Booting a VAXstation 4000 VLC off the hobbyist boot CD-ROM

From: David Betz <dbetz_at_xlisper.mv.com>
Date: Thu Jul 15 11:17:59 2004

I borrowed a Plextor drive model PX-45CS and it boots standalone backup
and presents me with a '$' prompt. If I type the restore command:

$ backup/image dka400:vms072.b/save dka0:

I get the following message and nothing else:

%SYSTEM-I-MOUNTVER, SABKUP$DKA400: is offline. Mount verification in
progress.

Does anyone have any idea how to get past this?

Thanks,
David

On Jul 15, 2004, at 5:06 AM, Mark Wickens wrote:

> David,
>
> The joys of SCSI CDROMs and VAXes ;) Are you sure you really want to
> know
> :-o
>
> I had the same thing with a VAXstation 4000/90 recently. The problem is
> that in order to boot off a CDROM the VAX requires that the drive be
> set
> in 512 bytes/sector mode. This will be configured by a jumper on the
> drive itself. You may well find that the drive does not support this
> mode, as most PC-compatible drives use 2K bytes/sector. Also, not all
> SCSI cdrom drives are made equal - I have a Pioneer drive which
> supports
> 512 bytes/sector but still doesn't boot correctly.
>
> In the case where it doesn't work I would suggest rather than messing
> around trying drives you get yourself a Plextor UltraPlex 40x drive
> (they can be picked up off ebay, I would say that a 32x drive would
> also
> work but don't quote me on this) - this is the only type of drive that
> has worked for me.
>
> Persevere though - it is worth it - I recently got to the stage where
> I'm into DECwindows and it is scary seeing it after nearly 12 years
> since I saw it last.
>
> Mark.
>
> Mark Wickens
> Rhodium Consulting Ltd
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:cctalk-bounces_at_classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Antonio Carlini
> Sent: 14 July 2004 23:29
> To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
> Subject: RE: Booting a VAXstation 4000 VLC off the hobbyist boot CD-ROM
>
>> I have my VAXstation 4000 VLC running to the ">>>" prompt and would
>> like to boot the hobbyist CD-ROM to install VMS on the hard drive but
>> I'm having trouble getting the CD-ROM to boot. If I type
>> 'boot dka400'
>> at the prompt, the CD-ROM spins up and I get the text "-DKA400"
>> displayed on the console but then I get the ">>>" prompt again. Can
>> anyone tell me why that would happen? I'm using a NEC CDR-1910A SCSI
>> CD-ROM drive set to SCSI ID 4.
>
> I'm assuming that you are using a VAX VMS CD and not an
> Alpha one :-) (And that it's the OS one and not one of
> the layered products ones ...)
>
> Some of the later CDs (V6.1 onwards or so) allow
> you to boot to OpenVMS rather than SA BACKUP:
>
> So something like:
>
> B/R5:10000000 DKA400:
>
> may work. If you have another working VMS box
> you can verify that the CD you have does indeed
> have a [SYS1] root.
>
> "B DKA400:" should have booted SA BACKUP, so
> if it didn't are you sure that:
> - you used the right CD (what part number and OS version is it)?
> - that your CD actually is DKA400: (SHOW DEVICE should help here)
> - that your CD supports 512-byte blocks and is configured to do so
> (what CD is it)?
>
> Antonio
>
>
> --
>
> ---------------
>
> Antonio Carlini arcarlini_at_iee.org
>
>
>
Received on Thu Jul 15 2004 - 11:17:59 BST