Awhile back, I was lucky to get a MicroVAX II in a BA23 enclosure and Rainbow 100 together from a local thrift shop. It has a TK50 tape drive (no Ethernet, sadly) that's giving me fits. I have been trying to install VMS on it and whenever I try booting off of the drive, it's telling me "?4C DEVINACT, MUA0" (or any combination of MUA0-9) after "2..." appears on the console. The jumpers and DIP switches on the controller appear to be set correctly, the drive is hooked up, and the tape doesn't appear to be shedding and I see the leader.
Also, there is no OS on the hard drive, so I can't see the devices using that. If anyone has any ideas or tips on what to do from here, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm at a loss.
- please let us know the jumper positions of the TQK50 interface controller.
- On which position is the Interface Card in the Qbus Backplane?
- Which other cards are mounted and in which slot?
- Is the Tape spinning when you load a Tape, and when you type in b mua0?
- Do you press the load button after you put in the tape and close the handle?
- Status of the lights at the front side of the TK50 after pressing the load button.
Do you have any Tapes with VMS and MDM diagnostics?
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!
