[Simh] VAX 8600: Can't boot Quasijarus (tape or disk)

[Dario Niedermann]

Il 23/09/2017 alle 01:28, Henry Bent ha scritto:

> Is there a reason that you are specifically using the 8600 simulator?

Not really, I just think it's an awesome model :)

> Okay, wait, there's a lot going on here that I think we've missed.
> You installed Quasijarus to an RA disk with the 3900 simulator and now
> you're trying to move that disk to an 8600?

Exactly. I had to do the installation on the 3900 simulator because
the 8600 wouldn't boot from tape.

> Does the disk have appropriate boot > blocks (raboot, bootra)
> and does the kernel support the 8600?

That I don't know. I know it boots on the 3900, so the boot blocks are
in place. But no idea if they are 3900-specific, and I don't know if
the kernel supports the 8600.

> I have found that it is often easier - or even necessary - to load
> boot blocks externally when working with the simulators for the large
> hardware. If you can get a copy of Quasijarus's /boot, you can have
> the simulator execute that file.  For regular 4.3BSD on an 8600, I
> would do something like:
> 
> load -o boot 0
> run 2 

Following your hint, I managed to extract the /boot file from the RA90
to a file on the host (uuencode + GNU Screen's logging feature came to
the rescue here). But it doesn't seem to run on the 8600:

------------------------------------------------------------------
+sim> load -o boot-vax8600 0
+sim> run 2

HALT instruction, PC: 00000003 (HALT)
------------------------------------------------------------------

But OTOH, I get the same result as above on the microvax3900.
The plot thickens...

Thanks for your comments,
DN