[Info-vax] New guide for hobbyists, OpenVMS 8.4 installation with networking on AXPbox (modern fork of es40)

Tomáš Glozar tglozar at gmail.com
Mon Nov 9 15:45:48 EST 2020 

Dne pondělí 9. listopadu 2020 v 21:36:59 UTC+1 uživatel johnwa... at yahoo.co.uk napsal:
> On Monday, 9 November 2020 19:06:45 UTC, Tomáš Glozar wrote: 
> > Dne pondělí 9. listopadu 2020 v 20:02:54 UTC+1 uživatel johnwa... at yahoo.co.uk napsal: 
> > > On Monday, 9 November 2020 15:14:05 UTC, Tomáš Glozar wrote: 
> > > > > This may be a silly question, but does the Linux host in this 
> > > > > picture have to be Linux AMD64/x86? (Don't quite see why, but...). 
> > > > > 
> > > > > And if a competent ARM Linux will do, has anybody thought about (or 
> > > > > succeeded with) doing this on the latest Raspberry-Pi-in-a-Keyboard, 
> > > > > either with Raspberry Pi OS or some other ARM-flavoured Linux? 
> > > > > 
> > > > > $70/£70 for the base model with 4GB memory and ~2GHz quad core ARM 
> > > > > processor, just add HDMI monitor and sundries. See e.g. 
> > > > > https://www.wired.co.uk/article/raspberry-pi-400-review 
> > > > > Probably not enterprise-c;ass stability yet, but for £70... 
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > I have a Raspberry Pi 4 and can confirm es40 works on it (at least on a 64-bit OS; I had some problems at a 32-bit PowerPC system, but that could be because of big endian), so AXPbox on 400 should work, too (currently I don't have it up and running, but I'll try it once I get to it). The performance isn't perfect, but it's bearable. 
> > > > 
> > > > Also RPi 4 and 400 both support KVM/libvirt (they have the same CPU), so you can replicate the network setup in Remy's guide with libvirt instead of VirtualBox if networking doesn't work directly on the host system. 
> > > Downloaded the prerequisites and attempted a build on a Pi 400 with 
> > > latest Raspberry Pi OS but may have mistryped a few bits along the way; 
> > > partial log follows, created, copied, and pasted on a Pi 400. 
> > > 
> > > Raspberry Pi OS still has 4byte (32bit) pointers, fwiw. Apparently 
> > > it's not just VMS that cares about compatibility :) 
> > > 
> > > I have a Pi 4 with a prerelease(?) of OpenSuSe Leap 15.2 on it. 64bit OS, 
> > > proper OpenSuse with a few rough edges needing attenton (e.g. boot time 
> > > stuff). 
> > > 
> > > Both Pi 4 and Pi 400 very acceptable for my needs in price and performance 
> > > though 
> > > 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~/axpbox $ uname -a 
> > > Linux raspberrypi 5.4.72-v7l+ #1356 SMP Thu Oct 22 13:57:51 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~ $ git clone https://github.com/lenticularis39/axpbox/ 
> > > Cloning into 'axpbox'... 
> > > remote: Enumerating objects: 14, done. 
> > > remote: Counting objects: 100% (14/14), done. 
> > > remote: Compressing objects: 100% (12/12), done. 
> > > remote: Total 525 (delta 5), reused 7 (delta 2), pack-reused 511 
> > > Receiving objects: 100% (525/525), 656.00 KiB | 636.00 KiB/s, done. 
> > > Resolving deltas: 100% (339/339), done. 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~ $ cd axpbox 
> > > ... 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~/axpbox $ ./axpbox configure 
> > > We are now going to set up an initial configuration file for the Emulator. 
> > > This file will be saved as es40.cfg in the current directory. 
> > > 
> > > For more detailed information to the current question, answer '?'. 
> > > Do you want to have a GUI? (none,SDL,X11) [none]: ? 
> > > 
> > > EXPLANATION: 
> > > You need a GUI if you want to use an emulated graphics card. You don't need this for most OS'es. If you don't need this, we recomment that you answer 'none' to this question. 
> > > 
> > > POSSIBLE VALUES: 
> > > none No GUI. Graphics cards are not supported. 
> > > SDL Simple Directmedia Layer. Preferred GUI mechanism. 
> > > X11 Unix X-Windows GUI support. 
> > > 
> > > Do you want to have a GUI? (none,SDL,X11) [none]: SDL 
> > > How much RAM memory do you want to emulate? (32M,64M,128M,256M,512M,1G,2G,4G,8G) [256M]: 128M 
> > > Where can the SRM ROM image be found? [rom/cl67srmrom.exe]: 
> > > Where should the decompressed ROM image be saved? [rom/decompressed.rom]: 
> > > Where should the Flash ROM image be saved? [rom/flash.rom]: 
> > > Where should the DPR EEPROM image be saved? [rom/dpr.rom]: 
> > > How many CPU's do you want in the system? (1-4) [1]: 
> > > Do you want the ICACHE on the CPU's enabled? (yes,no) [no]: 
> > > Do you want to skip memtest on SRM start? (yes,no) [no]: 
> > > What should the reported speed of the CPU's be in MHz? (10-1250) [800]: 
> > > What telnet port should serial 0 listen? (1-65535) [21264]: 
> > > What program should be started automatically for serial 0? [putty]: 
> > > What arguments should the program use to connect to the serial port? [telnet://localhost:21264]: 
> > > What telnet port should serial 1 listen? (1-65535) [21265]: 
> > > What program should be started automatically for serial 1? [putty]: 
> > > What arguments should the program use to connect to the serial port? [telnet://localhost:21265]: 
> > > Do you want a floppy controller in your system? (yes,no) [no]: 
