[Simh] Booting the vax750 simulator.

[Johnny Billquist]

I would suggest you start off by creating the system using a simulated 
uVAX II, as that can boot from tape. Once you have the system running. 
move the disk over to an emulated 11/750, and continue playing from there.

	Johnny

On 2015-06-19 16:14, Mattis Lind wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I am in the process to revive an VAX-11/750 machine but since I have no
> tape (nor install tapes) drive my idea was to  create an image which I
> could transfer to a SCSI disk and then use a MSCP SCSI controller to
> boot the machine.
>
> I thought it would be a good idea to use the SimH vax750 simulator to do
> this work. But I encounter problem. Many of these problems are probably
> due to the fact I am not very familiar with SimH. Although I think I
> read though several documents and studied the source code.
>
> The booting process of the SimH vax750 simulator seems to differ from
> the real VAX-11/750. On the real thing when I insert console media and
> boot it it will read and I get a BOOT58> prompt. This doesn't happen at
> all on the simulator. Instead it seems that it preloads vmb.exe and then
> execute it.
>
> The images I have been using was found on
> http://iamvirtual.ca/VAX11/VAX-11-software.html
>
> All tests below is run using SimH from github compiled on MACOS.
> Although I have also tested to compile it on Linux with the same result.
>
> This is what happen on the simulator:
>
> sim> boot td0
> Loading boot code from vmb.exe
>
>
>
> Please remove the volume "CONSOLE" from the console device.
>
> Insert the first standalone system volume and enter "YES" when ready: YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "CONSOLE", please stand by . . .
>
>
> 1 BRK AT 00001C50
> 00001C50/CF00FB01
>
> It seems some kind of command line is active since I get this output
> when I press some random keys:
>
>
> EH?
> EEE
> 00000EEE /8AAF9552
>
>
> --------
>
> Booting a standalone backup works OK if I don't follow the instructions
> to replace the console media the first time.
>
>
> sim> attach td0 /Users/mattis_lind/Downloads/BE-CT97A-BE.TAP
> TD: writing buffer to file
> TD: buffering file in memory
> sim> boot td0
> Loading boot code from vmb.exe
>
>
>
> Please remove the volume "SYSTEM_1" from the console device.
>
> Insert the first standalone system volume and enter "YES" when ready: YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "SYSTEM_1", please stand by . . .
>
>
> Please remove the volume "SYSTEM_1" from the console device.
>
> Insert the next standalone system volume and enter "YES" when ready:
> Simulation stopped, PC: 000083D8 (MFPR #20,R0)
> sim> attach td0 /Users/mattis_lind/Downloads/BE-CT98A-BE.TAP
> TD: writing buffer to file
> TD: buffering file in memory
> sim> cont
> YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "SYSTEM_2", please stand by . . .
>
>
>
>     VAX/VMS Version V4.0 15-SEP-1984 22:29
>
>
> Please remove the volume "SYSTEM_2" from the console device.
>
> Insert the standalone application volume and enter "YES" when ready:
> Simulation stopped, PC: 80008B1F (BRB 80008B1F)
> sim> attach td0 /Users/mattis_lind/Downloads/BE-CT99A-BE.TAP
> TD: writing buffer to file
> TD: buffering file in memory
> sim> cont
> YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "BACKUP", please stand by . . .
>
>
> %BACKUP-I-IDENT, Stand-alone BACKUP V4.0; the date is 17-JUN-1984
> 22:40:44.48
> $
>
> ---------
>
> Then trying to run various diagnostics images that are supposed to be
> standalone and do read on the real thing but gives the following result:
>
> sim> attach td0 /Users/mattis_lind/Downloads/BE-S198Q-DE.TAP
> TD: writing buffer to file
> TD: buffering file in memory
> sim> boot td0
> Loading boot code from vmb.exe
>
>
>
> Please remove the volume "VMS Exchange" from the console device.
>
> Insert the first standalone system volume and enter "YES" when ready: YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "VMS Exchange", please stand by . . .
>
> ECKAL -- VAX 11/750 Cache/TB Diagnostic
> HALT instruction, PC: 00002608 (MTPR #F,#26)
> sim> attach td0 /Users/mattis_lind/Downloads/BE-S199T-DE.TAP
> TD: writing buffer to file
> TD: buffering file in memory
> sim> boot td0
> Loading boot code from vmb.exe
>
>
>
> Please remove the volume "VMS Exchange" from the console device.
>
> Insert the first standalone system volume and enter "YES" when ready: YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "VMS Exchange", please stand by . . .
>
> %BOOT-F-Unable to locate BOOT file
> HALT instruction, PC: 000004C7 (BLBS 549,4C6)
> sim> attach td0 /Users/mattis_lind/Downloads/BE-S200I-DE.TAP
> TD: writing buffer to file
> TD: buffering file in memory
> sim> boot td0
> Loading boot code from vmb.exe
>
>
>
> Please remove the volume "" from the console device.
>
> Insert the first standalone system volume and enter "YES" when ready: YES
>
> Resuming load operation on volume "", please stand by . . .
>
> %BOOT-F-Unable to locate BOOT file
> HALT instruction, PC: 000004C7 (BLBS 549,4C6)
> sim>
>
> As you can see the Cache/TB diagnostic do read in and seem to execute
> but fails. The others doesn't even seems to boot correctly.  When tested
> on the real hardware all these start (although the Cache/TB fail, alas
> not at the same location)
>
> Maybe the best idea is to dump out the real BOOT PROMs from the actual
> machine an load those into memory and start those? I haven't been able
> to test this since the machine 100 km away.
>
>
> I did successfully boot a Ultrix-4.0 tap file from bitsavers in the vax
> andra microvax2 simulator. But how can I do that on the vax750
> simulator? Doing "boot tq0" give "Command not allowed". Although help
> file indicate it is a valid command!?
>
> Any help appreciated!
>
> /Mattis
>
>
>
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-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol