Vaxstation 3100 - I have console access

[Bryan Everly]

I was planning on installing OpenBSD on this box from a floppy image
however I can just swap the whole board and do a net boot of the
installer.

Thanks,
Bryan

> On Feb 20, 2016, at 7:12 PM, Richard Loken <rlloken at telus.net> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 20 Feb 2016, Bryan Everly wrote:
>>
>> Also I found a SCSI only controller on eBay for $30 that did have the
>> eprom in it so I picked it up. I will try it and see if I can at least
>> see the SCSI bus and drive. If that works then what do you think my
>> odds are of being able to move the eprom over to the SCSI/MFM board
>> and getting my floppy working?
>
> I vote against moving the eprom to your controller, I expect they are not
> the same.  If you can get the SCSI controller working then pretend you
> don't have a floppy drive, it would be more useful to install a CDrom
> drive, I have seen VAX/VMS distros on cds and on TK50 tapes but never had
> call to want a floppy drive.
>
> I think the 3100 will be very particular about the model of CD drive that
> you attach.
>
> So I looked in mine and sent you a couple pictures of the SCSI controller
> which does not have a floppy controller on it.  I have a couple manuals
> for the VS3100 but I cannot find them at the moments.  Since I had the
> box open, I removed the NiCd battery pack which is not leaking but just
> might do that some day.
>
> I am interested in knowing what is gained by having an floppy drive since
> most VAXstations do not seem to have one.  I have worked mostly with large
> VAXen: the VAX 8600, 8650, 8820, 4000 model 300, and 4000 model 505A
> as well as two little VAXstations: the 2000 and the 3100 and none of
> them had a floppy drive.
>
> --
>  Richard Loken VE6BSV, Systems Programmer - VMS   : "...underneath those
>  Athabasca University                   : tuques we wear, our
>  Athabasca, Alberta Canada               : heads are naked!"
>  ** rlloken at telus.net **                         :    - Arthur Black