well, i wouldnt go lobbing such heavy accusations.. once the bug was 
discovered, and we figured out what caused it, which took a while and was 
the subject of much speculation (partly because not very many of us had 
hardware to experience the bug on, and because we only got one shot at 
breaking a given machine to figure out why it broke) , it was fixed very 
promptly. 

On Wed, 15 Jan 2003, Baby Peanut wrote:

> What I want to know is why are programs that are known to damage machines put
> in
> 
> ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/vax/kernels/
> 
> without even a README to warn people.
> 
> If an equivalent was done on a "PeeCee" site it would be criminal negligence
> and no amount of warrantees on the software would do any good to protect since
> it's not the software that is in question but the "surprise attack" of not
> posting any visible warnings that is the problem.
> 
> --- Lord Isildur <mrfusion@uranium.vaxpower.org> wrote:
> > this is a case of the infamous rom munching that happened as a result of 
> > a mis-probe for a DZ11, (right?)... something in the netbsd autoconf 
> > probes would walk on some addresses which in a 4k90 were in the rom, and 
> > in just the right mode so as to clobber them. The problem is not fatal, 
> > though we dont know how to fix a broken rom. it doesnt seem to break 
> > anything except autobooting- the monitor will find an error and halt, 
> > instead of autoboot.. manually booting will work fine. 
> > 
> > isildur
> > 
> > On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Baby Peanut wrote:
> > 
> > > Now autostart has become hosed after running
> > > 
> > > ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/vax/kernels/boot.mop.991023
> > > 
> > > Seems I'm not the first one see the USENET post below.
> > > 
> > > Any ideas how to correct this?
> > > 
> > > ----------------------
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Message-ID: <3BA5A53E.38F3@DECUS.DECUS.DE>
> > > From: Bernhard Wulf <WULF@DECUS.DECUS.DE>
> > > Organization: without any ...
> > > X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.03C (WinNT; I)
> > > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > > Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
> > > Subject: VAX 4000-90 trouble after testing NETBSD CD with error ?? 000 8
> > sys
> > > 0512 in POST
> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> > > Lines: 60
> > > Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 09:24:46 +0200
> > > NNTP-Posting-Host: 172.17.100.209
> > > X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@is.shell.com
> > > X-Trace: wwwserv3.shell.nl 1000711509 172.17.100.209 (Mon, 17 Sep 2001
> > 09:25:09
> > > MET DST)
> > > NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 09:25:09 MET DST
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > hope I'm right here, to ask some questions about
> > > the NetBSD port and some hardware details to VAX 4000-90 ? 
> > > 
> > > What happend...
> > > 
> > > There was a time, a happy 4000-90 running OpenVMS7.x
> > > doing the POST ( power on selftest ) without fatal ( ?? )
> > > or nonefatal ( ? ) errors, did an autostart like configured 
> > > in BOOTDEV and started without any further trouble in OpenVMS...
> > > 
> > > Then I tried out my freshly burned NETBSD CD-Rom on that VAX.
> > > The ISO image I used had the following name /description "VAX BOOT
> > > 1.5.1"
> > > Everything worked fine, hardware detection, boot up to installation.
> > > I stopped here without writing stuff to disks.
> > > 
> > > After that, the VAX is a bit confused now...
> > > 
> > > The POST will give an error like "?? 000 8 sys 0512" and the 
> > > autostart didn't work anymore ( the error is fatal ).
> > > Giving ">>> boot" will bring up VMS like before, no further 
> > > problems, errors or messages.
> > > The use of VMS will not delete the problem, I tried to do a set time,
> > > various set's on the bootprompt ( >>> ). Also I deleted the entire
> > > NVRAM... no way to get rid of the message.
> > > 
> > > By the way, this error is not mentioned in the 4000-90 docs ?
> > > The FRU part 000 is not assigned, 
> > > The 8 / SYS test is used for "other system functions", a deeper 
> > > look will end up with a "system ROM test" which 
> > > "Checks the system ROMs one byte at a time to ensure that they
> > > contain the correct manufacturing check data and the correct 
> > > checksum."
> > > The subcode of 512 is not assigned to a proper message.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I want my AUTOSTART back ;-)
> > > 
> > > What did NetBSD on that machine ?
> > > 
> > > Are there any sources available to trace the process of hardware
> > > detection and specific 4000-90 things.
> > > Are there adresses in memory NetBsd will write to ?
> > > Highly interesting are regions in the area where NVRam, Flash
> > > or other memories with memory are located.
> > > 
> > > I'm not the first one with this trouble, see on Google and use
> > > the error shown above as searchargument...
> > > But the problem seems not to be fixed by now.
> > > 
> > > There seems something wrong with NetBSD and VAXStation 4000-90.
> > > 
> > > If you need further datails please contact me.
> > > 
> > > Have a nice day.
> > > 
> > > Bernhard.
> > > wulf@decus(dot)decus(dot)de
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
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