I'll apologise in advance for such a long [first] message,
 (must be a dialup thing :)

 Well, I guess I'm impressed !
 I've managed to find a VAX 4000-100 at an auction for a few $
 Nice case (BA42B), SCSI, Ethernet, ...heaps of ports.
 Never seen anything like it !!
 what a beautiful machine :)
 ie. full of (mostly) unfamiliar bits & pieces
 128MB RAM and SCSI cables everywhere!
 particularly noticeable as there are no HDD's :(

 I've never seen a VAX before ... yep ... you guessed it ...
 only play with cheap junk. :(       (mostly i386)

 So far, I've made a cable to connect the MMJ console port to the
 RS232 port on a VT330 terminal and had a browse around the commands
 using HELP.

 hmmm ... so no hard drives :((
 BUT it has CDROM, and I can connect a Syquest 270MB drive to external
 SCSI port (but only one or the other for some reason (?????))
 (I may have 1 or 2 old 40MB scsi drives too ... would they help?)

 [startup messages]
     KA52A v2.6, VMB 2.15
     74..73..  (and so on)
     Tests Completed
     Loading system software
     (BOOT/R5:0 DIA5)
         2..
     ?40 NOSUCH DEV, DIA5
     ?06 HLT INST
         PC = 00000F39
     Bootstrap failure
     >>>
 -------------------------
 OK, this is good (right?) it just doesn't have a boot device, so ...

 [SHOW DEV command without Syquest connected]
     >>>SHOW DEV
     DSSI Bus 0 Node 7 (*)
     SCSI Adapter A, SCSI ID 6
     -DKA100 (DEC RRD42)
     Ethernet Adapter
     -EZA0 (08-00-2B-3E-8E-D3)

 From my browsing in the last 2/3 days I understand the easiest way to
 install
 is by setting up NFS and MOP servers on a *nix/BSD box ...
 but I figured that I could easily write a vax-bootable cd and install that
 way,
 or even write the image directly to the Syquest drive from a Redhat box.
 (Can I boot from the Syquest?)

 I've had a look at all the cd images I could find to date, but results from
 a
 BOOT command haven't been promising (at least the drive whirs! lol)
 [BOOT FROM CD]
 ---------------------
     >>>BOOT DKA100
     (BOOT / R5:0 DKA100)
             2..
     -DKA100
             1.. 0..
 ----------------------
 and then it locks :(

 What's next? What do I do? Where do I go?
 Should I stop wasting my time with the cd/syquest install options?
 or just go MOP/NFS?
 I've searched through the mail archives, browsed ftp & http
(endlessly:),...
 etc
 and I can't find anything about the 2000-02-04 announcement re 4000-100
etc.

 and just to top it off ... I haven't rolled my own *nix/bsd cd (yet)
 but then I haven't lived :)

 I guess I've got another year's worth of reading :)) lol
 Would any of you guys be able to help me out?
(or point me in the right direction?)

 Marcus.