Early ROM revisions on the Webster MSCP controllers were too slow for the
KA650 and would often loose interrupts (amoungst other things). Signals such
as NPR and BR grants were polled from a pseudo microcode loop which took too
long.
The RS232 interface doesn't use standard receivers. Check for a 5 volt zener on
the input of an 74LS240 (from the 10 pin i/o connector) and add a schottky
in parallel (a 1N5818 would do) if one isn't there
If you can read this, the 4-port Wombat (Webster/Sigma ESDI controller)
in the KA650 system through which this mail must pass on its way out
is working fine, as it has since I installed it in that system a year
and a half ago.
According to my notes, I had no trouble communicating with the onboard
diagnostic monitor (with the board in another KA650 reserved for system
testing). I used the monitor quite a bit, starting it many times,
first because it took me a long time to realize that the terminator
had been left installed backwards in one of the drives (so the drive
wasn't visible to the controller no matter what I did to the cables).
I don't think I tried the serial port on the back of the Wombat board;
instead I uttered the magic commands to load and run the Wombat communication
program on the VAX itself. I'd expect this to be more timing-sensitive
than the hardware port. In any case it worked fine.
Once the controller could see the disks (and I'd done some formatting
and some testing with the diagnostics), I tested the Wombat under my
oddball version of UNIX, and found what may be an MSCP implementation
botch. A UNIBUS/QBUS MSCP storage port gets only one interrupt vector;
it is supposed to set one of two flags to indicate whether it is interrupting
because there were no command slots and it freed one, or because there
were no messages waiting to be read and it supplied one. The Wombat
appeared often to be tardy in setting the `message waiting' flag; my
port driver often received an interrupt, checked the flags, found nothing
to do, and of course dismissed the interrupt without realizing that
the controller had in fact reported an I/O completion. (And of course
if I halted the system and took a crash dump I found the flag set.
It took some real-time tracing to uncover the problem.)
It is easy to work around this--instead of relying on the flag, one
can go look at the message descriptors to see if there's a new message--
so that is what my driver now does. I have a vague memory that the
original Ultrix MSCP driver, whence the current BSD one is probably
descended and the current Ultrix one more distantly, already did it
that way. Silly me, I programmed from the protocol spec rather than
just blindly copying someone else's unexplained code ...
None of this explains why Bob Keys is having trouble, but it does
suggest to me that the Wombat firmware might have other subtle bugs
that are tickled by particular systems, perhaps even timing-dependent
problems. (I haven't checked, but it could well be that the interrupt-
flag bug would be invisible to a KA630 because it took a little longer
to get to that part of the interrupt routine.)
I have two Wombat boards with slightly different firmware. (One is
labelled RQD11-EC and its diagnostic monitor calls itself WOMBAT;
the other is branded by SpectraLogic, I forget what model it calls
itself, but the monitor calls itself SLEUTH.) My notes don't say
whether they both displayed the interrupt botch. I do know that
communications with the diagnostic monitor worked fine with both.
The RQD11-EC claimed to have firmware (or perhaps diagnostic monitor)
version 2.38.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
> From: msokolov(a)ivan.Harhan.ORG (Michael Sokolov)
> To: tuhs(a)tuhs.org
> Subject: Re: [TUHS] flaky webster or sigma WQESD4 and RQD11 controllers on KA650???
> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 02 23:29:58 PST
>
> Robertdkeys(a)aol.com wrote:
>
> > Is there an endemic problem with this style 4
> > port controller running too fast with a KA650
> > compared to a KA630 cpu?
>
> I have no explanation for your problem, but it has nothing to do
> with speed. Q-bus is Q-bus, and it follows Q-bus timing, which is
> completely independent of the VAX CPU timing.
Yes but there might be CPU spin-loop timing to run the serial
maintenance port from the ROM bootstrap code of the controller.
Not considered good form -- but such things happen.
