Hi, Earl! I clawed my way up the learning curve of bootstrapping VMS 4.x onto an emulated VAX-11/7xx a while back, so maybe I can help you install your clue patch. I don't have my full notes and files at hand right now, but I think I have enough to help you. I'm going to wildcard a bunch of minor version numbers that aren't fresh in my mind, so I hope that doesn't end up being too confusing.
As others have mentioned, the OpenVMS Hobbyist License PAKs only cover later VMS versions starting with 5.something if I recall correctly. Also, the officially-provided downloads are only provided for OpenVMS V7.something. There are various installation media images floating around the net, but as unauthorized images usually go, they're often incomplete and mismatched. So which minor version you pick will be influenced by what images you can find, and you may also need to mix and match things like bootable media images from one version with installation archive images from another. But one advantage of an emulation under something like SIMH is that you can install arbitrary emulated hardware on the system. So, you're not limited to by what you have installed in a real machine. And once you manage to get an emulated VAX running at all, you can then use that emulation to start doing things like creating standalone back images for other kinds of drives. This is going to come in handy, because the first complete set of bootable Standalone Backup media, main installation tape, and mandatory updates that I found for pre-V7.something was a mismatched set of different kinds of media images.
I am also interested in playing with older VMS, particularly V5.x. I started with V4.4, because that's what I found enough images of to be able to bootstrap a fresh emulated system. Then I used that emulated V4.4 system to make a standalone backup image on an emulated RL02, and then used that standalone backup disk to install V5.x onto an emulated VAX. Then once I had that running, I could make an image of a V5.x standalone backup disk onto yet another RL02 image. Maybe someday I'll resume working on my USB to RL02 adapter, and then use it to make a real RL02 packs with images for my real VAX-11/730?
Of course, I also have some emulated VAXen as well as my real 11/730 running OpenVMS V7.x with proper OpenVMS Hobbyist Program license PAKs.
I found a lot of hints, plus the images I needed to get started at
(edit: deleted a link to a site that hosts copyrighted software images, which is frowned upon here)
The images I found consist of:
| File | Description |
|---|
| vms040stb.rx3 | RX33 image of VAX/VMS 4.0 Standalone Backup (Bootable!) |
| bb-bt05c-be_vms_v4_4_c1986.tap | SIMH tape image of VAX/VMS V4.4 Distribution Tape |
| vms044mup.rx1 | RX01 image of VAX/VMS V4.4 Mandatory Update |
I created this SIMH initialization file and called it "780boot.ini":
Code:
SET CPU MODEL=780
SET CPU 64M
; Create new RD54 disk to install VMS 4.4 onto
SET RQ0 RD54
ATTACH RQ0 RD54_VAXVMSRL4.img
; Mount standalone backup floppy
SET RQ1 RX33
ATTACH RQ1 vms040stb.rx3
; Mount distribution tape
ATTACH TS bb-bt05c-be_vms_v4_4_c1986.tap
; Mount mandatory update floppy
ATTACH CS vms044mup.rx1
Finally, here's a summary of bootstrapping VMS 4.4 onto the emulated VAX-11/780 defined in that initialization file:
Code:
vax780 780boot.ini
sim> b rq1
$ BACKUP/IMAGE/INIT MSA0:REQUIRED./SAV DUA0: /LOG
$ ^e
sim> b rq0
{enter date and time}
{drive holding distribution kit} MSA0:
{SYSTEM password} MANGLER
{SYSTEST password} TESTICLE
{FIELD password} CIRCUS
... {shutdown and reboot} ...
Username: SYSTEM
Password: MANGLER
$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYSGEN
SYSGEN> CONNECT CONSOLE
SYSGEN> EXIT
$ @SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL VMSMUP044
{distribution volumes} CSA1:
I should point out that "TESTICLE" is simply the first eight letters of "Testicles", the ancient Greek god of test and validation, pronounced "TEST-ih-clees".
Version 4.4 will boot and run without any license PAKs. That isn't necessarily true for application programs and other "layered products". There was also another site that had a console log of a VMS installation process which helped me with a lot of the VMS stuff, but I don't have my notes with the link handy right now.
