk. Use that as installation media. (It's actually partitioned and has a file system on it that VINES uses.)
Boot off of the 85INST1.img, trade for the subsequent disks as prompted; 85INST2.img, 85REL1.img, 85REL2.img, and 85REL3.
Choose default all the way through the install, making sure to set root's password. Note: The install will fail to detect the CD-ROM and want to do a floppy based install, ultimately ending with a "You may reboot the server and try again." message.
When you get that "You may reboot the server and try again." message, hit Control-C to break the installer and get a prompt for root's password. Enter the password that you set previously.
Now the hacking begins:
Code: Select all
# vi /install/fullinstall<Enter>
/.dev.cd0<Enter>
dBcW/dev/dsk/1s0<Escape>
n.:x<Enter>
Code: Select all
# vi /install/sysprofile<Enter>
/ncdroms<Enter>
f`C1<Escape>
:x<Enter>
Code: Select all
# vi /install/mvprof<Enter>
GI#<Escape>
2k.:x<Enter>
Code: Select all
# umount /dev/dsk/0s3<Enter>
Code: Select all
# /install/sysprofile<Enter>
Note: Make sure to "Skip file system build on all additional disks." Remember that we're using the 80 MB primary slave disk as our install source and don't want to mess it up.
Code: Select all
# echo "1234567" > /disk1/banyan/comm/serial<Enter>
Code: Select all
# vi /disk1/banyan/install/Init<Enter>
/mwidget<Enter>
I#<Escape>
oif /bin/echo "Bogus mwidget output" > /tmp/key<Escape>
:x<Enter>
Reboot the VM. If everything goes well, it will come up and start the initialization process.
#hazFun
Well, not as much #Fun as you might like. I haven't been able to find any Option Codes / Option Enablers / Option Keys. I also haven't tried to get any NICs working, save for "OTHER Card" working.
I think this concludes my journey into Banyan VINES 8.5. ...for now.