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So now I've got a VAX

T

TN-048

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2011
Messages
67
Location
Orrville Ohio, USA
(Or a VAXstation that is!) It's a 3100 m76 with 32mb ram. It came with a rz24 but I figured that was a bit small, so I stuck a Compaq 1gb drive in there, and I had an old IBM cd drive that it likes. I've even got a switch with bnc networking, so when I manage to get a OS loaded it'll even be connected! Right now I can play with it through a serial cable, but can anyone recommend an adapter setup for getting it to output to vga? I got a lk201, so I'd love to be able to use it locally.
I'm also having issues with the OS install, I'm going to put VMS on the rz24 I think, but I want a *nix on the 1gb drive. Right now I'm working on NetBSD/vax but ultimately I'd like to get Ultrix on there, just because it's an "official" os. Only thing about that is, I can't find it! Does anyone know where Ultrix disks (or images) could be found?
There are also some DEC asset and finance tags on the back, so that leads me to believe that it was owned by DEC themselves. Anyone ever see anything like that?
This is my first experience with anything DEC other than simh so it's been (and will continue to be) quite the adventure!

*Edit: added pictures. Front, back (look at the stickers), and my kludged up "T" connector and terminator.

IMG_20130302_221917_155.jpgIMG_20130302_221958_835.jpgIMG_20130302_222201_236.jpg
 
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What issues are you seeing installing the OS ? The problems with CDROM drives usually come after the boot on these. It may boot then fail during the install because it doesn't actually have the right block size or termination is off.

Then you get to the what is 1gb thing. They wont boot on drives over a certain size usually which means if your 1gb drive is 1080mb it probably wont work. I haven't had much luck with 1080mb drives. I have got drives that shouldn't work, including 2gb DEC ones, to work by formatting them on the 3100. Only DEC ones though. The generic version of the same Seagate drive didn't work. You can do that with a test 75 command in the boot rom. No guarantee things wont crash and burn later but, since none of this used for important work anymore no harm no foul. The risk is where the rom wants to write the dump file if the system crashes. You can lose everything.

As for video it is just RGB sync on green that I think most quality LCD can handle with the right adapter. Cheap ones can't. It has to have the mouse attached though or the self test fails and it won't boot. They are kind of rare and pricey now.
 
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LCD compatibility varies widely - my VAXStation 4000 doesn't work with my Samsung Syncmaster 173p even though it's specifically supposed to support sync-on-green. I got a NEC MultiSync LCD2010X and that worked perfectly, though. Asking around on comp.os.vms can get you some recommendations.

Anyway, congratulations!
 
If the problems come after boot, then maybe my cd doesn't work as well as I though it did. When trying to install NetBSD, it boots alright, but then crashes at the partitioning menu. I don't think I can change the block size settings on this drive though..

I did know about the 1gb thing, and I got lucky (I think). My drive is a 1.05gb drive, and it went through the test 75 format without any errors. I really don't want to fork out all the cash for a rz57 if I don't have to.

I have several different monitors I can try, I just need the cable first! I'll check on comp.os.vms later.

Thanks for the congratulations!
 
For a VS3100 M76 SPX the video cable is a BC23J. That's the cable I use with my M76 SPX to connect it to an NEC MultiSync CRT. 15-pin to 3 BNC connectors.

The SPX graphics controller is switchable between 60 Hz 1024 x 864 and 66 Hz 1280 x 1024.

http://home.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/vax/vs3khw.html

I bought my BC23J-03 on eBay. Don't see any there right now. You could try www.jtcomputer.com and see if they have any.

-Glen
 
That is exactly what I need, I'll give jt computer a call to find out about getting one. Will any bnc to vga converter work or is there a special one?
 
TN-048 said:
That is exactly what I need, I'll give jt computer a call to find out about getting one. Will any bnc to vga converter work or is there a special one?
Click to expand...

