test-drb February 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
337 discussions

Holy Crap! IMSAI's weren't this expensive when new!

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Chandra Bajpai <cbajpai(a)mediaone.net> >George Cacioppo > >George Cacioppo is Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise >Product Division at Adobe Systems Incorporated in San Jose, California. Small world. I helped George build his first Altair. I have the backplane and a few cards from his H-11 and he got me into programming in Pascal. We go back a bit. Allison

23 years, 5 months

SCSI trouble on a MicroVAX IIGPX

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus(a)canit.se> >> of the interface to the media. It allows a MFM , EIDE or SCSI disk >> to look and work the same to the OS. > >Doesn't it on all platforms? I'm not certain about PC circumstances, >though. =) Compared MSCP IDE is primitive. >I inserted the card in the same slot it was in before removal, but could >it have been inserted the wrong way? Well if the componenets are oriented like the rest of the boards you have it right. you sure it's pushed all the way in? Are you sure you didn't move it down one or over (across)? Did you insure you didn't accidently pull another card out and not insert it all the way? Did you move and jumpers, switches inadvertantly? It you flipped it over the all important smoke will escape and then you have problems. It's pretty hard to do that. >I don't suppose it would matter on which connector on the SCSI cable that >the RZ55 was connected? Not likely, assuming all the connectors were in good shape. >Hm, that depends on your background. ^_^;; As non PC minicomputers and workstations go it is. Allison

23 years, 5 months

SCSI trouble on a MicroVAX IIGPX

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus(a)canit.se> >First of all, what the hell is MSCP? =) MSCP, Mass Storage Control Protocal. Unlike PCs VAX storage controllers are very smart and do part of the work independant of the interface to the media. It allows a MFM , EIDE or SCSI disk to look and work the same to the OS. >And why does it suddenly boot from the network, when it previously booted from >the hard drive at the sole mention of "boot"? Well, there is nothing to forget in the MVII, no cmos like PCs. The boot sequence is look on the bus for MSCP disk(s) and try to boot each, if that fails try to boot via network, if that fails look for a rom board and try to boot that. If it's failing to find the SCSI board/drive (likely if it tried the net) then you either put the card in the wrong place or the cables on wrong. Q-bus, unlike PCs, has a serial ordered bus grant and interrupt structure. That means if the chain is broken all the devices down the line from the break will not be seen. The only critical devices are disks, NIC and serial ports. >Could it be the lacking AUI transceiver that's causing trouble? No. >BTW, does this mean that the II GPX could boot over MOP, or even TFTP? MOP, yes. TFTP no. Actually MVII is a fairly simple machine. Allison

23 years, 5 months

SCSI trouble on a MicroVAX IIGPX

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus(a)canit.se> >Thanks, are there any good VAX references on the WWW? All manuals I've been >able to find are ULTRIX manuals, no hardware references. There may be but, I have real ones so I've never looked to see. In the case of booting even the ultrix manuals apply as it's the same booter in rom. Of course once ultrix is in mem the differences are obvious. Allison

23 years, 5 months

CPC/IP

by optimus＠canit.se

Here's something interesting: yet another 8-bit TCP/IP stack, this time for the Amstrad/Schneider CPC. CPC/IP is an implementation of the PPP, SLIP, IP, ICMP, UDP, TCP, DNS, TFTP, HTTP, ping, finger and telnet protocols for Amstrad CPC computers with an Amstrad, Pace or CPC Amstrad International serial interface. The code occupies about 14K, excluding the serial, filing system and IP buffers. Look at it, it's even got a TFTP server! I could boot my DECstation off it! Add to that an HTTP d?mon, and this seems like the most impressive, non-UNIX- clone 8-bit TCP/IP stack I've seen. =) -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6. "LART is an acronym for Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool, and is generally a piece of heavy hard material such as a cricket or baseball bat, hunk of pipe, or 2x4 for the fine tuning of a luser's atitude. This is a noun that can be used as a verb. If I say I lart someone, I mean that I am performing delicate tuning procedures upon that persons head utilizing a LART. An ICBM would be considered an agressive LART."

