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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2022-01-05 18:08, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
 > 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.  :-)

True. If you can't run 2.11, then obviously you'll have to try alternative.

 >>>>> 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.  :-)

Like I said - a much improved version of gcc for VAX is in the queue, 
which will seriously improve on the current situation.
Exactly how much remains to be seen, though. I'm hoping that it will 
once more be possible to do native builds. At which point I might also 
look at some other things I've been putting off for a long time.

   Johnny