Frequently Asked Questions

What is SCO Skunkware?

SCO Skunkware is a collection of useful and entertaining software for use on SCO platforms. The CD-ROM contains many public domain or freely distributable programs including the GNU C Compiler, GNU utilities, audio drivers, Technical Library Supplements, graphics libraries, games, audio and video tools, graphics utilities, and much much more.

There is a slide presentation on Skunkware, its history, contents, etc which Ronald Joe Record presented at SCO Forum 98.

The current release of SCO Skunkware is intended for use on OpenServer, UnixWare 7 and Open UNIX 8. Previous releases of SCO Skunkware provided tools ported to SCO ODT, SCO UNIX 3.2v4, and even SCO Xenix.

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How do I order the SCO Skunkware CD-ROM?

Alas, SCO Skunkware CD-ROM media is not currently available, howver updated open-source software packages for each of SCO's currently supported Unix Operating systems are available at the SCO Skunkware web page.

Previous releases of SCO Skunkware are no longer available on CD-ROM, but may be downloaded from our previous release web/ftp site.

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How do I locate a particular SCO Skunkware component?

To download a particular component you first have to locate the download directory for that component. The SCO Skunkware team has tried to provide intuitive categories of components. For instance, if you were looking for Vim, the improved visual text editor, you could click on Editors from the Category Selection page.

Similarly, the SCO Skunkware ftp hierarchy has been organized by functional category within operating system platform. For instance, to find the OpenServer "vim" distribution via ftp, you would establish an anonymous ftp connection to skunkware.dev and look in the directory /skunkware/osr5/editors. There you would find a subdirectory called vim. To locate the UnixWare 7 vim distribution, you would look in the directory /skunkware/uw7/editors.

You can also locate a Skunkware component by searching the HTML documents on skunkware.dev.

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How do I download "xyz" for OpenServer?

Make sure to download files in binary mode when using ftp. To download with your web browser, simply hold the shift key down while clicking on the desired file. The OpenServer Skunkware distribution is available via anonymous FTP at:

After locating a component download directory (see the previous answer), the typical OpenServer Skunkware distribution will contain several files. These include :

Media images installable with the Software Manager (custom)
This is the file "VOLS.tar", a tar archive of custom installable media images. This is the preferred and recommended downloadable and installable component format.
A gzip tar or cpio archive
This file is typically named component-release.tar.gz or component-release.cpio.gz where "component-release" stands for the name and release of the component (e.g. vim-4.6). This is an alternate distribution format which is intended for those people who dislike using the Software Manager (custom) or for components which have not yet been packaged for use with custom.

This file contains a binary distribution which can be extracted by hand as the root user from / on the target system. If a VOLS.tar file exists for this component, it is recommended to download that and install using custom.

Source for the component
There should always be a gzip tar archive of the source used to build a particular Skunkware component as well as a pointer back to the original source (often they are identical). This source archive is usually stored in the "src" subdirectory of the download directory for a component. For instance, the source to vim is in the directory /skunkware/osr5/editors/vim/src. This directory (and the one at /skunkware/uw2/editors/vim/src) is a symbolic link to the single source directory that contains the source archives for all platforms. For instance, the vim source is actually located at /skunkware/src/editors/Vim) and is linked into the osr5 and uw2 trees.

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How do I download "xyz" for UnixWare?

Make sure to download files in binary mode when using ftp. To download with your web browser, simply hold the shift key down while clicking on the desired file. The UnixWare Skunkware distribution is available via anonymous FTP at:

In addition, there is a Skunkware distribution intended specifically for the SVR5 based UnixWare 7. This distribution can be accessed via either anonymous FTP at:

After locating a component download directory (see the previous answer), the typical UnixWare Skunkware distribution will contain several files. These include :

A "package" file installable with the pkgadd facility on UnixWare
This is the file "component.pkg", where "component" stands for the name of the Skunkware component (e.g. vim.pkg). This is the preferred and recommended downloadable and installable component format.
A gzip tar or cpio archive
This file is typically named component-release.tar.gz or component-release.cpio.gz where "component-release" stands for the name and release of the component (e.g. vim-4.6). This is an alternate distribution format which is intended for those people who dislike using the pkgadd facility or for components which have not yet been packaged for use with pkgadd.

This file contains a binary distribution which can be extracted by hand as the root user from / on the target system. If a component.pkg file exists for this component, it is recommended to download that and install using pkgadd.

Source for the component
There should always be a gzip tar archive of the source used to build a particular Skunkware component as well as a pointer back to the original source (often they are identical). This source archive is usually stored in the "src" subdirectory of the download directory for a component. For instance, the source to vim is in the directory /skunkware/uw2/editors/vim/src. This directory (and the one at /skunkware/osr5/editors/vim/src) is a symbolic link to the single source directory that contains the source archives for all platforms. For instance, the vim source is actually located at /skunkware/src/editors/Vim) and is linked into the osr5 and uw2 trees.

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How do I install the VOLS.tar media images on OpenServer?

After downloading the component VOLS.tar file (see the previous answer), login to your system as the root user, extract the VOLS.tar archive into an empty directory (say, for example, the directory /tmp/foobar) and run the "custom" command. Select the menu items "Software" -> "Install New". Select your host and, when prompted for the Media Device, select "Media Images" and "Continue". When prompted for the Image Directory, type in "/tmp/foobar or whatever is the name of the directory containing the extracted VOLS.tar media images. Select Ok and proceed.

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How do I install the xyz.pkg package file on UnixWare?

After downloading the component component.pkg file (see the previous answer), login to your system as the root user or another user with system administration priveleges. Change directory to the location of the downloaded component.pkg file and run to following command : 

    # /usr/sbin/pkgadd -d `pwd`/component.pkg all
where "component" stands for the name of the downloaded component.

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Where is gzip/gunzip/gzcat et al?

Gzip/gunzip/gzcat and friends are available as follows:

For OpenServer 5, download:
ftp://skunkware.dev/skunkware/pub/osr5/shellutil/gzip/gzip-1.2.4-VOLS.tar

These are custom installable media images. To install, extract the tar archive into an empty directory somewhere (say /tmp/gzip) and run 

    # custom -p SKUNK98:GZIP -i -z /tmp/gzip
This will place gzip/gzcat et al in /usr/local/bin

For UnixWare 7, download:
ftp://skunkware.dev/skunkware/uw7/shellutil/gzip/gzip.pkg

This is a pkgadd installable data stream. Install by running 

    # pkgadd -d /path/to/gzip.pkg
Again, this will get you binaries in /usr/local/bin

For UnixWare 2.x, download:
ftp://skunkware.dev/skunkware/uw2/shellutil/gzip/gzip.pkg

Install as above.

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What now? Where is the application I just installed?

Basically, we have tried to confine the Skunkware applications and their associated data files, libraries, and such to /usr/local. The binary executables get put in /usr/local/bin, the man pages in /usr/local/man, the libraries in /usr/local/lib, the header files in /usr/local/include, and so on (with some exceptions).

So, to be able to execute something like, say, gzip, you would either need to : 

    $ /usr/local/bin/gzip ...
or, preferably : 
    $ PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
    $ export PATH
    $ gzip ...
You can add /usr/local/bin to your shell PATH variable by editing your $HOME/.profile (this variable is called path for csh users and can be set in the $HOME/.login).

For Bourne and Korn shell users (sh and ksh), add the following lines to your .profile : 

    PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
    export PATH
For C-shell users (csh), add the following to your .login : 
    set path = ($path $home/bin /usr/local/bin .)
You can also add /usr/local/man to your MANPATH variable in a similar manner.

After setting up your PATH (and MANPATH) as described above, you can then execute binaries that live in /usr/local/bin by just typing their name (e.g. gzip). If you setup your MANPATH as well, you can read man pages that live in /usr/local/man by simply typing "man command" where "command" is a command like gzip or whatever.

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Can i use GCC without the SCO Development System?

The GCC package for OpenServer requires system libraries and headers. Even if you do not have a licensed SCO development system, you are licensed to use these at no cost and they are available on your installation media. Install them thusly:

  • Invoke custom
  • Select "Install New" option from the "Software" menu.
  • Follow the prompts to steer custom toward the original media you used to install OpenServer 5.
  • Select Application Development Libraries and Linker. Install it all. This will give you the libraries, headers, and man pages.

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What "web development" tools does Skunkware contain?

Skunkware also contains a number of useful web development tools. I will briefly list a few and you can find out more by following the links to the respective home pages.

This is not a comprehensive list - just off the top of my head.

I have found the following fairly useful :

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Is Skunkware Y2K compliant?

The SCO Skunkware components are officially unsupported. As such, there is no Y2K warranty on any of the Skunkware components. This is changing as some of these packages move from Skunkware into the standard product.

Any Y2K compliance statements for Skunkware components would be issued by the maintainers of that package. For instance, see http://www.apache.org/foundation/Y2K.html for a statement on the Apache web server Y2K compliance.

You will have to do something like this with each of the Skunkware components you wish to "warranty" against Y2K compliance. I use the Skunkware web site as a navigational aid in finding the home page of various Skunkware packages. For instance, if you wanted to know about Y2K and Python, you could go to skunkware.dev/skunkware, click on Interpreters, click on Python and go to the Python home page at www.python.org. There, you would find a typical Y2K statement along the lines of "There are no known Y2K problems ... We think Pyton is Y2K compliant ... If there is a problem, we will fix it".

We have found the Open Source developer community quite adept at identifying and fixing problems rapidly. This model functions well only with an active participatory user community. If you find a Y2K problem with any Skunkware component, please e-mail an in-depth description of that problem to skunkware@ronrecord.com and we will work with the package maintainers to remedy the problem as soon as possible.

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How can I contribute software to SCO Skunkware?

Contributions to SCO Skunkware are welcome. If you have ported something which you consider valuable and/or interesting and would like to have it included in the Skunkware distribution, send e-mail to skunkware@ronrecord.com describing the component and how the Skunkware team can download the source and compiled binary distribution. Please also include a README or ReadMe.html document describing the component, author, porter, testing, build instructions, documentation, where to retrieve the original source, home page for the component, redistribution restrictions, and other relevant information.

If you do not have an ftp or web site which can be used to access the contribution, the Skunkware team can provide you with instructions for uploading your contribution to skunkware.dev.

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How can I obtain assistance porting and testing my product?

The SCO Skunkware team is frequently available for porting and testing assistance. Just e-mail your questions to skunkware@ronrecord.com. Be prepared to make the source code for your application available to the Skunkware development team.

If you need access to SCO platforms for porting and/or testing, you can contact one of the SCO Solution Porting Centers. These centers provide expert technical consulting as well as current software development environments. If you are porting free software, you can have:

  • a free account
  • free use of the machines
To request this type of assistance, e-mail matt@compclass.com.

If you are porting software you sell, the services are available for a nominal fee. Please check out http://www.compclass.com/adc.html for information and pricing.

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What if I find a problem with an SCO Skunkware component?

Please e-mail any problems you discover with SCO Skunkware to skunkware@ronrecord.com describing the component which exhibits the problem, where and when you downloaded the component, how the component was installed, base operating system environment on which the component is running, and enough specific details of the problem for us to be able to duplicate it. A minimal test case which provokes the problem is helpful.

If you cannot provide all of the above, simply e-mail us with whatever information you have and we will attempt to provide a fix as quickly as possible.

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How much does SCO Skunkware cost?

SCO Skunkware is free. It is distributed freely via our ftp and web sites and the CD-ROM is distributed freely at trade shows, conferences, training centers, and other venues. The company that does our on-line ordering system will be charging $10 dollars per CD-ROM to cover the costs of shipping, handling and media. If you cannot afford $10, e-mail skunkware@ronrecord.com requesting a free copy.

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Can I give SCO Skunkware away for free?

Yes. If you are running a training center or would otherwise like to redistribute SCO Skunkware for free, please contact us at skunkware@ronrecord.com and indicate how many copies you would like. There may be a charge for bulk orders to cover the cost of media, shipping and handling.

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Can I charge money for SCO Skunkware?

It is permitted to give away (for no charge) the Skunkware CD, but resale of the CD is not permitted. However, the components of the CD are only subject to their original licenses (in many cases the GNU General Public License).

Any components of the Skunkware distribution which are licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL), including any modifications made by SCO, may be copied, modified, and/or distributed (for any price), according to the terms of the GPL.

SCO Skunkware is a trademark of The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. and the aggregate CD as a whole may not be resold. Further, some of the SCO Skunkware components are restricted by copyright which prevents their sale or inclusion in a commercial product. See the individual COPYING, LICENSE or README files for a component for specifics with regard to licensing and redistribution of that component.

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Which Skunkware components are intended for platform XYZ?

The Skunkware team has tried to clearly divide the Skunkware components into packages intended for specific SCO operating environments. The top-level Skunkware directory (on the CD-ROM, ftp site and web site) has subdirectories named :

osr5
this directory contains software for OpenServer 5
uw2
this directory contains software for UnixWare 2.x
uw7
this directory contains software for the SVR5 based UnixWare 7
Most of the software intended for UnixWare 2.x will install and run perfectly well on the SVR5 based UnixWare 7. The OpenServer Skunkware packages should also run on the SVR5 based UnixWare 7 but have not yet been tested in this environment.

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Where can I find audio tools for use with my SCO system?

You can download the latest players and drivers and such at http://skunkware.dev/skunkware/audiovis/index.html

In particular, the Open Sound System audio drivers for SoundBlaster compatible cards are available at ftp://skunkware.dev/skunkware/osr5/audio/oss/ for OpenServer and ftp://skunkware.dev/skunkware/uw2/audio/oss/ for UnixWare.

Another good source for audio tools is 4Front Technologies at http://www.4front-tech.com/ossapps.html

Finally, one of the applications we tested with the Linux emulator, lxrun, was the Linux RealAudio player. So, an additional reservoir of audio tools resides in the Linux audio applications in conjunction with lxrun on OpenServer. The download area for lxrun is : ftp://skunkware.dev/skunkware/osr5/emulators/lxrun

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I am having a problem playing audio.

If you are using the Open Sound System audio driver included with Skunkware 97, check /usr/lib/oss/soundon.log to make sure everything got initialized properly. A common problem is simply not having run the "soundon" utility. On my system i have created a startup script /etc/rc2.d/S95soundon containing : 

case "$1" in
start)
    /usr/lib/oss/soundon
    ;;
stop)
    /usr/lib/oss/soundoff
    ;;
*)
    exit 1
esac
You can also check /usr/lib/oss/install.log to see if there were any errors during installation.

For a list of device nodes and their major and minor numbers, take a look in /usr/lib/oss/modules/sndb/Node. You can create any missing device nodes with the /etc/mknod command.

If this still does not work, you might try using "trace" on play_snd to try and see exactly what device node it is trying to open.

If you are completely stumped, e-mail skunkware@ronrecord.com with a problem report and the contents of the above mentioned log files.

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Are the free Open Sound System audio drivers crippled?

The reason 4Front is still charging $40 for copies of the driver is that they are selling the non-SoundBlaster drivers. SCO only licensed the drivers for true SB and 100%-compatible cards.

Note that there are some cards that call themselves "SoundBlaster compatible" but are not. These cards have an 8-bit SB-lookalike mode, but it takes special instructions to put the card in SB compatability mode. These cards are not supported by the drivers SCO licensed, but are supported by other drivers from 4Front.

Also, some of the more advanced SB cards (like the AWE64) come with an Emu8000 synthesis chip. These also require a special driver from 4Front.

The drivers that SCO licensed for inclusion in the OS (and that were on Skunkware) will do the following:

  • DSP synthesis and sampling at 8 or 16 bit depths (used for playing and recording .wav, .au, .mp3, etc.)
  • OPL3 MIDI synthesis (used when the card generates its "own" wave forms). This is replaced with the Emu chip on the more expensive SB cards.
  • MIDI signal generation (through the joystick port, to drive external synthesizers)
  • Mixer control (for changing relative levels of various devices, recording source, balance, equalization, etc.)
  • Activation of Plug & Play devices. I will not go into exactly how PnP works, but an unactivated card is unusable by the system, and an activated card looks just like a generic (non-PnP) SB card. The activation can be carried out either by a driver or by the Plug & Play BIOS (if present on the motherboard).
Each of the above bullets corresponds to a separate driver. (If you have an OSR5 system with the 4Front drivers from Skunkware installed, you can look in /usr/lib/oss/modules and see the individual drivers.)

Anyway, there is no such thing as a driver that is crippled so that "PnP cards do not work". Even with the old Voxware drivers, you can use a PnP sound card if you have a Plug & Play BIOS to activate the card.

