[Info-vax] VMSKITBLD.COM fails with CREATE_SYSDIRS cannot locate product description file.

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-01-13 14:58:33 +0000, Andrew Back said:

> Attempting to get OpenVMS 7.3 installed on a VS2000 via a SimH VAX 
> running on a Linux host. I've created a cluster and added the VS as a 
> satellite node, with page and swap on the SimH node. OpenVMS 7.3 was 
> installed via the Hobbyist kit ISO and opted to install everything in 
> full.
> 
> Everything seems fine up until trying to use VMSKITBLD.COM to build a 
> system disk on the RD53 installed in the VS (KEN)...


Well..... VMSKITBLD is used to build bootable OpenVMS installation 
kits, not OpenVMS installations.  VMSKITBLD is relevant here, nor used 
here, and is only rarely used in general outside of OpenVMS development 
or the few folks that are looking to build installation kits from a 
template environment.

VMSINSTAL is far more commonly used than is VMSKITBLD, and VMSINSTAL 
will be used here, and will be used to install TCP/IP Services and the 
rest.

Boot the VAXstation 2000 as a diskless satellite member of the SIMH 
cluster environment.

Once the box is booted as a diskless satellite of the SIMH system 
(configured as a boot and disk server via CLUSTER_CONFIG or (better) 
CLUSTER_CONFIG_LAN to set up the boot and disk server on SIMH),  you'll 
be able to BACKUP /IMAGE restore the VMS073.B backup saveset onto the 
RD53 device, then manually copy the other VMS073.% savesets onto the 
root [000000] directory that same soon-to-be-a-system disk (since you 
don't have an installation disk handy, you'll need to stage those folks 
and then tell VMSINSTAL where the rest of the kit is when prompted 
after you boot that RD53), then boot that infernal, err, internal RD53 
disk and complete the remainder of the VMSINSTAL installation.  VM073.B 
is a BACKUP/IMAGE of the core files of the boot, and the restoration of 
that saveset onto the target disk is path for an installation such as 
this.  The VAXstation will need to be instructed to network boot from 
the console, and—if the emulations and the emulated network and the 
rest of the giblets are all working the same as actual hardware 
(usually) does and (usually) did—the VAX will download the files it 
needs and will boot and run from the SIMH boot/disk server into the 
cluster, operating across the network.

Once you get the system disk installed and get the VAXstation back into 
the cluster, you'll want to mount the HPE OpenVMS VAX disk image on the 
SIMH system (MOUNT/SYSTEM, MOUNT/CLUSTER, etc),  akin to an NFS or SMB 
mount, though with a completely different protocol, and tied to access 
only within a cluster) and also mount the HPE OpenVMS VAX distribution 
disk on the VAXstation remotely (MOUNT/SYSTEM or maybe MOUNT/CLUSTER), 
and that'll provide access to the rest of the kits you'll need.  Not 
the least of which will be TCP/IP Services installation kit.

This whole thing is easier if that VAXstation had a CD reader or a tape 
device—and a compatible tape device elsewhere, and VMSKITBLD might even 
be useful for this specific need-a-tape-installation-kit case—or if you 
had a newer OpenVMS Alpha or OpenVMS I64 system that could act as a 
host-based InfoServer and the VAXstation 2000 could boot from that.  
But you're pretty well back in the bad old days of the 1980s and early 
1990s, and without the right mix of hardware to do what the 
then-available OpenVMS VAX installation documentation describes.

This stuff has all been discussed before here in the comp.os.vms 
newsgroup, too.  There's very little to do with OpenVMS VAX that hasn't 
been discussed here in the newsgroup.  Poke around in the archives, and 
in the old OpenVMS VAX.FAQ for further details,
http://www.hoffmanlabs.com/vmsfaq


-- 
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC