Another VaxStation 3100 revisited...

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Mon Apr 24 21:03:11 2000

Roger "Merch" Merchberger wrote:
> I just got (one of) my VaxStation 3100's running, but don't have any
> docfiles available for it yet... but I have an IIRC RZ26 (it's 540Meg,

That would be the RZ25. IIRC the RZ26 is 1Gb, and the RZ28 is 2GB (I know
the RZ28 and RZ25 are right).

> anyway) as the main drive that I _wanted_ to use for VMS and I have an RZ24
> (230Meg) that I put Ultrix on just to tinker with (and it fit w/50M to
> spare!).

Cool, so far I've only got Ultrix running on a DECstation. Mainly due to
lack of interest and time. I actually plan on running NetBSD on the
DECstation, but haven't had time to blow away Ultrix :^)

> I have a bajangle[1] of VMS CD's (from a friend) but only one boots
> (labeled VMS 7.1 Binaries)... It seems to boot VMS (for the very little
> I've ever seen of VMS -- Why didn't I pay attention over the last few
> years... ;-) but it's a very stripped VMS as the only command that seems to
> exist is the "b" command, which seems to invoke some form of backup command
> that can take a "/IMAGE" parameter that I can't seem to get working...
>
> Does VMS install from a backup type file, or do I not have any actual
> install CD's?

See the following:
http://www.montagar.com/~patj/vbegin.htm

> Ultrix seems to run fine from DKA200, but seems kinda slow... (of course,
> this is in comparison to running Linux on a dual-processor P2-350 w/256Meg
> RAM, but in these days of instant gratification... ;-)

That's why I'm not that interested in running UNIX on older hardware! Of
course now that I've got a PWS 433au with 320MB RAM, I'm not sure I'm that
interested in running VMS on older hardware :^) Although depending on what
you're doing and how their configured a VAX can feel just about as fast as
an Alpha.

> With apologies to Dire Straits, "I want my... I want my... I want my
> VMS!!!" ;-)

Don't blame you, it is after all one of the top two OS's out there, the
other being MacOS!

> BTW, when the machine boots (to the ROM monitor) I get the F...E...D...
> etc.. with all dots until it gets to (IIRC, machine home, me work):
>
> 3_..2_..1?..
>
> and then spits out what appears to be a memory address. Ethernet's not
> hooked up -- any chance one of those is the network interface saying
> "Hello... Anybody out there?" and any speculation as if the machine might
> have some heartburn?

I think this might help, but I'm not up on the boot codes.
http://anacin.nsc.vcu.edu/~jim/mvax/mvax_faq.html

> [1] "a bajangle of" is hereby declared as "at least 15 different..." ;-)

So is it a CONDIST? Even with the Hobbyist CD's it's very nice to have a
set of the CD's as there is a lot that is left out!

> P.S. I might have asked this once before, but a website or two with online
> docs would be *much* appreciated! (I tried the obvious ones, like
> www.vms.org and www.decus.org, but I didn't find much in technical info...)

http://www.openvms.digital.com:8000/ should be your first choice, the :8000
is very important. This is the OpenVMS documentation site.

For the OpenVMS Hobbyist program http://www.montagar.com/hobbyist/

For the FAQ http://eisner.decus.org/vms/faq.htm

You might find a little good info at the following also:
http://www.vaxarchive.org
http://www.netbsd.org

                                Zane
Received on Mon Apr 24 2000 - 21:03:11 BST

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