[Simh] Simh VAX V3.9-0 Problems using Init command

[will kranz]

I'm currently running OpenVMS 073.
I did this a week ago on a different machine (not accessable today) and it worked fine.I have a bootable vms073.dsk image, and I created two empty files per below to be initialized.
in vax.ini I had:attach RQ0  vms073.dsk
attach RQ3  rx50.dskattach RL0  rl01.dsk
Then started emulate and booted CPU followed by:
b DUA0works fine, and I log in.
last week I believe I just did following to create bare disk image files just containing system files:init DUA3: VRX50init DLA0: VRL01
This week the init fails, and I am told "%INIT-F-MEDOFL, medium is offline"
but the result for "sh dev" for these devices is:SIMH1$DUA3:             Online               0
SIMH1$DLA0:             Online               0
I am puzzled as to why this doesn't work now.  What am I missing here?Thanks in advance.

[Mark Pizzolato]

Hi Will,

To help answer your question, please:

1) Provide the output of SHOW VERSION from the sim> prompt of your running simulator

2) Provide the complete configuration file you are running the simulator with

3) After you get the "%INIT-F-MEDOFL, medium is offline" messages enter ^E and type SHOW RQ and SHOW DL at the sim> prompt and provide that output here.

Thanks.


- Mark

From: Simh [mailto:simh-***@trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of will kranz
Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 8:04 AM
To: ***@trailing-edge.com
Subject: [Simh] Simh VAX V3.9-0 Problems using Init command


I'm currently running OpenVMS 073.

I did this a week ago on a different machine (not accessable today) and it worked fine.
I have a bootable vms073.dsk image, and I created two empty files per below to be initialized.
in vax.ini I had:
attach RQ0 vms073.dsk
attach RQ3 rx50.dsk
attach RL0 rl01.dsk

Then started emulate and booted CPU followed by:
b DUA0
works fine, and I log in.

last week I believe I just did following to create bare disk image files just containing system files:
init DUA3: VRX50
init DLA0: VRL01

This week the init fails, and I am told "%INIT-F-MEDOFL, medium is offline"

but the result for "sh dev" for these devices is:
SIMH1$DUA3: Online 0
SIMH1$DLA0: Online 0

I am puzzled as to why this doesn't work now. What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance.

[will kranz]

Sorry, this is solved.I had a bad path to a non-existent directory in my vax.ini for files I was trying to 'init'and failed to notice the 'open error' in startup display.
Mark's suggestion of checking status of RQ3 at the simh level showed following:sim> sh rq3
RQ3, 409KB, not attached, write enabled, RX50

When I corrected the path, it showed as attached and the 'init' worked as it should.Also discovered that I don't need to create the empty file, simh does that for you ifthe path is valid but the file to be attached does not exist.This was mentioned in Phil Wherry's excellent installation guide but I missed it first
time through:https://www.wherry.com/gadgets/retrocomputing/vax-simh.html