One of the limitations of Informix Engines on Linux - indeed the only limitation - is the lack of network functionality, due to the ineherent difficulties in implementing XTI/TLI emulation on the iBCS2 module.

The iBCS2 documentation reports XTI/TLI server functionality as untested and possibly not working, while INET is being reported as "rumoured to be working" on the iBCS compatibility list.

Whatever the reason, as far as I know, OnLine and SE 7.x have never been reported to be working in any mode other than [ol|se]ipc[pip|shm] on Linux.

The situation is radically different when it comes to third party multi tier JDBC/ODBC drivers, since you can overcome network emulation limitations by simply mixing and matching Linux native request brokers and SCO database agents.

I have successfully connected an Openlink ODBC/JDBC/UDBC WorkGroup driver to the OnLine 5.08 engine my old employer uses for its small workgroup.

All that is needed is an ODBC client and JDBC classes on the client side, and the Linux request broker (rqblinux.zip), a SCO Informix database agent (olsinfX.zip, with X the version of the engine used) and a request broker registration key (the UNIX demo is named wrequnx.zip).

Unzip the files, run the installation script that comes with the request broker, configure the request broker and database agent ini file, either by hand or with the oplcfg utility, and start the broker.

It's that simple.