Some early version of the Sigma RQD11 would work in an 11/73 but not
a KA630. I no longer remember the exact symptoms, but I was glad that
at the time Sigma was only an 80-mile drive from here.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
clowenst(a)ucsd.edu
I found out what the problem was.....(sheepishly
ducking...(:+\\...). At 3 in the morning I had
a typeo in the config file that the old eyeballs
did not catch. I had typed in the partitions
to allocate to root and swap, as opposed to just
the the disks. It compiled fine, but when run,
it paniced and dumped itself all over the floor.
So much for myopic eyes programming at 3 in the
morning.....
(:+{{.....
Bob
Robertdkeys(a)aol.com wrote:
> Is there an endemic problem with this style 4
> port controller running too fast with a KA650
> compared to a KA630 cpu?
I have no explanation for your problem, but it has nothing to do with speed.
Q-bus is Q-bus, and it follows Q-bus timing, which is completely independent of
the VAX CPU timing.
Is the new CPU board firmly seated? Nothing broken or disturbed in the
backplane when swapping the boards?
> Ultrix seems to handle it better than Tahoe.
> It might be speed in the hardware and slight
> differences in drivers?
Ultrix' MSCP code is vastly superior to anything we've ever had in BSD. I plan
to lift the MSCP/SCA framework from Ultrix wholesale in Quasijarus down the
line.
MS
Wolfgang Helbig wondered,
> While studying the V6 kernel, I search for some rules as when to raise
> the interrupt priority level (IPL). I came up with something like this:
> A kernel process needs to raise the IPL if a change of data must be atomic and might
> be accessed (not necessarily changed) by an IRS.
> In light of this rule, some raising of interrupts seem unnecessary:
> - In m40.s changes of the user space segmentation registers are bracketed by raising
> and lowering the IPL, although these registers are never accessed by an ISR.
> - Likewise, in m40.s, just before the trap routine checks the runrun flag and
> restores r0, r1 and the user stackpointer, it raises the IPL. I can't see what
> possibly should go wrong, if being interrupted while restoring the values.
It's quite possible that the code is unnecessarily cautious.
In general one does not want an interrupt while something
sensitive is in a half-changed state (for example, some of
the addressing registers changed, or a stack half-switched).
For example, the clock interrupt routine can inspect user
space (for display(), for example, though this is inactive
on the 11/40), and even change it (for profiling).
It does appear that other things (checking for
a direct-from user-mode interrupt) in the clock routine
already guard against these particular problems.
It's been a long time since I've looked at this, however.
Dennis
I upgraded my MVII KA630 critters to MVIII KA650
critters. The disk controllers in them are the
old Webster or Sigma WQESD/4 and SCD-RQD11/EC
(same boards). When I upgraded the cpu/ram on
one of the machines, and tried to use the onboard
formatter rs232 port, the port gave crazy spaces
and backspaces continuously after the initial
boot signon msg into the controller formatter
prom. Changing it to a DQ696 controller and the
problem went away. On a second machine, with
KA650, it has a tendency to give uda controller
initialization errors about 50% of the time when
booting.
Is there an endemic problem with this style 4
port controller running too fast with a KA650
compared to a KA630 cpu? It sure feels like
that. It would be a bummer to have to use the
slower cpus on these machines....(:+{{.....
Anone else run into these kinds of problems?
Ultrix seems to handle it better than Tahoe.
It might be speed in the hardware and slight
differences in drivers?
Any suggestions or thoughts appreciated.
Thanks
Bob
>From Warren:
>
> These file are now in the Unix Archive on minnie.tuhs.org in
> PDP-11/Boot_Images/2.11_on_Simh
>
> The mirror sites should pick them up soon.
>
Robertdkeys(a)aol.com wrote:
> I am wondering if
> a dd image of a working few start blocks on a
> disk could be copied over to a raw formatted
> disk from the tape copy, before the miniroot
> went on, as part of the boot/install process?
This should work.
> Michael, what are your thoughts on setting up
> the disks, reasonably?
