[Simh] Console floppy and VAX 780

[Johnny Billquist]

First let me point out that I have not looked at that installation 
image, so I have no idea what it is.

On 2016-02-15 14:38, Zachary Kline wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I’m trying to boot http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/DEC/vax/vms/BB-D782B-BE__VMS_V1.5_1600.zip, mostly for interest’s sake. I presume this is an installation tape of some sort.
> I’ve tried on the VaxSserver 3900 simulator, but always seem to get a “DevOffline,” message for Mua0:, the magnetic tape reader.
> I was wondering if I might have better luck with the VAX 11/780. I don’t actually have real hardware of any kind. The reason I was asking about console floppies is that, as far as I know, I can’t directly boot from tape on the 780, at least not with the SIMH “boot,” command.
> If this is something other than an installation tape, of course, the whole process isn’t worth the trouble :)
>
> Thanks for any help,

Well, VMS V1 have no idea about a VAX 3900, will probably not work at 
all. You need "hardware" that the OS knows about, which for VMS v1 is 
probably only the VAX-11/780.

Second, it is correct that the old VAXen cannot boot from tape. However, 
the standard way of installing was to boot the standalone backup system 
on the VAX, and then restore the VMS system from the tape. Now, if that 
was true already in V1 I don't know. Also, exactly how you get the 
standalone backup system running on an emulated 11/780 is also unclear 
to me here. You could try booting a newer VMS, and just restore the V1 
tape to a scratch disk, and then try and boot that disk.

	Johnny

> Zack.
>> On Feb 14, 2016, at 11:25 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure I understand the question. Get what working?
>> Do you have a real 11/780? Because the simh VAX-11/780 do not use the floppies, as it don't actually emulate the PDP-11 that is used in the FE.
>>
>> 	Johnny
>