nagy%warner.hepnet@LBL.GOV (Frank J. Nagy, VAX Wizard & Guru) (06/24/88)
> Can anyone suggest why one of our LAVC microVAXen fails to re-boot after a > crash or powerfail, with the message "Unable to locate SYS.EXE", whereas the > other three re-boot off the Ethernet? An explicit ">>>B XQ" works fine. > The only differences I can think of between one that works and the one with > the problem are: > (b) The problem system has VMS 4.7 available as s/alone system in [SYS1], > the others also have a s/alone system in the same place but 4.5 not 4.7 Check all your systems by doing a directory of <local-disk>:[SYSEXE]. I believe that you should find that on the systems that boot correctly that this directory is empty, but on the failing system you will find the file SYSBOOT.EXE. If this conjecture is correct, try doing a SET FILE/REMOVE of SYSBOOT.EXE. **** Save the disk first, this procedure might be hazardous to the health of the involved system. I provide no warranties as to the usefulness or safety of this procedure. Your system should then be bootable by doing "B/10000000 DU" to boot from the local disk; normal reboot or power fail reboots should attempt to boot across the Ethernet. What I believe is happening: the sniffer boot looks for a bootable disk, then tries the TK50 if any, finally falling back to the Ethernet. A bootable disk is searched for by looking at all local disks for a bootable system: I believe this is done by looking for [SYSEXE]SYSBOOT.EXE. In your case, SYSBOOT is found and loaded - however SYSBOOT then goes looking for [SYS0.SYSEXE]SYS.EXE since it has no way of knowing to boot from [SYS1] ** UNLESS IT IS EXPLICITLY TOLD TO DO SO **. Since there is no [SYS0] root, SYS.EXE is not found (the error should be coming from SYSBOOT). The source of the problem is that the sniffer boot can find SYSBOOT.EXE in the first place. My VAXStation also has a locally booted system in root [SYS5], but normally is a satellite member of an LAVC. The [SYSEXE] directory is empty on my VAXStation. = Frank J. Nagy "VAX Guru & Wizard" = Fermilab Research Division EED/Controls = HEPNET: WARNER::NAGY (43198::NAGY) or FNAL::NAGY (43009::NAGY) = BitNet: NAGY@FNAL = USnail: Fermilab POB 500 MS/220 Batavia, IL 60510