Well, every time I need to do this, I do some history reenactment, as this is
how Quasijarus Project was originally bootstrapped. I first install Ultrix on
the VAX, then write a Tahoe/Quasijarus disk label to the boot disk (by
compiling disklabel under Ultrix), and then do the normal 4.3-QJ0a install, at
which point the standalone system sees the label and is happy.
MS
Robertdkeys(a)aol.com wrote:
> Great! Keep me in mind for any testing if you
> need it.
I currently don't need any testing that I can't do myself, but thanks anyway.
> I still am curious as to how many on the lists
> are actually running such critters, currently,
> on Quasijarus or on Ultrix.
Well, Harhan is still up as you can see, despite the incessant bills... Pretty
much all my work on Quasijarus since 4.3-QJ0a has been on operational issues,
i.e., issues that don't matter much for hobbyists but become important when you
use it operationally for your mission-critical computing. All my VAXen are
running current unreleased code. The Internet feed is WorldCom/UUNET with a
Quasijarus-based router. I wrote all the code for the latter, which will
hopefully appear in 4.3-QJ1.
I also have an MV3100 running Ultrix whose sole purpose is to interface an
Exabyte 8 mm SCSI tape drive to my cluster. Doing backups on TK50s is
prohibitively expensive. Some day I hope to find time to port 4.3-Quasijarus to
it.
> Did you arrive at any reasonable way to do the
> initial disklabels and boot blocks so one can
> install Quasijarus directly?
That was and still is planned for 4.3-QJ1. 4.3-QJ0a and 4.3-QJ0b "officially"
support bootstrap only on DEC RA disks. Two of my running MicroVAXen are
equipped with the latter (RA72s). I also run one with ESDI disks, as I have
equipped many MicroVAXen in the past. I bootstrap the latter via Ultrix (see my
other reply).
MS
That is what I do. After several failures, I
find that using first NetBSD-1.4.1 boot to both
label and install boot blocks, followed by second,
NetBSD-1.2 boot and edlabel to trim the labels
back to something akin to a Tahoe style label,
seems to be the only way that works reliably.
The label 1.4.1 writes is different from the
Tahoe label, in that it computes incorrect c
partition sizes. It does write something that
I think is bootblock related that seems to must
be there for Quasijarus to boot on my hardware.
I am not sure exactly what it is, but using just
the 1.2 edlabel does not seem to work reliably.
The 1.2 edlabel seems to write a correct c size
partition, though, after the 1.4.1 bits are put
on. I ought to dd off the binary bits and see
what is actually being written. But, the above
seems to work, for me, and got my crashed disks
back up a few minutes ago, after hours of prom
formatting....(:+{{..... Anyway, that is how I
get the machine up. If there is a better or
easier way, someone holler. I am wondering if
a dd image of a working few start blocks on a
disk could be copied over to a raw formatted
disk from the tape copy, before the miniroot
went on, as part of the boot/install process?
An undersized disk label with reasonably sized
a and b partitions and a small but installable
h partition (big enough for the usr tarball to
fit on) should allow a bootable system to be
installed. From that it could be set up on a
second disk with correctly sized labels. Or,
when the tape was written, a selection of disk
boot/label images could be set up and a correct
one written to the boot tape for the target disk
install. What other ways could this be done?
Michael, what are your thoughts on setting up
the disks, reasonably?
Thanks
Bob
Great! Keep me in mind for any testing if you
need it. I have 4 Qbus VAXentoyz that mostly
just sit and play, when the HD's stay up. Of
late ESDI drives have been giving me fits, but
maybe I can scrounge up a few more in the local
MooU surplus feeding frenzy diving pits. Maybe,
someday, some scsi mscp cards might float up
from the depths! (dream on.....(:+}}...)
I still am curious as to how many on the lists
are actually running such critters, currently,
on Quasijarus or on Ultrix. I mostly play with
mine, doing some roffing and TeXing, and porting
a few minor tidbits.
