TUHS

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6531 discussions

flaky webster or sigma WQESD4 and RQD11 controllers on KA650???

by Robertdkeys＠aol.com

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

22 years, 6 months

Re: [pups] 2.11BSD images for Simh

by Andru Luvisi

>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. >

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

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

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

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

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by Robertdkeys＠aol.com

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

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by Robertdkeys＠aol.com

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

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

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

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by Robertdkeys＠aol.com

It was Q0A. Has there been any later development of it, of interest? Thanks Bob

22 years, 6 months

Oops.

by Andru Luvisi

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"

22 years, 6 months

Re: [TUHS] Re: non-broken 4.3BSD set?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

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

22 years, 6 months

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