[pups] bootstrapping an RT-11 image via VTserver

I built an 11/23 with 256K RAM, a UDC11 disk controller, one 80 meg MFM hard drive. The hard drive formatter runs under RT-11. The assumption is that you have a working floppy from which you can boot RT-11. I want to devise a method to run the formatter via VTserver. I figured out how to do this for the RQDX3 and XXDP. You can run XXDP under E11, load the utility you want to run, then stop E11 and dump the entire 28K word memory image to a disk file. By hacking a header onto this memory image, you can turn it into a standalone that can be bootstrapped via VTserver, just like the disklabel, mkfs, and restor standlones. This is easy, because XXDP tells you what the restart address is when you load a program. The question: is is possible to restart RT11SJ in the same manner as XXDP? I read some of the manuals, and tried using ODT to restart RT-11 at various points pointed to by the vector table and fixed area. By starting at the trap 4 address I can get it to restart and live. However, this seems to make RT-11 forget that I had done a "GET" of the utility that I wanted to run. I tried restarting at the RMON address, but that crashes. One other experiment I've tried is to GET the utility then "START 1000", but that crashes too. If I GET then just type "START" it lives. What am I doing wrong? One assumption is that the utility only uses memory and TT: system calls -- no disk accesses or swapping. Is it possible to abuse RT-11 in this manner? The utilities I'm trying to run are the UDC11 OCT and UDCT utilities. I want to make it possible to reformat the hard drive on this single drive system without tearing it apart and moving pieces to another system. It is also possible to mess up the NVRAM on the UDC11 so that you cannot boot. If this happens, and you are lucky enough to have another running system (and I am), you can rejumper the CSR of the stuck board and fix it on the other system. Otherwise, you are in big trouble. I wonder if it would be possible to bootstrap a VM0: image into high RAM and boot from it? I realize there are other solutions. The standard answer to questions like this is "get more hardware". The reason for doing this is I want to invent a method that will work for a very minimal pile of hardware. And the whole point of that is to make it possible for people to get a PDP-11 running with minimal investment. -- Jonathan Engdahl                 Rockwell Automation Principal Research Engineer      1 Allen-Bradley Drive Advanced Technology              Mayfield Heights, OH 44124, USA Mayfield Heights Labs            engdahl(a)safeaccess.com 440-646-7326 http://users.safeaccess.com/engdahl/PDP-11.htm