First VAX-11/730 VMS Boot! (was: Re: VAX-11/730 %BOOT-F-Unexpected Machine Check)

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-06-12 17:00, Peter Coghlan wrote:
>>
>> Thanks, that works! I also turned off write lock, which makes it happier.
>>
>
> Great :-)

Great indeed. Fun that you can even get 7.3 running on that old 
hardware. I don't think that it was officially supported, but I would 
have been surprised if it outright refused. However, the memory 
requirements was making me wonder...

>> Wow, that boot sure takes forever. What the heck is it *doing* for all of
>> that time? :)
>>
>
> If you want speed, you need an Alpha, not a VAX :-)

Or a faster VAX at least. The 11/730 is almost as bad as it could ever 
get. The MicroVAX I is probably worse, but that's the only one I can 
think of.

> There could be all sorts of stuff in the startup file
> (SYS$STARTUP:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM) that you don't need.
>
> Going back to an earlier version of VMS should help too - V7.3 probably has
> all sorts of stuff that is more appropriate on a later, faster VAX.

Avoid V5, though. I remember at the time that people was having serious 
issues with that version. V6 improved things again. I think DEC spent a 
fair amount of time to improve performance because of all the complaints 
about V5.
V4 would also be good in some ways, but it's old and might feel limited 
if you want some modern software running...

Not sure if V7 really is that bad with regards to speed. It's just that 
the 11/730 really is *slooow*.

	Johnny