RD54 on RQDX3 on KA655, and BA123 questions
Eric Smith
originally a VAXstation II/GPX, but I pulled the VCB02 and replace the
CPU. Eventually I may put the VCB02 back in.)
When the machine first comes up, SHOW DEVICE reports the drive as an
RD51. After several resets, it finally decides that it's an RD54.
Is this normal? Or is something broken?
Is there a console command I can give that will cuase the system to
not attempt to autoboot? Right now I've got that by giving it a
SET BOOT with a bogus device name, but surely there's a better way.
Is there a way to abort an attempted boot? When I first fired up the
box, it was always trying to boot from XQA0, and I had a difficult time
getting a command prompt. I'd hoped that the halt switch on the front
panel would do that, but it seemed to only make it run the power-up
diagnostics in a loop.
If I add more drives, do I need to install more front-panel inserts for
them?
Can a BA123 handle three RD54s, a TK50, and an RX50?
J. Buck Caldwell
Eric Smith wrote:
> When the machine first comes up, SHOW DEVICE reports the drive as an
> RD51. After several resets, it finally decides that it's an RD54.
>
> Is this normal? Or is something broken?
Sounds like something may be broken. RD51 is the default device - so in
other words, the RQDX3 sees that there is a device there, but can't make it
out. Most of the time.
> Is there a console command I can give that will cuase the system to
> not attempt to autoboot? Right now I've got that by giving it a
> SET BOOT with a bogus device name, but surely there's a better way.
See below.
> Is there a way to abort an attempted boot? When I first fired up the
> box, it was always trying to boot from XQA0, and I had a difficult time
> getting a command prompt. I'd hoped that the halt switch on the front
> panel would do that, but it seemed to only make it run the power-up
> diagnostics in a loop.
Set the Halt Enable switch on the back - the toggle that has a circle with
a dot inside (HALT enabled), and a circle with a dot outside (HALT
disabled). If the HALT is enabled, it will not attempt to auto-boot, and
you can press the HALT button on the front to abort an attempted boot.
> If I add more drives, do I need to install more front-panel inserts for
> them?
Yes. Which is really annoying if you don't have a source for them.
> Can a BA123 handle three RD54s, a TK50, and an RX50?
Not without adding another RQDX3. The controller can handle 4 drives - and
the RX50 is considered two. The TK50 is on a sperate controller, so it's
not a factor. And the case has enough power for all of that.
"But of course, I could be wrong..."
-J. Buck Caldwell
Douglas Meade
There's a very nice page on the KA650 at:
http://www.telnet.hu/hamster/dr/ka650.html
and much of that info applies to the 655 as well.
On 28 Feb 2000, Eric Smith wrote:
> I have a KA655 in a BA123 with an RQDX3 and RD54. (The machine was
> originally a VAXstation II/GPX, but I pulled the VCB02 and replace the
> CPU. Eventually I may put the VCB02 back in.)
A mongrel now, eh? Well, I've a few of those.
> When the machine first comes up, SHOW DEVICE reports the drive as an
> RD51. After several resets, it finally decides that it's an RD54.
>
> Is this normal? Or is something broken?
I haven't had this experience myself, but there was some traffic
recently on comp.os.vms about a guy who had an RD54 that thought
it was an RD53. It might have to do with how it was originally
formatted. Somebody help me here.
> Is there a console command I can give that will cuase the system to
> not attempt to autoboot? Right now I've got that by giving it a
> SET BOOT with a bogus device name, but surely there's a better way.
See the above web page, but generally just flip the halt enable
switch to the "up" position (dot in circle).
> Is there a way to abort an attempted boot? When I first fired up the
> box, it was always trying to boot from XQA0, and I had a difficult time
> getting a command prompt. I'd hoped that the halt switch on the front
> panel would do that, but it seemed to only make it run the power-up
> diagnostics in a loop.
If the diagnostics are going in a loop, then you have the middle knob
in test mode (T in circle). Flip it to run mode, which is the arrow
picture, the top position.
> If I add more drives, do I need to install more front-panel inserts for
> them?
Not necessarily, but you won't have control then as to whether they are
writable or offline. I believe the default is online, writable.
> Can a BA123 handle three RD54s, a TK50, and an RX50?
The TK50 only depends on the presence of the TKQ50 controller.
