On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, ville hautakangas wrote:
> 
> BTW, what kind of processor lies within a VXT 2000 ? Is it a VAX or
> is it something else, and would it be possible to boot them from NetBSD
> (even if their native bootimage is something VMS'ish)? I would of course
> crack one open & find out, but the ones I know about are lying about at
> my university... just wondering.
> 
The VXT has a KA something processor, if my memory doesn't fail me, it's
the same processor as in the VS4000VLC. You can definitely boot it from
NetBSD. The only thing you will need is the bootimage with the X-server,
and either BOOTP+TFTP or MOP running. 

I even did something really sick...
I booted the VXT from a Win95 box running a shareware TFTP and BOOTP
server. :-)

Obviously DEC thought that it should be possible to use the VXT, even
if the rest of the hardware wasn't made by them. So far i haven't seen
any other VAX'ish hardware than the VXT, that support booting with BOOTP
and TFTP instead of MOP.

The X-server can be downloaded from Digital's VMS freeware site. 
Unfortunately it's in a VMS archive, which cannot easily be cracked
open unless you have VMS. I have unpacked the archive on my VS4000-200,
and can send you a tar archive instead, should you need it. 

There are two flavours of X-server software for the VXT (+ a third if you
use a DEC Infoserver). One has a local Motif windowmanager, the other run
the WM on the box you connect to. Unless you have 10Megs of memory or more
in the VXT, you shouldn't even think of using the server with local Motif.
Even with 16Megs it's a bit shaky, and crashes due to lack of memory
sometimes. I've seen in the dokumentation that it's possible to set up
swapping to a file on a NFS mounted disk, but i haven't tried that yet.


-- 
cheers,

/Anders

 
"Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according 
to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs, the 
future, for which I really worked, is mine." 
(Nikola Tesla, 1856-1943)

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