Trying to install VMS on a PWS 433 AU

[Phil Lawson]

I'm trying to install VMS on a Personal Workstation 433-AU. There is a known issue where VMS will not install off the IDE CD, so I am trying to get a SCSI CD working. I pulled a RRD45 CD from a working Vax 3100, and tried to hook it up to the SCSI using a SCSI 50 to 68 pin adapter. When I bring up the system it sees the CD in SHO DEVICE, but when I do a BOOT DKA400 it comes back with the error FAILED TO OPEN DKA400.4.0.1009.0, any idea what's wrong, or what I'm missing? Thanks in advance for any info.

-Phil

[Anton van Ruitenbeek · Accepted solution]

Hi Phil,

First of all: welcome to the forum, and fine you entered to here in stead of the yahoo friends.

I read you're reply over that some IDE controllers aren't supported by OpenVMS.
I didn't get any answer for the firmware level you are.
Possible also the os_flag isn't set to VMS.
The CD of the VAX is for sure SE (because vaxes are) but is the controller in de PWS also SE ?
Try to boot B DKA400 -FL 0,0

AvR

[John Travell]

At the console do a >>> show config
If the IDE controller is an Intel Saturn, which may show up as SIO 82378, then you have the model that cannot boot off the IDE.
If the report mentions CYPRESS IDE controller you should be able to boot off an IDE CDrom device.
In either case, you need to ensure that both the graphics and ethernet cards are models supported by VMS.

You say you pulled the SCSI CD from a working VAX, was it DKA400 on the
VAX ?
At the console do a >>> show device
Does the SCSI CD get reported at all ? if you have a second SCSI bus the CD could be DKB400...

>>> set console serial
hook a nul modem cable between the serial port on the back of your 433au to another machine, then capture the output from the console and post it here, preferably in an attachment.
When you are certain that VMS supports your graphics card, and other problems are sorted, do >>> set console graphics

JT:

[Antoniov.]

Phil,
when you type SHOW DEVICE in console what model do you see near DKA400? Can your system recognize RRD45 CD-ROM?
What other devices can you see?
Are you sure CD SCSI ID is not duplicated by another device like HD?

Antonio Vigliotti

[Ian Miller.]

I have a 433au and its fine. Post the result of show config.
Is the scsi bus connected to an external connector on the back of the system and if so is it terminated properly?

[Jan van den Ende]

Phil,

Re Ian:

since you are new to this forum:
to post some data, create a plain ASCI file (eg, notepad, or EDT).
Do _NOT_ include it in your posting text, but use the separate append.
Included text gets totally reformatted by the forum display, and becomes very hard to read.

hth,

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Phil Lawson]

Sorry folks, had a car accident, needed to deal with that for a bit. I did get it to work this morning. If anyone's interested the show config and device displays are attached for the 3 config's I tried.

First one is the original IDE drive that came with the system. The system has the Intel chipset, so I know that will not boot.

Second one is the VAX CD that I pulled from a MV3100. Was working, and seems to still be working now that it's back in the vax. But it won't boot VMS on the Alpha.

Third config is with a new (to me) CD Drive (thanks Weirdstuff Warehouse) and that seems to boot ok.

It's a nice day out, so Im going to put off installing VMS till tomorrow.

Before I wipe out the old system, anyone got any advice on looking around at the existing Dec Unix OS on there? I don't have the passwords, but I can boot into single user mode.

Thanks
-Phil

P.S. Anyone got any good contacts in San Fran for a new car?

[Antoniov.]

Phil,
my record about unix are hidden but I believe you can edit something like /etc/password file in single user mode.

Antonio Vigliotti