9 Dec
2005
9 Dec
'05
7:49 a.m.
Subject: RE: A Hobbyist DECnet Network
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:47:25 -0800
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
At 9:33 PM -0500 12/8/05, Allison wrote:
Is a VS2000 really that slow to boot? I own one, but it has memory
problems, they don't prevent me from formating drives, but they do
prevent it from booting an OS.
The VS2k is a bare bones uVAX-II cpu and inst very fast but I never
thought the boot to be unusually slow unless the dianogstic were running.
However if the startup of the various added processes (DECNnet and DECwindows)
is in the wrong order or done all at once the process can drag out
as you run into needing one to enable the next and they are all eating up
the cpu at the same time. A little tweeking of SYS$startup.com makes
a differnce. One thing is pruning off unused or unneeded stuff.
[The
first "personal" VAX I ever owned was a VS2000, around 1989/1990. I
used to come home, turn it on, and I could make dinner while I waited for it
to boot and start DECwindows!]
I have three of them, one is used for formatting disks both floppy and hard.
My first uVAX was a MicroVAX-II in BA23, still have it. My first uVAX was a VAXstation II/RC in a BA23,
I've still got it,
though the monitor needs repaired. My second was a MicroVAX II in a
BA123, and was the first VAX I got running, it's now my PDP-11/73.
I've never seen a MicroVAX II boot slow enough to make dinner :^)
Zane
I always used VT100/125 or VT340 as they are smaller than the huge 19"
DECwindows tube.
Allison
9 Dec
9 Dec
12:01 p.m.
At 7:49 AM -0500 12/9/05, Allison wrote:
Actually for the most part I've always used a VT220, VT320, or now
VT420's. I don't think I ever managed to get the VAXstation II/RC
booted when the monitor was working, and once I actually wanted to, I
discovered the monitor wasn't working. For the past several years
it's been sitting in a storage unit under a DECwriter II terminal. I
ended up with the MicroVAX II before I could get ahold of a
replacement disk and copy of the OS for the II/RC.
In the past, I have used 17" to 21" monitors on my Alpha's running
VMS, and come to think of it I briefly had my VS4000VLC hooked up to
the 17". Still for the last 5+ years all I've normally used is a
VT420 as the system console and simply used telnet or ssh to connect
to a shell session. Every few months I pull up a DECwindows session
on my Mac.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
My first uVAX
was a VAXstation II/RC in a BA23, I've still got it,
though the monitor needs repaired. My second was a MicroVAX II in a
BA123, and was the first VAX I got running, it's now my PDP-11/73.
I've never seen a MicroVAX II boot slow enough to make dinner :^)
Zane
I always used VT100/125 or VT340 as they are smaller than the huge 19"
DECwindows tube.
Allison 
1:24 p.m.
New subject: VS2000 speed (was RE: A Hobbyist DECnet Network)
The VS2k is a bare bones uVAX-II cpu and inst very
fast but I never
thought the boot to be unusually slow unless the dianogstic
were running.
RD5x drives are painfully slow, and this is especially a problem in the
VS2000 because the integrated disk controller a) lacks DMA, and b) lacks the
T11 chip to do local processing found in a RQDXn - the uVAX CPU has to do
all the work.
Starting DECwindows, especially, took forever...
[Also, maybe I can cook dinner faster than you :-)]
Bob
2:03 p.m.
New subject: VS2000 speed (was RE: A Hobbyist DECnet Network)
Robert Armstrong wrote:
Wolfgang Moeller produced some patches way back when for the
uVAX/VS 2000 that would allow it to use a SCSI disk.
Never actually tried it myself (as I had RD drives available
and faster machines if I just wanted speed).
Antonio
--
Antonio carlini
arcarlini at iee.org
The VS2k is a
bare bones uVAX-II cpu and inst very fast but I never
thought the boot to be unusually slow unless the dianogstic
were running.
RD5x drives are painfully slow, and this is especially a problem in
the VS2000 because the integrated disk controller a) lacks DMA, and
b) lacks the T11 chip to do local processing found in a RQDXn - the
uVAX CPU has to do all the work. 
3:47 p.m.
New subject: VS2000 speed (was RE: A Hobbyist DECnet Network)
a.carlini at ntlworld.com wrote:
Wolfgang Moeller produced some patches way back when for the
uVAX/VS 2000 that would allow it to use a SCSI disk.
...and boot from it, too, if you patch the PROMs to look
for the driver at boot time. I did and can
boot from a 3.5" SCSI disk that I put inside the vs2000.
Be aware, though, that the complete fix includes
patching the PROMs, copying the pk2kdrvr to the disk
and finally patching some programs so that they
work correctly with the package; these include
configure, dump, staconfig, standconf, sysgen;
the patches exist for 5.5-2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1 and 7.2
only. The patches are needed to limit the
data transfer size to 16kb, the max supported by the
driver.
Carlos.
6:23 p.m.
New subject: VS2000 speed (was RE: A Hobbyist DECnet Network)
On Fri, 9 Dec 2005 19:03:42 -0000
"a.carlini at ntlworld.com" <arcarlini at iee.org> wrote:
Wolfgang Moeller produced some patches way back when
for the
uVAX/VS 2000 that would allow it to use a SCSI disk.
Never actually tried it myself
I patched my VS2k that way. As I am a BSD person I
never tried with VMS.
NetBSD gets as far as loading the bootloader. It can't load the kernel
as the bootloader lacks support for the VS2k SCSI port. I dim remember
that a friend got further with VMS, but it is some years since we
patched our ROMs and played with it.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
3:23 p.m.
New subject: VS2000 speed (was RE: A Hobbyist DECnet Network)
I remember my uVII (RD54 on QBus, no Windowing) taking about 9 minutes
to boot, and about 15 seconds to do a HELP page. Still worth the wait,
compared to PCDOS certainly.
John A.
6873
days inactive
6873
days old
6 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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ajp166＠bellatlantic.net -
allain＠panix.com -
arcarlini＠iee.org -
bob＠jfcl.com -
cmurillo＠autonoma.edu.co -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de