Modern BSD Computing for Fun on a VAX!

Trying to use a VAX in today's world

Jeffrey Armstrong

NetBSD 8 on a VAX

• Retrocomputing
• Modern OS
• Modern Packages
• Modern Workflow

Limitations

• Last VAX: ~2000
• 32-bit Architecture
• Single Processor (generally...)

VAX 4000/200

• KA660 CPU @ ~32MHz
• 32MB RAM
• Emulex UC08 SCSI
• 10Mb/s Ethernet
• Pure Qbus System

VAXstation 3100 m38

• KA42-B CPU @ ~16MHz
• 32MB RAM
• 10Mb/s Ethernet
• Monochrome Framebuffer

Setting Up a VAX

Setting Up a VAX

• Install NetBSD 8
• Bootstrap pkgsrc
• Install packages

Installing NetBSD 8

• Netboot using mopd
• Boot server must be NetBSD
• First sign of bottlenecks...

Installing NetBSD 8

Bootstrap pkgsrc

• 2018Q4 Archive: 61MB
• 2018Q4 Extracted: 466MB

vax# time tar -xzf pkgsrc-2018Q4.tar.gz -C /usr
    50109.89 real      2287.96 user     17527.31 sys

Bootstrap pkgsrc

===> bootstrap started: Tue Mar  5 11:25:56 UTC 2019
===> bootstrap ended:   Thu Mar  7 13:17:40 UTC 2019
   179510.09 real    109170.55 user     16631.73 sys

VAX as a Client

Client Necessities

• Web Browser
• Text Editor
• Languages...
• Source Control

Client Necessities

Web Browser

• lynx
• w3m
• links

VAX as a Server

Server Necessities

• Web Server
• Remote Shell
• Languages...
• Database
• Samba