On Fri, 8 Apr 2005, John Tate wrote:

> Hey,
>
> I am pretty new to the VAX hardware, but I am pretty good with Linux
> and BSD (I run a OpenBSD machine for my main server) and I have got my
> hands on a VAXStation 3100 M38, which is alien hardware to me.

Okay...

> I have
> set it up so I can talk to it via serial port, however it gives me
> some weird bootloader 'KA42B' I don't even understand (references?).

KA42B is actually an identification of the CPU you have. You should get
some additional stuff printed out, and you should be able to abort the
booting at that point to get the "chevron" prompt where you can do some
things.

> Nonetheless I was hopeing someone would be able to help me install
> NetBSD on it via the floppy drive it has. If I figure out how to boot
> it and then do an install across NFS or just FTP straight from the net
> I should be right, right?

I think the floppy install isn't working. The best bet is network booting,
but I seem to remember some problems with that as well. I have an "old"
version of the boot program still around because of this, so that I can do
the netboot.

	Johnny

Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol