Hi, I'm new to this mailing list and totally new to net-BSD, so please be
tolerant
of my newbie type questions. ;)

History:

We have recently inherited a monochrome vaxstation 3100, specifically a
KA42-A version 1.6 .
I added a RZ23 disk to the inside and we have a RZ55, RX23 and a RRD40 (the
RZ55 and RRD40
are external) that are installed and recognized by the boot firmware as
being alive. The machine
has 32 MB of ram and generally appears to be a useful piece of hardware.
This machine was
previously used in a VMS environment and retired due to DEC's everlasting
license fees. 

Intent:

We would like to run the pmax version of BSD on this device.

Problems:

There is no friend Ultrix machine in the building ( Any volunteers in the
downtown Toronto
core would be appreciated :-> nudge,nudge... wink,wink), so I am unsure of
the best way to
proceed for getting this thing to boot a mini root.

Silly Neophyte Questions:

1.    Since this system was used in a VMS environment, and booting from a
remote disk,
      I assume it was booting using DECnet. Will telling it to boot from a
RZ device
      (specifically RZ10 for our RZ55 hanging off scsib) tell it to boot
using tcp/ip?

2.    Since we have the RRD40 up and running, and the DEC docummentation
seems to indicate
      its possible, could we boot a mini root from CD?  Is the software
available on a 
      CD? 

3.    In reading through some of the archives I notice that monochrome video
was previously  
      not supported. Is this still the case?

4.    We do have a Vax running ucx (DEC's tcp/ip suite) and posix. Might we
be able to use
      this as a friend machine? e.g. BOOTP/TFTP to load the system (i.e.
vmunix.net) in memory
      and proceed from there as suggested in the 4.4BSD System Manager's Manual.

5.    I noticed many references to a MIPs 4000 cpu for the 3100's, however
there isn't one on
      the motherboard. The biggest chip on the board was a chip from LSI
Logic (#L1A5029).
      Does this mean this thing is REALLY OLLDDDDD???


Direction:

Any help, suggestions, criticisms on what to read, do or not do would be
most appreciated.
It seems a pity to have this machine relegated to paper weight status.

Aside:

We were just forwarded a copy of a CERT warning on the wu-ftpd, does this
impact pmax?



Thanx

:->

Terry Bell
PET Center
CLarke Institute of Psychiatry
Toronto

email:      tbe@clarke-inst.on.ca
phone:      416-979-4652
fax:        416-979-4656