I have a Personal Workstation 433au set up with two drives so I can boot either OpenVMS 8.3 or Debian Linux on it. Since the machine currently has no graphics adapter card, this requires another computer with terminal emulation software attached to the serial port of the Alpha with a null modem cable. That works but is a bit clumsy. I'd like to make the process easier if possible, but haven't found any advice on doing so.
Device dka0 contains OpenVMS, while dka1 contains Debian. It seems that I should be able to 'set os_type unix' or 'set os_type openvms' and then boot the appropriate device (the flags are zero for both) but this doesn't quite work. If Linux has been running and shutdown, returning to the >>> prompt, merely setting the os_type and rebooting to OpenVMS fails. It locks up somewhere after the OS banner is displayed, without giving a diagnostic message. It is apparently necessary to turn the power off after shutting down Debian, and then turn it back on to boot OpenVMS. The same problem doesn't occur when OpenVMS is shut down and Debian is booted after it. That works as expected.
Is there some way to tell SRM to reinitialize as from power-on, without actually cycling the power? I'm guessing that when Linux exits it leaves some register or variable with an inappropriate value...
well, not sure about Linux, but with booting VMS or Tru64, you need to pass different flags to bootstrap, usually "-fl 0,0" for VMS and "-fl a" for Tru64 (without that, it inits to single mode, which you have to log out from to continue). From the looks of it though, it seems that Linux kernel could mess up some internal machine state that prevents any other system from booting, normally the CPU is reinitialized from bootstrap. Try "init".
Linux uses the boot flags to select from a menu of configuration choices, with 0 normally being the default for the particular installation and sometimes the only choice that has been installed. So yes, 0 is a valid choice for Linux. The 'a' used with Tru64 causes an error with the Linux boot loader, forcing it to stop and present a menu of the available configurations. (Which is something I've taken advantage of before, but it's not a normal thing to do.)
I just tried 'init' and that does the trick. It's a brute force solution, but unless I can figure out exactly what the problem is, at least it's a solution. Thanks.
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses. Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc. Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
