[Info-vax] Unix on A DEC Vax?

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <0Z+EZS2eNX3C at eisner.encompasserve.org>,
	koehler at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) writes:
> In article <49cb86f1-8fc5-4e9c-bb01-921e99ce470d at googlegroups.com>, haziz <hsaziz at gmail.com> writes:
>> 
>> I have a few questions:
>> 
>> Which Unix version to install on the Vax? Original UC Berkeley BSD Unix? Op=
>> enBSD? NetBSD? Ultrix if I can get a legal copy? AT&T Unix? For emotional r=
>> easons I may prefer to install some version of the original UC Berkeley BSD=
>>  (1980s Bill Joy/Marshall Kirk McKusick Era), but will go with whichever is=
>>  easier to install, the machine is newer (production started 1991) than the=
>>  original BSD Unix versions. I would call it nostalgia except I never did u=
>> se the original BSD Unix. Another consideration would be some version of AT=
>> &T Unix if it will run.
> 
>    I'm not sure which versions of the various UNIX will run on that
>    system, other than DEC's ULTRIX, 

According to the web (and the web never lies) Ultrix does not run on
the 4000/90.  I didn't think it did.  I don't remember ever having
success getting it running on any of my 4000's.

>                                     but I'd be suprised if on of the
>    free UNIX didn't.  

Sadly, if he find one that does (either netBSD or OpenBSD) it will likely
be a very limited version with no graphics support.  And if any of he
disks are DSSI, your out of luck.

>                       I think AT&T probably will not.  It should be
>    trivial to find out from the appropriate web sites.  

AT&T got out of the biz long before the 4000 came around.

>                                                         I would not
>    be suprised at a port of Linux in any state.

There has never been a functional version of Linux for any VAX.  If it
came about, it wold likely suffer the same shortcomings as the BSD's.

>    
>> 
>> Is there a version of FreeBSD for the Vax?
>> 
> 
>    I'm fairly sure there is, but I'm not sure if supports the model you
>    have.

Not a chance.....

2 Supported Processors and System Boards 
      2.1 amd64
      2.2 i386
      2.3 ia64
      2.4 pc98
      2.5 powerpc
      2.6 sparc64

> 
>> If there is a functional VMS install on the machine's 4 hard drives (2 each=
>>  in the machine and the auxilliary SCSI storage module), is there a way to =
>> dual boot between Unix and VMS?
> 
>    You can have either UNIX or VMS on each disk, and file systems
>    that either UNIX or VMS will understand, but you can't have UNIX and
>    VMS on the same disk unless you have a controller that partitions
>    the disk and presents itself as multiple drives (DEC's controllers
>    didn't do that, but third party controllers did).
> 
>    It's trivial to select which disk to boot from.
> 
>    You can get software for UNIX that will provide limited support for
>    mounting and reading VMS disks.  You most likely will not find
>    software for VMS to access UNIX disks.
> 
>> 
>> I presume that I can get some verison of Emacs running on this system, it d=
>> oes not have to be recent. While Vi may be more historically correct on thi=
>> s machine I much prefer emacs.
> 
>    emacs should run on any of the UNIX, and older emacs runs on VMS.  vi
>    should ship with the UNIX, and vi emulators are widely available for
>    VMS.
>  
>> Any suggestions or ideas?
>> 
>> My cell phone probably has significantly more computing power and far more =
>> memory and storage than this "minicomputer", I am approaching this as a hob=
>> byist. I hope to use the system to explore BSD Unix (and possibly AT&T Unix=
>> ) further and do some C programming on it. I anticipate to be working purel=
>> y from the command line. I may explore VMS also at some point.
>> 
>> Thanks.

The 4000's do make great (well, as great as any VAX can be today) VMS
machines.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>