My MultiSync CRT monitor has BNC inputs. I connected the that directly to the BC23J-03

I also have an adapter cable that looks like this one, HD15 Male - (5x) BNC Female:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?p_id=6628

I used an adapter cable like that between the BC23J-03 and an LCD monitor. The BC23J-03 only has R,G,B BNC connectors so the H-Sync and V-Sync connectors of the adapter cable were not connected to anything. The LCD monitor I used must have been happy syncing on Green.

If you also need a BC56H-03 external SCSI cable you can get those on eBay for $30 including shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300646553857

-Glen
 
Thanks a ton for these links. I couldn't find the ultrix one anywhere! I forgot to ask earlier, it really requires a mouse to boot when set to local console? That seems strange, but I was also surprised that it required terminators on the network ports too.
 
So the cd drive ended up not working, but I kludged together some quick net cables, and now I have netbooted OpenBSD installing from a ftp server on my network. By the way, what type of image is that link to Ultrix? I burned it to a cd, but it didn't even try to boot (whereas other things did).
 
TN-048 said:
By the way, what type of image is that link to Ultrix? I burned it to a cd, but it didn't even try to boot (whereas other things did).
Click to expand...

That image pointed to something labeled Ultrix RISC 4.5 so I would assume that is for a MIPS architecture DECstation, not for a VAX.
 
So I should be able to install that on my Personal DECstation 5000/25? I know it won't recognize a CD ROM so I believe have to place the image on a second hard disk for booting.
 
Paul -- Should work, DECstations are RISC.

Anyway, now I've gotten installs from netboot working nicely. I had OpenBSD for a while, but I decided I don't like OpenBSD (don't like the community/documentation much) so now I'm back to installing NetBSD. I still get the full root error when trying to install newer versions, so for the time being, I'm installing 1.6.1. I'd still really like to get my hands on Ultrix if I could ;).
 
TN-048 said:
Anyway, now I've gotten installs from netboot working nicely. I had OpenBSD for a while, but I decided I don't like OpenBSD (don't like the community/documentation much) so now I'm back to installing NetBSD. I still get the full root error when trying to install newer versions, so for the time being, I'm installing 1.6.1. I'd still really like to get my hands on Ultrix if I could ;).
Click to expand...

Here are ULTRIX V4.0 tape images:

http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/vax/ultrix/4.0/Ultrix_4.0_Supported.tap.gz
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/vax/ultrix/4.0/Ultrix_4.0_Unsupported.tap.gz
http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/vax/ultrix/4.0/AQ-D7190-JS_UWS_4.0A_90.tap.gz

I just installed the Supported tape on a SIMH KA655. First time I've ever tried this. Seemed to work OK. Haven't tried it on real hardware yet.

There is also a 4.2 directory there but it only contains the Unsupported tape image.

-Glen
 
TN-048 said:
Paul -- Should work, DECstations are RISC. ...
Click to expand...
I've had NetBSD on it up till now but would like to get the original OS on it. Also with only 16MB ram NetBSD is deathly slow. Just moving the mouse in X causes massive swapping to disk. I got to try out this machine in '92 (my sister's husband bought it new) and it wasn't that bad, even running a 2D CAD program. I would imagine I'll have to place that Ultrix image on a hard disk (on another unix box) and hope it boots.
 
TN-048 said:
Sweet, now I just need to get myself a tape drive! There isn't a way to netboot this, is there?
Click to expand...

Maybe you could use the tape images to install to SIMH KA655 hard drive image of the same size as your 3100 physical disk drive, and then dd that image to the 3100 physical disk drive, and then maybe the 3100 can boot from that. Without trying that myself I don't know whether or not that will work just fine with the system differences between a KA655 and a MicroVAX 3100.

-Glen
 
I have something called "ultrix-vax-os-v4.5.mode1.ufs.bz2" in my archives. It's 128mb and probably a cd image. Never tried it though. One problem you may run into is ULTRIX required licenses. You may not be able to do much with it without one. I don't think networking or DECWindows without onewill work but, it's been a long time.

There is no hobbyist program to fall back on. There are pak generators floating around out there but, they aren't simple to use and you really need a sample pak to start from. I have a huge binder of real PAKs I've collected over the years. Might have one in there. I'll have to look.
 
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