15 Sep
1997
15 Sep
'97
7:17 a.m.
[ The following email came from Steven Schultz, but didn't make
it into the PUPS mail list as it was too big! I've extracted
the included PostScript file and put it on the PUPS web page.
Warren
]
Greetings -
= "David C. Jenner"
<djenner(a)halcyon.com>
occurred to me as I drool in anticipation over the possibility of
running 2.11BSD on an 11/73!
It is a lot of fun - well worth drooling over ;-)
Maybe you or a 2.11BSD expert (Steve Schultz?) could
find the "release
You rang? ;)
notes" for 2.11BSD and post them, if that's
legal now. That would
Hmmm, the Install/Setup docs have the old style BSD copyright notice
on them ("subject to the terms of your BSD license") rather than the
later "do what you want but leave our credits present". I suppose it
wouldn't be too risky to post the formatted documentation (rather than
the raw nroff source). It is quite large (I hope Postscript is
acceptable to everyone) but gzip'd it should be of reasonable size.
[ It's now at http://minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au/PUPS/2bsdsetup.ps.gz - Warren ]
It will be great to have everything on a CD-ROM, but
that probably won't
help a majority of users bootstrap up a system, since most won't have a
CD-ROM or maybe even no operating system to start with. We are going to
have to find someone(s) who is (are) willing to make up a standard
distribution tape (9-track or otherwise) or floppies (is that
possible?). This could really be the biggest hurdle to getting a system
For quite a while it didn't occur to me what all the fuss was
about. I assumed that folks would do what I do - put the CD into
a BSD/OS|FreeBSD|Linux|usw box and write the images out to a 4mm
or 9-track and then cable the tape drive up to the PDP-11 and proceed.
It finally dawned on me that most folks won't have invested in
a Qbus SCSI adaptor (it's really a VERY handy thing to have, makes
possible sharing of tape drives, using inexpensive new disks instead
of old slow RD5{3,4} drives, etc).
For _some_ folks (those a bit more "serious") getting a SCSI adaptor
would be a "good thing". They're cheaper now than they used to be
(I about choked when a new Emulex UC08 was $1500 - and that's with
a 30% discount - but went ahead with it back in 1991 and have never
regretted it). A used UC08 (or similar CMD product) is from
what I have seen about $900 today. A TAPE ONLY CMD adaptor is "just"
$300 - that's not too bad, is it? Since in many cases the systems
have been obtained free (or cheaply) as they were being tossed out
and it is beginning to look like the software will be almost free
($100 or so isn't a whole lot of money) perhaps investing some money
into the hobby in the form of a SCSI adaptor would be a wise choice (at
least for some folks). Everything can't be free all the time, can it?
DEC used to make a SCSI adaptor (RQZX1) and a TZ30 (SCSI variant of
the TK50) but I have no idea how available those are on the used
parts market these days.
Other folks I would hope could find a Vax (or similar) system around
with a TK50 or whatever and perhaps write the images to tape that way.
You don't want floppies ;) RX50 floppy media is expensive and
only holds 800kb per diskette (not to mention that RX50 drives are
flakey). RX33s can get 1.2mb per disk but the Teac model of 5.25" drive
that can be adapted to the RQDX3 controller is getting _scare_ and
newer models (from what I understand) can not be adapted for use
with RQDX3 controller. I suppose a person could get an RX23 or RX26
from DEC but heaven knows what that would cost.
Besides which a complete 2.11 kit would take somewhere between 80 and
100 floppies (depending on how full each one could be packed).
TK25s are another possibility but I don't know how many folks have
(or want) one of those - they're rather awkward physically and while
they use DC600A tapes aren't interchangeable with any other system.
9-track tape was the traditional distribution mechanism for 2BSD up
until 2.10.1BSD at which time TK50s (TMSCP) support was added. The
kit was 2 tapes at 1600bpi but the system has grown enough that a
3rd tape might be required today. At 6250bpi everything fits quite
nicely on a single tape (might be a bit tight at 3200bpi though).
Attached below is the Setup/Installation document from 2.11BSD
(last revised in June 1995). It is a gzip'd postscript file uuencoded
for safe transit thru the mail.
[ It's now at http://minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au/PUPS/2bsdsetup.ps.gz - Warren ]
Steven Schultz
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