Hello, VAX fans,
I've been testing the patches made by Kalvis Duckmanton which are
available from the link in this message:
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-vax/2020/06/30/msg003569.html
Most of the known toolchain problems seem to have been fixed by Kalvis,
but of course more testing is always good.
The NetBSD installation files with these patches are available here:
https://www.zia.io/~john/vax/
The ISO is here:
https://www.zia.io/~john/vax/images/NetBSD-9.0_STABLE-vax.iso
I've updated my SIMH image with these updates and have made them
available for download. Here's how to use the updated VAX SIMH image.
https://www.zia.io/~john/vax/simh/vax.img.xz
https://www.zia.io/~john/vax/simh/pkgsrc.img.xz
https://www.zia.io/~john/vax/simh/vax.ini
Install SIMH for your OS (via pkgsrc is good), fetch the above files,
and change vax.ini to have the location of ka655x.bin on your system, if
it's not in the pkgsrc default location.
Next, create a swap file, create a bridge and a tap interface, set
permissions for /dev/tap0, and launch. Change "wm0" to whatever ethernet
interface you have and change /dev/tap0's group to whatever your group
is (johngroup for example), then change permissions. As root:
ifconfig tap0 create
ifconfig tap0 up
ifconfig bridge0 create
brconfig bridge0 fwddelay 1
brconfig bridge0 add tap0 add wm0
ifconfig bridge0 up
chgrp johngroup /dev/tap0
chmod g+rw /dev/tap0
As your non-root user:
dd if=/dev/zero of=swap.img bs=1m count=256
Finally, launch simh:
simh-vax -v vax.ini
Once you get to the chevron prompt ">>>", type:
set boot dua0
boot
And the system will boot. There is a "vax" user with a password of
"netbsd" for local ssh access.
pkgsrc.img is a separate filesystem, so if you want quick, local access,
you can use vnd (but not at the same time as simh is running!):
vndconfig vnd0 pkgsrc.img
mount -o log /dev/vnd0a /mnt
Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
John Klos