MIM needs to be taken down for about 1 hour on Fre Sep 12, at 9PM UTC.
Just a heads up for all people, so they know it's happening.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
[I mistakenly sent this reply to an address not subscribed to the list.]
On 2025-09-06 16:30, Brian Roth wrote:
> This is really kicking me. I have a rack with 5 Pi's in it. All are
> going to the same switch. 2 of them have 4 simh instances each that are
> working fine (DECNET). TCP-IP is working fine on all of them. They are
> all wired. On the Pi thats running SCOOBY I created a 11/780 running
> VMS 5.5. It does not communicate as well even though it says circuit up
> (same problem as SCOOBY) OK, I created another instance on an entirely
> different Pi with the same results. I have changed around the assigned
> MAC address's in the simh ini files, swapped switch ports. Running out
> of idea's here. I have Wireshark on one of the Pi's but have no
> experience using it. Guess I better learn.
Remember, DECnet (assuming Phase IV) is going to change the MAC address
to one derived from the assigned DECnet address. The DECnet address
should also match SCSSYSTEMID, although I believe it will complain if
they don't.
Unique MAC addresses in the SIMH config prevent multiple nodes from
clashing with each other before DECnet starts, as well as confusing the
switche(s) that the nodes are connected to.
> On Friday, September 5, 2025 at 02:10:04 PM EDT, Johnny Billquist
> <bqt(a)softjar.se> wrote:
>
> I would probably guess at a problem with the actual MAC address used by
> that MicroVMS system, but it's pretty hard to troubleshoot this
> remotely.
>
> But it's very clear that all the other nodes are not seeing 31.282 as
> up, and so any communication will be failing.
>
> Other possible problems could be if the connection to the outside
> network is actually configured differently on this instance than the
> others, for example.
>
> Trying to think of other possible problems it could be. Maybe posting
> the simh config for the failing machine, as well as for one working,
> could be helpful.
>
> Johnny
>
> On 2025-09-05 20:04, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> I've seen issues sometimes, but I don't know the full extent of what
>> the
>> exact results might be.
>>
>> But don't matter. Now we know they are all simh instances.
>>
>> Johnny
>>
>> On 2025-09-05 19:57, Paul Koning wrote:
>>> I thought SQE failure is only a warning and would not stop the device
>>> from working.
>>>
>>> pul
>>>
>>>> On Sep 5, 2025, at 1:27 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt(a)softjar.se>wrote:
>>>>
>>>> That's one possibility. Another if he's running on some kind of
>>>> emulator on a system that don't actually allow programmatic change
>>>> of
>>>> the MAC address, and you need to set the MAC correctly in the
>>>> emulator before starting up. And if it is real hardware, is it
>>>> connected to some switch then?10baseT? Does he have an adapter that
>>>> can do SQE?
>>>>
>>>> There are many possible ways things could not work. What we can see
>>>> isjust that incoming broadcast/multicast packets work, but so far
>>>> nothing else.
>>>>
>>>> Johnny
>>>>
>>>> On 2025-09-05 19:22, Paul Koning wrote:
>>>>> Is it WiFi? That doesn't work with DECnet MAC addresses (it
>>>>> doesn't
>>>>> like it when the NIC changes its address to aa-00-04-00-xx-yy).
>>>>> paul
>>>>>> On Sep 5, 2025, at 1:14 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt(a)softjar.se>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Well, GEEZER (31.278) is not seeing 31.282 as up. So that's why
>>>>>> you
>>>>>> have a problem. This usually means that packets are working in one
>>>>>> direction, but not the other.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Was this a real machine? How have you connected it to the rest of
>>>>>> the network?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Johnny
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2025-09-05 18:45, Brian Roth wrote:
>>>>>>> The address is 31.282. No File access, Phone or NCP Tell to other
>>>>>>> nodes but it is still able to go out and find a router. It
>>>>>>> (31.282) can phone itself and set host but other nodes it just
>>>>>>> hangs. If I phone anothernode it will just sit at "Establishing
>>>>>>> Decnet Link and then error to "Node is not reachable.
>>>>>>> Brian.
>>>>>>> On Friday, September 5, 2025 at 12:38:11 PM EDT, Johnny Billquist
>>>>>>> <bqt(a)softjar.se <mailto:bqt@softjar.se>> wrote:
>>>>>>> No. Qbus ethernet or Unibus ethernet makes no difference here.
