4.3 on a uVAXII (and ULTRIX)

[Robin Cutshaw]

I've been bringing up 4.3 on a microvax II and have noticed several
interesting problems/inconsistencies (please, no flames regarding
the fact that the documentation says microvax support is not complete).

The tmscp (tk50) driver seems to be complete but the support for it
is not.  /dev/MAKEDEV does not know how to make the inodes for the
device.  After searching through vax/conf.c I found that it is
major 15 for block and major 38 for character (raw).  Unfortunately,
the character device number doesn't match with ULTRIX (1.2) which is 36.
Major device 36 is the vs100/125 driver in 4.3 so an easy swap isn't (easy).

May-be DEC and berkeley will talk this one through (especially since you
have to load ultrix before you can get a 4.3 kernel up on the uVAXII).

One problem with both ULTRIX and 4.3 tmscp drivers is the fact that if
the first block on a tape is bad, the driver will keep the status of
the drive offline UNTIL THE NEXT REBOOT.  Loading other tapes doesn't
change things and I couldn't find a way to reset the error.

The 4.3 kernel subtracted 4 years from the system date when it came up.
Interesting problem.  Will have to look around for this one.

When it booted, it asked for the root device.  I must not have set
something up right.

The documentation (1 page) on microvax support states that there are
boot drivers for the tk (tkboot) in mdec.  I couldn't find anything
in mdec of that nature, not even in the makefile.  /sys/stand does
have a tmscp driver but the makefile there doesn't know anything
about it.

I am working on creating a tk50 distribution tape that is fully
functional for the microvax II.  I would like to here from anyone
who has done this already or is also working on it.  I am working
on the boot stuff now and will probably swap the tmscp major to 36
and move the vs to an empty slot.

As expected, not all ULTRIX 1.2 utilities work with the 4.3 kernel.


robin

-- 
Robin K. Cutshaw
School of Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:  robin @ GATech		ARPA:  robin%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
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