>   Greg Ingram sent me to a web site that showed me how (successfully
> too!) change the password so I now have normal access to this
> VAXstation 4000. Thanks greg!    So now I have this machine with VMS
> o/s that I would like to run with BSD (or Linux or even MS)    32mb
> ram, no floppy (will a PC floppy suit), no tape, 2 rz25 Drives    have
> keyboard, mouse and monitor.    network BNC type connectors at the
> rear??

If the system is supported by NetBSD (I can't check now, cause my
university's
net connection to the outside world seems horribly broken, I just hope
this mail gets
delivered), you can boot it to NetBSD via network, so the VMS can safely
reside on
the hard disk. If you want to install NetBSD to a disk, I think the only
way to keep
VMS is to install a second hard disk for BSD.

Linux-vax doesn't do anything but boot at the moment, so it isn't a
usable alternative,
and MS things just don't work on VAXen :) If you had a DEC Alpha, then
it might
be favorable to run Linux and NT on it (though NT is evil and all that,
I'd try it if I had
a copy of it and an Alpha, just for the heck of it).

However, if you happen to have such VMS that comes with DECwindows and
UCX
(the VMS TCP/IP protocol implementation), then you can easily set it up
so that you
can run X Window software on any Unix or VMS box and beam it into the
VAXstation's
screen. I've used Netscape and stuff on a VAXstation 3100/30 this way.
And your machine
seems to have so much RAM, that even VMS should fly on it.

IMO, it'd be great to have a nothing-but-X-terminal kernel for VAXen.

As for the diskette drive, I don't know if a PC floppy would work, nor
dare I try it.
The VAX floppy cable is the same witdh as on a PC (but without the
coupla wires
bending over like in a PC floppy cable), and the floppies are the same.
It just might
work, but don't try it unless you can stand losing your floppy drive,
VAX or both.

Most (at least older) SCSI cd-roms should work and there should be no
risk in trying
them out. Of course you should have some discs that the VAX can read...


- hautis