Re: Two questions about the Vax installation guide...

Den 2025-08-04 kl. 15:06, skrev Perry Metzger:
> On 8/4/25 06:42, Anders Magnusson wrote:
>> Morning Perry,
>>
>> Den 2025-08-03 kl. 22:17, skrev Perry Metzger:
>>> 1. The installation guide says to get a mopd from 
>>> ftp.stacken.kth.se:/pub/OS/NetBSD/mopd -- however, this machine is 
>>> long dead. (I know how to build myself a mopd, but it's nice if the 
>>> install documents tell the truth for a new user.)
>> Hm, that is the master distribution.  Need to check with Stacken 
>> where it has gone today.
>
> Might this be hosted off a NetBSD machine instead? It would assure 
> that the package and the install instructions were maintained by the 
> same group and would not disappear easily.
I checked with Stacken, and the (physical) machine went down 2025-06-11 
due to reorganization of the rack. The machine will reappear as a vm.
>>> 2. The netboot/ directory that gets built these days has four files 
>>> in it, boot, boot.mop, install.ram.gz, and install.ram.symbols.gz — 
>>> it is unclear what install.ram.gz etc. are for. The install docs 
>>> mention a netbsd.ram.gz but that's not in the directory and it isn't 
>>> clear if these are the same, or what the "ram" in the name indicates.
>> Heh, that is probably an ancient typo.  They are the same, yes.
>
> It should be fixed in one direction or another. (Honestly I think 
> "netbsd.ram.gz" is a better name...)
>
> (It's also not clear what the distinction between boot and boot.mop 
> is...)
True.  boot is in ELF and boot.mop is in MOP format :-)

>>> 3. The guide claims that there is a a directory called 
>>> installation/misc that contains "Miscellaneous vax installation 
>>> utilities; see installation section below." -- this directory does 
>>> not appear to exist and no further reference is made to it.
>> That directory have never existed.  I assume that text have appeared 
>> in some aligning of the install docs with some other port.
>>
> I wonder it did exist at some point long ago; there's all sorts of 
> standalone utilities we shipped for most ports 30 years ago to aid in 
> installation. The process used to be that after the release got 
> auto-built that the portmaster would copy those things in to the 
> release. (This lack of automation was probably a mistake and was 
> probably my fault.)
I couldn't remember having ever had something extra, so I looked into 
the distributions 1.5-1.5, but no such dir existed...?

>
> For the VAX in particular, there seem to be a bunch of utilities of 
> various kinds kicking around in src/sys/arch/vax that might have been 
> part of 4.4 or our stuff at one point long ago.

-- Ragge