[Simh] Unable to locate boot file

Mon Jun 20 17:22:55 EDT 2016

Maybe looking at the HP documentation might help.  This link is for VMS 8.4, but I think it’s still pretty similar to 5.5-2 (which I ran many years ago on a VAX4000-300 system).  If you’ve got the VMS documentation set (Grey Wall back then !) at hand, that will probably help if you revisit the steps for setting up satellite booting.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/84final/4477/4477pro_022.html

From: Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Daniel Parrott
Sent: Monday, 20 June 2016 5:10 PM
To: simh at trailing-edge.com
Subject: Re: [Simh] Unable to locate boot file

Thanks Mark,

The system disk device name appears to be the same:

Simulated MicroVAX 3900:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$ show logical disk$vmsrl5

    "DISK$VMSRL5" = "ORION$DUA0:" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)

$ show dev d

Device                      Device            Error      Volume        Free       Trans    Mnt

Name                        Status             Count      Label            Blocks    Count   Cnt

...

ORION$DUA0:      MOUNTED           0         VMSRL5    2508868      247     1

...

Physical VAX 6220:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$ show logical disk$vmsrl5

    "DISK$VMSRL5" = "ORION$DUA0:" (LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE)

$ show dev d

Device                      Device            Error      Volume        Free       Trans    Mnt

Name                        Status             Count      Label            Blocks    Count   Cnt

...

ORION$DUA0:      MOUNTED           0         VMSRL5    990411      253     1

...

I agree that there may be some additional difference between the two (simulated vs physical) but I am not sure where else to look.  Any other ideas?

Thanks again.

________________________________
From: Mark Pizzolato <Mark at infocomm.com<mailto:Mark at infocomm.com>>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 3:28 PM
To: Daniel Parrott; simh at trailing-edge.com<mailto:simh at trailing-edge.com>
Subject: RE: Unable to locate boot file

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<mailto: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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