> 
> Hi! A friend of mine got a free microvax 2000 recently. It has (if I
> recall all details correctly :-) 6M of RAM, about 170M of disk, two
> vt320s (one as console), an ethernet connector, a terminal multiplexer,
> and a RK50 tape. No floppy. Installed is VMS 5.0.1something, of which
> he has all the original tapes and quite a lot of documentation
> (sufficient to break in the SYSTEM account, which was needed because
> the person who would give him the password was on vacation).

Well, VMS 5.0ish has a security hole so big you can drive a train
through it and do little damage =).
Anyways, Once you're near the VAX-console you really don't need any
passwords at all....

> 
> I looked through the recent parts of the mailing list archive, and
> some of the source, and I saw that uVAX II's are supported. Is a
> uVAX 2000 "more" or "less" than that, i.e., would it run NetBSD now
> or would it need extra work?

The 2000 model is somewhat more recent than the uVaxII; it has a
completely different architecture (uses and boots through SCSI
if I'm not mistaken) and the port will not yet work on it.

> 
> Fortunately some kind soul has installed kermit on it so once empty
> tapes are found, performing the bootstrapping procedure as I found
> in the archives should not pose any problems (in theory).

Kermit is a part of the standard VMS installation kit, as it should be,
and it should also be installed on any kind of technical equipment that uses
more advanced power than flashlightbatteries, since it's the best thing
since sliced bread. If the VMS software didn't come with UCX or somesuch
or Multinet, you could also (for the time being) install CMUIP on it
to make it do TCP/IP (for free!). I suppose it will be a few months
at least before the port is capable of running on a 2000.

> 
> Another thing. The main box has something on it that looks like a SCSI
> connector. Is it that? If so, perhaps something could be done about the
> frightening lack of disk space. If I interpret the pile of paper right,
> the 6M of real memory seems to be the maximum supported.  Is that
> really true? 6M seems a bit small, especially to run VMS in :-)
> 

Au contraire; VMS = Virtual Memory System and is highly efficient 
with memory =). I do not know all the ins and outs of the 2000 model,
but my (very ancient) uVAXII has 16 MB installed so the 2000 should
be able to handle at least that. The 6MB might be what comes with the
step-in version of the model.
Upgrading disks/diskspace is usually possible, but once you're running
BSD, you can always NFS-mount other volumes.
And yes, the 2000 does indeed have a SCSI bus (scsi-1?) if I'm not 
confuzzled.

Regards,

Michel.