[Simh] Unable to locate boot file

[Mark Pizzolato]

Hi Daniel,

This is a good bug report.

I think that the problem you are having now is very much related to the problems you've already solved.


> 1) there is some other config script that needs to be run when using disk images from one VAX system (physical 6220) to another (simulated MicroVAX 3900)

> 2) SimH on Windows 8 does not really support MOP or DECserver stuff?

> 3) there is some permissions issue with the boot file (sysboot.exe?), but since it is off a disk image (which should be a one-to-one exact copy), how so?

Notice that you're getting the load message for

File = DISK$VMSRL5:<SYS14.>, Operating system, Ethernet address = 08-00-2B-23-9A-F4

I suspect that the logical name DISK$VMSRL5 may not be consistently defined.

The system disk device name on the MicroVAX 3900 may have changed from what it was on the original 6220.
The output of:
    $ SHOW LOGICAL DISK$VMSRL5
and
    $ SHOW DEV D

Will likely illuminate some relevant details.


-        Mark

From: Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Daniel Parrott
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 1:16 PM
To: simh at trailing-edge.com
Subject: [Simh] Unable to locate boot file


I have two physical systems, a VAX 6220 and a VAX 4000-300.  The latter system is set up to do a network bootstrap off the 6220 using an EZA0 network device.



First, using vddriver and backup/image, I generated and retrieved disk images of the RA92 drives from the 6220.  With these disk images, and specifying MicroVAX 3900 on the SimH simulator, I am able to boot up an emulated version of the 6220 on my laptop.  So far so good.



My first goal is to get the physical VAX 4000-300 to do its network bootstrap off the emulated 6220 rather than the physical 6220.  By the way, I am running SimH 4.0 on Windows 8, it seems to work OK.



The first problem I ran into was that the simulator presents a different network adapter to the emulated 6220 than it is accustomed to seeing.  It typically sees a "BNA-0" interface, but the simulator uses "QNA-0", as derived from the XQA0 device.  So, I found out that I needed to run netconfig.com.  When I ran that script, it brought the circuit online.



But when I tried to do network boot of the physical VAX 4000-300 off the emulated 6220, it kept saying 'retrying network bootstrap'.  So evidently that was not sufficient.  Then I came to discover that the 6220 uses DECserver, and there is a dsvconfig.com script.  Once again, because the simulator presented a different network device than the 6220 was accustomed to seeing, the configuration had to be updated.  So okay, I ran the dsvconfig.com script, and made it aware of the fact that it is now a "QNA-0" device rather than a "BNA-0" device.



So after running both netconfig.com and dsvconfig.com on the emulated 6220, the physical 4000-300 no longer says "retrying network bootstrap".  Instead it now appears to be able to communicate, but it says "unable to locate boot file":



>>> b eza0

(BOOT/R5:0 EZA0)



  2..

-EZA0

  1..0..



%VAXcluster-I-SYSLOAD, system loaded from node ORION (AA-00-04-00-B6-11)



%VAXcluster-F-BADOPEN, unable to locate BOOT file

?06 HLT INST

                PC = 00007395

>>>



Using Wireshark, I captured some of the packets to try to glean some more details, and I see messages like "VAXcluster-F-NOSUCHDEV, nonexistent drive" and "VAXcluster-F-READERR, I/O error reading boot file".



I am really stumped on this one because basically the disk images should be one-to-one copies of what is on the physical VAX 6220, so other than having to tell it that it has a different network adapter (QNA-0 rather than BNA-0), why shouldn't it just work?  Does SimH not support MOP or DECserver?  I did check, and the sysboot.exe file is present in dua0:[sys14.syscommon.sysexe], and sys14 is the directory for the VAX 4000-300 to use for its network boot.  So I believe the boot file is available.



By the way, the VAX 6220 is running VMS 5.5-2H.  And I have set VAXCLUSTER to 2.



Oh and one more thing, when the 4000-300 fails to boot, on the simulator side of things I see the following:



%%%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM  20-JUN-2016  15:10:06.58 %%%%%%%%

Message from user DECNET on ORION

DECnet event 0.3, automatic line service

>From node 4.438 (ORION), 20-JUN-2016 15:10:06.58

Circuit QNA-0, Load, Requested, Node = 4.764 (GUINAN)

File = DISK$VMSRL5:<SYS14.>, Operating system, Ethernet address = 08-00-2B-23-9A-F4



%%%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM  20-JUN-2016  15:10:11.58 %%%%%%%%

Message from user DECNET on ORION

DECnet event 0.3, automatic line service

>From node 4.438 (ORION), 20-JUN-2016 15:10:06.75

Circuit QNA-0, Load, Successful, Node = 4.764 (GUINAN)

File = DISK$VMSRL5:<SYS14.>, Operating system, Ethernet address = 08-00-2B-23-9A-F4



%PEA0, Port has Closed Virtual Circuit - REMOTE NODE GUINAN

So it almost looks like it has done a successful load of the system software to the 4000-300, but then the port closes presumably due to not being able to locate the boot file.



My thoughts are that maybe:

1) there is some other config script that needs to be run when using disk images from one VAX system (physical 6220) to another (simulated MicroVAX 3900)

2) SimH on Windows 8 does not really support MOP or DECserver stuff?

3) there is some permissions issue with the boot file (sysboot.exe?), but since it is off a disk image (which should be a one-to-one exact copy), how so?



Any ideas?  Thanks in advance.
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