Did you arrive at any reasonable way to do the
initial disklabels and boot blocks so one can
install Quasijarus directly? The only clean way
I can do it is to use two other OS installs that
put enough bits there that Quasijarus is happy.
There ought to be an easier way.
Anyway, keep me posted as to when Quasijarus 0b
might become reality.
Thanks
Bob Keys
Robertdkeys(a)aol.com wrote:
> It was Q0A. Has there been any later development
> of it, of interest?
Yes, there has been. The only problem is that I still haven't managed (in 3
years) to find time to spin it into a release. :-( There is some hope, though,
that I'll find a bit of time (enough to spin out the 4.3-QJ0b release) this
winter.
MS
Sorry. Wrong list. That was meant for PUPS.
Andru
--
Andru Luvisi, Programmer/Analyst
Quote Of The Moment:
Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't
immune to bullets.
-- The Brigadier, "Dr. Who"
Robertdkeys(a)aol.com wrote:
> [...] I just used the quasijarus
> 0a source tarball (that is supposed to be Tahoe) [...]
It is.
> Out of curiosity, anyone still running a 4.3BSD
> box? I had a couple microVAXes up with it until
> my ESDI drives went bellyup a few days back.
Do you mean the plain original 4.3 or enhanced versions like 4.3-Quasijarus?
The plain original 4.3 doesn't run on MicroVAXen, so if you had 4.3 on yours,
it must have been *some* enhanced version.
MS
>From Warren:
>
> These file are now in the Unix Archive on minnie.tuhs.org in
> PDP-11/Boot_Images/2.11_on_Simh
>
> The mirror sites should pick them up soon.
>
The src tarball in the archives is only 35k or
something like that, so it is mostly gone. At
one time, I thought it was more there.
Since I was only needing the dwb section out
of the sources, to power up a dwb suite on an
ancient ultrix box, I just used the quasijarus
0a source tarball (that is supposed to be Tahoe)
for the bits I needed. It worked.
But, for the record, it might be nice to have a
complete, unbroken set, if it still exists, and
the bits can be rounded up.
Out of curiosity, anyone still running a 4.3BSD
box? I had a couple microVAXes up with it until
my ESDI drives went bellyup a few days back.
(Ice storms and power glitches ate the drives.)
I have maybe 30mb of ports of this and that
(gzip, gmake, psroff, TeX, and other things)
that I would donate to the archives if there
was any interest. MicroVAXen are a cheap way
of playing old BSD....(:+}}...
Thanks
Bob
Warren,
Oh, I see Andru already uploaded it to Minnie as well.. OK..
Thanks, Andru!
--fred
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Warren Toomey [mailto:wkt@minnie.tuhs.org]
> Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2002 6:08 AM
> To: Andru Luvisi
> Cc: pups(a)minnie.tuhs.org
> Subject: Re: [pups] Boot_Images and the networking activated
> version of
> Simh
>
>
> In article by Andru Luvisi:
> > All righty. I have:
> > A working boot image for a networked 2.11BSD system inside simh.
> > Some perl scripts for working with simh tape images.
> > simh startup script for booting the networked image.
> > simh startup script for booting from the install tape.
> > Some basic instructions for how to get the thing going
> (not a substitute
> > for reading the simh docs and knowing something about UNIX).
> >
> > I emailed Warren but he seems to be unavailable right now.
> >
> > So, who's got an archive I can upload it to?
>
> Try anonymous ftp to minnie.tuhs.org, directory incoming/unix.
>
> Sorry, I've been busy!
> Warren
> _______________________________________________
> PUPS mailing list
> PUPS(a)minnie.tuhs.org
> http://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/pups
>
Hi,
While studying the V6 kernel, I search for some rules as when to raise
the interrupt priority level (IPL). I came up with something like this:
A kernel process needs to raise the IPL if a change of data must be atomic and might
be accessed (not necessarily changed) by an IRS.
