On 25 May, David O'Brien wrote: Yes. port-vax is the right audience. (I am part of it. ;-) ) There is an excellent site with information about VAX hardware. http://www.vaxarchive.org/hw/index.html mirror at http://vaxarchive.sevensages.org/hw/index.html There you can find a link to the KA630/MicroVAX II page http://www.telnet.hu/hamster/dr/ka630.html This will answer most of your questions. If you want a modern Unix OS look at www.netbsd.org. Or look at http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/Quasijarus/ (Hi Michael :-) ) -- tschüß, Jochen Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/ Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA43336 for pups-liszt; Fri, 26 May 2000 19:19:50 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from begemot.org (negara.cs.waikato.ac.nz [130.217.248.112]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA43332 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au&gt;; Fri, 26 May 2000 19:19:44 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from joerg(a)begemot.org) Received: (from joerg@localhost) by begemot.org (8.9.3/8.9.2) id VAA04812; Fri, 26 May 2000 21:22:21 +1200 (NZST) (envelope-from joerg) Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 21:22:21 +1200 From: "Joerg B. Micheel" &lt;joerg(a)begemot.org&gt; To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Cc: joerg(a)begemot.org Subject: Begemot emulator and Harti Message-ID: &lt;20000526212221.A4801(a)begemot.org&gt; Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Begemot Computer Associates Operating-System: ... powered by FreeBSD Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk Just as a side note: if you think Harti's Emulator is a useful piece of software: sent him flowers. He's celebrating wedding this morning in Berlin, marrying a friendly young lady from Sibiria, Russia, her name is Larissa. Regards, Joerg -- Joerg B. Micheel Email: &lt;joerg(a)begemot.org&gt; Begemot Computer Associates Phone: +64 7 8562148 40 Masters Avenue, Hillcrest Fax: +64 7 8562148 Hamilton, New Zealand Pager: +64 868 38222 Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id AAA44458 for pups-liszt; Sat, 27 May 2000 00:07:05 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from guildenstern.shaffstall.com (cisdn-2.on-net.net [206.229.84.2]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA44454 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au&gt;; Sat, 27 May 2000 00:07:00 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from jasomill(a)shaffstall.com) Received: from localhost (jasomill@localhost) by guildenstern.shaffstall.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA31910; Fri, 26 May 2000 09:04:37 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: guildenstern.shaffstall.com: jasomill owned process doing -bs Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:04:37 -0500 (EST) From: "Jason T. Miller" &lt;jasomill(a)shaffstall.com&gt; To: "Steven M. Schultz" &lt;sms(a)moe.2bsd.com&gt; cc: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Subject: Re: Hello and thanks! In-Reply-To: &lt;200005260320.UAA27315(a)moe.2bsd.com&gt; Message-ID: &lt;Pine.LNX.4.10.10005260850030.31892-100000(a)guildenstern.shaffstall.com&gt; MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk Well, I keep calling the hardware support folks, and it keeps ringing busy. Of course, since I don't have call waiting or voice mail, that is to be expected :) I've actually thought about trying to acquire an MSCP<->SCSI card and using one of the SCSI drives I have lying around, but the 19" rackmount stuff is too cool (unfortunately, my spares cabinet is full of dirty laundry and ruined CD-R media at the moment), though I suppose an RA92 would suffice (anybody got one? :) though my budget is henceforth nonexistant -- $300 wouldn't break the bank, because they wouldn't give it to me. Don't know about the RQDX3, either, but more likely the KDA50 (which drives my RA81 -- the RQDX3 is for RXen, no more). The '81 was up all last night, so I don't have error numbers yet; I'll try to repeat the RX50 problem sometime this weekend. The only FS, I have, is yours, though I've started reading through it. Though the SCSI spec is thousands of pages long, it's pretty easy to program; I just finished some raw-tape-read routines for Hewlett-Packard CS/80 tape drives, that was even simpler. In both cases, however, I do have documentation (exhaustive documentation in re: SCSI -- again, work related). I take it from your reply that such docs aren't to be had for MSCP? At any price? Jason T. Miller jasomill(a)shaffstall.com On Thu, 25 May 2000, Steven M. Schultz wrote: Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id AAA44573 for pups-liszt; Sat, 27 May 2000 00:41:22 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from toulon.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (toulon.Informatik.Uni-Tuebingen.De [134.2.12.9]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA44569 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au&gt;; Sat, 27 May 2000 00:41:17 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from leypold(a)informatik.uni-tuebingen.de) Received: from informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (wintermute [134.2.12.56]) by toulon.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5DC1E1061 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au&gt;; Fri, 26 May 2000 16:40:23 +0200 (DFT) Received: (from leypold@localhost) by informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (8.9.3/8.9.3) id QAA12383; Fri, 26 May 2000 16:40:23 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from leypold(a)informatik.uni-tuebingen.de) Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 16:40:23 +0200 (CEST) Message-Id: &lt;200005261440.QAA12383(a)informatik.uni-tuebingen.de&gt; X-Authentication-Warning: wintermute.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de: leypold set sender to leypold(a)informatik.uni-tuebingen.de using -f From: Markus Leypold &lt;leypold(a)informatik.uni-tuebingen.de&gt; To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Subject: Re: Building a 2.11BSD tape for Supnik's emulator Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk Hello Seth, I never worked with a real PDP-11. I tried to build a V7 Boot tape for the Supnick and still did not succeed, but I got the following impressions: * V7 Doc says, You can't use the bootstrap from the DEC bulk ROM, but need to key in a custom bootstrap. Have a look into the V7 Manual Volume 2B (Essay about Installing UNIX). * It seems, a tape also needs to contain labels for the files (512 Byte Records), kind of directory. Regards -- Markus Original Message: --------------------------------- Hello folks, I'm trying to build a 2.11BSD boot tape for Bob Supnik's emulator. I downloaded the tape files from Distributions/ucb/2.11BSD, and put them together with the following commands (on Linux): cat mtboot mtboot boot | dd of=file0 obs=512 dd if=disklabel of=file1 obs=1024 dd if=mkfs of=file2 obs=1024 dd if=restor of=file3 obs=1024 dd if=icheck of=file4 obs=1024 dd if=root.dump of=file5 obs=10240 dd if=file6.tar of=file6 obs=10240 dd if=file7.tar of=file7 obs=10240 dd if=file8.tar of=file8 obs=10240 cat file? > boot.tape [I've verified the shell expands this expression to the correct file order] But when I run the simulator and try to boot from the tape (with or without the -o optiont to 'boot'), it fails, like so: % pdp11 PDP-11 simulator V2.3d sim> set cpu 18b sim> set cpu 2048K sim> att tm0 boot.tape sim> boot tm0 HALT instruction, PC: 000002 (HALT) sim> boot -o tm0 HALT instruction, PC: 000002 (HALT) sim> It's like the bootstrap code isn't working. Or possibly I've completely misunderstood the proper way to build a tape image. Is there a better way to go about it? - -Seth Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id CAA45296 for pups-liszt; Sat, 27 May 2000 02:31:58 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au) Received: from moe.2bsd.com (0(a)MOE.2BSD.COM [206.139.202.200]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id CAA45292 for &lt;pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au&gt;; Sat, 27 May 2000 02:31:49 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from sms(a)moe.2bsd.com) Received: (from sms@localhost) by moe.2bsd.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id JAA08996 for pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au; Fri, 26 May 2000 09:26:28 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 09:26:28 -0700 (PDT) From: "Steven M. Schultz" &lt;sms(a)moe.2bsd.com&gt; Message-Id: &lt;200005261626.JAA08996(a)moe.2bsd.com&gt; To: pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Subject: Re: Building a 2.11BSD tape for Supnik's emulator Sender: owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk Hi - Not exactly. The boot tape consists of files with different block sizes but has no "labels". So close yet so far. You do not need to "reblock" the files - they already have the correct sizes. What you do need to do is run a program to add the record length information for the emulator. The emulator needs to have "virtual" file and record mark information added. If you look in the "usr/src/sys/pdpstand" directory you will find a source file "makesimtape.c". This is