TU81+ spooks (was: Re: first step getting VAX 6000-400 booted ...) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

29 Oct 2001

...
  Gunther Schadow wrote:
I did try MUB0 (because that's how VMS calls it for me), but
that doesn't work. I just like VMS calls my disk DUA0 but to
boot from it I have to call it just DU0. So MU0 it should be.
The CSA1 is weird, because it's really MUC6 for VMS, and it
should be another MU. 
	The console's idea of a device
	name and VMS's idea of a device
	name will not always agree.

	For MSCP SDI disks (like your RA90)
	the device name will usually be DUAn:,
	where n: is the unit number you have
	given it. OpenVMS will sort out how
	to get from that unit number to a specific
	path to the device (possibly hanging off a CI
	rather than on your local machine!)

	The console usually does not bother with such
	shenanigans. It wants you to tell it how to find the
	device. For example, on a VAX 82x0/83x0 box you
	would boot as:
		B DUsn:
	where s is something like the VAXBI slot
	number in hex, and n is the unit
	number (also in hex IIRC). Of course
	if you put your KDB50 in slot ten then you can do:
		B DUAn:
	but that just hides the difference :-)

	Once VMS boots you can do:
		$ MC SYSGEN
	       A A /L
	(that's AUTOCONFIGURE ALL /LOG)
	and it will go off and find most things.
	Then SHOW DEVICE D will list the disks
	(really any device that starts with D) and
	SHOW DEV M will show the Magtapes.

	The Console Storage device (CS) is
	generally not visible without being explicitly
	made so via SYSGEN, so it will generally
	not show up.


...
 Yes, that would be the crucial question? Can you even
boot from
TU81+. Given the rest of the orthogonal DEC design, I would be
highly surprized if one could not. Also, I'm pretty sure that
BSD used to be distributed on 9-track, bootable, presumably. But
I would appreciate a confirmation of this. If someone could test
copying a bootable TK to TU and then try TU booting? 
	I don't know whether the VAX 6000 can cope with
	booting from TU81+, nor do I know what, if any, 
	controller support it expects for a device to be bootable.
	(I don't know how much of a boot driver is
	implemented in the console and how much needs
	to be provided by the controller).

	If you do want to backup your system disk, the steps
	are as follows:

	1. Install standalone backup on the system disk.

		$ @SYS$UPDATE:STABACKIT SYS$SYSDEVICE:

	    This *should* (if I've remembered it correctly) create
	     a standalone backup in root SYSE (i.e.
	          $ DIR SYS$SYSDEVICE:[SYSE]
	      should now have something in it ... don't
	      mess or delete any of this though, most of
	      it is effectively symlinks to stuff that matters!)

	   2. Boot as normal but with R5's top byte set to E,
	       typically /R5:E0000000 should do this for you.

	    3. Standalone Backup should come up in
	        a few minutes rather than a few hours!

	     4. $ BACKUP/IMAGE/VERIFY/IGNORE=LABEL SYS$SYSDEVICE:
mua0:SYSTEM.BCK /SAVE

	         mua0: is whatever the tape device wants to be called
(MUB0:,
	         MUB1: CSA1:, whatever).

	         SYSTEM.BCK is just the saveset filename
	 
	         /IGNORE=LABEL means "I don't care how valuable that
	         tape is, I know what I'm doing so wipe it!!"

	         /VERIFY means it will take twice as long but there
	         is a possibility that you may be able to restore the
	         data one day :-)

	          It's been a while, so this probably won't work first time.

	Antonio