[Simh] Problem booting RSX11M on pdp11 (halt at loc 0)

[Phil J Fisher]

Hi

can anyone suggest what I have done wrong or what I am missing?

I am running SIMH 3.9 (from the SimH site) on a Centos6 system run under 
VMware (also VirtualBox gives same results).  I have been using Bob 
Evans RSX11M information from his site.
When I load the simulator using mostly his sim.ini file (I removed his 
telnet stuff that was built in) and type the usual 'BOOT RL0' (or 'boo 
rl0') I get a Halt at PC 0.
Examining the code at location 0 I get (as expected from output) a HLT 
instruction (00 octal).


The disk images do not appear to be corrupted but I am not aware of any 
MD5 or similar checksums to be certain.


Anyone any ideas what I am missing or doing wrong?

My only thought was that I was running pdp11 SimH under a virtualization 
system (or in crude terms a simulator within a emulator/simulator) and 
wondered if that was the issue.  But some searching showed a number of 
people who have successfully run SimH simulators under VMware at least.  
So at the moment I am inclined to believe that is not the issue.


My initial PC is a Windows 10 Home, running VMware Workstation 14 (or 
VirtualBox 5.2.8) and hence to a Centos 6.9 system with 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU.


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Re: [Simh] Problem booting RSX11M on pdp11 (halt at loc 0)

[Jordi Guillaumes Pons]

> 
> My only thought was that I was running pdp11 SimH under a virtualization 
> system (or in crude terms a simulator within a emulator/simulator) and 
> wondered if that was the issue.  But some searching showed a number of people 
> who have successfully run SimH simulators under VMware at least.  So at the 
> moment I am inclined to believe that is not the issue.

I’ve run simh under virtualization without any problem.

I suggest you to try the current 4.0 beta, which is quite stable and adds a lot 
of enhancements over 3.9. You can get the sources from github 
((https://github.com/simh/simh ) and build it 
yourself. I don’t know if there are precompiled binaries around, but to build 
it is quite easy and the prerrequisites are just a few.

In any case, could you share your pdp11.ini file and maybe the image you are 
using?



Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
j...@jordi.guillaumes.name
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Re: [Simh] Printer on TOPS-10

[Quentin North]

Through some testing, i have confirmed that the resolution of the printing for 
me was adding the /device:lpt0 switch. Im not sure where to set up the ANF-10 
node number as I don’t have networking enabled on my Tops-10 system. I couldn’t 
see where in MONGEN you enter much about the printers. The only question I can 
see is Include UNIBUS/LP20 printers (NO,YES,PROMPT): y


> On 21 Mar 2018, at 14:33, Timothe Litt  wrote:
> 
> You should not need the /Device.  There may be an issue if you haven't 
> assigned a non-zero ANF-10 node number to the machine - I vaguely remember a 
> bug with that.  You can change the START PRINTER command in SYSTEM.CMD if 
> necessary.  But it's better to assign a node number.
> Note that the LP64 RAM is upper-case only.  (It will fold lowercase to 
> uppercase.)  If you expect (upper and) lower case output, use LP96.RAM.  
> LPTSPL will make the right choice if you MONGEN the printer correctly, as 
> will any application that asks for the printer type (or uses the LL 
> pseudo-device).
> 
> On 21-Mar-18 10:24, Quentin North wrote:
>> Having fixed the LPFORMS, SYSTEM.CMD and SYSJOB.INI, and enable lp20 in 
>> simh, I still couldn’t get it to work until I did the shutdown and startup 
>> as below. Now it prints. Hurrah!
>> 
>> 14:18:09Printer 0  -- Not available right now --
>> 
>> OPR>shutdown printer 0
>> OPR>  
>> 14:18:14Printer 0  -- Shutdown --
>> OPR>start printer 0/device:lpt0 
>> OPR>  
>> 14:18:27Printer 0  -- Startup Scheduled --
>> OPR>  
>> 14:18:27Printer 0  -- Started --
>> 
>> 14:18:28Printer 0  -- VFU error --
>> Reloading RAM and VFU
>> 
>> 14:18:28Printer 0  -- Loading RAM with 'LP64' --
>> 
>> 14:18:28Printer 0  -- Loading VFU with 'NORMAL' --
>> 
>> 14:18:28  <1>   Printer 0  -- Align Forms and Put Online --
>> Type 'RESPOND  PROCEED' when ready
>> 
>> OPR>respond 1 proceed
>> 
>>> On 21 Mar 2018, at 12:43, Timothe Litt >> > wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 21-Mar-18 08:24, Jordi Guillaumes Pons wrote:
 
 Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
 j...@jordi.guillaumes.name 
 HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES
 
 
 
> On 21 Mar 2018, at 13:19, Timothe Litt  > wrote:
> 
> 
> On 21-Mar-18 07:02, Jordi Guillaumes Pons wrote:
>> Some years ago I wrote a note to myself:
>> 
>> - Enable printing:
>> 
>> 1) Create file SYS:LPFORMS:INI with the following content:
>> 
>> NORMAL:ALL/BANNER:01/HEADER:01/LINES:66/WIDTH:132/TRAILER:01
>> 
>> 2) In OPR: SHUTDOWN PRINTER 0
>> 3) In OPR: START PRINTER 0/DEVICE:LPT0 
>> 
>> 
>> I don’t remember what problem I was trying to solve, but right now this 
>> file exists and printing works. Hope it can help you.
>> 
>> 
>> Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
>> j...@jordi.guillaumes.name 
>> HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES
>> 
>> 
>> 
> LPFORM.INI tells LPTSPL how to process forms (the paper stock on which a 
> job is printed).
> The default form is "Normal".  Form names with the same 4 initial 
> characters use the same stock; no operator intervention is required to 
> change among them. (This is used to allow specifying soft parameters, 
> such as the number of banner pages, per job.)  If a job requires 
> different stock, the operator is notified.
 
 IIRC the problem was the print spooler didn’t got started on boot and a 
 command to tell OPR it had the default form mounted was required to start 
 printing. Defining LPFORMS.INI avoided that problem and the print spooler 
 started automatically. Does it make sense to you?
 
 Blurred memories also tell me there was some alignement test involved. 
 After telling OPR the printer had the form mounted it asked to confirm the 
 form was correctly aligned.
 
 Doh, memory…
 
 
 
>>> Not exactly.  The default form is NORMAL.  The printer is started by OPR; 
>>> as long as INITIA runs, it will start OPR, which will take SYSTEM.CMD.  
>>> SYSTEM.CMD is what configures the galactic components.
>>> 
>>> LPTSPL is started by QUASAR whenever it's needed - that is, a stream is 
>>> started and there's a job in the queue (or has been recently).  QUASAR 
>>> maintains the printer state, so LPTSPL doesn't have to stick around when 
>>> idle.  It's possible that LPTSPL prompts for a form if LPFORM.INI doesn't 
>>> exist - I believe there's a default LPFORM.INI on the distribution tapes, 
>>> and I don't recall running without one in a VERY long time :-)
>>> 
>>> Alignment is invoked when the mounted stock changes and /ALIGN is specified 
>>> in LPFORM.INI; it's used to match the VFU to the paper - e.g., when 
>>> printing labels, or pre-printed forms (e.g. invoices, checks, greenbar).  
>>> 
>>> It is likely that that without LPFORM.I

Re: [Simh] Printer on TOPS-10

[Timothe Litt]

Setting up the ANF-10 node number is under networking.  It changes
device naming (e.g. if your host's node number is 16, LPT0 becomes
LPT160).  Virtually all customers had some sort of network, so bugs
(such as this one) crept in.  We tried to keep non-network
configurations working, but bugs did come up.  (Probably because no
in-house system was without a network...)

IIRC, in HWCFG under the LP20, there should be a question like "LPT0
lowercase [YES,NO,PROMPT]:"