In light of this rule, some raising of interrupts seem unnecessary:
- In m40.s changes of the user space segmentation registers are bracketed by raising
and lowering the IPL, although these registers are never accessed by an ISR.
- Likewise, in m40.s, just before the trap routine checks the runrun flag and
restores r0, r1 and the user stackpointer, it raises the IPL. I can't see what
possibly should go wrong, if being interrupted while restoring the values.
I'd appreciate any help from someone with more experience in kernel programming.
Greetings,
Wolfgang Helbig
People,
DO note that the Ethernet operations of SimH heavily depend on the proper
workings AND configuration of a Packet Filter driver for your platform,
so, something like BPF, EFILT, NetFLT or WinPCAP (for Win32). Try running
a test app for that stuff BEFORE trying to run SimH/ENET stuff.. if the
test app works OK, you can start figuring out why SimH/ENET doesn't work
on your system.
I have *three* network cards the drivers of which DO NOT support promisc
mode. Which obviously results in WinPCAP (they're PCI cards under Win2K)
not functioning properly, and, thus, same for SimH/ENET.
--fred
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andru Luvisi [mailto:luvisi@andru.sonoma.edu]
> Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 8:02 AM
> To: gregg(a)levine.name
> Cc: pups(a)minnie.tuhs.org
> Subject: Re: [pups] Boot_Images and the networking activated
> version of
> Simh
>
>
> On Thu, 28 Nov 2002, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> > Hello from Gregg C Levine
> > Just out of curiosity, can the boot images stored in the
> folders that
> > are under that name, actually support this new version of
> Simh? That is
> > the PDP-11 emulator. What would be necessary to enable that
> function? It
> > looks as if one of them, is aware of the device, since I believe the
> > image was made on a machine which has the appropriate card
> installed in
> > it, but after that I'm lost.
>
> I would be happy to share mine, but it doesn't work. ;-)
>
> The thing that strikes me as really weird is that I know a guy who is
> running VMS with networking on the simh VAX emulator. As I
> understand it,
> the the VAX and PDP-11 emulators use the same code for the ethernet
> controller.
>
> Andru
> --
> Andru Luvisi, Programmer/Analyst
>
> Quote Of The Moment:
> Truth is hard to find and harder to obscure.
>
> _______________________________________________
> PUPS mailing list
> PUPS(a)minnie.tuhs.org
> http://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/pups
>
Hi -
> From: Andru Luvisi <luvisi(a)andru.sonoma.edu>
> I have gotten 2.11 installed on simh, I have it recognizing the simulated
> ethernet card, and everything appears correct except the packets just
> aren't getting in and out. The simh documentation says that the DELQA
> card is better than the DEQNA, but I was unable to get the DELQA (qt)
> driver to recognize the card. When I compiled the kernel to use the DEQNA
There are TWO variants of the DELQA as I recall. One was referred
to as the "turbo" verion (I think it was called the DELQA-YM) and
the if_qt driver was developed and tested specifically for, and only
for, that variant. The normal DELQA and DEQNA should use the if_qe
driver.
> I have configured 2.11BSD with:
> A valid IP address on the network the host is on.
> The same netmask, broadcast, and gateway as the host.
> I am running the emulator as root.
>
> The docs say you won't be able to talk between the host and the emulated
Hmmm, that seems strange. Using P11 I talk between the host (the
machine running the emulator program) and the "PDP11" all the time.
Ah, it has to do with ARP handling I suspect. I know that with P11
it's IP only and thus ARP packets do not traverse the emulated ethernet
card. If that is the case with simh as well then on the PDP11 side
you might have to do what I did and install arp entries for everything
on the local lan with which the PDP11 is going to communicate. That
way the 11 already knows the 'mac' address and does not need ARP (which
doesn't work thru the emulated ethernet) at all.
> machine, so my test for each configuration has been pinging the gateway,
> which I know responds to pings since I can ping it from the host.
Ah, but on the host did you publish an ARP entry so that the host
will arp for the PDP11? I think that is required.
