first step getting VAX 6000-400 booted ...

Thanks everyone! your posts were all very informative. I took home the following points: - my RA90 drive is not responding to the host, this is probably because the drive number isn't set properly. I get "0000" in the display but I should set it to "1" because "0000" means "unspecified". Is that right? The cabling swap issue is probably not the cause, unless there are two kinds of cables. Geoff has backplane->bulkhead->drive woking fine. Seems like backplane->bulkhead->SA800-bulkhead->drive will also work. May be the bulkheads are doing the swapping,not the cables? So there is hope. - I got my TU81+ powered up and load tapes etc. The tape excerciser comes back with E06 though, I guess that means I need to do a bit more scrubbing and cleaning? Anyway, I get to put a tape online. Still, no MU other than MUC6 (TK) is detected by the VMS backup. It also comes back with an I/O error if I try to boot from TU directly. Do I have to set a unit number on the TU81 as well? - My CIBCA problems are all explained simply because it's not terminated to the star coupler. I have a star coupler and HSC and everything for a serious cluster, just not all in the basement yet. Will do that in time. For now CIBCA card set is out. (BTW: do I have to screw those caps over all unused connections on the star coupler?) - For ULTRIX and perhaps even VMS 6.1 I may need to remove two of my processors. - The DMB32 parallel printer is not a Centronics interface. But I may actually have a printer to go with it. A BIG thing, not heavy but taking up precious space if I put it into my basement. - MOP booting Ultrix may not be as easy as I think. Perhaps the VMS path is the best for now. Once I have control over all devices, I can try copying the TK boot tape to TU if that has a chance of better success. regards -Gunther -- Gunther_Schadow-------------------------------http://aurora.rg.iupui.edu Regenstrief Institute for Health Care 1050 Wishard Blvd., Indianapolis IN 46202, Phone: (317) 630 7960 schadow(a)aurora.rg.iupui.edu------------------#include <usual/disclaimer>