> > > Do you want to add any disks to the IDE controller? (none,0.0,0.1,1.0,1.1) [none]: 
> > > What (if any) VGA card do you wish to add to the system? (none,Cirrus,S3) [Cirrus]: 
> > > What PCI slot should the cirrus card be on? (0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4) [0.1]: 
> > > Where can the VGA BIOS ROM image be found? [rom/vgabios-0.6a.bin]: 
> > > Would you like to add another PCI card to the system? (none,nic,scsi,wide scsi) [none]: 
> > > Would you like to emulate the mouse? (no,yes) [no]: 
> > > Where would you like console output to go? (serial,graphics) [graphics]: 
> > > Where would you like printer output to go?: 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~/axpbox $ ./axpbox run 
> > > %GUI-I-INS: Installing sdl module as the ES40 GUI 
> > > sys0(tsunami): $Id: System.cpp,v 1.79 2008/06/12 07:29:44 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > %FLS-F-NOREST: Flash could not be restored from rom/flash.rom 
> > > sys0(tsunami): $Id: Flash.cpp,v 1.19 2008/03/24 22:11:50 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > dma: $Id: DMA.cpp,v 1.9 2008/04/29 09:24:52 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > pci0.19(ali_usb): $Id: AliM1543C_usb.cpp,v 1.6 2008/03/14 15:30:50 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > %DPR-F-NOREST: DPR could not be restored from rom/dpr.rom 
> > > sys0(tsunami): $Id: DPR.cpp,v 1.23 2008/06/12 07:29:44 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > cpu0(ev68cb)(0): $Id: AlphaCPU.cpp,v 1.82 2009/03/16 01:33:27 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > serial0(serial): Waiting for connection on port 21264. 
> > > Emulator Failure: Runtime exception: Exec of 'putty' failed. 
> > > : /home/pi/axpbox/src/Serial.cpp, line 774 
> > > Stop threads: 
> > > Freeing memory in use by system... 
> > > Emulator Failure: Runtime exception: Exec of 'putty' has failed. 
> > > : /home/pi/axpbox/src/Serial.cpp, line 779 
> > > Stop threads: 
> > > Freeing memory in use by system... 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~/axpbox $ 
> > > 
> > > putty wasn't installed by default, so I installed it, which leads 
> > > to this (plus a couple of putty windows elsewhere): 
> > > 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~/axpbox $ ./axpbox run 
> > > %GUI-I-INS: Installing sdl module as the ES40 GUI 
> > > sys0(tsunami): $Id: System.cpp,v 1.79 2008/06/12 07:29:44 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > %FLS-F-NOREST: Flash could not be restored from rom/flash.rom 
> > > sys0(tsunami): $Id: Flash.cpp,v 1.19 2008/03/24 22:11:50 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > dma: $Id: DMA.cpp,v 1.9 2008/04/29 09:24:52 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > pci0.19(ali_usb): $Id: AliM1543C_usb.cpp,v 1.6 2008/03/14 15:30:50 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > %DPR-F-NOREST: DPR could not be restored from rom/dpr.rom 
> > > sys0(tsunami): $Id: DPR.cpp,v 1.23 2008/06/12 07:29:44 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > cpu0(ev68cb)(0): $Id: AlphaCPU.cpp,v 1.82 2009/03/16 01:33:27 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > serial0(serial): Waiting for connection on port 21264. 
> > > serial0(serial): $Id: Serial.cpp,v 1.51 2008/06/03 09:07:56 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > serial1(serial): Waiting for connection on port 21265. 
> > > serial1(serial): $Id: Serial.cpp,v 1.51 2008/06/03 09:07:56 iamcamiel Exp $ 
> > > %IDE-I-INIT: New IDE emulator initialized. 
> > > Emulator Failure: File not found: cirrus rom file rom/vgabios-0.6a.bin not found.: /home/pi/axpbox/src/Cirrus.cpp, line 370 
> > > Stop threads: 
> > > Freeing memory in use by system... 
> > > pi at raspberrypi:~/axpbox $ 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I'm thinking I ought to get a bit more familiar with AXPbox on 
> > > OpenSuSe/AMD64 before venturing into less familiar territory :) 
> > > 
> > > I'm reluctant to invest much more of my own time into Windows stuff. 
> > > 
> > > Many thanks to those who made this possible. 
> > 
> > Looks like you just lack VGAbios - see here: https://github.com/lenticularis39/axpbox/wiki/VGA
> Thank you, that sounds very plausible. If I don't ask for *any* 
> graphic console, maybe the need for VGA BIOS goes away? Or is it 
> built in "just in case"? 
> 
> I'd presumably still need to know what to do with putty. 
> 
> anyway I'm done for today, many thanks again. Not sure when I'll get 
> back on to it.

Yes, if you disable the graphics console (commenting out the Cirrus adapter using // is enough to do that), you won't require any VGA BIOS.

You don't have to use putty if you don't want to, you can just remove/comment the action field in the serial configuration and connect to the terminal via another Telnet client (I also recommend setting the bind IP address to localhost to prevent someone else connecting to it in case firewall fails for some reason by adding an address field there).

I don't know if you've already found the OpenVMS installation guide - in case you haven't, it's here: https://github.com/lenticularis39/axpbox/wiki/OpenVMS-installation-guide.

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