Well, I'm ready to take the plunge into NetBSD-land.  I have a VAXStation
IIGPX (KA630) that I'd like to use as my "experimental machine".  It has an
internal hard disk, internal tk50 (MUA0), a TU81 (MUB0), and a pair of 8mm
drives (MUC0 and MUD0).  However, all of my real experience playing with
hardware was on the VS2000 (I didn't have a workstation at my last job, so I
built one out of the parts of 3 dead 2000s).  I seem to remember that there
was a way to ask the machine what devices were installed:  test ??, where ??
was some number.  Does this also work on the GPX?  If so, can somebody tell
me what number it is?

Part of my problem is that the GPX refuses to boot VMS off of its internal
disk:

?42 NOSUCHFILE,DUA0

So I have no way of writing out a TK50 to boot off of.  I tried writing the
TK50 image to an 8mm tape (assuming that the 8mms are probably emulating one
anyway), but I get this when I try to boot:

?4B CTRLERR, MUC0

The RA81 is totally non-responsive: the front panel doesn't even light up
when I plug it in.

I know this machine was running VMS up to last year, and has not been
switched on since it was shut down.  I don't *think* it was booting over
ethernet, and the FAQ seems to imply that these machines weren't capable of
that.  

BOOT ESA0:

gives me a friendly

?41 DEVASSIGN, ESA0

If it helps, my ROM is:

KA630-A.V1.3

Since I can't boot VMS and the GPX is the only machine we own with a TK50,
I'm at a loss as to where to go from here.  I *might* be able to dig up a
functional 2000, but I don't think I have a monitor for it.  Is support for
the 2000 happy with a serial console if I short the lines on the serial
connector?  Does anyone in the Rochester/WNY (US) area have a TK50 image I
could borrow to boot my machine with?  (Perhaps one of you RIT folks?)

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

- Tom




-- 
Tom Guptill                     Department of Physics and Astronomy
UNIX SA                         University of Rochester  Rochester, NY USA
t o m @ t a c o . n e t         HEPNet:  tgpt@urhep
t g p t @ p a s . r o c h e s t e r . e d u