[Info-vax] Help needed booting VAX 4000-200 from Alpha using Infoserver utility

[Martin Vorlaender]

Am Mittwoch, 20. März 2019 20:59:28 UTC+1 schrieb terry-... at glaver.org:
> I am trying to do a clean install of VMS 7.3 (from the Hobbyist
> Program) on a VAX 4000-200 (real, not emulated) via my VMS 8.4 Alpha
> DS10 (emulated via AlphaVM Pro). The 4000-200 has an existing
> installation of VMS 5.4-3 which is working, so I know that hardware is
> good. Likewise, the emulated Alpha DS10 has been running for years
> with no problems.
...
> Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong?
> 
> I have never used the Infoserver utility on Alpha VMS, but this VAX
> 4000-200 has no optical drive and a broken tape drive, so I'm somewhat
> limited in my boot options to get VMS 7.3 installed.

I had the same problem bootstrapping a SIMH VAX from a VMS I64 infoserver,
but I can't find my notes.

I /think/ it had to do with DECnet altering the Integrity's MAC addresse,
and the VAX's ISL program requesting files using the hardware MAC address
at one point. So, temporarily switching off DECnet (and thus operating the
machine on the hardware MAC address) solved the problem.

HTH,
Martin