[Simh] SIMH vax.ini fine tuning

[Seth Morabito]

* On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:20:48PM +0200, Arpadffy Zoltan <Zoltan.Arpadffy at scientificgames.se> wrote:
> Hello,
> 

> I am so happy that thanks to Mark's master build I finally have a
> stable system used through the network.
>
> ...but there are still some fine tuning issues that, unfortunately
>  could not find any reference in the manuals.
> 
> 1. what is the proper method enabling of the sim_idle_enab flag? I
>  have tested the "set cpu idle" command but the CPU is still in 100%
>  usage

With the stock 3.8-1 release, you'll need TWO lines (both of these are
required!):

  set cpu idle
  set cpu idle=ultrix

There seems to be a bug that causes the simulator to say "Invalid
argument" after the second line, but the idle flag is correctly set
anyway. Do a "show cpu" at the "sim>" prompt and you should see
something like:

  sim> show cpu
  CPU, idle enabled=ULTRIX, 64MB, HALT to SIMH

> 2. I can change the auto-boot behaviour with "dep bdr 0" but is
>     there any way to choose the boot device that will be saved/kept
>     even after next simh start.  like a permanent "set boot dua0"
>     otherwise automatically attempts to boot XQA0

It sounds like you're not saving your NVRAM file. Do you have a line
in your ini file attaching NVRAM, like this?

  attach nvr nvram.bin

That will save your NVRAM settings and re-load them when the simulator
starts.

Regards,

-Seth