I've assembled some notes from old manuals and other sources
on the formats used for on-disk file systems through the
Seventh Edition:
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~norman/old-unix/old-fs.html
Additional notes, comments on style, and whatnot are welcome.
(It may be sensible to send anything in the last two categories
directly to me, rather than to the whole list.)
Hi,
I successfully made SIMH VAX-11/780 emulator run 32V, 3BSD and 4.0BSD.
Details are on my web site (thogh rather tarse):
http://zazie.tom-yam.or.jp/starunix/
Enjoy!
Naoki Hamada
nao(a)tom-yam.or.jp
As you might remember from a previous post, I am trying to virtualize
/ emulate an old Data General UNIX system to a VM env'.
This is my progress so far (after a lot of reading, searching and
understanding who is who and what does it all mean) :
1. I've DD'ed an exact copy of the raw system disk as an image on my Linux box.
2. Loaded it up with most virtualization products out there - VMware,
VirtualBox, Xen/KVM/Qemu, Bochs and such.
They all work, ie, bootloader works and getting a DG/UX menu to
choose my proper kernel/system disk.
3. This is where they fail, as they cannot find the system's original
Adaptec PCI SCSI Controller (which is an AIC-7880 chip).
Most VM products only support LSI/BusLogic SCSI, and IDE of course.
As I see it, I have a few things I can do to make it work:
1. write an Adaptec driver for a VM product.
2. write an LSI/BusLogic driver for DG/UX or implement virtio drivers into it.
3. get IDE support working.
1st 2 options, as I understand from software eng' and other
professionals, are very difficult.
The 3rd option is interesting :
On one hand, I have an config file with all of DG/UX's supported
hardware, IDE is simply not there (would love for someone else to have
a look if possible. Just say so and I'll send you the file).
_and_ docs say "Data General has not tested or qualified the use of
IDE devices in AViiON AV 2100 systems".
_BUT_, on the other hand, BIOS seems to have plenty of IDE config
options and also docs say:
"IDE Interface - Disabled/Auto" , "OnBoard IDE Controller - enabled".
" The AV 2100 board set consists of a system board with six PCI
expansion slots, three ISA expansion slots, and several embedded
controller devices (PCI video, SCSI, Network, and IDE).
and "..A SCSI-III AIC-7880 controller for connecting up to seven 8-bit
narrow SCSI devices. You can also connect a mixture of fifteen 8-bit
narrow and 16-bit wide SCSI devices to the controller—maximum of seven
8-bit narrow SCSI devices. PCI-enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
(IDE) hard disk interface that supports two hard disk drives"
Also " Since the lower bay contains a SCSI CD-ROM drive, only one
other SCSI device can be installed. You can install an IDE device in
the remaining bay. "
And much more. The question is, if I have an exact image of the
primary disk and I did try to load it via an IDE drive (in Qemu/
VirtualBox etc), didn't work out. Like last time, bootloader booted up
and then hang after trying to load the kernel.
Is there something I can try and do as a different config in my image file?
Anything else you can think of?
Please let me know if you need any file sent over.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Adam
Speaking of DG/UX, anybody know where to find this article?
M. H. Kelley. A look at the DG/UX file system.
Technical Report 3, Data General Corporation, 1990
I have a feeling DG was very early with journaling / crash resistant
filesystem tech but I've seen almost no detailed info, just a couple of
lines in a brochure.
John Finigan
asbesto(a)freaknet.org:
p.s. a copy of the operating system or a dump of the DISK/OS
will be appreciated, is very important to save this kind of
software, very hard to found today.
[...]
[ *I DELETE* EMAIL > 100K, ATTACHMENTS, HTML, M$-WORD DOC and SPAM ]
=======
I guess if I had a copy it would be unwise to e-mail it to you.
(I dislike using e-mail as a large-file-transfer service myself,
but I communicate with enough non-geeks that I consider the
battle lost.)
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
Hi,
A big thanks to all who replied to my request for takers for the old
PDP-11 systems I have. I'm afraid I haven't been able to respond to
everyone yet as there's been a lot going on but I appreciate the
enlightenment on some of the aspects of the machines.
To be honest I really know very little about the PDP-11 and I had
hoped to learn more though these, so my MicroVAX II was a best guess
based on trying to match the hardware up to images on the web.
I will try and get back to all who expressed an interest with more
detailed information on the configuration and better pictures.
> Of course a PDP-11 is not a MicroVAX, and vice versa.
>
> Looking at the pictures, the only thing really worth saving would be
> the chassis shown with a keyboard next to it. One can see a floppy
> disk drive, and a hole where a hard disk drive probably was once. If
> there is a nameplate on the front, it is not readable in the picture.
> A picture of the rear panel would help in further identification, as
> well as a reading of any nameplate data on the rear panel.
--
Regards,
Kevin Phair
Hey all,
Got an old PentiumPro AViiON DG/UX machine.
I was just wodering if anyone happens to have an old, unused machine like
that.
If so, please reply with details, as well as geographic location.
All shipping costs will be payed by me.
A cash reward is offered, if you are interested.
Thanks,
A'
Hi,
A number of years ago I diverted a couple of PDP-11 systems which were
on their way to a skip. I believe they were in working condition and I
had always intended to clean them up and get them set up and running
again to see what it was all about. This never happened and I no
longer have the space to store them. As a result I'm offering them to
anyone who's willing to pay the shipping. They are located in Dublin,
Ireland.
There is some mild corrosion on some of the metal chassis and the
paint on the VDU casings is peeling off in place but overall I think
they will clean up well.
I think they are the MicroVAX II model and the consist of the PDP-11
chassis unit with a Ramstar T-1500 VDU and keyboard. Each one also has
a power distrubution box and they are configured for 120VAC operation.
There are also power cables (amongst others). I don't know what boards
are installed in them, but they did originally have tape drives
connected and were used to drive an inkjet printing system, so I
expect there is at least a tape controller and serial/parallel
interface in each of them.
Photos of everything are up on
http://sites.google.com/site/kevinphair/old-electronic-equipment/PDP-11
but unfortunately the cabinet units are no longer available.
If anyone is interested in these please get in touch soon as I won't
be able to keep them for much longer. If there's no interest in the
complete units, I'd also be happy to consider donating parts from them
to help with restorations or upgrade projects. I'm also open to
putting them in storage if someone wants to arrange collection at a
later date and is willing to split the storage costs.
--
Regards,
Kevin Phair