The RQDX3 controller can handle 4 MFM/RLL drives, of the special
types that it knows about, and the RX50 counts as two of those.
However, those controllers are cheap to come buy, and you can
stick a second one in, and jumper it to the secondary disk controller
address. They can also coexist with KDA50 or KFQSA controllers.
Doug
POR...@trailing-edge.com
>RD51. After several resets, it finally decides that it's an RD54.
This usually indicates that the RD54 is on its last legs. The RQDX3
on initialization goes out and queries all the connected hard drives
by reading the formatting info on them. If it can't recognize the
drive for one reason or another, it gets categorized as a RD51.
>Is this normal? Or is something broken?
It probably means that your RD54 is dying. (No surprise there!)
It's possible that a reformat would help eek a few more months of life
out of it.
>Is there a console command I can give that will cuase the system to
>not attempt to autoboot? Right now I've got that by giving it a
>SET BOOT with a bogus device name, but surely there's a better way.
The cab kit for the CPU has two switches with three positions on them.
You obviously haven't looked at the OpenVMS FAQ where the switch
positions are explained, so here's the information from
www.openvms.digital.com:
The MicroVAX-series console bulkhead was used with the KA630, KA650,
KA655 processors.
There are three controls on the console bulkhead of these systems:
Triangle-in-circle-paddle:
halt enable.
dot-in-circle:
halt (BREAK) is enabled,
and auto-boot is disabled.
dot-not-in-circle:
halt (BREAK) is disabled,
and auto-boot is enabled.
Three-position-rotary:
power-up bootstrap behaviour
arrow:
normal operation.
face:
language inquiry mode.
t-in-circle:
infinite self-test loop.
Eight-position-rotary:
console baud rate selection
select the required baud rate; read at power-up.
Those versions of the console bulkhead that do not have an MMJ have a
9-pin submini connector (DB9), and the pinout of this connector
predates the PC 9-pin pinout - the console pinout is consistent with
the EIA232 pinout. See MISC4 for details of the DB9 pinout. For those
bulkheads not equipped with an MMJ, use the H8575-B adapter to convert
the console connector to MMJ. See MISC1 for further details.
Also present on the bulkhead is a self-test indicator: a single digit.
This matches the final part of the countdown displayed on the console
or workstation, and can be used by a service organization to determine
the nature of a processor problem. The particular countdown sequence
varies by processor type, consult the hardware or owner's manual for
the processor, or contact the local hardware service organization for
information the self-test sequence for a particular processor module.
Note that self-tests 2, 1 and 0 are associated with the transfer of
control from the console program to the booting operating system.
>Is there a way to abort an attempted boot? When I first fired up the
>box, it was always trying to boot from XQA0, and I had a difficult time
>getting a command prompt. I'd hoped that the halt switch on the front
>panel would do that, but it seemed to only make it run the power-up
>diagnostics in a loop.
This indicates that you've got the first switch set to "dot not in
circle", i.e. halt disabled.
>If I add more drives, do I need to install more front-panel inserts for
>them?
If you want the drive to be on-line and write-enabled at all times, then
you don't need it.
>Can a BA123 handle three RD54s, a TK50, and an RX50?
It depends on what else you've got connected to the BA123 power supplies.
The system originally came with a worksheet showing the power draw of
all the devices in it as well as the maximum available from each
power supply. You probably don't have this worksheet, but you ought
to do the calculation for your system if you really want to fully deck
it out.
Questions like yours are answered in the DECUServe collection
"THIRD-PARTY-DISKS.TXT" available at ftp://ftp.spc.edu/ and other
places. (Why isn't this resource mentioned more prominently on
the NetBSD pages? It answers a good fraction of the questions
commonly asked here...)
--
Tim Shoppa Email: sho...@trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
Allison J Parent
<It's possible that a reformat would help eek a few more months of life
<out of it.
Could also be that the formatting was messed up early on or the RQDX
controller is ailing and even bad cabling. I've seen those. One of my
older ones was a pull back in '89 for that symptom. Formatted it with the
controller it's used with and it still running.
<>Can a BA123 handle three RD54s, a TK50, and an RX50?
Yes. I've filled all of the drive slots in the past. It also depends on
whats in the backplane as they pull against the same supplies.
OH, MAKE SURE ALL THREE {3} FANS are working. The powersupply fan in the
bottom rear is often missed and can cause eratic operation and shutdowns.
Allison