Problem Installing Ultrix on DECstation 2100

[Robert Jarratt]

I should have mentioned that the CD-ROM drive I am using has the sector size jumper and I have tried it both with and without the jumper setting with the same result. In fact without the jumper I cannot even get it to do the initial boot off the CD. The other suggestion is about the SCSI ID. Previously the CD-ROM was ID 0, I then tried ID 4 (which was higher than the HDD).

I think I have two courses of action, from the suggestions I have had. First is to try a completely different model of CD-ROM drive (I have an RRD42 somewhere), and the other is to try some different SCSI IDs for the CD-ROM drive.

Thanks

Rob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Sean Caron
> Sent: 14 December 2014 04:23
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts; Sean Caron
> Subject: Re: Problem Installing Ultrix on DECstation 2100
> 
> I am pretty sure the DECstation 2100/3100 is old enough that it requires a
> 512 byte sector CD-ROM to boot and/or install properly. I find some of the
> older DEC machines are kind of picky... using a genuine DEC RRD drive will
> almost guarantee you to succeed; early CD-ROM drives from other workstation
> vendors of the same era (i.e. Sun) are also good bets. Most drives you will pull
> from Macs or PCs of the era are set up to do 2048 byte sectors and are no good
> for booting the old workstations (though they may work as a simple peripheral
> to read CD-ROMs after the fact).
> 
> In fact, exactly this sort of thing happened last time I loaded a VAXstation 3100
> (with VMS, but, same principle) over the summer... IIRC, I tried to boot it with a
> Sun drive first (note: 512 byte sector drive!) and it actually booted the miniroot
> OK, but it always would fail when trying to restore the save set to the disk. It
> only worked all the way through once I put the Sun drive away and started
> using a DEC RRD45. Use an AppleCD 300
> (2048 byte sectors) and it won't even boot the miniroot. So, just an example of
> exactly how picky they can be ;)
> 
> I kind of miss my old DECstation 2100/3100s... Had a few maybe 15 years ago. I
> ran NetBSD on mine... they were slower than dirt but I always enjoyed staring
> into that big old black hole of a monitor that was the
> VR290 hooked up to it... and I just love that font that DEC used for text mode. I
> didn't think of it as such at the time, but the machine is kind of historically
> significant; I think it was one of the first MIPS based machines to sell in real
> volume.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Sean
> 
> 
> On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Peter C. Wallace <pcw at mesanet.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 14 Dec 2014, Robert Jarratt wrote:
> >
> >  Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 00:17:52 -0000
> >> From: Robert Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com>
> >> Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> >>     <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <
> >> cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> >> Subject: Problem Installing Ultrix on DECstation 2100
> >>
> >>
> >> (apologies to those on the DecTec list, looking to widen the
> >> audience)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I am struggling to surmount a problem installing Ultrix 4.5 from a
> >> CD-ROM onto a DECstation 2100 (MIPS)
> >>
> >> After choosing the type of installation (basic or advanced) it tries
> >> to offer the system disk selection. However, it keeps failing because
> >> it is detecting the CD-ROM drive and saying it has an invalid block
> >> size. I can hear it spin up the hard disk that I want to install on,
> >> so it should be finding a suitable hard disk, but it looks like it
> >> keeps choking on the CD-ROM drive. I can't tell if it is failing to
> >> see the hard disk properly, but when I tried NetBSD on the same disk,
> >> and in the same machine, it is fine, so the hard disk shouldn't be the
> problem.
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Is it a DEC CD-ROM drive? I think the blocksize must be 512 bytes but
> > generic CD-ROM drive have a 2K? block size. Somes drives have a jumper
> > that sets the block size.
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Any ideas on how to resolve this?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Rob
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > Peter Wallace
> > Mesa Electronics
> >
> > (\__/)
> > (='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
> > (")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.
> >
> >