I did it! I did it! I did it! Yeah!

See for yourself:

#123456789 0123456789 0123456789 01234567#

F   E   D   C   B   A   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   0   NODE #
     A   A   .   A   M   M   M   M   P   P   P   P   P   P       TYP
     o   o   .   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +       STF
     .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   E   E   E   E   E   B       BPD
     .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   +   +   +   +   +   +       ETF
     .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   E   E   E   E   E   B       BPD


.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   +   .   .   +   +   +   .   XBI D +
.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   +   +   .   +   .   +   .   XBI E +

     .   .   .   .  A4  A3  A2  A1   .   .   .   .   .   .       ILV
     .   .   .   . 128 128 128 128   .   .   .   .   .   .      512 Mb

ROM0 = V4.00 ROM1 = V4.00 EEPROM = 2.03/4.02  SN = AG94408887


Restarting system software.
Restart failed due to previous error.
Loading system software.

Ultrixboot - V4.5  Sun Sep 17 13:03:13 EDT 1995

Loading (a)vmunix ...

Sizes:
text = 1153664
data = 281088
bss  = 1043548
Starting at 0x5219

ULTRIX V4.5 (Rev. 47) System #3: Wed Oct 18 11:49:00 EDT 1995
real mem  = 536346624
Memory configuration adjusted to run with small system page table
real mem  = 5242880
avail mem = 1866752
using 128 buffers containing 524288 bytes of memory
bcNode ID = 1
VAX6460, ucode rev 6, ucode opts 0, system type 0x02400101.
FPA is enabled
xmi 0 at address 0x21800000
xrp at xmi0 node 1
xrp at xmi0 node 2
xrp at xmi0 node 3
xrp at xmi0 node 4
xrp at xmi0 node 5
xrp at xmi0 node 6
xma at xmi0 node 7
xma at xmi0 node 8
xma at xmi0 node 9
xma at xmi0 node 10
kdm0 at xmi0 node 11
uq24 at kdm0 csr 100 vec 554, ipl 15
vaxbi13 at xmi0 node 13
xbib at vaxbi13 node 1
klesib at vaxbid node 2 failed to initialize!
kdb0 at vaxbi13 node 3
uq4 at kdb0 csr 362 vec 514, ipl 15
xna0 at vaxbi13 node 6
xna0: DEC DEBNI Ethernet Interface, hardware address 08:00:2b:34:a5:ca
vaxbi14 at xmi0 node 14
xbib at vaxbi14 node 1
dmb0 at vaxbi14 node 3
ci0 at vaxbi14 node 5 (CIBCA-BA)
aie0 at vaxbi14 node 6
bvpssp2 at aie0
ra0 at uq24 slave 0 (RA90)
tms6 at bvpssp2 slave 6 (TK70)
WARNING: todr too small -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
Sun Jul  4 13:29:26 EDT 1976
Automatic reboot in progress...
/dev/ra0a: 638 files, 5927 used, 9624 free (144 frags, 1185 blocks, 0.9% fragmen
tation)
/dev/rra0d: umounted cleanly
check quotas: done.
local daemons: syslog sendmail.
Removing remnant Opser files
preserving editor files
clearing /tmp
standard daemons: update cron accounting network snmpd printer.
start errlog daemon - elcsd
Sun Jul  4 13:29:44 EDT 1976
Sun Jul  4 13:29:46 1976  elcsd:datagram socket bind error ; Can't assign reques
ted address
Sun Jul  4 13:29:47 1976  elcsd:stream socket bind error ; Can't assign requeste
d address
Sun Jul  4 13:29:47 1976  elcsd:error can't open/setup main errlog file ;
Sun Jul  4 13:29:47 1976  elcsd:no errlog path for backup file;
Sun Jul  4 13:29:47 1976  elcsd:open/setup single user mode errlog file /syserr.
phicus;


