Subject: Help woth MVII install (UPDATE)
To: None <port-vax@NetBSD.ORG>
From: A. Sporner <asporner@eagle.ibc.edu>
List: port-vax
Date: 05/24/1996 21:23:11
Hello All,

I have an update:

> I think most of you saw my post about the panic that occurred when
> I tried to boot the miniroot on the swap partition.  The explaination
> seems to lead me to believe that since MVII (KA630) is supported and
> this is what I have, that I must have an older revision of the processor
> board.  I am at the point of getting a newer board.  

I went to the supplier of VAX parts and there are two major board styles
for the KA630.  Both sadly (all 30 boards I went through) have the same
ROMs.  They all are 1.3 revision ROMS.  The second board (called by DEC
as the "VALUE ENGINE") also panics the same way as the other board.

I am still curious, why is such care being taken to figure out whether
the processor is supported or not before even *TRYING* to run.  It seems
like the mechanism that is checking this is broken.  Either that or the
data that drives this decision is inconsistant across the MVII line.  It
would seem to me that as long as the chipset can be identified, isn't this
sufficient.  I mean how many different animals called Microvax II are there
that don't live in a QBUS backplane????  

Again, thanks in advance--especially to those who actually responded to
my last post!!



Andy Sporner