I have been lurking for awhile, but haven't had much to add, since I am =
an old VAX hardware engineer and all this software hacking is a little =
above me (for now).

I may be able to help you understand the Q/CD problem.

The BA23 box has the first three slots wired as Q/CD, the rest Q/Q.  You =
can only have two memory boards and the KA630 CPU in there.  However, =
the backplane used in the BA123 has the first four slots wired as Q/CD.  =
So as long as the box is a plain vabilla DEC box, you should be able to =
rely on the above rule.

However, OEMs frequently bought different back0planes and stuck them in =
the boxes.  There was one medical imaging system manufacturer who did =
this, and used the Q/CD backplane to interconnect his own boards.  If =
you have a system that has been modified by one of these, then you will =
experience the different backplane.  Some bought the extended Q/CD =
backplane to experiment with multi-processor operation, which is =
possible with theese backplanes but never supported by any DEC O/S that =
I know of.

I can't contribute much to the general discussion, but will be happy to =
drop in a few cent's worth if any hardware questions arise.  I am hoping =
to get NetBSD running on a second VAX
that I am building from a PDP-11/73 chassis.

Now I have a problem, I have lost the manuals for my system.  Does =
anybody have the manual for a Spectralogic S500 ESDI controller?

Best Wishes from Toronto,

Nigel Johnson
----------
From: 	Robert Byer[SMTP:byer@carl.all-net.net]
Sent: 	June 28, 1997 11:20 AM
To: 	ragge@ludd.luth.se
Cc: 	port-vax@NetBSD.ORG
Subject: 	Re: NetBSD installation problem

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>
>>
>> 2..
>> -MUA0
>> 1..0..
>>
>> ? 50 SCB2NDINT, MUA0
>> ? 06 HLT INST
>>           PC=3D00000C1A
>>

One other thing.

When I ran into this problem recently it was not because of the boot =
tapes=20
as they ran just fine in another MicroVAX-II I had, it was because of =
the=20
way the cards were positioned in my backplane.

I have found that on some cabinets that Q/CD slot 4 I can put two half=20
hight cards in just fine.  But on others I can only put a single card in =

the top half and nothing in the bottom (which was my problem).  I was=20
putting a quad controller that works fine in a regular Q/Q slot into =
this=20
slot and it was causing this.  Then I tried moving the ethernet card and =

the TK50 controller to these positions and then the TK50 stopped working =

and that when I realized I had a problem.

Taking these boards to another machine and putting the disk controller =
in=20
the Q/CD slot 4 worked just fine.  Moving the disk controller to another =

slot and putting the ethernet and TK50 controller here worked just fine=20
also.

I have run into this with three different machines that I own here and =
have=20
yet to really figure it out.

So if you have this problem, try moving your cards around.


 +------------------------+--------------------------------------------+
 | Robert Alan Byer       | A-Com Computing, Inc.                      | =
      =20
 | Vice-President         | 115 W. Washington Street, Suite 1165       |
 | A-Com Computing, Inc.  | Indianapolis, IN 46204                     |
 | Phone: (317)673-4204   | http://www.all-net.net/                    | =

 +------------------------+-----+--------------------------------------+
 | byer@mail.all-net.net        | I don't want to take over the world, |
 | http://www.all-net.net/~byer | just my own little part of it.       |
 +------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
 | Send an E-mail request to obtain my PGP key.                        |
 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+

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