>>>>>>> Does anything else work? NCP to other nodes? Phone? File access?
>>>>>>> What's the address of that microvax?
>>>>>>> Johnny
>>>>>>> On 2025-09-05 17:59, Brian Roth wrote:
>>>>>>>> Hello, I currently have 8 simh vax machines on Hecnet all
>>>>>>>> working
>>>>>>>> fine.
>>>>>>>> Its a mix of machines running VMS 3.5 to 7.3 and while some were
>>>>>>>> abit
>>>>>>>> of a challenge they all talk. I recently configured a Microvax
>>>>>>>> II
>>>>>>>> with
>>>>>>>> MicroVMS 4.6 as well as Decnet 4.6 and assigned it to my area
>>>>>>>> 31.
>>>>>>>> The
>>>>>>>> network loads without errors and I am able to SET HOST to itself
>>>>>>>> butto
>>>>>>>> no other nodes in my area or vice versa. SHOW KNOWN CIRCUITS
>>>>>>>> showsthe
>>>>>>>> hosts I manually defined. SHOW KNOWN CIRCUITS CHARACTERISTICS
>>>>>>>> showsa
>>>>>>>> designated router in my area so its finding that. If I bring a
>>>>>>>> router
>>>>>>>> node down it successfully finds another in the area.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The microvax node:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Known Circuit Volatile Characteristics as of 5-SEP-1987
>>>>>>>> 11:37:16
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Circuit = QNA-0
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> State = on
>>>>>>>> Service = disabled
>>>>>>>> Designated router = 31.278
>>>>>>>> Cost =4
>>>>>>>> Router priority =64
>>>>>>>> Hello timer = 15
>>>>>>>> Type = Ethernet
>>>>>>>> Adjacent node =31.278
>>>>>>>> Listen timer = 45
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The working nodes match with the exception of the circuit. All
>>>>>>>> theother
>>>>>>>> machines are UNA-0 (UNIBUS) and this one is of course QNA-0
>>>>>>>> Couldthis
>>>>>>>> be the problem?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Brian.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
>>>>>>> || on a psychedelic trip
>>>>>>> email:bqt@softjar.se
>>>>>>> <mailto:bqt@softjar.se><mailto:bqt@softjar.se
>>>>>>> <mailto:bqt@softjar.se>> || Reading murder books
>>>>>>> pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B.
>>>>>>> Idol
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> HECnet mailing list --hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se
>>>>>>> <mailto:hecnet@lists.dfupdate.se><mailto:hecnet@lists.dfupdate.se
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>>>>>>> leave(a)lists.dfupdate.se<mailto:hecnet-leave@lists.dfupdate.se>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
>>>>>> || on a psychedelic trip
>>>>>> email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
>>>>>> pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> HECnet mailing list -- hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se
>>>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to hecnet-leave(a)lists.dfupdate.se
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
>>>> || on a psychedelic trip
>>>> email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
>>>> pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> HECnet mailing list -- hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se
>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to hecnet-leave(a)lists.dfupdate.se
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
> --
> Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
> || on a psychedelic trip
> email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
> pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
>
> _______________________________________________
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Hello, I currently have 8 simh vax machines on Hecnet all working fine. Its a mix of machines running VMS 3.5 to 7.3 and while some were a bit of a challenge they all talk. I recently configured a Microvax II with MicroVMS 4.6 as well as Decnet 4.6 and assigned it to my area 31. The network loads without errors and I am able to SET HOST to itself but to no other nodes in my area or vice versa. SHOW KNOWN CIRCUITS shows the hosts I manually defined. SHOW KNOWN CIRCUITS CHARACTERISTICS shows a designated router in my area so its finding that. If I bring a router node down it successfully finds another in the area.
The microvax node:
Known Circuit Volatile Characteristics as of 5-SEP-1987 11:37:16
Circuit = QNA-0
State = on
Service = disabled
Designated router = 31.278
Cost = 4
Router priority = 64
Hello timer = 15
Type = Ethernet
Adjacent node = 31.278
Listen timer = 45
The working nodes match with the exception of the circuit. All the other machines are UNA-0 (UNIBUS) and this one is of course QNA-0 Could this be the problem?
Brian.
