VaxStation 2000 and MFM Drive

[romanis%gmx.ch@localhost]

Hello,

i've got hands on a VaxStation 2000, with 14 MB RAM, but without monitor or 
harddrive. Fortunately i have an old 20 MB RLL Harddrive, which i could format 
with the ROM Test 70 command. (It has 782 cyl, 2 heads, and as a MFM drive 17 
sec/track - 12 MB formatted). I can see the drive from an netbooted NetBSD, 
make an installboot, copy the kernel, etc. But i cannot bootstrap from it. I 
would like to bootstrap from MFM and then use a bigger SCSI harddrive to hold 
the root-filesystem, etc.


KA410-B V2.3

F_..E...D...C...B...A...9...8...7...6...5...4_..3_..2_..1...


 ?  E  0040  0000.0005
 ?  C  0080  0000.4001
 ?  6  00A0  0000.4001


 83 BOOT SYS
?02 EXT HLT
    PC = 000014C2
>>> boot dua0


-DUA0

%VMB-F-ERR, PC = 00000765
%VMB-I-STS, R0 = 000008C2
 84 FAIL
>>>

Are there known compatibility issues with non-dec MFM drives and booting? 
maybe i did an error in specifing the disk as an RD51?

I've tried several NetBSD and OpenBSD versions, the several installboot, or 
disklabel commands proceeded without error, i've even tried to dd the bootblock 
from a known bootable scsi drive to the mfm drive, or writing the bootblock 
directly onto rd0c.