[Info-vax] MicroVAX 3100-30 - won't boot...

[AdeV]

H Vlems may or may not have intoned:

> A microVAX 3100-30 is not fast but it won't take half an hour to
> format a disk. Which, incidentally, it doesn't. The installation
> procedure initializes the disk, which puts a label on the disk and the
> filesystem.

Hm, damn. It was a theory, at least

> A microVAX 3100-30 is quite selective, it won't just boot
> off any cdrom drive.

The CD is the drive which came with the machine; not that that's 
necessarily any indication of it's suitability, mind. It is kind of 
floating around in there, not held down by anything other than its 
cables (and some sellotape now...)



> Is it a DEC drive or something else?
> In case it is third party hardware make sure it is set for 512 B block
> transfers.

It's a Sony CDU76S drive. I can't see anywhere to set the block size; so 
either it does it by default, or not at all.

I have a Plextor PX-12csi here which does have a BLOCK jumper setting; 
I've just installed that to see if it'll do the job, but now I need to 
go find a CD caddy... (it's never easy...)


> If you have a working version of simh and connect the 3100-30 to the
> network, can you try booting it as a cluster satellite?

Unfortunately, I don't have the means to connect either the thin or 
thicknet ethernet to the rest of my network, until I buy some more bits 
(specifically, a transciever) - and, even then, I wouldn't know how to 
do it!

> Hans Vlems
> 
> PS
> you dont happen to be in the Netherlands, do you?

No, I'm in the UK. I've visited NL often, however, having installed a 
phone reporting system for Achmea (Apeldoorn) a few years back. So I've 
had to go back a few times for upgrades, and so on.

-- 
Cheers!
Ade.