There is a uvII running 4.3 online for all to use, if anybody wants an 
account, or if you want to just see what its like. I have a couple vaxen 
online 24/7 at home and recently got one on a more repsectable feed as 
well. Telnet to 128.2.4.155 (it's cmuccvax or plutonium.club.cc.cmu.edu, but 
the nameserver is a bit broken right now). use the guest account, guest/guest
and happy hacking! The machine at vaxpower.org (log in as 'vax') is a uv3600
also running 4.3, both machines have full sources online. 

On Mon, 6 Nov 2000, NetBSD Bob wrote:
> 
> I am trying to get a 4.3 up on one of my MVII critters.  I really do want
> to see the difference.  So far, no luck, but close, and getting there.....
> 
> Also, by stroke of fortune, I got hold of a couple of scsi 9 track Cipher
> M995 drives, and have been spinning tapes this weekend on the beast.
> Alas, I don't have a scsi tape interface for an MVII, but have to run
> the thing off a VS3100/M76.

wow, cool! 

> Now that I have the Ciphers, I will pass.  Pittsburgh is too far to
> travel.

*grin*

> 
> Well, I always wanted that wierd Sci-Fi ``Dr. DECenstein'' look in my
> computer pit, and the things really work very well.  The low density
> per tape area makes for long-lasting archival tapes.  Alas, 6250bpi
> only nets 140mb per tape.  But, it sure raises the eyebrows when folks
> hear the vacuum cleaner blower spin up as the tape loads.....(:+}}...
> Also, when I ask for a tape reel, I get strange looks from the DAT
> mini-micro-thumbnail-cassette types, who pass right by the stack of
> reels over in the corner.
> 
> One problem that I have is that on the M76, with the Cipher drives
> I can't get them to non-rewind on large files on NetBSD-1.5 Beta 1.
> It will dd a boot loader, then at the end of a miniroot load, it senses
> something and immediately autorewinds before starting the next file,
> and then autorewinds after each file, making an improper boot tape.
> It will tar on/off a tape just fine, though, so it is not hardware.
> Ultrix handles it correctly, though.  I also noticed that the Ciphers
> cause some sort of timeout or non request for next phase error on
> the M76, but that does not seem to cause any problems.  And, when
> I invoke a background erase ( mt erase & ) it locks up the console
> until the erasing is done, rather than backgrounding the process.
> It tries to background it, but never returns the console until done.
> Is there anything offhand I could be doing wrong that might be
> causing this to happen?

dd and tar access the device differently. Ive seen other NetBSD systems where
tar works but dd doesn't, if i'm using the tape in non-rewind mode. I'm not
sure exactly why it fails, (that was 1.4/alpha, btw, using a HP1533 dat) 
though.. 


> 
> What tape cards would one recommend for a MVII with NetBSD onto
> single-ended or differential scsi tape crives (I also have a
> differential IBMbadged deck from an AS-400 that is in fine shape
> IFF I can find a differential Qbus card for it.

I find the CMD boards to be quite nice. I've used several models, with a 
422 in the machine next to me right now, for disk as well as tape. 

happy hacking,
isildur