a slightly modified version of the 'maketape' program which 2.11 uses to create its own boot tapes. The modifications consist of changes to add the virtual tape marks for Bob's emulator. I will include a copy of makesimtape.c below in case anyone has trouble finding it in the source tree. makesimtape should compile on almost anything (I've used it on 2.11BSD, BSD/OS, and I think FreeBSD). Compile that program. Then create a small file (maketape.data) containing: mtboot 1 mtboot 1 boot 1 * 1 disklabel 2 * 1 mkfs 2 * 1 restor 2 * 1 icheck 2 * 1 root.dump 20 * 1 file6.tar 20 * 1 file7.tar 20 * 1 file8.tar 20 *1 Then "makesimtape -i maketape.data -o your_tape_file" will create the virtual tape file in 'your_tape_file'. Actually to make sure things work (and the tape is bootable and can run the standalone programs) all you need are the files up thru root.dump - that is enough to load the root filesystem. With a real tape drive you use the "maketape" program that comes with 2.11 of course since it wants to issue ioctl calls to place real tape marks, etc on a tape. Hopefully the method described above will be closer to what's needed. it has been quite a while since I've actually created a simulated tape so I might have left out a step or something. Good Luck! Steven Schultz sms(a)moe.2bsd.com =====================makesimtape.c========================= /* * @(#)makesimtape.c 2.1 (2.11BSD) 1998/12/31 * Hacked 'maketape.c' to write a file in a format suitable for * use with Bob Supnik's PDP-11 simulator (V2.3) emulated tape * driver. * * NOTE: a PDP-11 has to flip the shorts within the long when writing out * the record size. Seems a PDP-11 is neither a little-endian * machine nor a big-endian one. */ #include <stdio.h> #include <errno.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <sys/uio.h> #define MAXB 30 char buf[MAXB * 512]; char name[50]; long recsz, flipped, trl(); int blksz; int mt, fd, cnt; struct iovec iovec[3]; struct iovec tmark[2]; void usage(); main(argc, argv) int argc; char *argv[]; { int i, j = 0, k = 0; long zero = 0; register char *outfile = NULL, *infile = NULL; FILE *mf; struct stat st; while ((i = getopt(argc, argv, "i:o:")) != EOF) { switch (i) { case 'o': outfile = optarg; break; case 'i': infile = optarg; break; default: usage(); /* NOTREACHED */ } } if (!outfile || !infile) usage(); /* NOTREACHED */ /* * Stat the outfile and make sure it either 1) Does not exist, or * 2) Exists but is a regular file. */ if (stat(outfile, &st) != -1 && !(S_ISREG(st.st_mode))) errx(1, "outfile must either not exist or be a regular file"); /* NOTREACHED */ mt = open(outfile, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0600); if (mt < 0) err(1, "Can not create %s", outfile); /* NOTREACHED */ mf = fopen(infile, "r"); if (!mf) err(1, "Can not open %s", infile); /* NOTREACHED*/ tmark[0].iov_len = sizeof (long); tmark[0].iov_base = (char *)&zero; while (1) { if ((i = fscanf(mf, "%s %d", name, &blksz))== EOF) exit(0); if (i != 2) { fprintf(stderr,"Help! Scanf didn't read 2 things (%d)\n", i); exit(1); } if (blksz <= 0 || blksz > MAXB) { fprintf(stderr, "Block size %u is invalid\n", blksz); exit(1); } recsz = blksz * 512; /* convert to bytes */ iovec[0].iov_len = sizeof (recsz); #ifdef pdp11 iovec[0].iov_base = (char *)&flipped; #else iovec[0].iov_base = (char *)&recsz; #endif iovec[1].iov_len = (int)recsz; iovec[1].iov_base = buf; iovec[2].iov_len = iovec[0].iov_len; iovec[2].iov_base = iovec[0].iov_base; if (strcmp(name, "*") == 0) { if (writev(mt, tmark, 1) < 0) warn(1, "writev of pseudo tapemark failed"); k++; continue; } fd = open(name, 0); if (fd < 0) err(1, "Can't open %s for reading", name); /* NOTREACHED */ printf("%s: block %d, file %d\n", name, j, k); /* * we pad the last record with nulls * (instead of the bell std. of padding with trash). * this allows you to access text files on the * tape without garbage at the end of the file. * (note that there is no record length associated * with tape files) */ while ((cnt=read(fd, buf, (int)recsz)) == (int)recsz) { j++; #ifdef pdp11 flipped = trl(recsz); #endif if (writev(mt, iovec, 3) < 0) err(1, "writev #1"); /* NOTREACHED */ } if (cnt > 0) { j++; bzero(buf + cnt, (int)recsz - cnt); #ifdef pdp11 flipped = trl(recsz); #endif if (writev(mt, iovec, 3) < 0) err(1, "writev #2"); /* NOTREACHED */ } close(fd); } /* * Write two tape marks to simulate EOT */ writev(mt, tmark, 1); writev(mt, tmark, 1); } long trl(l) long l; { union { long l; short s[2]; } foo; register short x; foo.l = l; x = foo.s[0]; foo.s[0] = foo.s[1]; foo.s[1] = x; return(foo.l); } void usage() { fprintf(stderr, "usage: makesimtape -o outfilefile -i inputfile\n"); exit(1); }