Re: [Simh] Idea for a Simh guide
Ray, Great idea! I'll offer help on the subject of RSTS-11 and RSTS/E. Come to think of it, I need to gather up some notes about some work I've done on old versions: (1) building RSTS-11 V4A from a kit (tricky, because it really wants to be done with DOS 4 and not later versions, and DOS 4 is a bit difficult to find and has bizarre installation procedures of its own). And (2) try to run the V3A and V3C images on Bitsavers. (I had success with V3C; the V3A image seems to be missing a valid boot block so that requires more work. Also, V3 manuals appear to be utterly nonexistent.) paul > On May 8, 2017, at 9:04 PM, Ray Jewhurst wrote: > > With all of the questions I have asked lately, I have had an idea. First a > little bit of background. I am 45 years old and have really only had exposure > to PCs and Macs. Although I briefly ran backups on an IBM mainframe and a HP > HP/UX machine of some kind, I really didn't learn much since I simply > followed a script. Then about 10 years ago I discovered Simh. I have always > been intrigued by minis but I knew nothing about them. I did stuff like > booted RT- 11 and running Unix but I just flirted with it on and off. Then > about a year ago I got really interested and for a short time I contributed > to the "show dev" descriptions but I hate C so I decided to immerse myself > into various configurations of systems and whatnot. Now I am totally > infatuated almost obsessed with the PDP- 11 and the VAX although I have only > seen photos of these systems. > > I want to share my love of these oldies but goodies to a new generation of > computer aficionados. That is where I hope you all come in. I would like to > make a guide and maybe a blog introducing people to the various machines > simulated. I would like to make easy to understand instructions in plain > English-speaking and advice on how to use the available resources online > especially Bitsavers. One of my favorite bands say, "Energy is contagious, > enthusiasm spreads."-Rush, Chain Lightning. That is what I hope to do. What > do you guys think? Would any of you be willing to contribute? The approach I > would like to take is as I learn my readers learn. > > Thanks > Ray > ___ > Simh mailing list > Simh@trailing-edge.com > http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian
On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 11:16 AM, Alan Perry wrote: > -Original Message- > From: Simh [mailto:simh-boun...@trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Alan > Perry > Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 11:16 AM > To: Mark Pizzolato ; simh@trailing-edge.com > Subject: Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and > Raspbian > > On 5/9/17 10:42 AM, Mark Pizzolato wrote: > > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Perry wrote: > >> I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 > >> on a Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project > >> lead > >> (Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions > >> for configuring it. > >> > >> It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with > >> a remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to > >> make this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated > >> VAX. But when I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no > >> corresponding activity on my network. > >> > >> Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing > >> is going out to the network? > > To start understanding what is going on, please provide: > > 1) the output of SHOW VERSION executed at the sim> prompt of your > simulator. > > 2) the same for the remote simulator. > > 3) The configuration that is being used on BOTH simulators > > > > - Mark > Other that the IP address and port, I don't have info on the other remote > simulator. The first Info you'll need is confirmation that others are, in fact, able to successfully connect to the particular remote system you're trying to reach. > My SHOW VERSION output is: > VAX 11/750 simulator V4.0-0 Beta > Simulator Framework Capabilities: > 64b data > 64b addresses > Threaded Ethernet Packet transports:PCAP:TAP:VBE:NAT:UDP > Idle/Throttling support is available > Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) support > RAW disk and CD/DVD ROM support > Asynchronous I/O support (Lock free asynchronous event queue) > Asynchronous Clock support > FrontPanel API Version 4 > Host Platform: > Compiler: GCC 4.9.2 > Simulator Compiled as C arch: ARM (Release Build) on Apr 29 2017 at > 01:13:50 > Memory Access: Little Endian > Memory Pointer Size: 32 bits > Large File (>2GB) support > SDL Video support: No Video Support > PCRE RegEx support for EXPECT commands > OS clock resolution: 1ms > Time taken by msleep(1): 1ms > OS: Linux nmtvax 4.9.24-v7+ #993 SMP Wed Apr 26 18:01:23 BST 2017 > armv7l GNU/Linux > git commit id: 7a46fcf1 > > My simulator's .ini file: > set dz lines=0 This line MUST produce an error message. > set dz 8b This line doesn't change anything since 8b is the default > # Connect some lines to remote servers > # Connect the remaining lines to listen on port 5000 > attach dz -m -a line=0,Connect= simulator>: > att dz -m -a 5000 > set xu enable > att xu nat: > set rq0 ra81 > att rq0 nmtvax.dsk > att ts nmtvax.tap > ... > > Do you need more of it than this? > > The boot disk image, .tap image, and .ini file are generated by a script that > is > part of the UUCP project. > > Again, I am not asking anyone to fix this for me. Just asking for suggestions > on > where to look for what could be going wrong. There are many potential points of failure when you're trying to reach directly between what I'm guessing here are two independent consumer class networks, probably with various firewall pieces at several steps along the way. Addressing all of these issues is completely your problem. Since you're using system configurations provided by the UUCP project, it would seem most useful to ask them for help troubleshooting problems with their stuff. Knowing nothing else, all I can offer is that you can play with simh debugging, by adding different forms of these line to the beginning of your configuration file: sim> set debug -t debug.file or for ALL available debug output: sim> set DZ debug or specific debug details try: sim> help dz set and then pick the different debug details you may want to have reported. Good Luck. - Mark ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian
On 5/9/17 10:42 AM, Mark Pizzolato wrote: On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Perry wrote: I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 on a Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project lead (Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions for configuring it. It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with a remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to make this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated VAX. But when I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no corresponding activity on my network. Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing is going out to the network? To start understanding what is going on, please provide: 1) the output of SHOW VERSION executed at the sim> prompt of your simulator. 2) the same for the remote simulator. 3) The configuration that is being used on BOTH simulators - Mark Other that the IP address and port, I don't have info on the other remote simulator. My SHOW VERSION output is: VAX 11/750 simulator V4.0-0 Beta Simulator Framework Capabilities: 64b data 64b addresses Threaded Ethernet Packet transports:PCAP:TAP:VBE:NAT:UDP Idle/Throttling support is available Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) support RAW disk and CD/DVD ROM support Asynchronous I/O support (Lock free asynchronous event queue) Asynchronous Clock support FrontPanel API Version 4 Host Platform: Compiler: GCC 4.9.2 Simulator Compiled as C arch: ARM (Release Build) on Apr 29 2017 at 01:13:50 Memory Access: Little Endian Memory Pointer Size: 32 bits Large File (>2GB) support SDL Video support: No Video Support PCRE RegEx support for EXPECT commands OS clock resolution: 1ms Time taken by msleep(1): 1ms OS: Linux nmtvax 4.9.24-v7+ #993 SMP Wed Apr 26 18:01:23 BST 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux git commit id: 7a46fcf1 My simulator's .ini file: set dz lines=0 set dz 8b # Connect some lines to remote servers # Connect the remaining lines to listen on port 5000 attach dz -m -a line=0,Connect=simulator>: att dz -m -a 5000 set xu enable att xu nat: set rq0 ra81 att rq0 nmtvax.dsk att ts nmtvax.tap ... Do you need more of it than this? The boot disk image, .tap image, and .ini file are generated by a script that is part of the UUCP project. Again, I am not asking anyone to fix this for me. Just asking for suggestions on where to look for what could be going wrong. alan ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian
On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 10:15 AM, Alan Perry wrote: > I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 on a > Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project lead > (Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions for > configuring it. > > It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with a > remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to make > this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated VAX. But when > I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no corresponding activity on > my network. > > Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing is going > out to the network? To start understanding what is going on, please provide: 1) the output of SHOW VERSION executed at the sim> prompt of your simulator. 2) the same for the remote simulator. 3) The configuration that is being used on BOTH simulators - Mark ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD
4.3BSD has its partition tables compiled into the driver. You can generate the C code for the disk drivers using diskpart based on disktab. Note that you must use the same entry in the device driver that you later use for newfs (which reads the disk partition stuff from disktab). -- R Den 2017-05-09 kl. 18:57, skrev Alan Perry: What are the steps for adding storage to a SIMH vax (vax750, to be specific) running 4.3BSD? I created disk image files on the host OS of the proper size (for RA82s) and attached them through the .ini file. However, they don't have partition tables and this version of BSD doesn't seem to have a tool for creating them. So, how do I put partition tables on the ra82 disk images? Thanks, alan ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD
I added the partition info for ra82 to /etc/disktab and indicate ra82 when I run newfs, but newfs reports "Don't have a parition table for a DU RA 82". On 5/9/17 10:03 AM, Rhialto wrote: I'm not sure if 4.3 already has disklabels. In any case, before disklabels, partitions were compiled into the kernel, with several combinations presupplied. Maybe /etc/disktab has some hints. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 . Please excuse my brevity. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
[Simh] vax750 and simulated hard-wired serial connections and Raspbian
I am participating in the UUCP project and have set up a SIMH vax750 on a Raspberry Pi. I am using the 4.3BSD bits that the UUCP project lead (Warren) provides to install the system and followed his instructions for configuring it. It uses a simulated hard-wired serial connection to communicate with a remote simulated host over TCP/IP. However, I have not been able to make this connection work. Everything seems good on the simulated VAX. But when I initiate connections to the remote host, I see no corresponding activity on my network. Any suggestions of specific things to check to figure out why nothing is going out to the network? alan ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD
I'm not sure if 4.3 already has disklabels. In any case, before disklabels, partitions were compiled into the kernel, with several combinations presupplied. Maybe /etc/disktab has some hints. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 . Please excuse my brevity.___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
[Simh] Adding storage to vax running 4.3BSD
What are the steps for adding storage to a SIMH vax (vax750, to be specific) running 4.3BSD? I created disk image files on the host OS of the proper size (for RA82s) and attached them through the .ini file. However, they don't have partition tables and this version of BSD doesn't seem to have a tool for creating them. So, how do I put partition tables on the ra82 disk images? Thanks, alan ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh