NW 5.0 SP6a

Hey, what gives here?

I have my toy Novell 5.0 server running on a P133 with 64Mb of RAM in an old AT server box with a couple of bread-box-sized Seagate 3400 RPM (Oooooh, such speed!) SCSI drives. It was an easy setup, well easy in comparison to 3.x and 4.x. I'm feeling my way blind around this alien thing, and I'm just getting good doing things on it.

Then foolishly I decide to apply SP6a.

Things do not go entirely well. The Admin account and password does not grant sufficient rights to extend the schema, whatever this means. But I find a way around this setback and manage to complete the rest of the SP6a install.

Now I no longer have a mouse. The GUI interface on the server is so slow that it is next to useless, and even worse it will no longer work properly with the little 14" VGA monitor that I am using -- insufficient resolution. The bulk of files in the system vol has bloated up by half, even without backing up the old sys files. And where oh where is the Console1 file for workstation administration of the server?

This is way too much like NT Service Pack 6. I understand that there is competition and rivalry, but this sort of thing is carrying it too far.

Sorry to hear your upgrade went awry. Since you didn't choose to backup files during the upgrade, there's not a lot you can do to recover. Unless you have a tape backup, which I recommend you restore.

You could try running DSREPAIR and see if that helps....

Hi, MacGyver.

Other than the setup time, there is no great loss involved with demise of the toy NW 5.0 server -- it is not an integral part of my recreational network. It is probably time-bombed anyway being Novell demo-ware. So there is no real need to feel sorry, but thanks anyway.

I think it is time for my old friend, Mr. F. Disk (the tech-world equivalent of Dr. Kevorkian) to pay a visit to the server.

Then I can start again.

Well, at least you are lucky. I would have 20 angry users who can't print, breathing down my neck! Consider yourself lucky and chalk up this mishap to the experience dept.