9 Feb
2001
9 Feb
'01
12:25 p.m.
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