23 years, 5 months

SCSI trouble on a MicroVAX IIGPX

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus(a)canit.se> >I know nothing about the VAX prompt, but I know that "b" or "boot" has caused >it to boot before, so I did thus: > >>>b >2... >?4F SCBINT, XQA0 >?06 HLT INST > PC=00000EE6 >Fel. > >What could have caused this? Have I inserted the QBUS card incorrectly? Or Not specifying the correct device. " >>> b du" would have been enough to get it to search the DU (any MSCP complient disk) for an active drive and attempt to boot it. XQAn is eithernet DUxn {dua, dub...} is the MSCP disk MUxn is tape typically tk50 Allison

23 years, 5 months

SCSI trouble on a MicroVAX IIGPX

by optimus＠canit.se

I was recently rummaging through a MicroVAX II GPX, and found the card cage, as well as the convenient HD trays. I proceeded, out of curiosity, to remove the RZ55 and what seemed like a SCSI card as well as some other card mounted above the aforementioned card, connected to the tape drive. After a while, I decided to plug it all in again, but the VAX didn't seem to agree with my engineering principles. When I had chosen language, I reached the PROM prompt. It seemed to take a long time at the "6..." before the prompt, though. I know nothing about the VAX prompt, but I know that "b" or "boot" has caused it to boot before, so I did thus: >>b 2... ?4F SCBINT, XQA0 ?06 HLT INST PC=00000EE6 Fel. What could have caused this? Have I inserted the QBUS card incorrectly? Or does the SCSI (Is it SCSI at all?) cable have t0o be inserted in any particular way into the drive? This is rather alarming, I don't wish to have inadvertently destroyed a fine VAX. =/ -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6. Vi m?ste vara r?dda om varandra - det ?r v?rt enda reciproka pronomen.

23 years, 5 months

[OT] SCSI termination trouble?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 9, 9:45, Richard Erlacher wrote: > The boot drive normally IS at ID=0, however. That's a real convention > throughout the SCSI usage. I don't recall ever seeing a system that would > boot, say, from ID=4. Most PC's will promote the ID=1 device to the boot > rank, but not if ID=0 is present but manlfunctioning. YMMV, of course. Not so. That's a PC convention. Suns, SGIs and HP workstations will happily boot from ID 4 or other IDs, in fact it's necessary if you want to boot from a tape or CD-ROM. Most Suns and SGIs default to booting from ID 1. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

23 years, 5 months

[OT] SCSI termination trouble?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 9, 1:07, Chuck McManis wrote: > > >No ID is "reserved". The controller can have any ID, though generaly it's > >7. > > True, unless its a VAX 4000/VLC in which case its ID 6. :-) Or an SGI, or some Suns, in which case the controller is ID 0 :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

23 years, 5 months

[OT] SCSI termination trouble?

by spectre＠stockholm.ptloma.edu

This is definitely Off-Topic -- however, I'm absolutely baffled by this and I'm sure there's a SCSI expert out there somewhere. Like I said, the Seagate in my Power Mac 7300 overheated and is now making unpleasant grinding noises instead of booting. I got the old Quantum Fireball I used before out of the stock closet and plugged that in to try to boot back up again. However, the 7300 won't see any HD's I plug in. I tried it on the SCSI bus with just the hard drive by itself and no other devices, and it still doesn't see it. But if I hook the CD-ROM up (by itself or even with the HDs), it does see that -- but no HD. I'm sure it's not the cable (I've tried two and same results). I thought it might be a termination problem, but when I take the drive over to the IIci and plug it in, it mounts it fine. Obviously doesn't boot too well off MacOS 8.6, but if I boot the IIci off floppy and have it look at the hard drive, it does see all the files. No changes to jumpers. And, like on the 7300, the HD was the only drive except for the floppy on the ci's SCSI when I tested it. What gives? Is something fried on the 7300? Or am I missing some elementary rule about SCSI termination? The HD is a Quantum Fireball and its termination jumper is on, ID 0 (the CD-ROM is ID 4). Advice appreciated, flames borne with sheepish dignity. Sorry about the OT, but just to make this mildly on-topic, I did type this on the C128! :-) -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu -- "I don't think so," said Descartes, and he vanished. -----------------------

23 years, 5 months

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test-drb February 2001