[that_jojo]

Hi guys! I decided to get into VMS recently and procured myself a MicroVAX 3800.

She has ethernet, a dssi controller with two RF71s, and a TK70.

I've managed to get NetBSD installed over the network onto one of the RF71s, and that's plenty of fun, but I'm dying to get VMS on here.

The only problem is that I can only find CD install media images.

My first smart thought was to install to a virtual RF71 in SIMH and then dd that image onto the real drive. Come to find, SIMH doesn't support RF71s.

So that leaves me kind of at a loss. I thought perhaps it would be possible to use the Standalone Backup on an install CD to create a Standalone Backup TK70 image and then dd and boot from that. But I'm too dumb with Standalone Backup to figure out if that's even a possibility.

I assume it's also somehow possible to netboot a VMS install, perhaps using SIMH as a server, but I can't seem to find any doc on that that I've been able to understand.

If there are any kindhearted greybeards out there, I put my fate in your hands. Might you find it in your heart to set an absolute noob on the righteous VMS path?

[Darkstar]

I never netbooted VMS myself (you need MOP and SCS or LAST for that, while you can get away with only MOP for netbooting NetBSD). If you managed to netboot NetBSD already then you got the biggest hurdle covered ;-)

Here are some pointers:

I'm sure you saw this guide, but anyway: http://gunkies.org/wiki/Netbooting_a_VAXstation

This is the general installation procedure for VMS: https://www.wherry.com/gadgets/retrocomp...-simh.html

Finally, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/...Ev_yy2gkz4 describes how to setup VAX on SimH and bootstrap the physical machine from that using cluster_config and BACKUP to transfer the "virtual" harddisk to the real one.

It should also be possible to create a "virtual" harddisk in simh, install VMS on that, and dd that over your physical harddisk on a Linux host.

[that_jojo]

I think that third one is JUST what I may be looking for. Thanks for all the links!