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From: cliffb@cjbsys.bdb.com (cliff bedore)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: Re: Bootable floppy
Message-ID: <1990Dec2.161030.152@cjbsys.bdb.com>
Date: 2 Dec 90 16:10:30 GMT
References: <1990Nov18.223343.564@cjbsys.bdb.com> <12176@scorn.sco.COM>
Organization: BDB Systems
Lines: 32

In article <12176@scorn.sco.COM> paulz (W. Paul Zola) writes:
>
>In article <1990Nov18.223343.564@cjbsys.bdb.com> 
>		cliffb@cjbsys.bdb.com (cliff bedore) writes:
>
>    [detailed problems with creating an emergency boot floppy deleted]
>
>I know that the original poster asked for e-mailed responses, but I think
>that this is of general interest.  These symptoms are due to a hardware
>problem with certain brands of 16-bit VGA cards.  
>. 
>. SOLUTION: Move the video adapter to an 8 bit slot.
>-
>Paul Zola			Software Support Engineer 
>				paulz@sco.COM 
>    DISCLAIMER: I speak for myself, and not for SCO.

Ah but you speak wisely.  That was the problem.  I was about to reply and say I
had an 8 bit board but when I looked in my machine imagine my suprise when it
did turn out to be a 16 bit.(blush blush confused it with the machine at work).
To further confuse the issue, I was able to go back to the original /xenix.org
(saved after having to reinstall due to slow boot problem) and create boot
floppies with no trouble. Obviously it is somewhat subtle and I would guess
that this would also explain why sometimes tar would work on my floppies and
sometimes not.

The real solution is to move to an 8-bit port (I know, I know it really should 
work the other way but...) which I did and all is well.

Thanks to SCO and their support engineers

Cliff