Some nice progress with hardware and Ultrix in the PUPS archive

[Michael Sokolov]

   Dear Tim,
   
   You write:
> I'd be glad to run off TK50's from images
> for you, though I think your earlier idea, about installing from
> the miniroot image that's commonly put on 4.2- and 4.3BSD derived
> distributions, is a *far* better idea as it avoids using a TK50
> tape drive at all.
   
   I will need to boot from a tape at some point in any case. I have to
boot from SOMETHING. Since none of the disks in this machine is bootable, I
have to boot either from a tape or over the network. Since the only two
computers in my apartment are the VAX in question and my DOS machine,
netbooting is not an option. Well, I could attach another disk to the PC,
download FreeBSD, and install it, but this is _WAY_ too much pain. Also
there is no guarantee of success with this approach, since there are all
kinds of traps waiting to catch me. The spare disk I'm talking about may
turn out to be toast, FreeBSD may not like something about this PC, the
DELQA in the VAX may turn out broken, etc., etc., etc. OTOH, the labor
investment in just trying it out is enormous (this PC has a VERY special
configuration, and adding another disk may turn out to be a royal pita,
plus downloading FreeBSD or some other PeeCee UNIX clone over my 14400 BPS
modem is going to be a nightmare). On the other hand, I know that the TK50
boot path is working, since I have been able to boot from some VMSish tape
(see my previous messages), thus all I need is a good Ultrix tape.
   
   Another friendly PUPS member has promised to send me copies of his
Ultrix tapes, so hopefully I'll get something going.
   
> It's not that tape copies are bad ideas - it's just that TK50's
> are so slow.  If you were coming from 9-track or DLT or something
> fast, that wouldn't be so bad.
   
   Are 9-track tapes faster than TK50s? In addition to the TK50 I also have
the CDC Keystone and the QT13 which seems to work after all, but I
_STRONGLY_ doubt that it's going to be any easier. This big beast is very
dirty, it has been exposed to a little rain, and it has been dropped on
concrete pavement a couple times, so before I even try plugging it in, I
would have to perform a very careful cleaning and inspection procedure, and
I currently don't have anywhere near the resources and knowledge needed for
that operation.
   
> If you can get just about any OS running on your
> Q-bus machine, under any CPU - i.e. NetBSD, RT-11, 2.11BSD, RSX,
> whatever you might have - then you can just write the miniroot
> straight to a "scratch" disk.
   
   Again, regardless of what approach I take, I'll need to boot from some
device first. See above.
   
   Sincerely,
   Michael Sokolov
   Cellular phone: 216-217-2579
   ARPA Internet SMTP mail: msokolov at harrier.Uznet.NET


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