"Kevin M. Myer" wrote:
> I have never used a VAX before in my life so figuring out how to get one
> to boot from a floppy is quite the challenge.  However, I came into
> posession of a Vaxstation 4000/60 recently and not really caring to run
> OpenVMS or ULTRIX on it, netBSD seemed like my alternative operating
> system choice.  I have a few questions.

That is a very nice little VAX. They sell for about $75 on Ebay.

> First, how do you boot from the floppy drive?  

Actually first should be "what does this vax have in it?" You get that
information by typing "SHOW DEV" or "SHOW CONFIG" to the ">>>" prompt.
I'm assuming you have a keyboard and screen.

> Secondly, regarding the video card - can it be made to work with a VGA
> monitor in any way?  

Ahh yes, actually the video puts the sync on the Green channel, look for
a "Sync on Green" monitor. (or alternatively some people will sell a
sync separator for the green channel but that can cost some $$$) The
Viewsonic monitors with RGB inputs are usually sync-on-green.

If there is a Linux system nearby it would be easier to boot this
machine from the network. Also you will need to boot a copy of the
"in-development" version of NetBSD that knows how to talk to the disks
in that machine. 

To netboot you need three things:
	1) A program called "mopd" that runs the DEC MOP protocol.
	2) DHCP set up to supply NFS mounting parameters to your VAX
	3) A snapshot of the "-current" build.

Using 'show dev' on the VAX, copy down the ethernet address
(08:00:2b:xx:yy:zz) and from the snapshot get the file 'boot.mop'. Put a
copy of boot.mop into /tftpboot/mop on the Linux server and a symlink
from 08002bxxyyzz.SYS -> boot.mop. 

Now edit /etc/dhcp.conf so that your machine gets booted from the nfs
server. 

Untar the snapshot into a directory on the linux box and export it with
NFS and root access to your VAX.

Then boot the vax from ESA0:

> Which leads me to my third question.  Does this VAX have serial
> ports?  And if so, it it possible to establish a console on a serial port
> of the VAX?

Yes, and this is the preferred way to use it since there is no
framebuffer support yet. If you get a VT320 or VT420 terminal from
somewhere you can connect using an MMJ cable right from the terminal to
the VAX. Alternatively you can use an MMJ to DB25 or MMJ to DB9 adapter
cable and hook it to your PC or another type of terminal. I believe
there are at least two general purpose ports so you and a friend can log
in simultaneously from terminals. (lots can login from the network of
course)

> The machine I have has a floppy drive (RX25 I think), two 1 Gb SCSI hard
> drives (don't know the part #), what could be a LCSPX video card (judging
> from a picture I've seen of that card) and 32 MB of memory.

That is a very nice setup. After you've got your feet wet with NetBSD
you can put VMS on one of the drives and play with that as well. Both
have their merits.
 
> Once again, apologies for the simpleton post - but I am a complete and
> utter newbie with VAX hardware and firmware.  Any help would be greatly
> appreciated, or else I guess the VAX will have to go to the dumpster.

Don't *every* send a VAX to the dumpster. Let this list know and sooner
than you can say "Digital" you will have at least enough money for
postage for it, and perhaps a bit more headed your way. I keep trying to
buy one on Ebay (a 4000/60) but my budget is limited to about $60 +
postage. :-(

--Chuck