[rescue] Vaxstation 4000 96

[Eric Dittman]

> > I seem to recall that NetBSD can corrupt the firmware on the
> > VAXstation 4000/9x systems.
> Unfortunately: It can not, it _will_!
> This is a strange thing. On some models (90A or 96?) or some revisions
> of hardware or PROM software it doesn't do this bad thing. But it
> will tweak some bits in the FLASH of all other machines. They
> will report a ?SYS error when the selftest runns, thus preventing 
> autoboot. This is the only impact. Annoying, but not critical.

Preventing an autoboot is beyond annoying.  Also, the bit-
twiddling can prevent VMS from running, which is critical,
and you have to reload the firmware to fix the problem.  If
the problem is bad enough you have to get field service to
perform the reload, which can be expensive.

The problem has been around long enough that I'm surprised
the NetBSD people haven't figured out a fix.
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman at dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/