[Simh] NetBSD 5.1 on MicoVAX 3900 boot error

[Peter Conrad Cumminsky]

On Tue, 18 Apr 2017, Mark Pizzolato wrote:

> Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2017 11:52:35 -0700
> From: Mark Pizzolato <Mark at infocomm.com>
> To: Peter Conrad Cumminsky <petercon at SDF.ORG>
> Cc: "simh at trailing-edge.com" <simh at trailing-edge.com>
> Subject: RE: [Simh] NetBSD 5.1 on MicoVAX 3900 boot error
> 
> On Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 8:57 AM, Peter Conrad Cumminsky wrote:
>> On Mon, 17 Apr 2017, Mark Pizzolato wrote:
>>
>>> On Monday, April 17, 2017 at 10:28 AM, petercpm at sdf.org wrote:
>>>> I'm getting a Segv error on boot of NetBSD 5.1 on the VAX emulator of
>> SIMH v
>>>> 4.0 Beta. Install went fine w/o any problems. I'm attaching the session file
>> and
>>>> here's the netbsd-boot file:
>>>>
>>>> ............................................................
>>>> load -r ..\..\..\..\bin\ka655x.bin
>>>> set cpu 64m
>>>> ; SET CPU IDLE=NETBSD
>>>> set tto 7b
>>>> ; AT DZ 8888
>>>> set rq0 ra92
>>>> at rq0 netbsd.dsk
>>>> at xq0 eth0
>>>> boot cpu
>>>>
>>>> ; At the VMB prompt, type boot dua0:
>>>> ............................................................
>>>
>>> I vaguely recall that there was at least one NetBSD version that was just
>> broken and hadn't been tested on any VAX (real or simulated) before it was
>> 'released'.
>>>
>>> I suggest you:
>>> 1) try the same with simh 3.9
>>> 2) try a later NetBSD release.
>>>
>>> If you're seeing a problem which persists across several NetBSD releases,
>> and/or exists in the 4.0 code but not the 3.9 code, please open an issue at
>> https://github.com/simh/simh/issues
>>>
>>> Have Fun.
>>>
>>> - Mark Pizzolato
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for the tips and info.
>>
>> I've tried all versions of NetBSD 5.x (5.0.2, 5.1, 5.1.5, 5.2 and
>> 5.2.3) that I can find on SIMH 4.0 beta and they all Segv. I have an old
>> NetBSD 3 that boots and I tried NetBSD 6.0.4 and that also boots.
>>
>> I am not able to run earlier versions of SIMH as I'm on Windows 10 64-bit
>> and WinPCAP does not run on W10. I use NPcap on W10 and that doesn't
>> work on earlier versions of SIMH which require WinPcap.
>
> You shouldn't need WinPCAP merely to test if the CD image is bootable.
> The point of the boot test exercise is to help determine if the problem is
> in NetBSD or due to recent changes to simh.  If changes to simh are at
> fault, I'll track it down and fix the problem.
>
>> I specifically want to run a 5.x version of NetBSD. I'm pretty sure it did
>> run on SIMH 3.8-1 on Windows 7 before the upgrade. I need to downgrade a
>> laptop I have to Win7 in the future and may try that. Until then I'll play
>> with OpenBSD which doesn't seem to have any problems with SIMH 4.0 beta.
>
> The boot test I'm suggesting will be far less work than setting up another
> system.
>
> Let me know.
>
> - Mark
>
>

As I mentioned in my OP the NetBSD 5.x iso's installation works fine - no 
problems with cd-rom boot. The first boot of the installed NetBSD 5.x Segv's
as per the original file attachment in my OP.

I installed the SIMH 3.9 vax.exe and ka655x.bin in a seperate directory 
and ran the installed NetBSD 5.1. It booted w/o the Segv (and did not give 
me the WinPCAP error since I used the sans-network version of SIMH 3.9).

While it doesn't help me to run it without a network I hope this helps you 
find the problem. Again, installation from CD works fine - first boot 
Segv's.

Thanks for your assistance.


--
Peter Conrad Cumminsky - petercon at sdf.lonestar.org
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