[Simh] NetBSD 5.1 on MicoVAX 3900 boot error

Sat Apr 22 11:09:56 EDT 2017

On Fri, 21 Apr 2017, Mark Pizzolato wrote:

> Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2017 10:14:29 -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 Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 5:45 AM, Peter Conrad Cumminsky wrote:
>> On Tue, 18 Apr 2017, Mark Pizzolato wrote:
>>> 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.
>
> OK.  So, the difference in boot output on the simh v3.x version is:
>
>        rx0 at mscpbus1 drive 3: RX50
>        qe0 at uba0 csr 174440 vec 764 ipl 17: deqna, hardware address 08:00:2b:23:52:2f
>
> while on the failing simh v4.x version it is:
>
>        rx0 at mscpbus1 drive 3: RX50
>        qt0 at uba0 csr 174440 vec 764 ipl 17panic: Segv in kernel mode: pc 801feeb5 addr 1c
>        Stopped in pid 0.1 (system) at  netbsd:upcallret:       function "upcallret()", e...
>
> As it turns out, on both versions of simh, the XQ device defaults to emulating a DELQA-PLUS
> (aka DELQA-T).  Some changes were made in the XQ device simulation over time which now
> allows the NetBSD driver to detect the device as an DELQA-T instead of merely a DEQNA and
> it now is using the qt driver instead of the qe driver.  The NetBSD qt driver seems to have
> some sort of bug and/or incompatibility with the DELQA-T device simulation which is
> demonstrated as the crash you see.
>
> If your configuration file has "SET XQ TYPE=DELQA" the boot output will be:
>
>        rx0 at mscpbus1 drive 3: RX50
>        qt !Turbo
>        qe0 at uba0 csr 174440 vec 764 ipl 17: delqa, hardware address 08:00:2b:23:52:2f
>
> and the system will boot successfully.
>
> It would be interesting to see what the boot output looks like on the subsequence NetBSD 6.x versions...
>
> - Mark
>

YES, that works!!! NetBSD 5.1 now boots. Thanks for the info.

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