[Info-vax] Alternative _legal_ operating systems for VAX ?

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/5/22 11:18 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2022-01-05 01:29, chris wrote:
>> On 01/04/22 23:33, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 1/4/22 5:28 PM, chris wrote:
>>>> On 01/02/22 08:39, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>>> Before deleting my simh instances, I thought I would look for
>>>>> other operating systems which ran on VAX and try them out.
>>>>>
>>>>> The only current one I have found is NetBSD (which certainly has
>>>>> a _very_ retro 1980s Unix feel to it. :-)).
>>>>>
>>>>> OpenBSD dropped VAX as an architecture a number of years ago.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does anyone know of any other operating systems (including any
>>>>> experimental ones) for VAX that are still legal to run under simh ?
>>>>>
>>>>> If so, do you have any links to them ?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Simon.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Some old unix distributions, Ultrix32,
>>>
>>> Ultrix32 is not legal for use without a license which you can not get.
>>
>> Well, it's available for free download at the unix historical society,
>> for years, so perhaps they organised some agreement to cover that ?.
>> Never run it here, but have run Ultrix 11, for evaluation. Does work
>> (on an 11/53), but not very stable.
> 
> For a PDP-11 I would definitely point at 2.11BSD any day of the week. 
> It's really nice and good, and actually pretty useful even for "real" work.
> 
> Ultrix-11 or some older BSD would really only be for curiosity.
> 

Depends on your wishes.  Ultrix-11 runs on machines that can not
run 2.22.  Try putting 2.11 on an RL02.  :-)

>>>> Iirc,
>>>> I installed from 9 track magtape, but can be done via TK50 if you
>>>> can find a way to write the tape. I used an Emulex QD33 and UD33
>>>> smd disk controllers and disks for the work here.
>>>>
>>>> All that stuff is available online for free now and probably far
>>>> more robust than NetBSD Vax, for example...
>>>
>>> I really don't see how 4.3 can be more robust than the versions
>>> developed from it. :-)
>>>
>>
>> Perhaps it has improved, but last version run here was 1.01 or
>> similar and at that stage neither of the qbus network
>> interfaces were stable for long before falling over. Sort of
>> worked, but not well. Firmware bug on the network cards, from
>> memory. Perhaps I should give it another try...
> 
> Around NetBSD 5 or so, it was maybe at its peak. After that it have 
> become really problematic.
> 
> (NetBSD never had a 1.01 version number, but back in the days when it 
> was still at 1.something, Qbus might have not been working that well. 
> For now, if someone wants NetBSD on a VAX, I would probably look at 
> version 4 or 5. But I do have some kind of hope that things will soon 
> improve.)

For the VAX, I doubt it.  we will be stuck with what we have.  Unless
someone wants to try porting RSX-180.  :-)

bill