[Info-vax] Making a VMS 4.0 Install Tape

[Robert Jarratt]

"JF Mezei" <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote in message 
news:002090c6$0$20622$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com...
> If you begged sufficiently, I might be convinced to part with 2 8meg
> boards for your all mighty microvax II. But you'd have to pry it out of
> my hands and beg plenty :-)
>

I still don't know the full health of what I do have, although my doubts 
have been increasing. Someone else in the UK I am in contact with may have 
some spare memory in any case. Let's see what happens, I would rather not 
part people from stuff they would like to keep :-)

> If the c.o.v. community agrees and convinces me, I might be able to part
> with one delqua. (yes folks, I had a spare MVII for parts). But you'd
> have to pay shipping costs.
>
>

A DELQA would be *really* handy as then I could remove one area of 
difficulty. However I have taken the plunge and tried again with SIMH and 
WinPcap and things seem to be working OK, so I may be able to get VMS 4.7 
onto the real MicroVAX II now using the DEQNA. Again let's see what happens, 
but I may take you up on that offer. Of course I would be more than happy to 
pay shipping to the UK.

>
>
> the tape would start with standalone backup files. then the saveset.A
> which is used for upgrades. Then saveset.B which contains a core
> bootable environment, saveset.C contains many more files (more
> utilities, help files etc) etc etc.
>
>
>> think this may be because the disk is SCSI and I am not sure which is the
>> first VMS version to support SCSI.
>
> When you say "does not boot" can you specify ? Based on my
> understanding, the early portion of VMS purrs along using the hardware
> drivers and eventually loads its own drivers. Not sure how VMS behaves
> if it doesn't have its own driver for a type of hardware.
>

I'll have to go back to check what the problem was, I can't remember now and 
I am currently trying the SIMH approach using the 780 simulator.

> Note that I have a SCSI dilog board which presents devices as RA drives
> (MSCP) and thus don't need any special driver for VMS. (you can't pry
> that one off me because it is still in use). Perhaps this is how someone
> was able to use some SCSI drives circa 1986/87 when 4.7 was around.
>
> Perhaps there were patches to 4.7 to allow it to be used on the 3100
> series workstations when they came out, but it is my understanding that
> those came out after 5.0 came out.
>
>
>> The reason I am doing this is to try to get a 4.0 system disk on my 3100
>> Model 80 which I can then use to MOP boot my MicroVAX II. However since I
>> cannot get 4.0 onto my 3100
>
> Yes you can. The trick is to put your 4.0 disk as a second disk on your
> 3100. (remove cover and plug in it temporarily if you have to).
>
> Then you work with LANCP to define the MVII node's parameters and
> specify the boot disk being the second drive.
>
> I booted an Alpha from a VAX that way. When the MVII sends its MPP
> request, the 3100, running a modern VMS, will just hand over the files
> from the disk containing 4.0.
>
> You will get warnings about incompatible versions in the cluster and not
> all cluster functions will work.
>
>
>> 3100, but I do have a TK50, I would like to try to create a bootable tape 
>> to
>> install VMS 4.0 directly on the MicroVAX II.
>
> TK50s should be included in UN documents  listing devices used to
> inflict torture :-)
>
> To make a bootable TK50, you need to make standalone backup. If you
> can't do that, then don't waste time trying to make a TK50 distribution
> tape. There is/was a command VMSKITBLD in sys$update. But that file
> seems devoid of all documentatio.
>
>
> According to a VMS history book that was made available a year or two
> ago, NI interconnects for clustering came in 1986. It say that VAX VMS
> 4.0 came in 1984.  It says that support for the MVII came with 4.1
>
> A MicroVAX II shipped in june 1987 came with microvax 4.6. 47 came along
> a couple months later.
>
> 5.0 came in May 1988.
>
>
>
> an MVII running 7.2 or 7.3 is usable. An MVII with 4.0 would be just a
> novelty.