24 Dec
2001
24 Dec
'01
9:15 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Schneider" <ms(a)silke.rt.schwaben.de>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2001 05:46 PM
Subject: Re: More... Re: VS4000 hardware questions
Hello,
Just my 2 cents:
It's only the 4000/9x that gets so confused by the NetBSD booter that it
won't boot unattended anymore. It will throw a "SYS"-error (0200).
I can only verify that it does cause an error on the m90. A relief for
those with other models, I guess. It doesn't get too confused, tho-- just
enought that it doesn't want to boot alone, not to the point that it *can't*
boot. :/
My 4000/60 is happy with NetBSD, booting all the way to whatever OS i
throw at it. Just don't POWER DOWN your terminal while connected.
This will be interpreted as a break on the console line, which throws
you into the console monitor, just like a HALT.
Disconnect your terminal.
As a proof, this email is sent to the list via my 4000/60, running
NetBSD without a console terminal attached. (Some proof, i know ... 8-)
The 4000/vlc works just as well.
If you really want to keep a terminal attached and still want to be able to
power it up and down, the addition of a pulldown(up?) resistor on the rx pin
of the VAXstation should allow that. If it was done inside say a serial
breakout box, it would be easy to remove as well.
To get the 4000/60 autobooting you have to have
SET BOOT dka0 (or whatever your system disk is)
SET HALT 1
SET BFLG 0
I *knew* there were some more settings, but for the life of me I couldn't
remember!
Most NetBSD's up to 1.5.2 garble the "HALT" setting on shutdown, so you
should check this ("SHOW HALT"). Valid values are:
3: Machine halts on powerup (Manual boot)
2: Automatic reboot
1: Automatic restart
0: same as 2
"Automatic restart" is usually the default, since it tells the VAX to
try to quickly recover from e.g. a power failure. Try 0 or 2 as well.
If all this does not help, you might have a dead battery. But you should
get some error on powerup then.
Hope this helps
Michael Schneider (ms)
Bob
On Mon, 2001-12-24 at 20:36, Robert Schaefer wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Doc" <doc(a)mdrconsult.com>
> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 24, 2001 01:52 PM
> Subject: Re: More... Re: VS4000 hardware questions
>
>
> >
> > It looks like you're saying that, having booted NetBSD, I can no
longer
> > run the VS4000 headless? Right now, set to
serial console, it won't
even
> > post until I power up the serial terminal.
And on this box, powering
> > down the VT420 is a guaranteed halt. Have I misconfigured something,
or
> > am I stuck with this?
> > The 3100 m38 autoboots NetBSD quite happily with no console attached.
> > Since the hardware notes at NetBSD didn't give any warnings, I sort
> > ofexpected the same.
>
> >From what I have heard, seen, and possibly mis-remembered
or -understood,
> having once run NetBSD on a VaxStation 4000-90
(and possibly similar
models
> such as the -60 an -vlc) you will need to
manually enter 'boot' at the
>>
> console prompt, as the SYS subsystem fails a minor (possibly checksum)
test.
> I haven't experimented with this much at all,
other than a test-boot of
VMS
> to see if it would correct whatever might be
wrong. I have not
attempted to
> set any kind of automatic boot/halt/whatever flag
to see if it really
*does*
> halt the boot process. Chuck McManis may have a
better idea of what is
> going on, ISTR he was looking into it. There are a number of
knowlegable
> people on port-vax(a)netbsd.org who will have
better answers than I.
>
> I'm nearly in a position to bring my VAX cluster online (VAX 6000-320,
> VAXstation 4000-90, VAXstation 3100-40, & soon a VAX 4000-200) so I will
be
> more interested in making the m90 boot headless
in the Not Too Distant
> future, and I'll probably take a look at the code myself. Not that this
is
> any indication of my programming skills (or lack
thereof!), but more
eyes
can't hurt
anything.
--
Michael Schneider email: ms(a)silke.rt.schwaben.de
Germany http://www.vaxcluster.de
People disagree with me. I just ignore them.
(Linus Torvalds)
Doc
Bob