ULTRIX V4.5 (Rev. 47) (phicus)

login: root
     Sun Jul 4 13:30:01 EDT 1976

Password:

ULTRIX V4.5 (Rev. 47) System #3: Wed Oct 18 11:49:00 EDT 1995

                 Digital Equipment Corporation
                 Nashua, New Hampshire

erase ^H, kill ^U, intr ^C
# ls
.new...cshrc     inst             opr              ultrixboot
.new...login     install.log      pcs750.bin       usr
.new...rhosts    install.tmp      real.profile     usr2
.profile         lib              restoresymtable  vmb.exe
all.files        lost+found       sys              vmunix
bin              mnt              syserr.myname
dev              netload          syserr.phicus
etc              new              tmp
# date
Sun Jul  4 13:32:08 EDT 1976



How did I do that? Not with the boot tape, DEC has screwed that up
(not supporting their supported hardware for the boot tape, duh!)
The key to success really was SIMH. With SIMH I could install ULTRIX
on an RA90 image. Then I simply ripped the "a" partition as a binary
image (3.5 MB zipped) and moved it to the VAX 6000/VMS. The move was
greatly helped by Brian Wheeler, who gave me an uVAX-II and Isildur,
who gave me a TK50 for it. Although I found out a trick by which one
can drive the console port of the VAX6000/VMS up to 38400 bps (simply
boot the machine and VMS with NO terminal attached, not finding a
signal, it bumps up the speed to 38400 and keeps it there. This allows
moving 3.5 MB in a bit less than 30 minutes.) Then I simply copied
that image onto the disk mounted /foreign, booted the disk and
voila! First time I got it up I was so excited that I messed up the
unit numbers and accidentially killed both my VMS 7.2 system and my
new ULTRIX disk! Luckily I had a spare VMS 5.4 disk in reserve. In
a way I'm happy I blew my VMS 7.2 disk, because its DU0 and that
should become ULTRIX anyway. Now I don't need to think about backing
the VMS stuff up any more!

Folks, this feels sooooooo good. I have been muddling for almost
one year for this moment!

The next questions are, since Evi Nemeth et al. unfortunately neglect
ULTRIX in their otherwise excellent book, where do I learn about such
things as ULTRIX 4.5 kernel configuration? I need to build a custom
kernel, but when I tried it with my 4.3 BSD knowledge of how this is
done, it failed because it didn't find sources and stuff. Can someone
give me a few hints? Do I have to manually copy the .o filed of the
BINARY directory into my own kernel directory? There are a few options
in the config file that I don't understand, is that described anywhere?

Also, does anyone have experience actually building the 4.2 sources?

My next steps are:

- make custom ULTRIX 4.5 kernel
- build the ULTRIX 4.2 system from sources
- get the CI working to the MTI StingRay and the HSC90
- load a bunch of software, especially GNU stuff, gcc,
   emacs, bash, less ...
- Install PostgreSQL
- try building the JDK
- get a VAX 6660 and hack support for it into ULTRIX 4.2
- load NetBSD sources and build as far as it gets and
   add support for XMI, KA64A, etc.

and for the other machines, get the MFM drive for my uVAX
formatted (need to produce a diagnostics tape for that.) Start
up my VAX 11/780, turn it into a 785 and make a dual CPU
machine from it. Install the PDP-8/A rack and make it going.

Final question for today: is there a program that rips an exact
tape image from a physical tape (TK70). I have that diagnostics
tape on a TK70 but need to move it onto TK50. The TK50 drive
is not happy on the TQK70 controller (or VMS isn't happy with
it.) So, I need to make a binary image, move it to laptop,
boot uVAX-II/NetBSD and write it on TK50.

Thanks so much for all your help and advice without which I
wouldn't even have started getting the VAX 6400 ins the first
place, much less making it boot ULTRIX.

-Gunther

-- 
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D.                    gschadow@regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist      Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor        Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960                         http://aurora.regenstrief.org