NetBSD SIMH HOW-TO

This guide is intended to help you install NetBSD on the SIMH VAX emulator.

   1. Get the emulator source code from the SIMH home page
      <http://simh.trailing-edge.com/>. Currently, the emulator is in a
      file called |simhv29-9.zip|.
   2. Create a directory to hold the emulator, and unpack the zip files
      with unzip -a there.
   3. Build the emulator by typing

	mkdir BIN
        make BIN/vax

      If that doesn't work, read the documentation included with SIMH.
   4. Get a NetBSD/vax CD ISO image, for example NetBSD 1.5.2
      <ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/1.5.2/vaxcd.iso>.
   5. Start the emulator program (|BIN/vax|).
   6. At the emulator prompt, type

        load -r /path/to/simh/VAX/ka655.bin
        set rq0 ra92
        at rq0 netbsd.dsk
        set rq1 cdrom
        at rq1 /path/to/vaxcd.iso
        boot cpu

      This will configure the emulated VAX with an RA92 disk, and the CD
      image masquerading as an RD54 disk. See the SIMH documentation for
      other options.
   7. At the VMB prompt, type

        boot dua1:

      to boot off the CD.
   8. Proceed with a normal NetBSD install. You may not want to install
      the X11 stuff, since SIMH doesn't emulate a frame buffer. Also,
      there is a problem where the installation program doesn't find the
      |.tgz| files on the CD. If this happens, suspend the installation
      with |Control-Z|, and type

        mount -t cd9660 /dev/ra1a /mnt2

      Then resume with |fg| and tell the installation program to ignore
      the error.
   9. After a considerable amount of time, the installation finishes,
      and you may shut down or reboot.
  10. You can now type |q| at the emulator prompt to exit the emulator.
  11. Enter these lines

        load -r /path/to/simh/VAX/ka655.bin
        set rq0 ra92
        at rq0 netbsd.dsk
        boot cpu

      into a file, say |netbsd-boot|.
  12. Restart the emulator like so:

        BIN/vax netbsd-boot

  13. At the VMB prompt, type

        boot dua0:

      to boot off the disk.
  14. Welcome to NetBSD!

If you are interested in helping this document cover other NetBSD ports,
or have any other comments or suggestions, please contact Lars Brinkhoff
<lars.spam@nocrew.org> <mailto:lars.spam@nocrew.org>, or the NetBSD WWW
group <http://www.NetBSD.org/cgi-bin/feedback.cgi>.


    Acknowledgements

The initial version of this HOW-TO was written by Lars Brinkhoff
<http://lars.nocrew.org/>. Some of the information in this page was
derived from an email sent by Mirian Crzig Lennox
<mailto:mirian@cosmic.com> .

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