> I'm waiting anxiously for NetBSD/vax; however, first I need to prepare
> the hard disk.  The drive in the machine is a Maxtor XT-2190, but it came
> from a PC.  It's not formatted for Vax's, and I have no way to do
> this... :-(

You can use the formatter on the Diagnostic Tape (MVII DIAG CUST TK50)
on a MicroVAX II or you could use the ROM-based formatter on a VAXstation 2000.
(I used the first method for a Micropolis 1335 and the second method for
a Seagate ST251. Both disks were out of PC's and were never in touch with
a VAX before)

> >   The question is...How will we support distributing bootable media?
> > I will have the ability to generate tk50 tapes, rx50 and rx33
> > floppies, and probably 9-track tapes-- but how to help those with NO
> > host operating system at all?  Tape and disk images, perhaps?  But how
> > to write them from PC's or whatever?
> For future reference, I'd love to know the physical data for RX50s, so I
> could format/use them on my DOS machine.  Anyone have the specs?
> Although I don't currently have an RX50, I can pick one up for cheap, and
> I'd buy one in a sec. if that's what it takes to get NetBSD in there!  :)

I'd say it's more easy to use RX33. They are the same as any 1.2MB drive
on PCs (the RX33 i have in my uVAX II is directly out of a PC). So one
could use "dd" on unix-machines and "rawrite" on DOS-machines to create
boot-disks for the VAX.

> As I get the drive ready for use, I'll be dying waiting for NetBSD.  I'm
> going to try to get the machine on the net before it comes out, so I'll
> be able to ftp it over.  Otherwise, I may need the gracious assistance of
> those working on bootable TK50's... :-)

Maybe it's possible to have a similiar procedure as NetBSD for i386:
You have 3 boot-floppies (RX33?) which install a mini-system on your
disk. This mini-system already supports tape-drives and network (ie ftp).
So you can get and install the rest of the system on either way.
It would also be possible to install the complete system from floppies
and there would be a possibility to install without having bootable
tapes and without MOP/netboot. (It's not too easy to produce bootable
tapes on a VAX without OS or to netboot a standalone machine :).

        bertram