[Simh] Oh, my

[Nathan Cutler]

> is a required volume is missing during the initial startup - why not simply create one ?

My thoughts, exactly. Until I realized that I don't have a functioning
OpenVMS system to create one with. As Rob suggested, I could have
installed OpenVMS to another "disk" (i.e. container file). However, in
the end this turned into a learning experience, which was much better.
With a little (OK, a lot of) help from my friends and the System
Manager's Manual, I managed to do a conversational boot with minimum
startup (described in Section 4.5.3. of the manual), and from there it
was no problem to delete the offending MOUNT line from
SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM.

I also learned to always use the /NOASSIST option to MOUNT.

Nathan