Carl wrote:
>I was given a VAX 4000 500 (it was going into a dumpster for lack of resale value).
>The current boot disk has VMS 6.2 on it.

Thanks for saving it, with luck you'll keep it going for many years to come.

>It has the following hardware.
> Tape
> $1$MIA0: (TF85)

This is a nice DLT I drive. Reads/Writes CompacTape III media and can read TK50 (CompacTape 1) and TK70 (CompacTape 2) tapes. I take it this is installed in the top right peripheral bay?
 
> Cdrom
> HNAA$DKA600: Online wrtlck 0

This is a CD-ROM drive that is connected to a SCSI controller that knows how to talk to disks. That is a good thing. However since it is DKA (vs DUA) then VMS is no doubt talking to it through the KZQSA card rather than a SCSI/MSCP card. 
 
> Disks

This is where it gets confusing...

> $1$DIA0: (PATH0) Mounted 0 DISK0 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA1: (PATH1) Mounted 0 DISK1 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA2: (PATH2) Mounted 0 DISK2 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA3: (PATH3) Mounted 0 DISK3 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA4: (PATH4) Mounted 0 DISK4 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA5: (PATH5) Mounted 0 DISK5 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA6: (PATH6) Mounted 0 DISK6 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA7: (PATH7) Mounted 0 DISK7 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA8: (PATH8) Mounted 0 DISK8 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA9: (PATH9) Mounted 0 DISK9 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA10: (PATH10) Mounted 0 DISK10 1664400 1 1
> $1$DIA11: (PATH11) Mounted 0 DISK11 1664400 1 1
> $1$DUA13: (HSD102) Mounted 0 DISK13 4109972 1 1
> $1$DUA14: (HSD102) Mounted 0 DISK14 4109972 1 1
> $1$DUA15: (HSD102) Mounted 0 DISK15 4109972 1 1
> $1$DUA16: (HSD102) Mounted 0 VAXVMSV62 2157776 268 1
> $1$DUA17: (HSD102) Mounted 0 DISK17 4109972 1 1
> $1$DUA18: (HSD102) Mounted 0 DISK18 4109972 1 1

This is where it gets very interesting. 18 mounted disks. We see that the first 12 are DSSI drives by their designation DIAx: Then there are 6 "DUAx" drives, these are connected to some controller that talks MSCP. Further, that disk controller is booting VMS ('cuz DUA16: was booted) Our last bit of sleuthing is that familiar 4109972 number for blocks. This looks like a Storage works shelf of 2.1GB drives (and one 1 GB drive with VMS on it)

Whatever it is, you can certainly get NetBSD running on this machine, but it would be interesting to know how many, and what type, of boxes are connected together. What SCSI controller is it using besides the KZQSA ? Given 12 DSSI disks, do you really have six peripheral bays filled with dual drives? That would imply that you've got an R400X expansion pedestal as well.

Details, as always, are crucial!

--Chuck