> >>> boot/r5:10000000 dka400:
>=20
> as suggested in installation manual; machine barfs with=20
> something along
> the lines of
>=20
> %VMB-F-ERR PC =3D 00001350
> %VMB-I-STS R0 =3D 00000810
> (could be wrong on second line since i'm typing from memory but first
> one is correct for sure)

The second one corresponds to %SYSTEM-W-BADFILEHDR, bad file header
(unless it's in decimal in whaich case it would be
%SYSTEM-E-DEVCMDERR, device command error, but I'd bet on the hex).

> So i was wondering what exactly that BACKUP thing does with VMS073.B
> during installation anyway - i can get the file off the installation
> medium (using vmscd) but i don't know what to do with it. I guess this

Assuming the target device on which you wish to perform the
install is already initialised as ODS-2, then you could copy=20
all the VMS073.* and DECW073.* savesets into the [000000]=20
directory on that disk. Assume that disk is DKA200: and
the disk onto which you wish to install is DKA0: then you
would boot standalone backup from whereever and do:
  BACKUP/IMAGE/VERIFY DKA200:[000000]VMS073.B/SAVE DKA0:
wait for that to finish and then
  B DKA0:
and proceed.

This wipes whatever was on DKA0: initially (everything,
no partitions would survive).

If this is a first time install of OpenVMS and you have
no other OpenVMS system with which you can temporarily
cluster, then this is probably not viable (because you
will not have an ODS-2 format disk to be your DKA200:).

If you do have a handy DKA200: (of sufficient size) that
you can use as a scratch disk, you might try using
dd to copy the CD to DKA200: then
  B/R5:10000000 DKA200:
may well boot into the CD version of OpenVMS, at
which point you could probably do the:
  $ BACKUP/IMAGE/VERIFY DKA200:[whereever]VMS073.B/SAV DKA0:
and then boot off DKA0: and continue (still using DKA200:
as your "CD").
>=20
> FWIW, CD drive works like a charm under NetBSD (2.0_beta). I=20
> don't have
> any other bootable Vax CD medium here so i can't verify=20
> whether it's VMS
> that doesn't like my CD drive or it's my machine that is=20
> being picky and
> won't boot off of it no matter what i feed it. I thought about burning
> me an old copy of NetBSD but IIRC both 1.6.1 and 1.6.2 ISOs are broken
> (and 1.5.x are unsafe and the rest are ... ancient and out of=20
> sync with
> reality).

The VAX console can be a little fussy about which CD drives
it will work with. It was only ever tested against kosher
DEC RRD4x devices (and maybe an RRD5x, but that's soooo slow!).
Just like Sun boxes, DEC boxes are fussy about CDs: 512-byte
blocks is not enough. You *might* be able to get it to work
reliably (or enough for S/A BACKUP) at the console by
fiddling with the CDROM mode pages, but I would not know
where to start.

If you do get full OpenVMS on there you should find it
somewhat less fussy.

Of course, you may have a broken CD or damaged media,
but if you can dd it reliably under NetBSD, then neither
of those would be true.

Antonio


--=20

---------------

Antonio Carlini arcarlini@iee.org