I would tinker around with installing published/proxy arp entries and
seeing what happens.
Cheers,
Steven Schultz
sms(a)2bsd.com
Hello from Gregg C Levine
Just out of curiosity, can the boot images stored in the folders that
are under that name, actually support this new version of Simh? That is
the PDP-11 emulator. What would be necessary to enable that function? It
looks as if one of them, is aware of the device, since I believe the
image was made on a machine which has the appropriate card installed in
it, but after that I'm lost.
-------------------
Gregg C Levine hansolofalcon(a)worldnet.att.net
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Use the Force, Luke." Obi-Wan Kenobi
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to General Obi-Wan Kenobi )
(This company dedicates this E-Mail to Master Yoda )
I have gotten 2.11 installed on simh, I have it recognizing the simulated
ethernet card, and everything appears correct except the packets just
aren't getting in and out. The simh documentation says that the DELQA
card is better than the DEQNA, but I was unable to get the DELQA (qt)
driver to recognize the card. When I compiled the kernel to use the DEQNA
(qe) driver and set the card up in DEQNA mode, the emulated card and its
ethernet address were correctly detected.
I have configured 2.11BSD with:
A valid IP address on the network the host is on.
The same netmask, broadcast, and gateway as the host.
I am running the emulator as root.
I have attached the DEQNA to the appropriate ethernet card. I can see the
ethernet card go into promiscuous mode when I start the emulator.
I have tested it with SANITY=ON and SANITY=OFF.
The docs say you won't be able to talk between the host and the emulated
machine, so my test for each configuration has been pinging the gateway,
which I know responds to pings since I can ping it from the host.
I have been over both the 2.11BSD docs and the simh docs several times and
as far as I can tell I am doing everything correctly. I would appreciate
any hints that any of you can offer.
Thanks,
Andru
Quote Of The Moment:
Appel's method avoids making a large number of small trampoline bounces
by occasionally jumping off the Empire State Building.
-- Henry G. Baker, "Cheney on the M.T.A."
Thanks a lot - it works ... I am delighted !!!
----------
> Von: Frank Wortner <frank(a)wortner.com>
> An: Mario Premke <Mario.Premke(a)epost.de>; pups(a)minnie.tuhs.org
> Betreff: Re: [pups] Looking for binary distribution of v7
> Datum: Montag, 18. November 2002 03:59
>
> on 11/17/02 1:24 PM, Mario Premke at Mario.Premke(a)epost.de wrote:
>
> > Nevertheless, mounting the file and boot dl0: leads to the boot-prompt
@
> > After typing unix the boot-prompt appears again - does the kernel have
a
> > different name ?
>
> boot dl0
> @boot <- you type "boot" and press "enter" or "return" in reply
> New Boot, known device are hp ht rk rl rp tm vt
> : rl(0,0)rl2unix <- you type "rl(0,0)rl2unix" and press return
> mem = 177856
> # <- you are now in "single user" mode
> <- press "control-d" to go to multiuser mode
> <- (the normal mode of operation)
> Restricted rights: Use, duplication, or disclosure
> is subject to restrictions stated in your contract with
> Western Electric Company, Inc.
> Thu Sept 22 06:26:09 EDT 1988
>
> login: root <- login as "root"
> # <- Have fun ...
> <- You did make a backup of the disk image before you
started,
> <- right? ;-)
>
> If you want to make things easier, your first command should be:
>
> # cp /rl2unix /unix
>
> Now you will be able to type "rl(0,0)unix" instead of "rl(0,0)rl2unix".
Ps
> and other commands that need to read the system namelist also expect the
> kernel image to be named /unix.
>
> Enjoy!
>
>
>
> --
> Frank
>
> "Plez cnoke if an rnsr is not reqid."
> Sign on Owl's Door, "Winnie the Pooh"
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PUPS mailing list
> PUPS(a)minnie.tuhs.org
> http://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/pups