On 22-Mar-18 08:22, Quentin North wrote:
> Through some testing, i have confirmed that the resolution of the
> printing for me was adding the /device:lpt0 switch. Im not sure where
> to set up the ANF-10 node number as I don’t have networking enabled on
> my Tops-10 system. I couldn’t see where in MONGEN you enter much about
> the printers. The only question I can see is Include UNIBUS/LP20
> printers (NO,YES,PROMPT): y
>
>
>> On 21 Mar 2018, at 14:33, Timothe Litt > > wrote:
>>
>> You should not need the /Device.  There may be an issue if you
>> haven't assigned a non-zero ANF-10 node number to the machine - I
>> vaguely remember a bug with that.  You can change the START PRINTER
>> command in SYSTEM.CMD if necessary.  But it's better to assign a node
>> number.
>>
>> Note that the LP64 RAM is upper-case only.  (It will fold lowercase
>> to uppercase.)  If you expect (upper and) lower case output, use
>> LP96.RAM.  LPTSPL will make the right choice if you MONGEN the
>> printer correctly, as will any application that asks for the printer
>> type (or uses the LL pseudo-device).
>>
>>
>> On 21-Mar-18 10:24, Quentin North wrote:
>>> Having fixed the LPFORMS, SYSTEM.CMD and SYSJOB.INI, and enable lp20
>>> in simh, I still couldn’t get it to work until I did the shutdown
>>> and startup as below. Now it prints. Hurrah!
>>>
>>> 14:18:09        Printer 0  -- Not available right now --
>>>
>>> OPR>shutdown printer 0
>>> OPR>  
>>> 14:18:14        Printer 0  -- Shutdown --
>>> OPR>start printer 0/device:lpt0
>>> OPR>  
>>> 14:18:27        Printer 0  -- Startup Scheduled --
>>> OPR>  
>>> 14:18:27        Printer 0  -- Started --
>>>
>>> 14:18:28        Printer 0  -- VFU error --
>>>                 Reloading RAM and VFU
>>>
>>> 14:18:28        Printer 0  -- Loading RAM with 'LP64' --
>>>
>>> 14:18:28        Printer 0  -- Loading VFU with 'NORMAL' --
>>>
>>> 14:18:28  <1>   Printer 0  -- Align Forms and Put Online --
>>>                 Type 'RESPOND  PROCEED' when ready
>>>
>>> OPR>respond 1 proceed
>>>
 On 21 Mar 2018, at 12:43, Timothe Litt >>> > wrote:


 On 21-Mar-18 08:24, Jordi Guillaumes Pons wrote:
>
> Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
> j...@jordi.guillaumes.name 
> HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES
>
>
>
>> On 21 Mar 2018, at 13:19, Timothe Litt > > wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 21-Mar-18 07:02, Jordi Guillaumes Pons wrote:
>>> Some years ago I wrote a note to myself:
>>>
>>> - Enable printing:
>>>
>>> 1) Create file SYS:LPFORMS:INI with the following content:
>>>
>>> NORMAL:ALL/BANNER:01/HEADER:01/LINES:66/WIDTH:132/TRAILER:01
>>>
>>> 2) In OPR: SHUTDOWN PRINTER 0
>>> 3) In OPR: START PRINTER 0/DEVICE:LPT0
>>>
>>>
>>> I don’t remember what problem I was trying to solve, but right
>>> now this file exists and printing works. Hope it can help you.
>>>
>>>
>>> Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
>>> j...@jordi.guillaumes.name 
>>> HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> LPFORM.INI tells LPTSPL how to process forms (the paper stock on
>> which a job is printed).
>> The default form is "Normal".  Form names with the same 4 initial
>> characters use the same stock; no operator intervention is
>> required to change among them. (This is used to allow specifying
>> soft parameters, such as the number of banner pages, per job.) 
>> If a job requires different stock, the operator is notified.
>
> IIRC the problem was the print spooler didn’t got started on boot
> and a command to tell OPR it had the default form mounted was
> required to start printing. Defining LPFORMS.INI avoided that
> problem and the print spooler started automatically. Does it make
> sense to you?
>
> Blurred memories also tell me there was some alignement test
> involved. After telling OPR the printer had the form mounted it
> asked to confirm the form was correctly aligned.
>
> Doh, memory…
>
>
>
 Not exactly.  The default form is NORMAL.  The printer is started
 by OPR; as long as INITIA runs, it will start OPR, which will take
 SYSTEM.CMD.  SYSTEM.CMD is what configures the galactic components.

