On Sunday, December 28, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2014-12-28 18:02, Anders Magnusson wrote:
> > But; when this was done virtually no big VAXen were still running, so
> > the support for them may have bit-rotten.  This is what Johnny always
> > encounters when he tries to power up his 8600 ;-)
> 
> Heh... Yes, which is why I also keep a copy of boot on the RL02...
> But booting of my 8650 usually works fine, using VMB. But since I don't
> often upgrade boot blocks, things occasionally are messed up in current
> without me noticing.
> Things have become easier to spot since simh added support for the 86x0
> machine, as I occasionally try more odd things that way.
> 
> Note that NetBSD will not boot on an 86x0 machine with more than 64MB of
> memory at the moment. Something broken that I have not had time to look
> at.

Calvin Miracle also noticed that the VAX780 had an issue booting/running NetBSD 
6.1.5 with some devices when the system had more than 64MB of memory.  Maybe 
this is the same problem:

>   More than 64M main memory appears to make RQ undetectable. NetBSD needs 
>       to be initially installed to RQ disks. RP disks are detected, but 
>       cause a panic under fdisk. ;   More than 64M main memory appears to 
> make RQ undetectable. NetBSD needs 
>       to be initially installed to RQ disks. RP disks are detected, but 
>       cause a panic under fdisk.

Please let us know...

> > So; bottom line:  If installing NetBSD on a non-MicroVAX machine, it
> > is a safe bet to put the boot program on console media :-)
> 
> Agreed. It helps. But it also required that you know a bit more of how you do
> what...
> 
> Also, if booting older machines using VMB, you need to know the magic bits
> of R5, since it requires the same treatment as Ultrix. R5=0 will not boot
> NetBSD (or Ultrix).

With the latest simh version (and the VMB.EXE it contains) an R5=0 boot will 
work fine for both NetBSD and Ultrix on all the older VAX models.

- Mark
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