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Where can I find Skunkware for SCO ODT / SCO UNIX 3.2v4?

All of the previous releases of SCO Skunkware are still on-line and accessible via either ftp or http at :

ftp://skunkware.dev/pub/Skunk1
Skunkware for SCO ODT and SCO UNIX 3.2v4 systems
ftp://skunkware.dev/pub/Skunk2
The SCO Skunkware 5 release for OpenServer systems (vintage 1995)
ftp://skunkware.dev/pub/Skunk96
The SCO Skunkware 96 release for OpenServer and UnixWare systems (vintage 1996)
ftp://skunkware.dev:4000/
FTP directory for all previous Skunkware releases

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What if I cannot locate the component i am looking for?

If you cannot find what you are looking for, e-mail skunkware@ronrecord.com with a request for information on the desired software.

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When I run the xyz program i get an error something like :
"dynamic linker: xyz: cannot open /usr/local/lib/libxyz.so" .

This can very likely be remedied by installing the Graphics Libraries package for your platform.

For OpenServer, this package is available at ftp://skunkware.dev:4000/skunkware/osr5/libraries/Glib/. If you have the Skunkware 98 CD-ROM, you can install this component (as root) by changing directory to /osr5/lib/Glib and running the shell script "./Install". This script just runs the command : 

custom -p SKUNK98:Glib -i -z `pwd`/archives/TAPE

For UnixWare, there are several individual packages available in the subdirectories at ftp://skunkware.dev:4000/skunkware/uw2/libraries/. If you have the Skunkware 98 CD-ROM, you can install individual components of the Graphics Libraries package (as root) by changing directory to /uw2/lib and running the pkgadd program on the appropriate pkg file(s) in the subdirectories there.

The programs that use these libraries were built to look in /usr/local/lib for the necessary files. It is possible that a program was built incorrectly. If you already have the Graphics Libraries installed and are still getting an error message like this, you may need to create symbolic links from the appropriate libxyz.so in /usr/local/lib to /usr/lib. If this is the case, please e-mail skunkware@ronrecord.com with the name of the program exhibiting the problem.

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Where can i find u386mon for OpenServer ?

The u386mon README is at :
ftp://skunkware.dev:4000/Skunk2/CD-ROM/src/Tools/u386mon-2.74/README.html

The u386mon and nlsym binaries are available via:
ftp://skunkware.dev:4000/skunkware/osr5/bin/

The binaries need to be "setgid mem" : 

    # chgrp mem u386mon nlsym
    # chmod 2755 u386mon nlsym
First, run nlsym as root.

You should then be able to run u386mon as a normal user. Of course, you can restrict permissions if you like.

The source for u386mon is available via :
ftp://skunkware.dev:4000/Skunk2/CD-ROM/src/Tools/u386mon-2.74/

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Where can i find answers to questions programmers might ask about developing on SCO platforms ?

Read the Developer FAQs:

The following links refer to SCO newsgroups that contain a wealth of information. They are vehicles to use for discussing various topics with developers, service providers, resellers & distributors, and other community members.

These links rely on your browser ability to open a news reader and the news reader being properly configured to access a current news feed.

    "comp.unix.sco.announce"
    Product service and business announcements of interest to the SCO community. Also contains SCO supplement information (SLS, TLS, EFS, etc)
    "comp.unix.sco.misc"
    Questions, answers, comments and discussions about past, present, and future SCO and related third party products and services
    "comp.unix.sco.programmer"
    Questions, answers, comments and discussions about past, present, and future SCO development system products and related software
    "comp.unix.unixware.misc"
    Questions, answers, comments and discussions about miscellaneous past, present, and future UnixWare related issues.
If your browser cannot open a news reader, you do not have access to a current news feed, or if you just prefer to read news articles with your browser, an alternate way to read news is by accessing Deja News at the following URL:

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What if my question is not answered here?

If you have a question that is not covered by this FAQ, e-mail the Skunkware FAQ maintainer, skunkware@ronrecord.com, with your question.

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Revision Information
--------------------
Version:  1.5
Date:     18 Mar 1999
Author:   Ronald Joe Record
          rr@ronrecord.com

UnixWare, used under an exclusive license, and UNIX are registered trademarks of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.