 LPTSPL is started by QUASAR whenever it's needed - that is, a
 stream is started and there's a job in the queue (or has been
>>>

Re: [Simh] Problem booting RSX11M on pdp11 (halt at loc 0)

[Paul Koning]

> On Mar 22, 2018, at 6:15 AM, Phil J Fisher  
> wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> can anyone suggest what I have done wrong or what I am missing?
> 
> I am running SIMH 3.9 (from the SimH site) on a Centos6 system run under 
> VMware (also VirtualBox gives same results).  I have been using Bob Evans 
> RSX11M information from his site.
> When I load the simulator using mostly his sim.ini file (I removed his telnet 
> stuff that was built in) and type the usual 'BOOT RL0' (or 'boo rl0') I get a 
> Halt at PC 0.
> Examining the code at location 0 I get (as expected from output) a HLT 
> instruction (00 octal).
> 
> The disk images do not appear to be corrupted but I am not aware of any MD5 
> or similar checksums to be certain.

A simple check would be to look at the first block of the image you have 
attached to the drive you're booting.  Try "hexdump -0 -n 512".  You might see 
something like this:

$ hexdump -o -n 512 ~/Documents/e11/v101du.dsk
000  000240  000572  06  00  12  00  20  172150
010  052504  012707  054464  00  001570  021041  41  00
020  00  00  00  000606  000471  010705  062705  000344
030  012700  64  005025  077002  016767  177740  000436  016767
040  177734  000454  016767  177730  000450  016767  177730  000420
...

A reasonably new PDP11 disk has a boot block starting with 000240 (NOP).  If 
it's old it might just start with something executable, like this RSTS V4 (1972 
vintage) system disk:

$ hexdump -o -n 512 ~/Documents/e11/v4.dsk 
000  012700  24  016701  000162  010104  012021  020027  000200
010  001374  010407  162701  20  012702  05  05  010704
...

If it starts with 0 but the word after contains what looks like PDP11 code, it 
could be a disk for a PRO, though that would be a bit odd and certainly would 
not be the case for an RL02 image.

paul

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Re: [Simh] Problem booting RSX11M on pdp11 (halt at loc 0)

[Phil Fisher]

I have checked up some information and found the following. (if anyone wants to 
see the INI file or the disk image I can send that directly as a 7zip file).

Looking at the dump of the disk file it looks like a valid boot block although 
(as below from offset 0):

000  000240  000406  00  002467  00  00  00  00

010  012704  001000  ...

suggesting a code start of:

NOP
BR 1$
.word 0
.word 02467
.word 0
.word 0
.word 0
.word 0
1$: MOV #1000,R4
...

all values in octal.

So to me this looks at least sensible.  Alas I cannot recall what the old RK05 
boot block looked like for comparison as I was at one time VERY familiar with 
that.

So my thoughts are that BOOT is broken somehow or I have majorly screwed up the 
INI file.

Phil
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Re: [Simh] Problem booting RSX11M on pdp11 (halt at loc 0)

[Mike Stramba]

Phil,

I assume this is the site ? :

http://home.earthlink.net/~n1be/pdp11/PDP11.html

I'm downloading it now will try it on my Win7 laptop.

Have tried / been successful running it on a "native" O.S (not under
VmWare or VirtualBox ?)

I.e  is the point to try to get it running under VmWare / Vbox .. or
just it running period ? ;)

Mike

On 3/22/18, Phil Fisher  wrote:
>
> I have checked up some information and found the following. (if anyone wants
> to see the INI file or the disk image I can send that directly as a 7zip
> file).
>
> Looking at the dump of the disk file it looks like a valid boot block
> although (as below from offset 0):
>
> 000  000240  000406  00  002467  00  00  00  00
>
> 010  012704  001000  ...
>
> suggesting a code start of:
>
> NOP
> BR 1$
> .word 0
> .word 02467
> .word 0
> .word 0
> .word 0
> .word 0
> 1$: MOV #1000,R4
> ...
>
> all values in octal.
>
> So to me this looks at least sensible.  Alas I cannot recall what the old
> RK05 boot block looked like for comparison as I was at one time VERY
> familiar with that.
>
> So my thoughts are that BOOT is broken somehow or I have majorly screwed up
> the INI file.
>
> Phil
> --
> Phil J Fisher   phil.fis...@peejayeff.co.uk
> _
> Email and any attachments sent are scanned by McAfee
> Anti-Virus but integrity cannot be guaranteed.
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>
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